Main Idea in Oral Narratives

 

Main Idea in Oral Narratives

The main idea in a story is the central message that the narrator wishes to pass to the audience. Is the story about love, hardwork, disobedience,dishonesty or decisiveness? This is the main idea. The main idea in the story of the crow and the fox is that flattery and greed. The fox’s greed to have the crow’s cheese makes it to flatter the crow by praising her beauty yet the idea is to have her drop the cheese so that he takes it. This also reveals dishonesty.

To identify the main idea in an ora narrative, observe the following:

1.     Ask yourself what the purpose of the narrator is in the story. This is always revealed at the end of the story.

2.     Focus on the conflict in the story and how it is resolved. The conflict always develops the main idea in the story. Anytime, you read or listen to a narrative, identify the conflict . from this conflict, you will get the main idea. The desire of the fox to take crow’s cheese is the conflict in the story. This conflict reveals the main idea in the story which is greed.

3.     Focus on the actions of the characters in the story. Based on what they do and say, you can tell the main idea in the story. From Crow’s acceptance to sing to the fox, we can see the idea of gullibility and lack of alertness. She is not conscious to notice that she has cheese in her beak and can sing with it her beak.

4.     Focus on the language and style of the story. Styles such as songs or repetition point to an idea that the reader should note.

 

Simply put the main idea in the story is the message of the story;what the story talks about.

 

 

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