How the World was Made by James Mooney
In the beginning, there was only water. The animals and plants were all under the water. There were no people.
The animals could not talk and they had no fire. They lived in darkness. One day, a fish swam up to the surface of the water and saw something shining in the distance.
In his book, How the World Was Made, James Mooney tells the story of how the world was created according to Cherokee legend. The story begins with the earth being a huge island floating on a great sea. The only beings on this earth are animals.
One day, two of these animals, a beaver and a terrapin, decide to dive into the sea to find out what is below.
When they reach the bottom, they find that there is another world beneath ours. This world is inhabited by humans who are always at war with each other.
Beaver and Terrapin watch as one group of people kills another and then eats their flesh. They are so horrified by what they see that they swim back to the surface.
When they get back to our world, Beaver decides to create dams so that humans will never be able to reach the bottom of the sea again.
Terrapin meanwhile decides to become a symbol of peace and friendship between all creatures on earth. And so our world was created according to Cherokee legend.
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-When was This Story Written
-The author’s purpose for writing this story.
-A brief summary of the plot.
-The point of view from which the story is written.
“The Lottery” was written in 1948 by Shirley Jackson. The author’s purpose for writing this story was to explore the dark side of human nature. The plot centers around a small village that holds an annual lottery in which one person is selected to be stoned to death.
The point of view is third person limited, focusing on the characters of Mrs. Hutchinson and her husband, Bill.
One summer morning, the villagers of a small town gather together in the square for their annual lottery drawing. Every family has a slip of paper with a name inside, and each head of household draws one slip from the black box.
The Hutchinsons are excited because they’ve drawn the lucky number seven twice in a row – but this year, Mrs. Hutchinson draws the paper with a big black spot on it. She panics as she realizes that she’s been chosen as the sacrificial victim, and her husband tries unsuccessfully to save her as she’s stoned to death by her friends and neighbors.
Jackson uses this story to explore themes of mob mentality and conformity vs individuality.
She also questions whether or not traditional rituals like this are still relevant in modern society.
Cherokee Creation Story
Conclusion
In the beginning, there was only water. The animals lived in this water, until one day they decided to make land. They did this by piling up dirt and rocks until they had made a big enough mountain.
Once the mountain was big enough, the animals climbed on top of it and started to dance. This created thunder and lightning, which scared some of the animals away. The others continued to dance and eventually created the sun, moon, stars, and earth.
