The child becomes the tree./J: The tree saves the child like a mother.
NA: The unhappy children are punished by nature./ J: The unhappy child is comforted by nature.
NA: The mother holds onto her child and he is transformed/J: The mother teaches her child to be comforted and the child is transformed.
NA: The tree comforts the mother./J: The tree comforts the child.
NA: The mother loses her children./ J: The child is saved.
Though Native American and Jewish culture developed an ocean apart, these folk tales share some amazing similarities. Both Native American and Jewish cultures use folk tales as a way to instruct the young and explain the world. Their themes are universal despite the distance and lifestyle differences in the cultures. Nature is both a mystery and comfort in both cultures, which is also brought out in these tales. Though they teach different lessons, the Native American and Jewish tales both teach lessons to parents and children through the central image of the tree.
In both stories, the tree offers comfort. In the Native American tale, the tree comforts the mother by springing from the ground where her child was taken from her. In this way, the mother is able to hold on to her child. In the Jewish story, the mother teaches her daughter to tell her problems to the tree. The tree absorbs her sorrow and gives its life to comfort her. In addition, both stories revolve around the separation of children from parents and the transformation from childhood. This is a universal theme, since in all cultures and times people experience this bittersweet transition. In the Native American tale, the children are separated by rebellion against their parents. They are transformed by this rebellion as children are transformed into adults. In the Jewish story, the parent and child are separated by marriage and distance. The child has already passed into adulthood, but the mother continues to want to comfort her in her sorrow, but can't. Instead she teaches the girl to comfort herself by telling her sorrows to the tree. In this way, the girl is transformed from miserable to content through her mother's wisdom. Finally, while both stories are teaching stories, one is a legend and the other is a folk tale. The Native American tale teaches about the origin of the Pleiades constellation and the pine tree, whereas, the Jewish tale is teaches us to draw comfort from our sorrows through nature and not to rely on other people for our happiness.
