Reading Diary B: Chinese Fairy Tales

(Chinese Pagoda)

The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away

The thing that captured my attention about this story was the picture of the huge pagoda. It is so beautiful. I can imagine that the sight from the top has got to be so amazing. I would love to go the China and go to the top of one someday and just look at the sights of China. In the picture above you can also see how beautiful the pagoda is. It's so colorful and full of life.

 What was interesting about this story was the the main female character (maiden). She was captured by an ogre who was posing as a boy, and he then tried to trick her into marrying him. When she said no, the ogre locked her up at the top of a pagoda. Each day he asked her if she would marry him, and each day she said no. One day the maiden was able to alert a bird that she was locked at the top of the pagoda and the bird went to her family. Her brother then killed the ogre and saved his sister, the maiden. A lot of people probably would have given up and just married the ogre, but she stuck with her decision and found enough courage to try to get away. 

Chinese Fairy Tales unit.

Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

(Chinese leopard)

The Panther

This story is about a panther who eats a mother and her son, and then poses as the mother in order to eat the rest of her children. The children figure out that the panther has eaten their mother and brother and they are very frightened. They end up scaring the panther off, but are afraid for when the panther comes back because he will be mad. But then, a couple of people come along and help them keep away the panther for good. What I liked about this story was the defeat of the panther in the end. I thought the development of it was really cool and would love to retell it in a different way.   

Why Dog and Cat are Enemies

What I liked about this story was the quarrel between the cat and the dog came to be. It seems like many people get into arguments and they become enemies and they keep that animosity going. This also reminded me of the classic cartoon Ben and Jerry. It is crazy how something so small can make people enemies,  

The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck

The most interesting theme in this story is the loyalty that the wife and husband show to each other. In this story a prince's daughter is looking for a husband, but she finds a man that her father does not approve up because the man is poor, but has good luck. Although, she is still adamant about marrying the man, and so she does. When they become married, they both struggle to live and the husband goes away to seek his fortune. For eighteen years the husband is gone, and he is now an emperor. He also comes back for his wife who is only getting by with little money from her mother because her father has still disowned her. But when she sees her husband, she does not know it is him and he asks her would she marry someone else. The wife says no and that she will wait for her husband until she dies. Very happy with her answer he takes her and shares his great fortune.  

The Cave of the Beasts

The interesting thing about this story was the selfishness of the father. When the father goes to gather wood for his wife and seven daughters, he finds seven duck eggs. But he does not want to share the eggs with his daughters. The father gives the eggs to his wife and the daughters each come and ask for an egg, but the mother tells each daughter that if she gives each one an egg if they do not tell anyone. Later, the father is upset and decides to leave his daughter out in the woods for the fox and wolf to eat them. While the girls are out in the woods they find a cave that is filled with jewels, a fire to keep them warm, and a couple of beds. Not knowing the the cave belongs to the fox and wolf, the girls end up killing the fox and wolf by making a bigger fire when they find out that the fox and wolf are in the cave, After time goes by, the father misses his daughters and goes to find them. He then finds them in the cave with all the jewels and they then become wealthy. I thought the ending was lacking in karma. I believe the father should have not had a happy ending considering all that he did. I am thinking of creating a different ending if I retell this story.

Chinese Fairy Tales unit.

Essay: The Trickster and the Fool

(Two sons of the Jackal)

The end of the second half of the reading had a pretty surprising trickster among its midst. When I was reading I always expected the jackal to be the trickster, but he actually got outsmarted by the hedgehog. I guess technically because of the Jackal's demise he would be considered the fool. The funny things is though is that I considered the jackal the trickster all the way until the end of the story. What made the hedgehog the trickster was that he was tricked by the jackal at first when he took and hid the two jars on honey that the hedgehog found and planned to share. The jackal then continuously lied to the hedgehog in order to feast on the honey himself where he had hid it. When the hedgehog confronted the young jackal, he denied it, but eventually fessed up to hiding the honey jars. After this, the hedgehog had a trick up his sleeve. The hedgehog then invited the jackal to dinner that evening. When the jackal showed up, the hedgehog told the jackal he had to hide because the hedgehog had unexpected visitors, While the jackal was hiding, the hedgehog pushed a huge rock and crushed and killed the jackal. This is when the hedgehog became the trickster and the jackal the fool!  I was very surprised to see the little hedgehog have the guts to kill the jackal. The irony behind it all is the jackal also never even saw it coming. I also find it interesting how a both of these characters switched roles. This is something that I would like to attempt to write in one of my own stories. 

