WHAT DID U HONESTLY THINK OF THE STORY?

[|Ruchira|]

we all read world on the turtle's back. what did u think of it. ms boyd said she loved it and she mentioned that it was her favorite. as i read it, it just got weirder and weirder. i don't mean to judge a culture. but i honestly did not know that there were native american stories that explained the un-explainable. so anyways, i found the story very weird, it's very creative and deep but weird.

[KevinW]

Hahaha I'm reading How Coyote Stole Fire and I'd say the same: Very unusual.

Then again, we are judging it by today's standards. Of course the concept of our world being made by a woman who fell out of the sky whose roots are a tree, with a massive group of animals including one massive turtle and that turtle's shell being the surface of the world and where soil was deposited from an even larger underwater world so that our world can grow on and the grandchildren of the original woman could create the yin and yang plants and animals that checked and balanced one another because of these twins always being the polar opposite of one another and eventually tried to kill each other, and when the right-handed twin finally killed his brother he ruled our world while his deceased brother ruled the underworld, but not before the right twin beheaded his grandmother and made her head the moon . . . leaving the sun a mystery.

Okay, that IS weird by today's standards. But in a world without science, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, or almost any of the sciences we take for granted today, it seems fair enough. All it takes is a few generations of storytellers to spin what may have been a serious tale into an entertaining tale then into an entertaining AND believed tale. It's interesting to see the parallels and differences between creationist myths, though (rebirth, underworld aka hell, forbidden tree, etc.).

I still dislike the stories. Too little flow, sense, and plot. And characters aren't reliable. Then again, it never was meant to be.

[brandonina]

I really enjoyed analyzing the story with the class because it explains the unexplainable based on its Native American culture, which was a whole new idea for me. Some parts were obviously absurd. I believe every creation myths have some parts where you just can't believe have happened. I think the idea of balance in universe and harmony of nature as the main themes that shaped the story. I liked the ending in which the right handed twin rules a daytime and left handed twin rules a nighttime under his grandma, the moon. That's cool.

[james]

Well, just like what brandon said, i enjoyed analyzing the story part with the class, it pretty much helped me understanding the story better, however, i found out it is pretty weird and bored(no offense).just like you said, as we read more and more its got weirder and weirder. I understand that most of the creation myths are kind of illogical and hard to understand. To be honest, i didnt really like the story

[ExtremelyExtremeExtremist]

When I read the story, the strange, unexplainable plot bored me (it got weirder as we went on). But compared to other creation myths, it is normal. All creation myths have strange and unexplainable plots. I felt that Native Americans adhered to nature too much that they didn¡¯t consider about other things (such as technology, math, science, and military), which contributed to the downfall as Europeans invaded.

[gb1708]

As some people, I really enjoyed analyzing the story at class and as Ms.Boyd said we became more smart because we knew more about tree, moon, water, woman I just start learning about native american culture so i don't actually know about it. Thus, I think the story is OK.

[yeajinchoi]

When I first read it by myself it was definitely unusual and weird (no offense). Even if it was the evil child, coming out of his mom's armpit and killing his mother is not normal. But when Ms.Boyd explained and pointed out all the symbolism and the metaphors in the story, it made a lot more sense. Like the Great Tree and the random ocean that was beneath the world, I realized that there was a reason why they were in the story. Also, the story might not make a lot of sense to us now, but back then when they probably didn't know as much as we do about the world, this story would have explained a lot to the Native Americans.

Last, I don't think we can expect a creation myth to be reasonable and normal, That's just.. impossible.

[sergeyfen]

I also found it very weird. Never knew there is such stories as the one we red. It explains the concepts though, especially between good and evil. There is nothing pure good or bad and everything can be influence by one or another. It made it pretty clear, i also for some reason thought of helmer from the "doll's house". He is very similar to right twin because helmer thought that everything he does is right just like right one. Turns out its not true

[JustinK.]

XDXD i really liked the story. When i first read this story, i couldn't take my eyes off it. It was sooooooo interesting >< After talking about it in class, i was amazed how people back then had such thoughts. Some parts were weird and some parts did make sense. How the moon came to be was a little weird. But the explanation of why the moon comes out at night was interesting.

[jooyoungpark]

Eventhough the whole story itself was kinda surprising and very weird i still thought it was quite interesting. It was fun to learn about the differences in how other cultures thought about their origins, for me the best part was how the concept of "every brightness has a dark side and every darkness has a bright side". It connects with the ying yang, and I also strongly believe in that idea too.

[lukejoo1092]

I thought it amusing. Personally as a Christian, I believe in the story of Adam and Eve. But like all others, each religion has their own explanation how everything began. And to me, they're all fun to know because, well, they're just fun. There could be all sorts of reasons why life began. It's always entertaining to learn about all of the possibilities. Maybe it was like this? Maybe it was like that? Or what if...? They are all interesting and quite worth thinking about. So personally, I liked this story since I got to learn another reason how earth might have began.

[jungholee]

well.. it was interesting story to me. The both of light and dark made by one thing, it came from one thing. But it was perfectly different at the first. So if they tried to strongly fight each other, maybe there was only chaos left. But they fought with what they created, and gambles. So that made life and entertainments in the earth. And i liked the last part when right became similar to left. So there wasn't only right or left, they mixed together. And i think if light and dark mixed together, that makes chaos again!! (srry i don't get what i said either XD)

[nadiraamalina]

I thought it was weird at first, with gigantic turtles big enough to fit an entire world on their backs and people walking in circles around a pile of dirt to make it bigger, but the weirdest part was the whole 'left twin born from his mum's armpit'. But I guess it was a quick way of establishing his character, so I let that go.

What made me really like this story was that good didn't really triumph over evil, since that gives kids the wrong idea. It was more of a 'chaos and order should live in balance, or else the world would fall apart', and it was an okay moral since it's true.

[jisu25]

I also think that this story is very weird because of how the women fell out of the sky, and how she survived the fall. There were also many strange events like how the daughter got pregnant after she was shot by the arrow and how the left twin came out from the arm. I noticed that the unfriendly relationship between the right and left twin refers to yin and yang which signifies how they are opposites. When the right twin lied to the left twin, I thought that the right twin learned that in order to win against evil, he had to step in the borders of evil as well.

[sorn]

I thought that it really weird how a turtle's back can be able to support the whole world and how the child was born from his mother's armpit! Was the author trying to symbolize something? I don't really know but it got more extreme when Ms. Boyd showed our class the picture of the world that the author had imagine. But I really like the moral of the story since it is very true and it really does reflects the real human behaviors. This story can also teach other people from other cultures too since the moral is about "good and evil".