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The Earth On Turtle's Back Sparknotes

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In the short story titled The Earth on Turtle’s Back, the author Onondaga explains how the Native Americans feel about other living things sustaining unique power against each other. Onondaga supports his explaining about the source of all life. The author’s purpose is to point out that beliefs are reflected in Native American myths, such as the stories that will be listed in the rest of this essay. The author writes in a reflective tone for the readers. All the water animals were sitting around and they noticed something strange. They noticed something falling from the sky. Two of the swans flew up and tried and caught the falling object. When they caught her, they sat her down and noticed she was not a water animal. She was a mammal because she didn’t have webbed feet. Later, they realized she could not live in the water. So they decided to figure out a way to help her live her the best way she can. She could only live on the (dryland) Earth. A few of the water animals thought that if they could pull up the Earth from the bottom of the deep water, she could live the …show more content…

One by one they went deeper and deeper and deeper, but not of them could manage to pull the Earth from the bottom. Four out the five animals went first and tried to pull the Earth. All four did not succeed in trying their best to pull up the Earth. However, the last animal, smaller than the others, thought the it had all the power to pull the Earth. “I will bring up the Earth or die trying”(Onondaga 22). She swam deeper than all the other water animals. She pulled hard and hard and hard and was able to pull the Earth from the bottom of the water. They placed the Earth on top of the turtle’s shell. “She stepped onto the new Earth and opened her hand, letting the seeds fall onto the bare soil. From those seeds the trees and the grass sprang up. Life on Earth had begun”(Onondaga

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In the allegory “The Turtle,” the author John Steinbeck explains that as life gets harder people work hard to succeed, and people may try to get in the way. Although the story does talk about a turtle climbing an embankment, people can relate to this story on an emotional level because they can understand overcoming the struggles in life. The struggles in life depend on what goals people set out to achieve. In this paper, the writer will examine the allegorical meanings of the turtle.

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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.

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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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