African Stories by Lang

Adventures of Jackel's Eldest Son

Reading Diary A: African Stories from Lang's Fairy Books

(The tricky jackal.)

This was a really cool half reading! I enjoyed literally all of the stories in the first half of the African stories reading. My favorite though was the beginning of the story. How it starts is with the episodes about Motikatika. The most interesting thing about this story is the plot twist at the end. The story starts off with a sick wife and her husband tries to nurse her back to health by bring her honey and water, but he has to make several trips before getting the right water. After this, the husband falls ill, and asks  his wife to make several trips to get water for him. On the final trip to get water, the wife gets water, but then a ogre pops out. The ogre tells the wife that since she has taken water from him, he will eat her child and she is the shave the sides of his head and put white beads around his neck so the ogre will know it is him. The wife also tell him to yell "Motikatika!" Although, the wife has a plan. She gathers all the children and shaves their heads and puts white beads around all of their necks. When the time comes, the ogre calls for Motikatika, but sees all the children who are all the same. The ogre then feels defeated because he knows he will be in trouble if he eats an innocent child. So the wife says she will send her son to the field the pick up some beans and the ogre shall find him there and eat him. Little does the wife know, the Motikatika persuades the father/husband to dress up like Motikatika and the father ends up getting eaten by the ogre. The ending blew my mind.  Mainly because of this last line: 

"It is only just that he should be eaten, and not I; for it was he, and not I, who sent you to fetch the water."

African Stories

Comment Wall

(Kevin Durant and I. Best day ever!)

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Ready. Set. Go!

Essay: Parents and Children

(Buddha meditating.)

I really enjoyed the encounters of Prince Siddhartha. What really captured my attention was the relationship between the Prince Siddhartha and the King. I found it pretty interesting that the King kept Siddhartha sheltered for so long. Siddhartha's father was so successful in sheltering him that he was an adult before he knew about the world's suffering. His father was still so protective that he even attempted to keep Siddhartha away from the crippled, sick, and dying. I felt this was important to the theme because the whole basis of the episodes on the encounters revolves around Siddhartha's ignorance to suffering. It was crazy reading about him learning about these things like a small child, because usually you learn about these things at an early age. I also found this to be a little overprotective of the King considering Prince Siddhartha's age. When Siddhartha finally did learn of old age, illness, and death he felt deeply saddened by this type of suffering people have to face. He also felt that he could find a way to stop it. When Siddhartha planned to leave home, the King could not reason with his son because he had kept him so sheltered, so he never learned that you cannot stop someone from dying, getting old, or being sick when he was younger. For example, I once had a conversation with someone who was home-schooled and they were not privy to a common phrase that had to do with homosexuality, unassumingly so because they lived a sheltered life around their family. Which is fine, but it sort of makes them ignorant to other types of people sort of like Siddhartha. I would definitely recommend the first half of this reading because it relatable to a lot of people. It also has a weird supernatural twist in the beginning that was kind of cool.

Buddha unit. 

Week 5 Storytelling: Encounters of Life

In the land of India, there lived a young Prince by the name of Siddhartha. Prince Siddhartha was destined for greatness from the day he was born, much to the dismay of his parents'. His parents, the Queen and King, loved Siddhartha so much and did not want anything to taint their young son. In so doing this, they kept Prince Siddhartha away from the all the bad in the world. The Prince stayed inside his palace and received everything with its confines. Prince Siddhartha lived this way until he grew to be a young adult.

One day, though, the flowers that bloomed so beautifully as spring approached tempted the Prince to finally leave the palace and explore the world. Prince Siddhartha went to the King to let him know that he wanted to leave the palace the next afternoon. 

"Father, I would love to explore outside of the palace tomorrow. Is that alright?" said Prince Siddhartha. 

The King, having protected his son from the outside world for so long, felt a little antsy about letting his son leave the palace. The King also felt that he could still shelter young Prince Siddhartha away from world, or so he planned. 

"Yes, son, I agree. You should be able to explore outside of the palace. Just let me know when you want to leave, and I will have a chariot waiting for you," the King exclaimed. 

"Thank you, Father, I will leave tomorrow afternoon," said Siddhartha gleefully. 

