ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -While there is fairly wide variation in the number of Earth-divers and in the animal form of most of them, in every version of the story that I have seen the final, successful Earth-diver is the humble muskrat.

Detailed explanation-2: -Earth diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops into a terrestrial world.

Detailed explanation-3: -In several Native American creation myths, the muskrat dives to the bottom of the primordial sea to bring up the mud from which the earth is created, after other animals have failed in the task. Muskrats have sometimes been a food resource for North Americans.

Detailed explanation-4: -Many myths, called diver-myths (Long 188), consisted of a being diving into the water that covers the earth to retrieve some earth. The earth brought to the surface became the land we know today.

Detailed explanation-5: -In the world-parent myths there is antagonism between the offspring and the parents. This is a conflict between generations, expressing the desire of the children to determine their own place and orientation in existence against the passivity of the parents.