Essay: Sisters in The Little Mermaid

(Ariel and her sister as kids. )

One of the most tragic parts of this story is the bond the little mermaid shares with her sisters comes to an abrupt end. In the beginning of the story, all of the sister shared a common bond of wanting to know what the land around them looked like. One of my favorite parts of this story is when each mermaid on her fifteenth birthday would look at the land. Each one would then come back down in the waters and tell everyone what they say. The best part about it was each of their birthdays was during different seasons, so they all saw different things. However, for the little mermaid, her adventure was much different because she saved the prince that she immediately fell in love with. She risked everything for him. The little mermaid even gambled with the idea of never seeing her sister, father, and grandmother never again just so she could be with the prince. But he did not marry her to give her an immortal soul. Even when her sisters tried to save her, she still chose the prince. This is what made the story of the little mermaid so sad. The little mermaid gave so much and ended up getting little in return. If you would to read the real story of The Little Mermaid, I would definitely encourage it. It's a really good read.  

The Little Mermaid

Essay: Parents and Children

I really liked the story about Clever Elsie in this weeks reading. For this weeks essay I thought I would change it up and write about parents and children since there was not really a trickster and fool in this story. In this story Clever Elsie is close with her parents and family. Her parents are looking for a man to take Clever Elsie's hand in marriage. However, they know no one will have her if they think she is not smart. So Hans comes along and is interested in Clever Elsie. To get to know Clever Elsie better they have dinner where Clever Elsie is sent to get beer. Upon her discovery she finds an axe and cries because she thinks about what if her and Hans were to have a son and he was killed by the axe. So she weeps until some one comes down to check on her. Clever Elsie's mother and father come down and weep with her when she reveals why she is crying. I thought it was really funny that everyone ended up crying in the end except Hans. I could just picture exaggerated cries from each family member. One more louder than the next. This is not something you see all the time. Some behavior I feel are common to most parent and child relationships is pushing your children to be with someone. It seems the older you get the more inclined your parents are to want to know about your love life and when you're going to get married and have children. I think that was definitely apparent in this story. Anyway, I would really recommend this story and unit. If you want to read, click here.

(Clever Elsie)

Essay: Trickster and the Fool in more English Fairy Tales

(The Old Witch)

In this weeks reading, the trickster and fool is one of the girls and the witch from the story The Old Witch. What makes the girl the trickster could of been out of pure luck or because she had a plan. Who knows. In the beginning, the girl leaves home to find good fortune. On her way from leaving her town she encounters some bread that has not been taken out of the oven for seven years. So she takes the bread out. She then meets a cow that has not been milked in seven years as well. So she milks the cow. Finally, she meets a tree that has fruit that has not been picked for seven years. Just like the others, she picks the fruit off the tree. The girl continues on her trek and meets an old witch who allows her to clean for money. The witch has one rule. Never look up the chimney or something bad will fall down. So there girl forgets and looks up the chimney. When she does, a bag of money falls down. The girl then makes a run for it with the witch chasing after her. Luckily for her, the tree, cow, and the oven with which the bread was baked in all helped to hide the girl. She was able to live a successful life with all the money. Honestly, I thought the witch was pretty foolish to think the girl would not look up the chimney. It was even more foolish of the witch to put money up the chimney. Someone was bound to disobey and find the money.

This story is a really good read. I would recommend the English Fairy Tales if you are bored or cannot find a good section to read. If you would like to read, just click in the caption above, and it will take you to this story and its unit.

Essay: Trickster and the Fool in English Fairy Tales

In this weeks reading, a story that had a trickster and fool was the story about The Rose-Tree. In this story the evil stepmother is definitely the trickster and the beautiful step daughter is the fool. The stepmother hated the beautiful daughter of her husband because she had lost her candles. She was also jealous of the girls beauty. So pretending not to be angry, the stepmother tells her stepdaughter to lay her head on her lap so that she can comb her hair. Although, she says that she cannot part her hair without wood and an ax. So the foolish daughter gets the supplies for her stepmother, which ultimately leads to her demise. In the end, though it seems like the characters switch places and the girl becomes the trickster and the stepmother becomes the fool. At the end of the story, the girls brother buries her and cries over her grave everyday until she turns into a beautiful tree. The tree then sings a song, and the bird listens and sings the song to three millers, jeweler, and a shoemaker. So somehow this very strong bird is able to carry a gold watch and chain, red pair of shoes, and a millstone around its neck. When the bird gets to the girls home, it knocks the house with millstone and the boy and father come out and receive their gifts. However, the foolish stepmother thinks she is getting a gift and runs out the door only for the bird to drop the millstone on her, which also leads to her death.

The bird dropping the millstone on the stepmother

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)

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

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. 

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)