The King, pondered what he could do to keep Prince Siddhartha away from the ordinary encounters of life. The King then thought that he could order all those to clear away from where Prince Siddhartha would be riding on his chariot. And so it was done the next morning. Little did the King know, the Gods had other plans for Prince Siddhartha. The Gods made sure that Prince Siddhartha would have three real world encounters for him to learn all that his parents had sheltered him from. 

Later that afternoon when Prince Siddhartha left for his exploration outside the palace, he was fascinated by how beautiful the land of India was. On Prince Siddhartha's way up a long stretch of road he saw a man walking alongside the road. The man was very old with a hunchback and gray hair, and a cane to help him walk. Always being in the palace, the Prince was not aware of old age. Also, seeing the older gentlemen made Siddhartha wonder if he would grow to be that old someday. He pondered it, until he came upon another older man who was noticeably ill.  Once again, the Prince was taken aback by the sickly look of the man. The Prince began to wonder again and asked the charioteer if being sick was normal for all people and the charioteer replied to him honestly. Prince Siddhartha then began to think about all the terrible things people face and ordered his charioteer to take him home. Although, on the way back to the palace, Prince Siddhartha saw four men carrying a corpse to a funeral and asked the charioteer to stop at once. He asked the charioteer what happened to the corpse, and he explained to the Prince the lesson that everyone will face death, and that is what happened to the man whom he saw. Prince Siddhartha, very shocked by this revelation ordered his chariot to be returned to the palace.

Once back at the palace, Prince Siddhartha returned to his room, and he felt greatly depressed about all that he had learned.  The King learned about what had happened during Prince Siddhartha's ride outside the palace, and he felt bad for hiding so many things from his son. He attempted to bring great entertainment for his son consisting of having his maidens entice Prince Siddhartha by dancing and flirting with him, but he still felt sad. When Prince Siddhartha woke up one morning, he devised a plan to end all suffering in the world. In order to accomplish this, though, he had to leave the palace for a while.  When Siddhartha was leaving the palace, the King tried to stop him. Prince Siddhartha told the King, "Father, if you cannot keep me from being old, getting sick, or dying, then please do not stop me from leaving." The King could not promise any of those things to his son, so he did nothing but let his son go off on his own and learn for himself. 

(Prince Siddhartha encounters a sick person)

Author's note: The original story this was based on was from "The Life of Buddha" unit in the UN-textbook. Specifically, I based my story on the three encounters of Prince Siddhartha. During his encounter he learns about old age, illness, and death. Prince Siddhartha had not previously known about these types of suffering in the world because he was sheltered from the outside world by his mother and father.Prince Siddhartha's father even tries to shelter his son when he does leave by taking away all the crippled and elderly, but the Gods make it so Prince Siddhartha still encounters everyday ordinary people. When Prince Siddhartha returns to the palace for the last time, he is depressed. The King tries to cheer him up with entertainment, but it does not work. In the end, Prince Siddhartha feels that he needs to find a way to end the world's suffering, so he leaves home. His father tries to stop him, but he still leaves. I kept the general theme of the story, but changed the way Prince Siddhartha learned about the world's suffering a little. I made it to where he learned all encounters in the same day. What I set out for this story is to show how someone can live a sheltered life and be ignorant to everything around them. I recently had an experience with this when a friend of mine was not familiar with a common phrase that is used very commonly because they lived a sheltered life growing up. 

Bibliography:

 The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold (1922).

Reading Diary A: Life of Buddha

(Prince Siddhartha and his encounters)

I really like the episodes about the encounters that Buddha had with life. What really interested me about these particular episodes in this storybook is that Prince Siddhartha's father tried to shelter him from the bad things in the world. The reason the King had done this is because Prince Siddhartha has lived a sheltered life of luxury and was not aware of the evil and bad things in the world. One day he finally leaves the palace after he is an adult. When Prince Siddhartha would go on his daily ride on his chariot, the God's responded with the Prince still seeing some of the bad things in the world. One of the first was old age. Prince Siddhartha learned that he would one day grow to be old and he became depressed and did not want to continue his ride on the chariot. Upon his other sighting the King again tried to shelter the Prince when he left the palace, but the God's revealed a sick person on the second sighting and a corpse to represent death during the third sighting. After the sighting the Prince was sad about these sightings and thought about them often even when the King tried to cheer him up. Prince Siddhartha then began to think about the ways that he could help the world not suffer from all that he had seen. 

