This story first had my interest because it spoke about the fairytale about the origin of sickness, which is especially appealing to me as a pre-med student. The introduction statement of the story opens on a darker note mentioning that society was once better before as it is now. The author says that before, everyone lived happy and long lives. The story introduces sickness as a character, personifying it as someone entering the room upon the event between the Indians and the messenger. Was the messenger an actual human? It did not make clear of the function of this character. Was the messenger just a figure of spirit responsible for keeping illness and infection away from the populations?
It explains that an old man was suffering and dying. This is where I was a little bit lost because if sickness was not in the world, how was the old man dying and suffering? He was a leader, and the author introduces him as almost like a liaison of healthy spirits. It then bridges a gap of who the messenger. The messenger is another liaison of the great spirit, sent by the spirit and the dying man to spread the wisdom forward of medicine and good health. The Great Spirit arranged two young men representing the old man to meet the messenger to discuss and to spread the good word in the knowledge. They were supposed to meet under a specific tree that in my opinion, symbolizes security and safety. The young, healthy boys successfully made it to this tree, and they were patiently waiting for the messenger. When a scary snake approached them, however, the two boys killed it out of fear. It is then revealed that the snake, in fact was the messenger himself, thus the wisdom was completely lost. I am curious why the author used this normally symbol of evil, to be the character of something so good. This is exemplified by the old man immediately collapsing into death. The dead snake was used to try to get revenge and send the fate to other people. This shows that the two men would not take responsibility in their own hands, and frankly, they were cowards. The mate of the snake then came and repopulated offspring that spread different types of diseases, viruses, infections, and ultimately death into the tribe.
Bibliography: B. Burrough, Tejas Legends, How Sickness Entered the World (link)
It explains that an old man was suffering and dying. This is where I was a little bit lost because if sickness was not in the world, how was the old man dying and suffering? He was a leader, and the author introduces him as almost like a liaison of healthy spirits. It then bridges a gap of who the messenger. The messenger is another liaison of the great spirit, sent by the spirit and the dying man to spread the wisdom forward of medicine and good health. The Great Spirit arranged two young men representing the old man to meet the messenger to discuss and to spread the good word in the knowledge. They were supposed to meet under a specific tree that in my opinion, symbolizes security and safety. The young, healthy boys successfully made it to this tree, and they were patiently waiting for the messenger. When a scary snake approached them, however, the two boys killed it out of fear. It is then revealed that the snake, in fact was the messenger himself, thus the wisdom was completely lost. I am curious why the author used this normally symbol of evil, to be the character of something so good. This is exemplified by the old man immediately collapsing into death. The dead snake was used to try to get revenge and send the fate to other people. This shows that the two men would not take responsibility in their own hands, and frankly, they were cowards. The mate of the snake then came and repopulated offspring that spread different types of diseases, viruses, infections, and ultimately death into the tribe.
Snake, Public Domains Vector
Bibliography: B. Burrough, Tejas Legends, How Sickness Entered the World (link)
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