the parallels of " The world on the Turtles back" and "The Genesis"

this is for a 11th grade english class and i just want to know if theres any improvements i can make. we are supposed to talk about the similarities between " The world on the Turtles back" and "The Genesis". they are both creation myths.

It's amazing to see the way different cultures and religions believe our world came to being, "The World on The Turtles Back" and "The Genesis" are great representations of a couple of these beliefs. Even though these stories come from different parts of the world they have more similarities then you would think, such as the duality between good and evil, the sacred tree, and the women being the ones that violate the rules.

An Example of the duality between good and evil in "The World on The Turtles Back" are the twins the Sky Woman's daughter gives birth to. The right handed twin is the good one, he never lies. The Left handed twin however is the evil one, he always lies. In "The Genesis" there are the children of Adam and Eve which are good and evil also. Cain is jealous of Abel because God favors Abel which evokes Cain to kill. This duality shows that good and evil is needed to balance our world out.

Another significant similarity between "The World on The Turtles Back" and "The Genesis" are the sacred trees. In "The World on The Turtles Back" it is known as The Great Tree. Nobody in the Sky-World is allowed to touch the tree but when the woman is pregnant and wants to eat the bark of this tree her husband doesn't get it for her so she decides to get it herself and that is when she falls from grace and her hardships begin. In "The Genesis" it is a very similar situation. The sacred tree in the Garden of Eden is named The Tree of The Knowledge of good and evil, nobody is allowed to touch or eat from this tree either, but Eve is convinced by a serpent to pick a fruit from the tree because she is told that it will give her knowledge, and make her immortal like the gods. When she eats this fruit from the forbidden tree she is punished by God.

The women in both of these stories are very much alike also. They both go against the orders that have been given to them. In "The World On The Turtles Back" the woman is the one that touches the great tree and gets punished. We also read that in "The Genesis" the woman, Eve, is the betrayer to. Perhaps this is done on purpose because the authors are trying to show us that women are the beings that bring us to this planet which makes us go through pain and suffering just like they did, which shows that both stories might be trying to get the same message across.

In Conclusion, these stories are very alike which can make us think about how this is possible when both stories came from different parts of the world where the authors had no contact with each other. For all one knows, something about these creation myths might be true after all.

"It's amazing to see the way different cultures and religions believe our world came to being, "


Unless of course you were familiar with the concept of archetypes.


Actually, this is a really good point. Great job.

The content of your essay is strong, but you use weak verbs and forms of "to be" too often for it to make enjoyable reading.

Might the authors of these tales (who, in the case of Genesis, we know to be male) also be trying to get a message across about women? Perhaps a political message such as disguised as spirituality? Might there be other political messages embedded in these stories?

These are just some questions for further thought. As Sean said: Great job.