Have you ever wondered how Native Americans believe the world came to be? Both stories include the elements that make the world balanced. The stories “World on the Turtle's Back” and “The Menominee” both include the importance of nature and animals. Also, their beliefs on what makes things good and evil. Finally, they include how the gods created man, woman, and earth. While some differences between “World on the Turtle’s Back” and “The Menominee” are obvious, the similarities are salient. To begin with, there are multiple shared features between the two stories, the first noticeable similarity is that they both include nature and animals. In other words, they both have a setting in nature and both include animals as the main characters in the stories. For instance, “the creatures of the sea came to her and said that they would try to help her,” (Iroquois 9) is an example of animals trying to help the fallen woman. For the rest of this story, the animals were always there for the woman as she created her own world on the shell of the turtle. Likewise, “Bear and …show more content…
“These two brothers, as they grew up, represented two ways of the world which are in all people.” “They called them the straight mind and the crooked mind.” (Iroquois 18) These quotes simply explain that the brothers were both good and bad and this balanced the world. For example, one brother made the deer, and the other made the mountain lion which killed the deer. But in this case there was always more deer to maintain everything balanced. Similarly, “some of these spirits were benevolent, but many were malevolent.” (Hoffman 2) “Good Spirit realized that the Menominee were afflicted by hardship and disease from the malevolent spirits.” (Hoffman 5) This explains that there was good spirits that brought good things to the tribe, and there were bad that did harm to them which in the end maintained the Menominee
As man and woman grew from the corn and emerged from the buckskin they looked upon their new world with the eyes and mind that only a human could possess. Symbols are an important part of stories because they represent larger themes and teach lessons, and show themselves very prominently in the Native American stories “Navajo Origin Myth”, “When Grizzlies Walked Upright”, and “The World On Turtle’s Back”. For example in the “Navajo Origin Myth”, the gods created man and woman from corn, which symbolized life. Because of this, the people who believed this story rubbed themselves with cornmeal. In the story “The World On Turtle’s Back”, the muskrat who swam to the bottom of the ocean to retrieve earth even though she was smaller and weaker
In the book, Turtles All the Way Down, by John Green the main character, Aza, an anxious teenager and her best friend, Daisy go on some sort of adventure to find a missing rich kid, Davis pickett. At first Aza wasn’t going to go looking for him although she had known him personally before. After Daisy encouraged her with the reward Aza decided to go through with the plan. Aza was in need of money for her upcoming departure to college. The main theme of this story is that you can’t choose how to live your own life.
In this literary work, just like in Thomas King's The Truth About Stories, the author discusses, in detail, the story about the 'Sky Woman' who in the other piece was known as 'Charm,' resulting in the creation of "Mother Earth." In my opinion, the author's approach of writing was great to paint a picture of what occurred in a person's mind through the use of symbolism. Although it may seem like any great bedtime story from the first read, if one looks past its basic storyline, they can understand why Indigenous peoples, as well as people in general, like to share it. However, the story was, according to me, very fictional and unrealistic though it may not be to others. The idea of a woman falling out of the sky, onto a turtle's back, then
The Iroquois creation story is a renowned Native American myth written by a Tuscarora historian, David Cusick. He is also the author of David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations, which is known to be the first Indian-written history printed in the English language (Radus). The Iroquois creation myth exists in twenty-five other versions. It describes how the world was created from the Native American perspective. It begins with a sky woman who falls down into the dark world.
In various cultures, traditional stories of a universal beginning relate to the beliefs and rituals that are prevalent within that society. Although these creation stories differ among cultures, all display similar characteristics which constitute archetypal settings of creation myths, such as a great tree, the landmass from a watery chaos, and the fall of man. In the Iroquois’ creation myth, “The World on the Turtle’s Back”, the display of archetypal settings parallels the creation depicted in the book of Genesis, but underlying each similarity are differing interpretations which allow for the stories to relate to its specific culture. In both “The World on the Turtle’s Back” and the Genesis creation story, a prominent characteristic is the great tree connecting heaven and earth.
How the World Uniquely Begins Native American myths and the Christian Bible both offer stories about how the world began.. In “The Earth on Turtle’s Back” and Genesis 1, both tales have similar values and ideas. These two stories compare in that both tell the importance of water, the fact that Earth came out of the water, and the existence of supreme beings; in contrast, each story has a unique idea of how the world came into being. “The Earth on Turtle’s Back,” a story from the Onondaga tribe, an original Native American group, is a myth which relates a story about the beginning of the world. Water is below the Skyland and it becomes an issue when the Great Tree is uprooted.
The Iroquois creation story is a renowned Native American myth written by a Tuscarora historian, David Cusick. He is also the author of David Cusick’s Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations, which is known to be the first Indian-written history printed in the English language (Radus). The Iroquois creation myth exists in twenty-five other versions. It describes how the world was created from the Native American perspective. It begins with a sky woman who falls down into the dark world.
The two stories of creation we 're very similar in both Christianity, and the Iroquois. They both had the same outline, but each of them added their own personal twists that made it their own. Their first similarity was the amount of children they had. They both had 2 kids, that we 're opposites. One of the differences about this was that one of the stories was how in one, the kids we 're dire opposites.
Each of these stories have a representation of a creator and the way humankind was born. In the story of The World on a Turtle’s Back there was a Sky World. In the Sky World there was a couple and the woman fell into the great ocean. Animals helped her find dirt and she planted seeds so they could grow.
The differences between light and dark, good and bad, are blurred in the Iroquois Creation Story. The narrator captured two different views in this story, blurring the line between what is considered right and wrong. The Iroquois Creation Story does not have just the black and white, but also the gray areas as well. It makes readers question what is really good and what is bad. The overall use of light elements gives the story a light feel, but also has a dark undertone when looked at closely.
Native Americans have a very rich and interesting past. The story “The World on the Turtle’s Back” told by the Iroquois Indians is a story of how the world came to be and the good and evils in the world. The story “The Way to Rainy Mountain“ by Scott Momaday, is a story of about the Kiowa traditions and the way that they lived. Both of these stories show how important it is to respect the gods. “The World on the Turtle’s Back” is a myth about a man and a woman that lived in the sky world.
Native-American Literature Scholars, Larry Evers and Paul Pavlich believe that such stories "remind the people of who and what they are, why they are in this particular place, and how then should continue to live here. " The story of the World on Turtle 's Back effectuates these qualities through the significant cultural traditions of the Iroquois tribe, as well as the ways that the culture views the world. Each of the Native-American tribes have a distinct, extensive culture that they hold extremely sacred. The Iroquois tribe clearly demonstrate this, they
The Sky Gods vs the Iroquois The stories “The World on the Turtles Back” by the Iroquois, and The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday discuss two different creation myths. “The World on The Turtles Back” is an Iroquois legend that has been passed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, making it an oral tradition. A creation myth is a traditional story that involves supernatural beings or events that explain how the some aspect of human nature or the natural world came to be. These myths have comparable aspects that are specifically the roles of men, women, animals, and nature.
In the Iroquois story Earth was created by a woman .Both of the stories use good and evil. In the both stories there is something that is forbidden. both stories tie up by there being temptation by animals. something that is strange is that many Native American stories tie up with something to do with mother nature.in the indian story earth was created by a sea animal going deep
“How the World Was Made” presents few examples of these ways of life in an unusual setting. In the story, when the animals were finally able to live on the new earth, the absence of the sun left them in the dark. The animals set the sun on a track to go around the earth; this track however held the sun too close. “It was too hot this way, and… the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched a bright red, so that his meat was spoiled; and the Cherokee do not eat it.” (“How the World”).