Lauren DiMuzio
Anna Richardson
American Literature
08.25.17
Compare and Contrast Creation Stories: Genesis vs. The Iroquois Creation Story
As humans we are naturally curious and constantly trying to find ways to explain the seemingly
unexplainable, for example; how the world as we know it came into existence 4.5 billion years
ago. Different religions and cultures have different hypothesis of how the mass of rock we live
on came to existence and how we as humans came to inhabit the Earth. The most common
story about the creation of life is the book of Genesis in the Bible, however; there are many
other stories that are not as well-known such as the The Iroquois Creation Story.
Upon first reading these two stories that differences between the two legends are abundantly
clear, Genesis is absolute and to the point with text such as “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’
and there was light.” (Genesis 1.3) whereas the Iroquois Creation Story is read as if someone of
telling a story rather than stating a fact with language such as “The lower world was in great
darkness—the possession of the great monster…”(“Iroquois Creation Story”, 32). The approach
to “storytelling” is one of the main differences between the two cultures, and it is made apparent
when comparing these two works. The Bible is a collection of stories written down by followers
of God recounted as events that happened which is why they seem very matter of fact, they are
not concerned with the “fluff” of the story, rather writing down the occurrences as they happened
which is why some people find it difficult to read the bible. The first three chapters of the book of
Genesis are a list of events that occurred, almost as if they were taken off of a timeline and put
on the page in the same wording, for example the ninth verse in chapter one of the book of
genesis states “And God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry
ground appear.’ And it was so.” Which is directly followed by ” God called the dry ground ‘land’,
