The Talking Earth Analysis

“The Talking Earth” is about a young Seminole Indian girl, named Billie Wind, who does not understand her tribe 's legends. Because Billie does not understand her tribe’s legends she is punished. For this punishment Billie could choose what her punishment was, her decision was that she had to adventure into the Everglades alone. On her trip she starts to understand the legends and uses science to better understand her tribe’s legends and why they feel that animals can talk. In the beginning of her trip, Billie encounters a fire which in legends was called a “serpent” . Billie was told a legend about serpent that punishes bad Seminole Indian children. After experiencing the fire, she understands why the fire is called a serpent, because the

This little cub is called Coootchobee. It stays with her a little while, but as it is wild, runs off into the Everglades without saying a word. Soon after Billie sees a snook (a type of fish) she asks Petang to interpret what the snook was saying. At first the otter didn’t answer her, instead it splashed in the water. Billie now realized that he was actually communicating and exclaimed “Petang… you answered me. You talked with your splashes”(108). The thing that he told her was that the snook said that they’re getting close to the ocean. This is just what she wanted to hear as she wanted to get to the ocean, which would bring her closer to her home. She floats on her little house boat, weaving through the Everglades and meeting up with many more animals along the way. One of the things she observed was the way the birds were leaving the coastal Everglades. It seemed to get very quiet. The birds were warning her that something was about to happen. They were going inland for safety. That could only mean that a hurricane was coming. She immediately started to look for shelter and disassembles her houseboat. She realized the winds were getting too strong to tie herself to a tree so she began to dig a burrow. As she was digging a young Indian boy named Oats Tiger met her. He too was looking for shelter. He quickly joined her in digging, but the rains began to come down hard and washed it away. They found a