Theme Vs. Central Idea
Language Arts
The difference between the theme and central idea
You've likely been learning about main ideas for years and years in your English classes. So let's start there first. A main idea can also be called a central idea. This means that it is the most important idea that the writer is trying to communicate to a reader. Authors can communicate this directly to us by telling us in their writing, or they can give us clues about the central idea. We then take those clues and make an educated guess or inference. Main ideas are always specific to the text in which they're found. For instance, if you watched The Lion King, you might say that the main idea was something like this.
A young man cub grows up to defeat his evil uncle and reclaim the kingdom. All of the details within a text support the main idea. A theme might be something new to you. In some ways, it's like a central idea. It supported by the details of a text, and many times we have to infer the theme based on clues that we find in that text. However, a theme is much bigger than a central idea. A theme is the life lesson or moral that the author wishes to communicate about a topic. Think of it as an opinion on life that the author wants to share with us. Themes are worded generally rather than specifically because themes can apply to more than just the text. They apply to our lives too.
For instance, a theme of The Lion King might be something like this. Everyone has to leave childhood behind in order to face adult responsibilities. Or what's done deceitfully will always be discovered. These are both true statements about life lessons in the movie, but they also apply to our lives too. So please remember that main ideas and themes can be alike, but they're also different in some big ways too.