The Earth On Turtle's Back Analysis

The Native American Literary Movement was a period in which folktales, myths, and other stories were composed, based heavily on the culture of the area, commonly, depicting animals as spiritual beings set in the past.

During the epoch in which Native American Literature prospered, the culture of the individuals was based heavily on myths and folklore. Typically, folklore is different from myths, as myths are set in the distant past when the world did not yet exist, and folklore is a type of story about the present. Native Americans would often tell stories to express their beliefs on certain incidents and events that occurred. The stories would be delivered orally, as some tribes had not yet developed means to preserve certain texts. These

Therefore, her husband decides her dream must come true and lifts up the tree. However, she falls through the hole to a place of water. While there animals endeavor to assist her and lift her up to Skyland. Thus, they decide to bring land up for her to walk on. However, none of the animals besides a muskrat is able to reach the land. She brings up dirt and places it on a turtle’s back. It begins to grow and form Earth, and then the Skywoman plants seeds which allows new life to form. Thus, the Earth was

Within the writings of this story Native American culture can be clearly identified, as this story, like most Native American literature at the time, was a myth. It depicted a time in which the world was not yet created, and described a mythical representation of how the world was formed. North America Native Americans would tend to write stories of a similar topic, that is how the world was created. Another pivotal piece of culture that is represented within the story is that it personifies the animals, specifically the turtle on which the world was expanded. These animals display attributes of problem solving capabilities, and heroistic tendencies that save the women and grow the world. This was also common within other Native American works. In addition, their respect of care for nature becomes evident within the story as they created the animals to represent compassion and strength, while demonstrating how the earth was created in a pure way. Lastly, their cultural belief in dreams can be seen in how the wife’s dream was seen as very important, and how they believed in a higher being through the Skyland