They symbols that contributes to the theme of “The World on a Turtle’s Back” (an Iroquois legend) include the turtle, the great tree, and the twins. These symbols contributes to the theme because they all represent one form or another in the story of creation. According to the myth the culture values all that is living, and due to the similarities to the story of creation in Christianity they do believe that only one person created the world and all we know about it.
However, it was two twins, a left-handed and a right-handed twin that created the plants, animals, and humans that live on the Earth. The main theme of the story is that we cannot have life without balance of life and death, or light and darkness. (Which is also similar to the Yin and Yang in Chinese cultures.) The culture also empathizes that women are the reason for our world and hint at a “Mother Nature” when the mother of the twins is buried and plants grow over where she was buried.
The culture honors both the left-handed and right-handed twin because without one the world would be completely out of balance and would cause the world to not be able to contain life. They also could honor both twins in order to show balance and that just because there are many differences among the living, that does not mean that we can exist without one another. That just because things seem very different does not meant that they cannot work together for a greater cause. For example in the modern world that we know schools, sports, clubs, family, and peers have to work together in order to achieve the goals that they can all share with one another.
