Analytical Essay on "The World on the Turtle's Back"

Sergio Espitia
P1 8/23/2013

Language Analysis on “The World on the Turtle’s Back”

In the story “The World on the Turtle’s Back”, the writer uses a variety of techniques to show the parallels between other creation myths, and how the world came to be as it is today. The writer begins the story describing the world before creation by saying “ In the beginning there was no world, no land, no creatures of the kind that are around us now, and there were no men.” The author goes on to present the woman, which are believed to be created before all men; She’s presented as a curious women, just as they are shown in other creation myths, and is later compared to all mothers by saying “ The woman became hungry for all kinds of strange delicacies, as women do when they are with child.” The author’s use of language throughout the story brings up a lot of parallels between other creating myths and this story. The writer talks about how first came the earth when he wrote “The woman took the tiny clod of dirt and placed it on the middle of the great sea turtle’s back. Then the woman began to walk in a circle around it, moving in the direction that the sun goes. The earth began to grow.” As it does in the bible, one of the first objects created was earth. Later in the story, more similarities continue appearing with the bible by contrasting both brothers, by saying “ The Indians did not call these the right and the wrong. They called them the straight mind and the crooked mind, the upright man and the devious man, the right and the left” as there is contrast in the Bible when God supposedly created light and darkness. Throughout the whole story, the author was able to continuously show parallels between this creation myth, and other creation myths such as the Bible