Reading Diary A: English Fairy Tales

One story that stood out to me this week was "The Rose Tress." It seems like some of the stories I am interested in always have a trickster and fool. This story is about an evil stepmother who is jealous of her husbands first child from another woman. The reason why she is so jealous is because the daughter is very beautiful. One thing I liked about the description of the daughter is it was so descriptive that I could picture her in my head. I kind of pictured Snow White. The story is also very similar to that of Snow White, minus the fact the in this story the father is alive and well she has a brother. So one day the step mother pretends that she is a loving mother and wants to comb her beautiful daughters hair. However, she told her that she could not part her hair without some wood and and axe. The foolish daughter went and got the tools for her stepmother that ultimately led to her demise. The stepmother than cut out her liver and cooked it in soup that she gave to her husband (the girls father) and he ate it. The brother would not eat the soup though. Later her brother ran out of the house and buried his sister and cried over his sisters grave until his tears made it to the box. He continued to cry days later until his sister grew to be a beautiful rose tree. What I loved about the ending was the everyday the tree would sing about what happened to her, and there would be a bird listening. Then the bird sang the song to three millers and they created a milestone, a pair of shoes, and a gold watch and chain for the bird to carry back to the house where the girl died. In the end, the girl gets the last laugh when she tricks the evil stepmother, by giving her brother the red shoes, her father the gold chain and watch, and then when the stepmother thinks she is getting a gift, the bird drops the milestone on her. The irony of this story is just too great. I think there are many ways that I could retell this story. 

The Widows' Revenge

Once upon a time, there was a sneaky man by the name of Unktomi. He was a trickster who loved to prey on a person's weaknesses. On the first day of Spring, Unktomi devised a new plan to trick a couple of widows. On his way to the widows' home, he found a large tree that held large vibrantly red plums. Unktomi then took every plum off of the tree and continued on his trek to the widows' home.

After several hours of walking, Unktomi finally made it to the widows' home, and he was ready to execute his plan in full effect. Unktomi knocked on the door and patiently waited for the widows' greeting. The widows opened the door with their babies on each of their hips.

"Hello, Mister, how may we help you today?" said one of the widows.

"Good morning, ladies, my name is Unktomi and I believe I am your long lost brother," said Unktomi falsely. Unktomi always pretended to be a family member of each person he tricked. Just like many other victims of Unktomi, the widows did not question whether he was family or not.

"Come on in, brother. We would love to get to know you better!" said the widows eagerly. So Unktomi walked in their home and pulled out the delicious-looking red plums that he found. Since the widows had lost their husbands, there had not been much food to eat for them because they had to put their children first and eat whatever was left. So the widows wondered where exactly their brother got the red plums from.

"Brother, where did you get these really large plums?" said one of the widows. Unktomi was happy to answer because his plan was working just like he wanted.

"Sister, I found these plums not far from here. In fact, there are still plenty of plums left on the tree," Unktomi said, knowing that he had picked every single last plum off the tree. The plum tree was also located miles away from their home.

"We would love to go out and get some plums, although we do not have anyone to watch our children this afternoon," said the other widow, defeated. Unktomi smiled and said, "I can watch your babies while you two are out. I will feed them and have supper ready by the time you two return." The widows were delighted and left right away to find the plums before nightfall. 

With the widows gone, Unktomi continued with his plan. He walked in the babies' room and removed each of their heads one at a time. He then cooked the babies with other vegetables in a large pot and waited for the widows to return. Upon the widows' return, Unktomi greeted their sad faces as they walked in through the front door. 

"Sisters, why are you so sad? Did you not find any plums?" said Unktomi, faking his surprise. 

"No, brother, we did not find a single plum. Something sure does smell good in the kitchen though," said one of the widows.

"Why yes. I found some meat and cooked a stew for you to eat. Do not worry about the babies. They are sleeping and you can check on them after you have appeased your appetite," said Unktomi. The widows went on to eat the stew, and later checked on their babies. One of the widows picked up her baby and wailed when she realized what Unktomi had done. "Oh no! Our poor babies!" shrieked one of the widows. 

