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Maya Creation Myth Theme

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Maya Creation Myth Theme

Read the original classroom-friendly myth below. Then use details from the story to explain its theme. The story is a retelling inspired by the Popol Vuh, a sacred text of the K’iche’ Maya; it is not a word-for-word translation.

The Makers’ Work

At first, there was only quiet water beneath a dark sky. The Maker and the Shaper looked across the stillness and decided to create a living world. They spoke, and mountains rose from the water. Valleys opened between them. Trees spread their branches, and rivers began to run. Then the animals filled the forests and skies. The makers gave each animal a place to live and a sound to call its own. “Speak our names,” they asked. The animals tried, but their calls were not words. The makers let them live in the wild, each in its own home. Next, the makers shaped people from mud. The mud figures could not stand firmly or speak clearly, so they fell apart. The makers tried again, forming people from wood. These wooden people moved and spoke, but they did not remember or honor the makers. In time, a great rain washed them away. At last, the makers formed people from yellow and white corn. These people could think, speak, and remember. They depended on the fields that grew their food, and they belonged to the living world around them. The makers saw that this creation was good. The people’s story began with the land, the rain, and the corn that sustained them.

Read for Theme

A theme is a message or insight about life that a story develops. It is more than a one-word topic. Look for what the characters learn or what repeated story details suggest.

1.Which statement best expresses a theme developed in “The Makers’ Work”?

People are strongest when they remember their connection to the natural world.
Every new creation is better than the one before it in every way.
Animals should be able to speak like people.
Rain always causes harm.

2.Which two details best support the idea that people depend on nature? Choose two.

Mountains rise from the water.
The makers give animals a place to live.
The people are made from corn and depend on fields for food.
A great rain washes away the wooden people.

3.Why do the makers decide that the wooden people are not the right creation? Use a detail from the story.

4.Put the attempts to create living beings in the order they happen: people from corn, animals, people from mud, people from wood.

5.The story says the animals had “a place to live and a sound to call its own.” What does this detail suggest about how the makers view animals?

Animals are part of the world and each has its own role.
Animals were created only to help people.
Animals are unable to live in the wild.
Animals are more important than people.

6.Complete the theme statement with a message, not just a topic: “The story suggests that people should because .”

7.Choose one detail from the story—the creation of the world, the animals’ homes, the failed mud or wood people, or the corn people. Explain how that detail helps develop the theme.

8.A reader says, “This story is mostly about corn.” Explain why “corn” is a topic but not a complete theme. Then give a stronger theme statement.

9.Compare the makers’ first and final attempts to create people. What changes, and what might that change tell us about what the story values?

10.Write a two- or three-sentence message you think the makers would give people today. Support your message with one event or detail from the story.