"Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away"

"Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away"

“Lodge-Boy and Thrown” away is a Native American myth about a family that is split after the mother is killed. The mother was pregnant; she was going to have twins. After a murderer took the mother’s life, he left one of the twins in the cabin and threw the other one into the wilderness. After they grew up, Lodge-Boy (the twin that stayed at home) and his father had dinner together everyday. One day, while in dinner, Lodge-Boy brought up his friend Thrown-out, his father told him to get Thrown-Away to live with them. Thrown-Away was in animal form. Lodge-Boy and his father turned him into a human. Lodge-Boy and Thrown-Away were always together. One day, they decided to bring their mother back to life, they succeeded in doing so. Everything their dad told them was dangerous to do, they would go and do it. Even though, they were always putting themselves in risky situations, they would kill or destroy anything that threatened them. One day, Thunder-Bird, asked them to kill a creature. Easily, the boys killed the dangerous creature and lived happily ever after.

This short story is clearly a Native American myth because of the elements it contains. Thrown-Away is a human, but at some point in the story he is an animal. Animals having human characteristics or vice versa is called anthropomorphism, and that is one of the aspects of the Native American mythology. Another example of anthropomorphism is the Thunder-Bird; even though he is a bird he talks as if he was a human. An additional important aspect of their culture is family and tradition, it is possible to observe the importance of that when the boys revive their mom and bring her back to the house. Finally, one of the defining aspects of Native American myths is that they are short and easy to understand, this myth is a page long and easy to understand.