My Essay: Response to Lit.

                                                The Secret of Fire

Have you ever wondered where humans obtained fire? The Nez Perce folktale, "The Secret of Fire" written by Kristi Madison tells how fire was obtained. This story takes place in a forest. It takes place before people came into the world.

 This legend takes place in the Pacific Northwest before people were on Earth. The Pines were the only creatures to have fire and they refused to share it with the other creatures. This went on for many winters. But one very cold winter, the animals and trees were afraid they would freeze to death. Beaver had an idea to solve this problem.

That evening, the Pines all made a fire and some guards guarded around so as to keep the other animals and trees away. Beaver hid in a brush close by. Just then a big gust of wind blew one piece of live coal to Beaver. Beaver, taking the piece, started swimming away, the Pines behind his back. Soon, the Pines and one Cedar grew tired of chasing Beaver and stopped. The Cedar told the Pines that he would watch, from their view of the mountain, what Beaver was doing. As Cedar went on reporting who Beaver was giving The Secret of Fire to, the Pines just moaned.
They knew that the method to make fire would no longer be a secret.

As the story reaches the end, the message becomes clear. The author wants us to realize the importance of sharing. As we learned when we were little,"Sharing is Caring."This story also teaches you that if you do not share, you may have bad luck.

This is what the Nez Perce folktale "The Secret of Fire" can teach us. We also learned how this tribe believes humans obtained fire. Once again, this folktale has, in an interesting way taught us how important sharing is. So, I hope everyone in the world gets a chance to read this folktale.