The Difference Between The World On The Turtle's Back And The Catholic Creation Story

Throughout time we have seen in many different ethnicities and religions the many takes on their idea of how they believe creation came to be. Along all these myths or tales we tend to see something similar as if a common pattern is being repeated. We see patterns such as temptation always leading to someone's downfall or this sense of someone falling into something terrible and so on. Even though these different religions or ethnicities are nowhere close in distance or time from each other, it does not seem to make a difference on their beliefs of the world's creation. For example, Native American tales such as The World on the Turtle's Back and our own Catholic Creation Story have many similar key ideas being portrayed in both accounts. Although many may argue that the Native American tale The World on the Turtle's Back and the Catholic Creation Story differ, they are relatable in the sense of curiosity leading to big consequences, the good versus evil being introduced, and the personification of animals.

First of all, one the biggest and most distinguished similarity between The World on the Turtle's Back and out own Catholic Creation Story is this idea of curiosity leading to a big consequence or downfall. The common saying "Curiosity killed the cat" becomes extremely relevant and exemplified especially through these two different accounts of creation. In the tale The World on the Turtle's Back we see how the wife's curiosity led her to a terribly big consequence through this quote: "But his wife was filled with curiosity. He wouldn’t get any of the roots for her, so she set out to do it herself. She bent over and she looked down, and she saw the ocean far below. She leaned down and stuck her head through the hole and looked all around. No one knows just what happened next. Some say she slipped...And so she began to fall toward the great ocean far below." The wife's curiosity essentially led to her downfall by being separated from all that she ever knew and isolated from the rest of her people to be hopeless. This common idea of curiosity leading to a big consequence is also seen in the Catholic Creation Story in Gen. 3:6 where it states "6 The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was enticing for the wisdom that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it." It is evident in this citation that Eve's curiosity got the best of her by being persuaded to try the fruit which she knew was prohibited. The eating of the fruit would lead to not only hers, but also Adam's expulsion from the Garden of Eden seen in Gen. 23 "23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken." Adam and Eve's seclusion from the Garden of Eden would mirror the theme of isolation and hopelessness seen through the woman in The World on the Turtle's Back. Consequently, curiosity leading to big events is a non-arguable similarity between the two creation stories as explained above.
Moreover, another similarity between the two creation accounts is the good and the evil being clearly portrayed. We particularly notice in The World on my Turtle's Back how evidently stated the good is from evil by this citation which reads "The right-handed twin was the one who did everything just as he should. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said. He always told the truth, and he always tried to accomplish what seemed to be right and reasonable. The left-handed twin never said what he meant or meant what he said. He always lied, and he always did things backward." The twins in this citation tie in with how God and the Devil are viewed in the Catholic creation account. God would be the right handed twin because he was just, truthful, and upright just as the right handed twin was. The Devil is most surely viewed through the left handed twin because just as the left handed twin, he never meant what he said, he lied, and was a crooked man. Evidently, the portrayal of good versus evil was clearly exemplified in both creation stories.
Lastly, one of the most common similarities in mostly all creations stories but precisely The World on the Turtle's Back and the Catholic Creation Story is the personification of animals.

In the The World on the Turtle's Back we see how it describes the birds specifically consulting with each other on how to help the woman from falling. Also, in the tale it describes how all the animals tried helping the woman in some way which shows their personification. Similar personification is found in Gen. 3:1 where it says "3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?” Just as in the Native American tale, the animal, in this case a serpent, is being personified by being given the human characteristic of talking. To sum up, personification is yet another similarity between The World on the Turtle's Back and the Catholic Creation

Story.
To conclude, while many may argue that the Native American tale The World on the Turtle's Back and the Catholic Creation Story differ, they are similar in the sense of curiosity leading to someone's downfall, the good versus evil being clearly portrayed, and the animals being able to act in human ways. Firstly, we viewed how curiosity can get the best of you and lead you to fall through the the woman in the Native American tale and both Adam and Eve from the Creation Story. Then we observed how in both stories the good and evil were introduced very evidently through the right handed twin and the left handed and through God and the Devil. Lastly, we saw how personification was a common theme through the birds and animals consulting with each other and through the serpent speaking to Eve. After all, even though the Native American ethnicity and Catholic religion are totally different, we see common themes through their creation stories.