Allen's Creation Story 'Out Of The Blue'

Women are the goddesses of life. It is through women and their feminine energy that the world is changed and transformed, creating new life through means that only women are strong enough the bare. However, despite the fact that it takes a strong woman to bring new life into the world, many people view this creation as an act of shame, as opposed to a miracle.The Genesis story of the Creation of Adam and Eve is one which shames women, labeling them as the reason for mankind's “fall” from God’s graces and marking childbirth as God’s punishment for women’s folly. Contradictory to this tale, Paula Gunn Allen’s creation story “Out of the Blue” marks “the fall” of women as an event to be celebrated, as it is the catalyst which created the world
as we know it and which links all of mankind to one another. The Genesis story of the Creation of Adam and Eve is one which reflects ancient values, placing the importance of man before that of women.
God created the earth and man, Adam, to tend to it. When God noticed that Adam was lonely he made the decision to create helpers which “were suitable for him.” The helpers took the form of animals and, more importantly, Adam’s wife Eve. Adam was not a fully functional person before Eve’s creation, and when God brought her into creation, he became more whole. When God instructed the couple to be grateful for all that he had created for them, and to never eat from the tree of forbidden fruit “lest [they] die” Adam was more than willing to blindly follow God’s instruction. Eve, however, was created with a curiosity which could not be squelched, even by God the threat of God himself, leading her to eat the forbidden fruit at the persuasion of the serpent. This original sin is said to be women’s greatest folly. Women’s curiosity was the catalyst that lead to man’s mortality, to women having to suffer the pain of childbirth, and which is the reason behind every disaster which has ever occurred since
then. Dissimilarly to the tale of Adam and Eve, women’s curiosity is seen as a saving grace in Paula Gunn Allen’s “Out of the Blue.” In this story, Sky Woman decided to marry a renowned magician at the instruction of her deceased father.
The magician puts Sky Woman through various tests in order to prove that she is worthy of being his wife and apprentice, all of which Sky Woman completes without a hint of trepidation. The two soon married, only for the magician to realize that Sky Woman was becoming more powerful than him. This proof of power women's power incited fear in the magician in a way that it did not in Adam when it became apparent that Eve was becoming more powerful intellectually than him. However, rather than blindly following his wife as Adam did, the magician decided that he was not to be shown up by Sky Woman, so he hatched a plan to rid himself of her and and for all. He coaxed Sky Woman to jump through the hole in the tree of life which she loved so dearly, and through which she had become pregnant. Sky Woman’s “fall” was not a fall at all, but a jump into the unknown, done through her love for the tree of life, and the promise of beauty at the end of the tunnel. Alone in this new world, with only the animals as her guides, Sky Woman gave birth and created life in a world full of
promise. The stark contrast between the result of women’s curiosity in these creation stories lays the foundation for how women are valued in various cultures. The story of Adam and Eve labels women as a people who possess poor judgement and whose curiosity must be repressed for fear of having to face God’s retribution. Concurrently, the Native people have a high regard for women as Sky Woman’s jump into this unknown world is depicted as a brave act, performed out of love and hope.