RL.4.9: Compare Themes and Quests Across Cultures
Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.9 · Cluster: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.
The Official Wording
Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics (e.g., opposition of good and evil) and patterns of events (e.g., the quest) in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 4, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What RL.4.9 Means in Plain English
Fourth graders read stories, myths and folktales from different cultures and notice when they share a theme, like good against evil, or a pattern of events, like a quest. Then they compare how each tale handles it: the hero, the trials and how the hero wins.
In 3rd grade (RL.3.9) students compared books by the same author about the same characters. Fourth grade crosses cultures and asks about shared patterns. In 5th grade (RL.5.9) students compare stories in the same genre, like two mysteries or two adventures, on their themes and topics.
RL.4.9 I Can Statements
- I can spot a quest or a good-against-evil pattern in a tale.
- I can compare how two tales from different cultures handle one theme.
- I can explain what each tale values from how its hero wins.
RL.4.9 Worked Example
Two original tales, written in the style of two different traditions. Both are quests, and they reward very different things.
Tale 1, in the style of a Chinese folktale: Lan walked three days toward the mountain spring whose water could cure her mother. On the way she lifted a carp from a drying puddle into the river and pulled a thorn from a crane’s foot.At the spring, a great serpent lay coiled across the path. The crane swooped at its eyes, the carp called up the river to wash it downstream, and Lan filled her gourd and hurried home.Tale 2, in the style of a Norse myth: The frost giant Hrimgar had stolen the sun-stone, and the village had lived in winter for a whole year. Brynja took her father’s axe and climbed for nine days to his hall of ice.Hrimgar laughed at her and offered a riddle contest. Brynja answered all three of his riddles, then asked one he could not answer. While he sat scratching his head, she took the stone and ran, and spring followed her down the mountain.
Common Mistakes with RL.4.9
Comparing details instead of patterns
“One has a crane and one has a giant.”
Try this: Chart the quest steps first, setting out, the trials, the prize, the return, then compare the tales one step at a time.
Stopping at “they’re the same”
“Both are about a girl who saves the day.”
Try this: Require one way the tales match and one way they differ, and ask what the difference shows each culture’s tale admires.
Ranking the tales instead of comparing them
“Brynja’s story is better because it has a giant.”
Try this: Turn preference into comparison: ask what each hero’s way of winning teaches, and have students prove both answers from the text.
Where RL.4.9 Fits
Practice RL.4.9
Quick Check
- What is Lan looking for, and why?
- How do the carp and the crane help Lan?
- How does Brynja get the sun-stone back?