Week 7 Reading Diary: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

For my reading diary this week I decided to focus on Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang). These Japanese fairy tales retold by Andrew Lang and the stories are translated into contemporary English. The two stories I have chosen are from two separate books. The Cat’s Elopement is from The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897). The Two Frogs is from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1901).

The Cat’s Elopement: This is a remarkable love story between two cats. A music playing master’s male cat named Gon and a neighbor woman’s female cat named Koma. However, neither of the owners would sell that cat to the other so that the two cats could be together. The only option they had was to run away together. The two were separated in a horrific way only to find themselves at a much later day. I really enjoyed this story because it reminded me of many past love stories I have heard and best of all it too found its happy ending.

The Two Frogs: I really liked this story because it is a special tale about how two tiny creatures somehow find each other is a large world. To me it seemed a little bit like destiny. They looked to the other frog for advise of the country they had hoped to visit. I think it was a very relatable story for the readers who are hoping to one day see more of the world.

Week 6 Storytelling: Where Do I Belong

(flickr)

Once upon a time there lived a little ape. He was not just like any ape in jungle. He was unique and very special. He lived on an island very far east and close by to the Great Sea. The island that he lived on was called Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. In fact, it was on the main rock mountain of the island that this special little ape was born. The main thing that made this little guy so unique was the fact that he was literally hatched form an egg.

As a young ape he was so full of life. He spent everyday enjoying himself and playing around on the mountain tops. His favorite things to do included rolling down the mountains and chasing all of the tropical birds and butterflies that flew around the jungle. He thought he was on top of the world. He grew up alone in the jungle but he loved his life there.

He didn’t realize he was different until he met some other apes on the island and came to find out that they were not born from eggs. He suddenly felt very ashamed of himself and was embarrassed that he was not like everyone else. He struggled with the fact that he felt like he did not fit in with the rest of the apes. He would try to hang out with them, but he always felt judged and unwanted.

One day all of the young apes were spending time with their mothers, and that was the moment he decided to give up trying to fit in because he did not have a mother. All he had was a lonely cracked egg shell. That’s when he made the decision to go away and go back to his hill. This ape was done trying to be like the other apes in the jungle. However, now that he was alone again he still was not happy, but he did not know why.

A couple of weeks went by, then one day he had a visitor. One of the other apes had come looking for him. He said that they had all noticed his absence and they missed him and they wanted him to come home. He was so shocked by this! He had never been missed before nor had ever though of a place as home. He immediately hugged the other ape and agree to go back down the mountain with him.

Authors Note: I wrote this story to give a deeper explanation of how life was like growing up for the ape in the story the Handsome King of the Apes. I thought the soon to be king needed to be understood a little bit better. 

Bibliography: This story is based on the story Handsome King of the Apes. This story is part of the The Monkey King unit. Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921).

Week 6 Reading Diary, Continued: The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung

For the second part of my reading diary I decided to read about Asian mythology. I read The Monkey King Sun Wu Kung. Story source: "The Ape Sun Wu Kung" in The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921). Below of the two stories from my reading that I found to be the best.

Handsome King of the Apes: I enjoyed this story because it shows how the monkey came to be and his beginning. The story begins by being extremely detailed and allows the reader to really envision the island and what it is like. The the story takes an interesting story when it says that the ape was hatched from an egg. Obviously I was very surprised by this because I have never heard of such a thing. I liked that even though this ape was special that he still got along well with the other tribe of apes. I feel like this story continues on with a theme I’ve been reading in stories where there is some sort of competition between animals to decide who becomes king.

(the waterfall)

The Great Sea: this story jumps forward the ape who was hatched from an egg already became king and was now respected. I found myself wondering what it was like when he first became king and how he coped with that new responsibility. I think overall this was a very good story and I think it was told in a very detailed way.

Week 6 Reading Diary: Brer Rabbit

For this reading diary I decided to focus on Brer Rabbit. Joel Chandler Harris's series of books of Brer Rabbit tales (almost two hundred stories in total) is one of the most important resources we have for African-American folklore study. For my diary I chose two stories that I found to be the most interesting.

(illustration by A. B. Frost)

Why Mr. Possum Loves Peace: all of the stories of Brer Rabbit were extremely difficult to understand. I found myself reading this story out loud multiples times to still just barely grasp the meaning. I found this one to be a little more interesting than the rest of the stories because it involved a wide variety of characters, and once again they were animals. I have established many times in the blog that I immediately like a blog more because it includes animals. Once again this statement in true here. I really enjoyed Mr. Possum because I feel like he is very kind, as well as being grounded and thoughtful.

A Story about the Little Rabbits: once again I could barely understand this story because of the language and the way that it was translated. However, overall it was a very good story about cute little rabbits so that made the struggle of reading it much more worthy. I do not think that I will continue to read these stories because I am not able to get as much out of them as I would hope because of the difficulties of reading. The story was very unique in the way it was written.

Thoughts and Comments

Hey Everyone!

