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Summary Of On The Back Of The Turtle By Thomas King

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Thomas King in On the Back of the Turtle tells a story of creational myths which reveals Native American and First Nation interrelationships anent European ancestral North Americans dichotomy amid modern society. Firstly, before analyzing these stories and their relation to the text (which is frequent), it is relevant to delineate what they are, creation myths, given their polysemy. Jarold Ramsey defines myths as "sacred traditional stories whose shaping function is to tell the people who know them who they are; how, through what origins and transformations, they have come to possess their particular world; and how they should live in that world, and with each other" (4). In other words, myths embody the cognizance of an individual or communities …show more content…

Therefore, myths are more than stories. However, when analyzing the distinction on how Indians (I use this term because Thomas King also does in all of his books) differentiate between stories and myths, one can conclude the words seem to be synonymous. In the Back of the Turtle, King’s cynosure is based on two myths, or stories; one Christian and the other Blackfoot, that both portray different nuance to its listeners. In fact, the metamorphosis of the words in listeners cognition changes so much so, determining where they are from, that the narrative meaning actually are viewed, at times, as different genres. For the Native perspective stories are at the center of their dichotomy, as King descried in his book, The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative, where each chapter commences with disparate versions of Native creation story. King argues that “the truth about stories is that is all we are.” Robert Ringington corroborates this idea in his review of King’s Coyotes Canon, stating Native American story telling is “the key to their way of theorizing. Stories function as metonyms, parts that stand for wholes. Each story is connected to every

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He also provides explanatory information for each story, they are all followed by a short account of the factual event that the story is based upon. Kiowa were very tied to the earth. The stories explain the world as the Kiowa saw it. The

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In the Iroquois nation’s creation myth, “The World on the Turtle’s Back,” they highly respect the natural, again, not only because it is all they knew but it is because that is all they had. To better respect nature, they told myths to

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Myths have been pertinent and continue to stay relevant in society in more aspects than just one. They are ubiquitous amongst all cultures, and are almost unavoidable in American culture. A myth symbolizes a representation of reality. Each myth tells the story of how and why things are the way they are. These stories obtain numerous interpretations; however, they all lead back to well-known standard plotline.

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The most important way to think about myths is that they are symbolic stories that attempt to answer difficult human questions about the universe. For instance, where did we and the world come from? And what is the meaning of life?. “We all want to know where we came from, but because our earliest beginnings are lost in the mists of prehistory, we have created myths about our forefathers that are not historical but help to explain current attitudes about our environment, neighbors and customs” (6). Myth functions as a guidance that explains everything that we come into contact with in the universe.

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The Native American origin myth "The Earth on Turtle's Back", retold by Michael Cuduto and Joseph Bruchac, displays how connected the Onondaga individuals are with the spiritual world and their inner self. They rely deeply on their instincts and thoughts related to them to lead them to make important decisions within their lives about the future. their culture has many compelling attributes as well as a strict cultural system and ritualistic bahaviors. The Onondaga individuals adhere to a lifestyle that creates happiness on a level that far surpasses what we, in the modern age, see as acceptable.

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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.

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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.

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Intellectual discussions regarding the nature of good and evil have been the foundation of philosophical and literary reports for a number of centuries. No publication surmounts the captivation Shakespeare provides of this ongoing theme than Shakespeare’s, Macbeth. In Macbeth, Shakespeare replicates such themes present in other cultural narratives of the ongoing feuds between good and evil, such as the Genesis and Aztec creation myths, and philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s myth types. In the present essay, I will address Paul Ricoeur’s Symbolism of Evil to metaphorically anatomize significant passages within Macbeth to ultimately argue that Macbeth, although was capable of making his own decisions, was indeed affected by metaphysical forces.

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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.

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In the World on the Turtle´s Back the Iroquois wanted to emphasize how there was a Sky World, with people that had extravagant beliefs that explained how good and evil balanced everything in their life. This peculiar place had different gods, like Iroquois. They believed in weird thing for example they believed that a Great tree was the center of their universe. The Great Tree wasn’t a habitual tree, it was huge and had been in that place forever. In this Sky World, there was this woman that seemed to break the rules and desire things that are off limit.

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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.

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In Thomas King 's autobiographical novel, The Truth About Stories takes a narrative approach in telling the story of the Native American, as well as Thomas King 's. The stories within the book root from the obstacles that the Thomas King had to face during his years in high school and his post-university life. These stories are told in a matter that uses rhetorical devices such as personal anecdotes & comparisons. "You 'll Never Believe What Happened" Is Always a Great Way to Start is about the importance, potential, and dangers of stories, specifically those of creation stories and how they can shape a culture, with the aim to share King 's urgency for social change with his readers King 's informal tone, lighthearted jokes, and effort to make his writing follow the style of native oral tradition as closely as possible, all help the reader understand the type of narrative he believes would be most beneficial for the foundation of a society. His unique style allows for the use of personal anecdotes and requires that he breaks the proverbial fourth wall to communicate with the reader directly, to create the conversational feel of the oral tradition.

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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.

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Mythical Origins The Iroquois people are one of the earliest cultures in American history, Their culture remains filled with an abundance of myths and legends that explain the nature of life itself. Their creation story, The World On Turtle 's Back, outlines not only the creation of Earth, but also the complex nature of people. The legend states that the Earth resided on the back of a great sea turtle, constituted first by a pregnant woman. The daughter of whom would birth the twins who would become the duality of deceit and order in every living being. This legend has been passed down through the generations, first through oral tradition and later translated to writing.

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