The Creation” and Free Will In this Essay, you will practice balancing summary

The Creation” and Free Will
In this Essay, you will practice balancing summary and analysis as you explore the concept of free will in a complex African myth.
Read “The Creation” (p. 85) in your textbook, The African Storyteller by Matthew Brown (attached)
As you read, mark the end of the golden age and beginning of the age of creation. Think about the emergence of free will and what it might mean for contemporary human beings, at least according to this storyteller.
Compose
Compose a one-to-two-page (500-800 word) practice essay in which you present an argument about the nature of free will in this myth. Your essay should do the following:
Present an argument about what this storyteller has to say concerning the value of free will and the value of oneness with god. (Feel free to be abstract here. You need not argue in strictly religious terms. You can think of god literally, as in a deity, or you can think of god as a unified totality, more like a connection to nature and community. Or you can work somewhere on a spectrum between these.)
Explain what happens during the golden age. Imagine that your reader doesn’t know the story. Work on explaining key details without retelling everything. What are the most significant events?
Explain what happens during the age of creation, focusing on moments of free will. Again, imagine that your reader doesn’t know the story. Work on explaining key details without retelling everything. What are the most significant events?
To focus your argument, so that it is clear and forceful (and appears near the beginning of the essay), consider wording it so that it deals with some of the following questions:
What is lost during the age of creation and what is gained? Which seems to be greater?
Does this story confirm or resist the idea that free will is a bittersweet, but ultimately beautiful and important part of the human condition?