1. Theme Also Known As Central Idea
The Search
for the Meaning

2. What is a Theme/Central Idea?
Theme/Central Idea: Life lesson, meaning, moral, or message about life or human nature that is communicated by a literary work.
In other words…
Theme/Central Idea is what the story teaches the reader(s).

3. However, themes have topics that can be one word:
9. Age
10. Power
11. Isolation
12. Justice
13. Fortune
14. Family
15. Spirituality
16. Survival
17. Conformity
18. Deception
19. Discovery
Life and Death
Heroism (Good vs. Evil)
Escape
Love
Coming of age
Patriotism
Peace & Hope
Pain & Suffering

4. A theme/central idea is not a word; it is a sentence.
Themes/Central Ideas
A theme/central idea is not a word; it is a sentence.
You do not have to agree with the theme/central idea to identify it.

5. Themes must be able to be TRANSFERRED from story to story.
Themes/Central Ideas
Themes must be able to be TRANSFERRED from story to story.
NOT: “Sam shouldn’t take toys from his little sister”, rather, a theme would be “Taking things that don’t belong to you isn’t the right thing to do.”

6. Examples of themes/central ideas
•Money can’t buy happiness.
•Don’t judge people based on the surface.
~Don’t judge a book by its cover.
•It is better to die free than live under tyranny.

7. Identifying Themes/Central Ideas
Inferring Theme/Central Idea:
You need to understand that in most stories (with the exception of fables), the author will not tell readers what the theme/central idea or lesson of the story is.
Readers will have to think about what the characters did wrong and what the reader can learn from the character’s experiences.
With fables, the theme/central idea or moral is usually reveal to the reader.

8. Identifying Themes/Central Ideas
The Horse and the Stag  An Aesop's Fable
The Horse had the plain entirely to himself.
A Stag intruded into his domain and shared his pasture. The Horse, desiring to revenge himself on the stranger, requested a man, if he were willing, to help him in punishing the Stag. The man replied, that if the Horse would receive a bit in his mouth, and agree to carry him, he would contrive very effectual weapons against the Stag. The Horse consented, and allowed the man to mount him. From that hour he found that, instead of obtaining revenge on the Stag, he had enslaved himself to the service of man.
Moral of Aesop’s Fable: He who seeks to injure others often injures only himself.

9. What is the theme/central idea?
Jenny Pushovier was so excited. She had a pack of Starbursts in her lunch, and she had been looking forward to eating them all morning. Lunch finally came, and Jenny sat down to eat her Starbursts when her friend Judy sat next to her.
“Let me get the pink ones,” asked Judy.
Jenny liked the pink ones best, but she thought Judy was funny and Jenny wanted Judy to like her, so Jenny gave Judy all of her pink Starbursts. Before Jenny was done giving Judy the pink ones, Carrie sat on the other side of Jenny.
“Let me get the red and the orange ones, Jenny. Remember when I gave you that Snickers?”
Jenny didn’t remember that though she did remember when Carrie ate a whole Snickers in front of her, but Jenny thought Carrie was cool, so she gave her the red and the orange Starbursts. Now that she only had the yellow ones, Jenny wasn’t so excited about eating starbursts anymore.

10. Identifying Themes/Central Ideas
Themes/Central Ideas are not explicit
(clearly stated).
Themes/Central Ideas are implied.
Themes/Central Ideas are bigger than the story.
Big World of the Theme.
Applies to the “Real” World.
Small
World
of the
Story

11. Themes/Central Ideas are about the BIG PICTURE
Not “It’s not nice to take people’s Starburst”
Not “Carrie is a bad friend to Jenny.”
Think BIGGER.
Find “Big World” idea or advice.
“Learn to stand up for yourself.” Or
“Don’t let others take advantage of you.”
Starbursts
are taken
from Jenny

12. Extracting (pulling out) The “Big Idea” The Theme/Central Idea
One common mistake when attempting to identify the theme/central idea is getting hung up on the characters or events in the story.
Sometimes we cannot think beyond the small world elements of the story to extract the big world lesson of theme/central idea.

13. Here is an example:
Tim hated his old baseball glove. He wanted to play with a new glove, but he didn’t have any money. So, he decided to steal it. But when Tim got caught stealing the glove, his parents said he couldn’t play baseball all summer.

14. If you understand the concept of theme/central idea, you should have a response like:
“The lesson of the story is that if you want something, you should work for it.”
A response like this shows that you are processing the events of the story and extracting a larger idea one which can be directly applied to someone’s life. 

15. If you do not understand theme/central idea, you will fixate on story level events.
“Tim shouldn’t steal.”  
While this response shows that you comprehended the story, you need to take the mental jump to the big world idea.
Do not include character’s names or specifically what they did. Focus more on what the characters learned.

16. Theme/Central Idea is what we can learn from a story, a moral.
Review
Theme/Central Idea is what we can learn from a story, a moral.
Themes/Central Ideas must be inferred.
Themes/Central Ideas are about the BIG World and apply to the Real World.

17. Practice
Once there was a mean little boy who lived in a small village. This mean little boy loved to mess with people, so one day he ran up to a sheep herder and shouted,
“WOLF! WOLF! A wolf is attacking the town!” The sheep herder grabbed his staff and ran to defend the town, but realized he had been fooled when the boy started pointing and laughing at him.
“Ha ha! I made you jump,” said the boy. Then the boy ran up to a farmer and shouted,

18. “WOLF. WOLF. A wolf is attacking the town
“WOLF! WOLF! A wolf is attacking the town!” The farmer grabbed his pitchfork and ran to defend the town, but when the boy started pointing and laughing at him, he realized he had been tricked. As the boy went back to his family’s farm laughing about the funny trick he played, he saw a real wolf in his father’s chicken coop. As the wolf ate all of his father’s chickens, the boy screamed over and over again,
“WOLF! WOLF! Please help us!” But nobody came to help him.

19. Practice
Be honest! If you lie, people will not believe you when you tell the truth. OR
Do on to others as you wish done on to you.
~Why? Because the boy played cruel jokes that were only funny to him. In turn, when the boy needed help, no one would help him.