A central theme is a unifying message, idea, or lesson that is conveyed through a literary work. It is the main or central idea of a story that reflects the authors views of life and is not a summary of characters or events. A single work can contain various themes, and multiple works can share similar central themes. To identify the theme of a text, students should conduct multiple close-reads of the text, recognize patterns within the text, and understand how the author presents different themes. A theme does not have to be a moral, but it should reveal what the story is fundamentally about. A good place to start thinking about the theme of a work is the conflict it depicts, where the overall conflict of the story prompts questions or thinking points. A central idea of a literary work is what the text is mostly about in its entirety and/or in various sentences, paragraphs, or sections.