Question

What's the difference between theme and central idea?

Question options:

Theme is the main idea of a story, and central idea is the lesson learned.


Theme is a one-word repeated idea and central idea is a complete sentence explaining the main idea of the story.


Theme is a universal lesson learned and central idea is a one sentence main idea.


There's no difference in theme and central idea.

Answer 1

A theme is a universal lesson learned and the central idea is a one-sentence main idea.

1. The central idea conveys that the text is about mainly, whereas, the theme refers to the author's message, life lesson, or moral learned from the story.

2. A central idea cannot be referred to as the topic of the text, on the other hand, a theme cannot be the same as a topic.

3. In one sentence, the central idea can be stated, whereas, themes are repeated and can be multiple.

4. Therefore, a theme is not the central idea, nor it can act as a topic of the text.

Answer 2

A theme is a universal lesson learned and the central idea is a one-sentence main idea.

• Central idea conveys that the text is about mainly, whereas, theme refers to the author's message, life lesson or moral learned from the story.
• A central idea cannot be referred to as the topic of the text, on the other hand, a theme cannot be same as topic.
• In one sentence, the central idea can be stated, whereas, themes are repeated and can be multiple.

Therefore, a theme is not the central idea, nor it can act as a topic of the text.