As I look back on all of the past comments I have received I have realized that I have received some pretty amazing comments. Everyone in this class is so nice and encouraging. I think comments are especially engaging whenever they reference something specific in the story. I think comments would be a little bit better if they offered some advice or critiques for the author. 

Thanks so much for all of the comments!

Looking forward to see your future comments.

-Kristine :)

Storytelling for Week 5: Vote for King

Once upon a time there was a huge jungle, and it was filled with hundreds of animals running around in the foliage. Now these animals were of all sizes and had the freedom to do and say as they please. Throughout the years the jungle had many arguments between the different animals. These arguments were usually solved through physical fights, which always got pretty intense and brutal. The worst fight was when a cheetah was caught stealing food from a tiger. Or these disagreements were never solved, and that was even worse because it caused the jungle to become divided.

After many years of spending their life like that, day in and day out, some of the animals found themselves beginning to have hope for change, especially those animals that were both small and weak. The animals wanted peace, and they wanted to be able to walk about the jungle without having to fear their enemies. It didn’t take long for the whispers of peace to travel through the jungle, and very soon it was a single wish that almost all of the animals in the jungle collectively possessed. Peace was in their mind and nothing would stop them from making it a reality. They were just not sure how to make it happen. All of the different types of animals in the jungle were in disagreement on how best to gain peace, and no one was stepping up.

A few weeks of disagreements went by and there had still been no change, and the animals were still fighting amongst each other. Up until now there had only been hopeful rumors of change. Finally, the monkeys decided to take charge and they called a meeting in the center of the jungle. They requested to have one representative from each type of animal attend the meeting. The meeting took place the following day. All of the animals sat in a circle with the monkeys in the middle. Each animal sent to the meeting was the most respected and wisest of its kind, and they were all confused about what they were doing there because there had never been an organized meeting in the jungle before.

The monkeys opened the meeting by explaining that this group was the elite of the jungle and would now be known as the council. They made it clear that this was how they proposed that the council made the decisions for the jungle from now on because it was the only way to have a representative from everyone in the jungle. Everyone else agreed unanimously. However, they still needed a king among the council, and everyone had an opinion about who this leader would be. 

(flickr)

After a lot of disagreements, the council settled on three nominations. In the running for the king was the head monkey, the tiger, and the turtle. The monkey was an option because some of the animals thought the monkeys were smart enough to come up with the idea of the council, so they should be able to lead. The tiger was nominated because he was strong and would intimidate against enemies or thoughts of rebellion or attack. Finally, the turtle was nominated because he was one of the oldest in the jungle therefore he was the wisest and the most experienced.

The decision was set to a vote. All of the animals raised their paw for the animal they thought was best fit to lead. It was a quiet vote without too much discussion because there was a winner by a large majority. By the end of the vote they had a king. King Tiger made his debut as the leader and everyone finally saw peace in the future.

Author's Note:I wrote this story, Vote for King, as a prequel to the story "The Tiger and the Monkeys." It was my way of showing how the tiger became the king of the jungle. The original story just simply stated that there was a council in the jungle but never told how this came to be. I wanted to bring this part of the story to life in order to give the original story more substance and make it a little bit more believable. The original story focused on rebellion and trickery from the monkeys. The king heard a beautiful singing voice and made it known that he would marry the woman the voice belonged to. The monkeys tricked King Tiger into believing the voice belonged to one of their sisters. Once the king decided to marry her he found out it had all been a trick, and that the monkeys had been plotting to attack the king. The story ended with yet another bloody fight in the jungle and King Tiger being forever afraid of the monkeys. I would think the next part of the story would tell about an impeachment of the tiger and a new vote for king.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story, The Tiger and the Monkeys. This story is part of the Khasi Folktales unit. Story source: Folk-Tales of the Khasis by Mrs. K. U. Rafy (1920). 

Week 5 Reading Diary, Continued: Khasi Folktales

As I continued my second reading diary for the week, I decided to switch gears and begin learning about the Khasi Folktales. The Khasi people live primarily in Meghalaya state in India and also in the neighboring nation of Bangladesh. The stories were collected in the early 20th century and cover a wide range of topics.

The Tiger and the Monkeys: this story immediately caught my attention. First because it was about animals. Then, I was intrigued because I realized it was about the monkeys trying to pull a fast one on their king, the tiger. It made since that the tiger was the king since he is so powerful. I found it very odd that all of the animals were able to hear such a small insect singing in the wild. When the monkey said the voice belonged to his younger sister, I was surprised that the tiger believed this and that it somehow led to marriage.

(tiger, photo by T. Hisgett)

How the Dog Came to live with Man: once again attracted to this story because of my love of dogs. Once again the tiger is given a title in the story, being the governor. I didn’t find this very unusual. It happened very casual and all of a sudden that the dog decided to leave the jungle and be an attendant to man. It didn’t take long for the man and wife to warm up to the dog and start giving him leftovers from dinner like a modern day family would do.