Unktomi heard their cries and raced out of the widows' home to hide, but the very angry widows chased after him until he jumped in a hole inside a tree. The widows (being very familiar with the tree) knew that there were several ways for Unktomi to escape. The widows then waited for him to come out. Unktomi found another hole to escape from and he dressed up as a random stranger. He walked up to the widows and asked them what was wrong. They told him what Unktomi did and the stranger went in the hole to see if anyone was still down there. While he was in the hole, the widows grabbed him up and tied him to the tree. Unktomi then realized that they knew all along that it was him, and this was the last time he would pull a trick on an innocent. The widows set the tree ablaze and they vowed to never trust anyone again. The end. 

(The two widows)

Bibliography:

 Myths and Legends of the Sioux by Marie McLaughlin (1916).

Author's note: This story originally came from The Myths and Legends of the Sioux. In the original story, Unktomi uses red plums to trick two widows. Both of the widows have a child and they leave their children with Unktomi so they can look for the plums that Unktomi found. While the widows are out, Unktomi cuts off the heads of their babies and uses them in a soup that he cooks for the widows. The widows eat the soup, and then check on their babies to find what Unktomi has done. When they find him, he is hiding in a hole, but he sneaks out of the back of the hole in the tree and pretends to be a stranger. He then told the widows it is safe to go in the tree and he traps the widows in the hole and sets it on fire. What I set out to do for my own story was to retell the story and keep the general theme, but to also change the ending. I like a story that has a good karma-filled ending, and I did not like how Unktomi came out the winner in the end after all that he did to the widows. So in my ending, the widows have the upper hand, and they are privy to Unktomi pretending to be the stranger and they get him in the end.

  

Essay: Trickster and the Fool in Myths and Legends of the Sioux.

My favorite trickster and "fools" in this unit was the story with Unktomi and the two widows. Unktomi is very tricky because he was able to fool his widows so cleverly. Unktomi starts off his adventure by find red plums, and tricking the two widows with the red plums by making them think that they could find the plums easily. He also tricks them into think that he is their brother, and so the two widows trust Unktomi with watching their children. While the widows are out, Unktomi kills their children and uses them in a soup that he's cooking. When the widows return, Unktomi tricks them yet again by telling the widows to not check on their babies and eat the soup he made first. Like who does that? So then Unktomi leaves the two widows before they found out what he's done. When the two widows finally do find their babies, then are sad and angry and want to kill Unktomi. When they find out where he's hiding, they get tricked again by a stranger who lures them into a hole where Unktomi is, and he sneakily comes out the whole and traps the two widows into the hole and sets it on fire. In this story, I consider Unktomi and the stranger the tricksters, and the two widows were the ultimate fools. I would really consider this read, I really enjoyed it! Here is the link to the story: click me :)

(Loki, the ultimate trickster)

Reading Diary B: Myths and Legends of the Sioux

Out of all the stories in the second half of this reading, I think I was more fascinated with the ruthlessness of Unktomi in the story of him fooling the two widows. The story starts off with Unktomi finding some red plums on his walk through the forest. With the plums, Unktomi planned to trick two widows by enticing them with the red plums and watch their babies while they went out to find the plums. He also pretended to be their brother. While the two widows are out finding plums, Unktomi kills their babies and eats them in a soup. When the widows return empty handed, Unktomi tells them not check on the babies because he just put them to bed, and not to bother them until they're finished eating the soup that he cooked their babies in. When they realize what Unktomi has done, they try to kill him, he he crawls into a hole. A stranger tries to help them catch Unktomi, but the two widows end up in the hole and Unktomi escapes and traps them down in the hole and sets it on fire. I think if I were to retell this story, I would definitely change the ending. I am a sucker for karma, so I feel like Unktomi should face his demise. 

(Plum tree)

Sioux unit.

Reading Diary A: Myths and Legends of the Sioux

In this unit I thought the story of the lost wife was something I could write about this week. The story is about a woman who escapes an abusive marriage, and so she leaves her village. Upon leaving her village she meets a man and he leads her to a village of wolves. The man is the chief of the wolves and they help her stay alive for a year. During the time that woman is missing her family and husband are worried and have been looking for her. They find her and she eventually goes back with them. The husband also wants her to come back and live with him, but she refuses for awhile, but they reconcile in the end. I have so many ideas to twist this story some way. In this story there is the woman lives with wolves for year, and this made me thing what is she became one of them. Like a werewolf. Like maybe her meeting a new man, he introduces her to his family (wolves) and offers to turn her. Or she could be bitten and turned and not even know. There are so many ways I can twist this story! I would really recommend the first half of this unit. The stories are very insightful and I enjoyed reading them. 

