The World On The Turtle's Back Analysis

Words: 1097
Pages: 5

Humans are fascinated with the mystery of our own beginning. People yearn to know how we came to be on this planet, who the original people were, and when did they get here. The fascination with human origin existed even in the ancient Indian tribes. The creation stories they created varied from tribe to tribe. Two of the myths, the Iroquois myth from “The World on the Turtle’s Back” and the Kiowa myth from The Way to Rainy Mountain are similar and different in varying aspects including men, women, animals, and nature. They are both intriguing and provoke deep thought and understanding of our world and society as we know it. Firstly, the role of men in both of these stories are prominent, but in different ways. In Iroquois story, “The World …show more content…
In “The World on the Turtle’s Back”, nature is shown as an all-powerful force and representative of life. In the beginning, the Great Tree was sacred and not to be disturbed. The gods failed to leave it alone, and as a consequence fell through the Earth. This shows how closely related we are to nature, and how in the end, nature always is supreme. Secondly, when the mother dies after giving birth to the twins, she becomes the Three Sisters, corn, beans, and squash. This transformation represents how nature is life and that without nature, humans would not have life. However, the creation myth in The Way to Rainy Mountain presents nature as a more benevolent and helpful force of nature. One example is the large tree that helped the sisters escape the bear. The tree assisted the sisters and lead them to safety without reward. Also, the sisters became the stars of the Big Dipper to escape their attacker. This shows that nature allowed them to become part of nature to escape their brother. In total, these two stories both show nature in a positive light. However, the Iroquois feel inferior to nature, whereas the Kiowa viewed nature as a friend and