Normal Way And The Left Twin example essay topic

In the beginning there was no world, no land, no creatures of the kind that are around us now, and there were no men. But there was a great ocean which occupied space as far as anyone could see. Above the ocean was a great void of air. And in the air lived the birds of the sea; in the ocean lived the fish and the creatures of the deep.

Far above this unpeopled world, there was a Sky-World. Here lived gods who were like people-like Iroquois. In this world there was a man who had a wife who was expecting a child. She became hungry for all kinds of strange delicacies as women do when they are with a child. In the middle of the Sky-World there grew a tremendous Great Tree which, was not supposed to be marked or mutilated by any of the beings who dwelt in the Sky-World. It had enormous roots that spread out from the floor of the Sky-World.

On its branches there were many different kinds of leaves and different kinds of fruits and flowers. The woman told the man she wanted some bark from one of the roots of the Great Tree for reasons unknown. He knew doing this would be wrong, but she insisted and he gave in. The floor of the Sky-World wasn't very thick, and as he dug, he broke a hole through it. He was scared and wouldn't get any of the roots for her, so she went to get them herself. She saw the hole and stuck her head through it and saw the ocean far below and somehow fell through the hole.

She managed to grab some of the roots at the bottom of the tree before she started falling towards the sea. The birds of the sea saw the woman falling and decided to help her. Flying wingtip to wingtip they made a great feathery raft in the sky to support her. They could not hold her very long so they went down to the ocean and a great sea turtle agreed to receive her on his back. The creatures of the sea went to her and asked her what they could do to help. She told them to get some soil for her to plant the roots she grabbed and from them plants would grow.

The sea creatures said they would try to get some dirt that was far below the ocean, but no one had ever seen it, so they could not be sure. One by one they tried and failed. Finally, a muskrat decided to try. As he floated back up to the surface, he had a crumb of earth clutched in his paw.

He brought the soil from which the earth was to grow. The woman took the dirt and placed it on the middle of the sea turtles back. She began to walk in a circle around it like the sun goes, and the earth began to grow. When it was big enough, she planted the roots, and the plants grew on the earth. To keep the earth growing, she kept on walking in circles. She gathered plants to eat and built herself a hut.

After awhile, her child was born. They both kept walking around the earth to keep it growing. They were cut off forever from the Sky-World, knowing only the creatures of the sea. One day, when the girl had grown to womanhood, a man appeared. No one knows for sure who this man was. He had something to do with the gods above.

The girl was filled with terror, amazement, and warmth, and she fainted. The man laid 2 arrows on her, one blunt, and one sharp, and then went away. When she awoke from her faint, she and her mother continued to walk around the earth. After awhile, they knew the girl was to bear a child, but didn't know that she had twins. Within her body, the twins argued. As the time approached for them to be born, they fought about their birth.

The right-handed twin wanted to be born as all children are born. The left-handed twin said no. He said he saw light in another direction. The other twin tried to convince him not to because this would kill the mother, but the left-handed twin was stubborn.

The right twin was born the normal way, and the left twin wasn't and killed the mother. The grandmother and the twins buried the mother and from that spot grew corn, beans, squash, and sacred tobacco. The conflict of the twins did not stop and the mother favored the left-handed twin. The right-handed twin was mad because he did everything he should and told the truth. The left-handed twin was very devious. As they grew up, these two brothers represented two ways of the world, which are in all people.

The Indians called them the straight mind and the crooked mind, the upright man and the devious man, the right and the left. The twins had creative powers. They took clay and modeled it into animals and gave them life. The left-handed twin would always try and make an animal that was better than the right-handed twin. The right-handed twin made berries and fruits for creatures to live on, and the left-handed twin made plants like poison ivy, and also made medicines for good, and for evil. And finally, the right-handed twin made man.

The world was balanced and orderly, which was good. As the twins became men, they still contested with one another. They decided to duel. They started with gambling. All through the morning and afternoon they gambled, and when the sun went down, neither had won. So they battled one another at the lacrosse game, and when it was done, neither had won.

Now they battled with clubs, and fought all day, but neither had won. Finally, they both picked a weapon, the left-handed twin a stick and the right-handed twin a deer antler, and with one touch he destroyed his brother. Somewhere below the world, the left-handed twin still lives and reigns. As the sun slips down, people are again in the domain of the left-handed twin-the fearful realm of night. As the right-handed twin went home, he was met by his angry grandmother who called him a murderer. He grew angry as she always helped his brother, so he picked her up and cut her head off.

He threw her body in the ocean and her head in the sky. There "Our Grandmother, the Moon", still keeps watch at night over the realm of her favorite grandson..