Storytelling for Week 3: The Plot to Kidnap

One dark and stormy night there was a band of robbers sitting alone in a pub pondering what to do with their lives. They had just traveled hours after robbing an old far in the middle of no where. However, the job didn’t pay much. They only got food from the far, about one hundred dollars, a lazy donkey, and middle aged horse. Right before they left the far they noticed an old woman by the window who had seen everything. The robbers had no choice but to take her with them. The old woman was now sitting near by in the pub so that the robbers could keep their eye on her.

The robbers knew that this job wouldn’t hold them over for much longer than a week, and that soon they’d be back to struggling to find food and stay alive. They needed money and they needed it fast. 

(Flickr)

They fast at the pub drinking their beers and silently thinking. They were the smartest bunch; after all they were robbers. Finally, the smallest one spoke up with an idea. He had decided that they needed to do one huge job that would pay off big and quick. However, he didn’t really have the details planned out on how to go about this.

Then, another lad spoke up reminding the rest of the men that there was a wedding tomorrow in the next city over, and that is was a very rich family. At that moment they were all thinking the same thing. They were going to kidnap the bride and hold her for ransom. The thought of this freighted all of them because until then they had only been involved in small crime like robberies. Kidnapping was a whole other level but they didn’t have a choice. They needed to do this in order to survive. They knew her parents would pay just about anything to get her back safely.

They had no time to prepare or plan. They needed to head for the city now because it would be about a day’s travel on foot. They were confident that they had the strength and man power in order to make this job successful, and they would figure out the rest on the way.

Authors Note: I wrote this story, The Plot to Kidnap, as a prequel to the story The Captive Woman. It is about how the robbers in the story plotted to kidnap the girl, and also how they came to travel with the old woman and the magical donkey. I wrote this because I had questions when I was reading this story so I answered my own questions.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story The Captive Woman from the Unit: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche, written by Apuleius and translated here into English by Tony Kline.

Week 3 Reading Diary, Continued: Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche

As I continued my Reading Diary for Week 3 I decided to focus on Apuleius’s Cupid and Psyche, which is from a Roman Novel, The Golden Ass, written by Apuleius and translated into English by Tony Kline. Below are the two stories that I found most interesting.

The Captive Woman: When I first heard of Apuleius’s Cupid and Psyche I thought it seemed like a common fairy tale. However, to my surprise it started out nothing like that at all! This first part of the story was extremely dark with a girl being help captive for ransom. The language was much more horrific than any fairy tale I had ever read before. I found myself wondering why these men needed to kidnap this girl for money and what brought them to this earlier in their life. I think it was a really good way to set the story up because it definitely did get my attention and left me wondering what was going to happen to the girl and the old woman. I was also curious to find out why the old woman was with them in the first place.

Her Dream: This particular story tugged at my heart strings and really gave me an emotional connection with the girl as I learned more about her story. The story started seeming a little more similar to fairy tales I had read in the past when I learned that she was taken from her wedding which is something I have heard before. I really felt bad for her when she said she had dreamed of her beloved dying, and I was curious about what the fate of her fiancé was.

(Cupid and Psyche, Roman sarcophagus)

Week 3 Reading Diary: Alice in Wonderland

For my reading diary this week I decided to focus on the stories of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

Down the Rabbit Hole: I have seen the movie many times since childhood. As I began to read it was very interesting because I was very aware of the differences from the movie. Alice falling down the rabbit hole was a huge part of this story and described in such detail. I remember it in the story as happening very quickly. I feel like the written story painted much more of a picture for the reader and really kept my attention at all times. I find myself wishing I hadn’t seen the movie before I read the stories. It’s not as fun to read knowing what is going to happen next.

(Illustration by Sir John Tenniel)

Advice from a Caterpillar: When I was a kid the caterpillar was always my least favorite character because for some reason I thought he was a little creepy. As I am reading this story now I do not really find him creepy, instead I find him much more mellow. However, he is still one of my least favorite characters in the story. I still find it very odd that the caterpillar is smoking hookah. It is a children’s story and hookah does not really promote a good behavior, which makes the caterpillar a bad role model. It was interesting because I did not remember the caterpillar being the one to make Alice grow so it was interesting to read something unexpected.