Life of Buddha

Week 3 Storytelling: Love Triangle

In the beautiful land of Israel, there was a king by the name of David. He seemed to think he could get whatever he wanted, including women. One day, King David was walking the land when he saw a woman bathing and could not keep his eyes off of her. The woman was the most beautiful he had ever met since his last four wives. He then walked a little closer to see that the beautiful woman was none other than Uriah's wife Bathsheba. King David thought to himself "I will have her!" Although he did know it was wrong to go after a married woman, King David sent for Bathsheba to come to his living quarters, and that night they made love together, and Bathsheba was to soon carry King David's child. 

Several months later, Bathsheba's husband Uriah returned to Israel after fighting in a war. She was so nervous to tell him that she was with child. Bathsheba cooked her husband Uriah a very big meal that night in preparation of telling him about King David's child she was carrying. 

"Uriah, are you ready to eat?" said an antsy Bathsheba. Uriah appeared in the doorway, and noticed that his wife seemed like she was flustered. 

"Is there something wrong, Bathsheba? Because you look like you have something on your mind," said Uriah as he sat down at the table to eat and also worried about his wife. "Actually, Uriah, I do have something to tell you." But Bathsheba was interrupted by a knock on the door. Bathsheba got up and went to open the door and saw two of King David's guards. 

"King David will speak to Uriah right away!" said the one of the guards. Bathsheba wondered what King David would want with Uriah, but she went and got him from the dinner table. "Uriah, King David would like to speak with you, this instantly!" Uriah then made the trek to see King David right away. When Uriah finally made it to the castle, King David greeted him.  

"Hello there Uriah." said King David.  

"Good evening, King. What can I do for you?" said an eager Uriah. 

King David sighed, contemplating whether or not he should tell Uriah about the baby or let Bathsheba tell him. After thinking for a short time, the selfish King David decided to tell Uriah anyway.  

"Bathsheba, you wife is carrying my child." said a forthright King David. 

Uriah stood in place, utterly shocked with no words. He felt a mix of emotions. He felt angry and hurt that his wife would stray while he was off fighting in a war, but he also understood that she was lonely. Uriah loved Bathsheba with all his heart, and he wondered why King David decided to tell him. So he voiced his concern. 

"Why have you told me this, your Highness?" said Uriah. 

"Because I want you to leave Bathsheba, so I can make her my fifth wife!" King David said boldly. 

Uriah was furious. How dare King David take his wife from him? So Uriah defiantly responded "I will not leave my wife, because I love her, and she will remain with me." And so Uriah left to go home to Bathsheba. He did not speak to Bathsheba about his conversation with King David or her infidelities because he had to go back to fight again. He planned to talk to her when he returned, but little did he know he would not be living much longer. 

Uriah died during the war, at the hands of King David putting him in the front line to be killed. Bathsheba mourned her husband's death, and in this moment of weakness King David married Bathsheba. The Lord heard Bathsheba's cries and learned what King David had done all in greed. To pay for what King David had done, Bathsheba lost their child, and they were both sad. Later they had a wise son by the name of Solomon. 

(Bathsheba, King David, and their son Solomon)

Author's note: This story was inspired by the King James Bible (1611): 2 Samuel 11. I chose to retell this story because I thought the original story was very interesting and different from other Bible women stories. My goals for this story were to keep the general theme, but put a little twist on things. In the original story King David sees Bathsheba bathing naked and lays with her. She is then carrying his child, and when her husband returns, King David tries to get Bathsheba's husband to quit fighting in the war to be at home, but Uriah does not enjoy the comfort of being at home while the army is still fighting. Uriah feels it is wrong to stay at home, and does not comply with King David's wishes. King David then has Uriah killed by giving him a letter to give to his general that says for Uriah to be killed. When Uriah dies, King David marries Bathsheba. The Lord learns of what King David has done and punishes him, with Bathsheba losing the baby. They soon have another son by the name of Solomon. I chose to change the story by making King David a selfish man who is not concerned with other's feelings and who is only out to get what he wants. I also wanted to make Uriah more a part of the story by showing the he loved and understood Bathsheba, even though she made a mistake, and it ultimately cost him his life.  