(Girl surrounded by wolves)

Sioux unit.

Reading Diary A: Indian Fairy Tales

(The north wind attacking Shin-Ge-Bis)

I really enjoyed the story about Shin-Ge-Bis (I am going to call him Shin for short) and the North Wind. I thought it was cowardly for Shin's friends to leave him outside during winter by himself because they were scared of the North Wind. Luckily, Shin had a great attitude about defeating the North Wind. He was able to live for several moons (the Native American way of telling time) on his own. Shin was also able to catch fish even though the ground was frozen solid. The North Wind was not happy that Shin stuck around though, and devised a plan to get rid of him. The North Wind attempted to blow out Shin's fire and freeze him, but he ended up creating a snow covering on the place that Shin was staying to allow him to be warmer and Shin laughed at the foolish North Wind. The North Wind very upset at this point challenges Shin to come outside and battle with him. Shin comes outside and they tussle with each other until eventually Shin beats the North Wind. I thought this story was really cool. I really liked the bravery of Shin, and a possible storytelling post I could set out to tell is to make him a hero of some sort to save his family or village. I think that would be really cool. 

Here is the link to the Indian Fairy Tales.

Commenting Review Week

The commenting portion of this class is very cool. I like that we get to connect with other students and see other writing styles. It's also fun commenting on introduction posts and learning where people are from and what they like and stuff. It's also fun finding similarities between myself and another classmate. Some of the most interesting posts have come from Introduction posts. Especially since a lot of us in this class seem to be majoring or minoring in Psychology and we all seem to get paired for commenting. Comments have also been very encouraging because sometimes I do not feel very confident in my writing and then I will read my comments about my stories and others point out the good things that they liked about my story. When I comment on other people's blogs I tend to focus on the very best things that I love about their stories. And if I do see something that I am confused about, I will ask a question about it. Which is also the reason why I also like the comment wall. I like that there is separate place for questions and positive comments, or to connect with other classmates and talk about whatever we like. Overall, I have enjoyed the commenting so far this semester.

(Just a silly little meme. )

Reading Review Week: Writing Review

(Old typewriting)

I am not going to lie, I am really struggling with the storytelling posts this semester. Writing stories is all new to me, and what I am thinking I am having the most challenge with is getting started with writing a story. I also find it hard to end a story. The last storytelling post that I wrote about Prince Siddhartha, I had a lot of trouble trying to come up with a decent ending. Sometimes I think I have too many ideas to change a story as well. Like I will start writing a story one way and then sometimes I do not like it and start over. The reading has been helpful for strategies in helping me write a storytelling blog posts. Also getting inspiration from other students storytelling posts helps as well. Feedback from other students has been pretty helpful as well with my storytelling posts. Although, it is kind of discouraging when students find issues with something in my stories that do not line up with feedback from you. But I have also had some students give me great feedback, and said I should change some things that you pointed out in your emails. Overall, I have had a good experience with writing. I just hope to end the semester, I can write a lot more than I did in the first half of the semester.

Reading Review Week: Reading Review

When looking back on the readings I really enjoyed, many of them were very recent readings. Some of my favorite series of stories came from the Chinese Fairy tales, African stories, Life of Buddha, and Arabian nights units. For many of them I only enjoyed the first half of some of the readings. I am not sure why that was. I would always read the first half of a reading and then feel really bored with the second half and have a hard time finishing it. I did not feel this way about the Chinese Fairy tales and Arabian nights units. I also really liked the African stories unit and wish I could have done the other half of the reading because I really liked every single story in the first half. Some note taking strategies I use for my reading diary posts are I usually try to connect stories from our readings to possible storytelling posts of my own. I feel that by doing this I can have many ideas on what I want to write for a storytelling post. Reading diaries are also helpful because sometimes I forget some parts of a story, and going back to the key parts of the stories helps me remember important parts on the stories. Sometimes I do read these stories for fun. Some stories are very relatable in a sense, or I am familiar with them and just want to read them again. There are also some stories that I have read and I could not get any inspiration for writing a storytelling post. One thing that I might change about the dynamic of the reading diary is have more options of readings. There have been weeks were I really could not find a reading that I was really into or it took me awhile to find one that I liked. Having two options each week is great, but sometimes I wished I had the earlier readings first because I have really enjoyed the reading recently.

(A meme that I thought was pretty funny. )