Storytelling for Week 4: The Life of a Fish

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Once upon a time deep in the lake there lived a little fish named Frank. The lake was filled with hundreds and hundreds of exciting and interesting fish of all shapes and colors. All of the fish were very friends and Frank had many friends. He lived alone and loved to swim around the lake and do a lot of exploring. He was a very adventurous fish, and was always trying to experience new things.

One day as Frank was taking a casual swim about the lake he noticed a weird shadow come about in the water. As he looked up to the surface he knew it was coming from the outside. Since he is a very curious fish he knew he had to investigate so he quickly swam up to the surface and looked out. To his surprise is a was a man, and then suddenly that man chucked an object into his lake. Frank stared at the man and when the man finally noticed Frank, he smiled and nodded. Frank took this gesture as the man saying he would not harm him and that he was a friend.

Frank had never experienced this form of kindness from a human before. Usually they only visit the lake to pollute it or to cause raucous that disturbs all of the fish in the lake. Frank immediately decided to investigate the object the man threw into the lake. He came upon the object with hesitation. It was a large, tan, and round object that smelt delicious. He eventually found the courage to taste this object and found it to be delicious bread! Frank had eaten bread before but none so delicious and he had never seen so much of it. He was so amazed and thankful for the man and his kindness, and to Frank he would forever now be known as the baker because of the delicious bread he made.

Frank bought the bread back to the rest of the fish in the lake and he was seen as a hero. Everyone was in awe when he told them the tale of the nice baker. Then, to his surprise the baker returned every single day and discarded another loaf of bread. Frank and the baker had truly become friends and they saw each other every as it became tradition that Frank would need him and retrieve the bread.

However, one day the baker seemed very distraught and Frank was concerned about his friend. He knew something was wrong so he stayed close to the surface for the rest of the day in case anything happened to the baker. Soon he saw the baker on top of a cliff over looking the lake. He stood there for a very long time and Frank was very confused about what he was doing. He quickly went and got the rest of the fish in the lake to get their opinion. When they returned to the surface the baker was still on the cliff, but now he was on the edge above the lake. Then all of a sudden he leaped off the cliff. Frank didn’t know why he was doing this but he knew he had to help! On his order he and the rest of the fish formed a raft and actually caught the baker and let his go to safety on the other side of the lake. The baker looked at Frank in amazement, and their friendship was stronger than ever. They and found a great friend in each other.

Authors Note: I wrote this story, The Life of a Fish, in the perspective of the fish. It shows his side of the story and how him and his friends saved the bakers life.

Bibliography: This story is based on The Story of the Baker and the Grateful Fish. It is part of the Persian Tales unit. Story source: Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919).

Week 4 Reading Diary, Continued: Santal Folklore

For this diary I have decided to read stories from the unit Santal Folklore. The stories in this unit come from an enormous collection of Santal stories translated into English by C. H. Bompas. Below are the stories that I found to be most interesting and worth sharing to my readers.

The Monkey and the Girl: this was a very unique story. It first caught my attention because it was about monkeys, and as I have previously stated in my blog I love animals. Once I started reading the story it took an odd turn with a girl wanting to marry a monkey. This is very unlike fairy tales in the United States because the girls in those tales always marry a prince charming. Then, the story got really dark really quickly with the girl being burned alongside her monkey love. The moral of the story was that the girl had a monkey heart and that explained why she was so infatuated with the monkey in the first place. 

(sati / suttee ceremony)

The Tiger’s Bride: this story started off strange as well because a woman needed help and for some reason the only option was to marry off her daughter in exchange for help. This story has a lot in common with the story above because once again the girl was married off to an animal. In this story it was a tiger. Once again, the story grew dark because the bride ran away and the tiger was beaten by his friends until he ran away as well. Neither of these stories had a happy ending and they seem like more of a warning.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Persian Tales

For this reading diary I decided to focus on Persian Tales. I read a collections of fairy tales translated from the Kermani and Bakhtiari dialects of the Persian language by David Lorimer and his wife Emily Lorimer when they were living in Iran during the 20th century.

The Shepherd Who Found a Treasure: This was an interesting fairy tale. It was a little complicated to follow and was slow getting started, but once you understood what was going on it was very compelling. My only complaint is that he didn’t share the treasure with the other shepherd who had the dream. I think it was selfish and dishonest of him to keep is all for himself.

The Story of the Baker and the Grateful Fish: This was my favorite story. It had many different layers to it because there was trickery, kindness, and revenge. It did a good job of encompassing all of that. I like that the fish saved the baker because he was kind to them by feeding them bread every single day. They repaid him in a very decent way by saving his life in the river. I think this teaches the lesson of “treat someone the way that you want to be treated.” I also like how he got payback on his old master in the exact some way that he was once betrayed. However, the master was not able to be saved because he was never kind to anyone or anything so no one was kind to him back.

(Blog)