Essay: Assessment of Arabian Nights

I really like the Arabian Nights storybook. The first and second half were both really good, but I would have to say I enjoyed the second half better. The first half of the reading I really enjoyed the episodes up until the three old men. I though the writing style for this half was well put together, and it kept me reeled in much like the Sultan. Each story left me wanting to read the next. There was not much background information that I would have liked. I would say maybe to have more dialog between the grand-vizers daughter and the Sultan. I also did not think the episodes in this first half needed notes. They were pretty straight forward and pretty easy reads. The same can be said for the second half of the reading about Aladdin. It was pretty straight forward, and I didn't feel like I needed any notes or additional information. This series of stories was my favorite because I am a 90's baby and I love stories that inspired Disney movies. I genuinely enjoyed this unit about Aladdin. I kept wondering what was going to happen next and what the ending would be. The only thing I thought that could have been different was the abruptness of the ending. I felt the end was like Aladdin killed the magician and then boom happily ever after. With all that happened in the story, I guess I expected more. Somethings I learned from this unit is how to develop a story from a story. This writing style makes me want to use this style for my own writing portfolio. I was surprised at how this story kept my interest. When I first read it I was taken aback by the beginning of the story and thought I was not going to like, but I am glad I kept reading. I think others will enjoy this too.

(Little cartoon Aladdin)

Reading Diary B: Arabian Nights

(Disney's Aladdin with the lamp and genie)

I really am a sucker for stories about Disney movies. This was literally my childhood though, so I think am justified to be. Anyway, this story was interesting. A little different from the Disney movie with their being more than one genie, but the story generally follows the same theme. Aladdin is poor and he lives with his mother. Until one day as magician posing as Aladdin uncle tricks him into getting a magic lamp for him, but left Aladdin with a ring. Aladdin rubbed the ring and a genie appeared and was bound do make any wish that Aladdin commanded. So Aladdin asked for food and other things that he could sell so that him and his mother could eat. Shortly after Aladdin falls for the Sultan's daughter and retrieves the lamp so that he can pass himself off as prince by asking the genies to  build a palace. Aladdin marries the princess after almost being sneakily married off to another boy by the Sultan. The magician learns of Aladdin and plans to take his palace away from him while away. He does so and takes the palace to Africa. The Sultan learns of this and want Aladdin's head. Although, Aladdin bargains with the Sultan to allow him forty days to find the princess. When he does find her, the princess trick the magician and he end up dead. They then ask the genie to move the palace back to China. Little did Aladdin know that the magician has a younger brother who wanted to avenge his brothers death. The magicians brother disguised himself as a woman that everyone loved. The disguised magician went into the palace and attempted to trick the princess into  defeating Aladdin, but the genie warned them the magician brother was out for them. Aladdin found the brother of the magician and killed him and Aladdin and the princess lived happily ever after. 

Arabian Nights

Reading Diary A: Arabian Nights

(Queen Scheherazade by Sophie Anderson)

I really enjoyed the first half of this storybook! I love this writing style and it is something that I am considering for a theme for my portfolio if I decide to choose to do it. The first half of this reading tells a story about a Sultan who is a king and he is happily married, but then his wife deceives him and he kills her. Now the Sultan seemingly has serious trust issues and marries a new wife everyday, spends a night with her and than has her killed the next morning. This continues on until the grand-vizers daughter Scheherazade comes up with a plan to keep the Sultan from killing her. The grand-vizer is opposed of this because he does not want to kill his own daughter if her plan does not work. Although he eventually lets her marry the Sultan with hopes that he is not ordered to kill her the next day. When Sultan meets Scheherazade he feels she is the most beautiful woman he has every married. He also sees that she is sad and asks her what is wrong. Scheherazade then asked Sultan to let her sister sleep with them before she is to die, and he allows it. While the three of them are asleep, Scheherazade sister wakes her to tell her a story. The Sultan also wants to hear the story. Scheherazade then starts to tell a story about a genie and merchant. In this story the genies believes that the merchant has killed his son, and plans to kill the merchant. The merchant is given one year with his family and then he has to return to the genie. On this day, the merchant meets three old men, one with a hind and another one with two dogs. When the genie is getting ready to kill the merchant, the old man with the hind makes a deal with the genie that if his story is worthwhile then he will not kill the merchant. So then the old man and the hind begins to tell his story. But Scheherazade then tells Sultan and her sister that they have to wait until the next day to hear the story, and Scheherazade is spared and not killed to the relief of the grand-vizer. This theme continues on with a story happening within a story. 

Arabian Nights