25 pages • 50 minutes read
Iroquois Creation MythThe World on Turtle's Back
Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1816A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
The Woman
In most accounts of this story, this woman is the second generation of “sky women” to experience an immaculate conception. She can be read as a primordial mother figure, or a mother to all humankind: Her fall into the underworld sets off the chain of events that creates the world as we know it, and she gives birth to the twins who create earthly people.
In Cusick’s version of the myth, the action happens around the woman and to her rather than her making decisions and taking firm actions. She experiences many things beyond her control and spends most of the story in darkness, displaying greater stress and agitation the closer she gets to labor. She also dies soon after giving birth, but her sons are able to live without milk or parental protection. Through the creative actions of her good son, the woman’s body becomes the building blocks for the visible world: Her head becomes the sun while remnants of her body become the moon and the stars, thus giving light to a world that was formerly dark. This juxtaposition of Passive Versus Active Creation is one of many dichotomies in the story.
Enigorio
Enigorio (the “good mind”) is one of the twin sons born of the woman. He possesses a kind spirit and his mind is at ease. Enigorio feels uncomfortable in the darkness into which he and his brother are born and desires to create light. He first creates the sun, then the moon, and then the stars by using the deceased body of his mother, developing the theme of Primordial Darkness and the Human Need for Light. Enigorio goes on to make waterways, animals, and the first human couple, whom he shapes from earth and breathes souls into. Unfortunately, Enigorio has to spend much of his time dealing with his evil brother’s antics and tamping down the chaos his brother continually sows. Late in the story, he attempts to bring his brother with him in his labors, but instead, his brother challenges him to a fight for control of the universe. Enigorio ends up winning the duel—possibly by trickery—and preserving the land and people.
Enigonhahetgea
Enigonhahetgea (the “bad mind”) is the other twin son born of the woman. He has a bad attitude and evil thoughts, beginning to sow discord before he is even out of his mother’s body: He does not want to be born in the same way as his brother, so he exits his mother’s body beneath her arm. Enigonhahetgea feels that darkness is natural and wants to remain there. While his brother is creating a paradise, Enigonhahetgea works on making treacherous mountains, dangerous waterfalls, craggy steeps, and poisonous reptiles. Despite opposing his brother’s plans for the world, Enigonhahetgea is jealous of his brother’s work—an indication of his spiteful nature. In his envy, he too tries to make humans, but he has no success until his brother helps him. The bad mind destroys what is peaceful and is always willing to resort to violence to achieve his goals. In the end, he loses the fight but is able to imbue humans with knowledge of both good and evil; consequently, he claims dominion over at least some human souls after death.
Monsters and Turtle
What Cusick refers to as “monsters” are most likely the ordinary things that live in bodies of water. They are neither evil nor mean-spirited; at the beginning of the story, they appear very concerned for the woman who is about to arrive in their world. They have a meeting concerning where she is to land and who will protect her from the raging waters. Though worried about her physical and emotional health, no creature seems to want to take on the responsibility of supporting the woman when she is giving birth. Finally, a large turtle volunteers to be a stable landing spot. This is an important job because, over the course of time, the turtle’s back grows larger and eventually becomes the very ground upon which humans live (and upon which the plot takes place). When Enigorio creates light, the monsters dive down to the deepest quarters of the underworld, as they do not want humans to discover them.
