Compare and Contrast Essay Remaking the World by Brule Sioux and Montezuma and The Great Flood by Papago are both excellent pieces of Native American literature. The stories share similar characteristics such as looking up to a God-like figure also know as a Creating Power or Great Mystery Power. Remaking the World contains the story of how the world was created, but also what it took to create this world. The Creating Power had made a world, but he was not satisfied by how the people had behaved, so he decided to create a new one. Throughout the story, the Creating Power is shown as a powerful person who has the ability to teach and bring people and animals together. The Creating Power said to them: “Now if you have learned how to behave like human beings and how to live in peace with each other and other living beings- the two-legged, the four-legged, the many-legged, the fliers, the no-legs, the green plants of this universe- then all will be well. But if you make this world bad and ugly, then I will destroy this world too. It’s up to you”. Montezuma and The Great Flood have a similar character known as The Great Mystery Power. This character guides the leader, Montezuma on a journey of how to teach his people the necessities of life such as making baskets and cooking food. Montezuma’s power went to his head and eventually lost his empire due to his arrogance. Montezuma answered: “I don’t need your advice. Who are you to try to correct Great Montezuma? Am I not high above you? Am I not your master?”. The importance of this similarity is that in Native American literature, there is always a Great Power that tries to help the humans and want good for the world. Another similarity between the stories would be the destruction of empires and worlds. Remaking the World consisted of The Creating Power trying to perfect the world with animals and humans, living in peace. For this process, the Creating Power made two individual worlds. The first world and its people were bad, so he burned it up and the second world he made was also bad, so he drowned it. Afterwards, the third world he made was happier and diverse, so he decided to keep it. As a sign that there will be no more conflict, the Creating Power said: “I have created a rainbow for you as a sign that there will be no more Great Flood. Whenever you see a rainbow, you will know that it has stopped raining.”. In the story Montezuma and The Great Flood, Montezuma’s power led to immense arrogance, which destroyed his Aztec empire. At first, Montezuma was sent to Earth to guide his people, but after being held up on a pedestal for so long, he eventually thought he was God, himself. Montezuma shook his fists to the sky and called: “ Great Mystery Power, I defy you. I shall fight you. I shall tell the people not to pray or make sacrifices of corn and fruit to the Creator. I, Montezuma am taking your place!”. In response to this, the Great Mystery Power allowed the Spaniards to come to Montezuma’s country and destroy him. The significance of this similarity is that in Native American stories, there can be destruction-type setting such as why a world or an empire gets destroyed. There are many more similarities, but there are also many differences between the stories. One difference would be the creation of one world and the destruction of another. In Remaking the World, the Creating Power created a third world to please himself and those who live on that world. “From the Earth, the Creating Power formed the shapes of men and women. He used red earth and white earth, black earth and yellow earth, and made as many as he thought would do a start”. In Montezuma and the Great Flood, the story started out from the formation of people, but at the end of the story Montezuma and his people lost to the Spaniards, who demolished their city. “The Great Mystery Power allowed these bearded, pitiless people to come in ships across the great waters out of the east- permitted them to come to Montezuma’s country, taking away Montezuma’s power and destroying him utterly.”. This difference is important because the contrasting stories are telling morals/lessons of why the world was created and why an empire was destroyed. The last difference between the myths is the use of animals in each story. Remaking the World had quite the examples of animals. After the Creating Power destroyed the world, a crow is the only being alive. The Creating Power decides to make land for the crow to land on, so he takes the loon, beaver, otter, and turtle out of his bag and tells them to dive down and get mud. The only animal who was successful was the turtle. Starting with a little bit of mud, the Creating Power made an entire world. The Creating Power gave the people the pipe and said: “Live by it” He named the land Turtle Continent because the third world came from the mud that the turtle brought up. Montezuma and the Great Flood had one animal, which was the coyote. The coyote warned Montezuma of an upcoming disaster, which Montezuma paid heed to. But when Montezuma stopped listening to Coyote, the world turned upside down. “Then good changed to evil. Men began to hunt and kill animals. Disregarding the eternal laws by which humans had lived, they began to fight among themselves.”. The significance for this difference is because animals involved in the stories reflect the outcome of the ending.