Essay for Week 14: Marriage in Grimm Tales (Crane)

                This week I read the Grimm Unit of tales translated by Lucy and Walter Crane. One thing that I really found interesting about this unit was the motif of marriage and marital problems that could be seen throughout the unit. I will examine four of the stories from the unit in this essay: The Fisherman and His Wife, The Robber Bridegroom, King Thrushbeard, and The Three Spinsters.

                I will begin by examining my favorite story of the unit, The Fisherman and His Wife. In this story, the couple is already married and lives in a small hovel, but the fisherman finds a magic fish. Throughout the story, the wife tells the husband to return to the fish to ask for things to improve their living status. The wife’s greed is insatiable, and the husband reluctantly goes back to the fish each time the wife has a new request. This can be seen as an example of many husbands’ need to fulfill their wives’ desires.

                In the Robber Bridegroom, we can see why it is important to really know someone before you agree to marry them. The robber bridegroom and his pals were a horrible lot, and would have led the miller’s daughter to destruction if it was not for the help of the old lady. The miller promised his daughter to the robber bridegroom because he “knew nothing to his disadvantage.” The miller should have been a tad more selective and gone past first impressions.

                KingThrushbeard was another favorite of mine. In this story, we see a princess who is too prideful to take a suitor. She believes that not one is good enough for her. This story shows us that we can’t expect perfection from our potential spouse; everyone has faults.

                Finally, The Three Spinsters was a humorous tale. I thought it was funny how the girl and her mother lied the girl’s way into marriage with the prince. Not only that, but the girl suffered no consequences for it. I did not find a moral to this story, but it is an example of how funny the world can be at times.

The Three Spinsters by Walter Crane. Web Source: Un-Textbook

Essay for Week 13: The Grimm Brothers' Dark Outlook on the World

Illustration by Walter Crane. Web Source: Un-Textbook

This week I read Ashliman's translation of some of the classic stories that came from the Brothers Grimm. One thing that almost every hears when they are told about these stories is that they are not as friendly as their Disney cousins. A lot of them are very gruesome and dark. People may get a happy ending, but the story is not going to be full of lollipops and gumdrops while getting there. Many of the stories I read this week had an especially negative outlook on the people of this world.

One such story is the Cat and Mouse in Partnership. In this story, a cat and mouse decide to live together, and they store a pot of fat in a church to save for the winter season. The cat, however, eats it all up before winter, then he eats the mouse. The story ends with the line, “that is the way of the world.” My jaw just dropped when I read that. How horrible! The little guy is going to get screwed over by the fat cats of the world and all we are left with is “that’s just the way it is.” However, the mouse should know not to trust a cat. Cats are the natural predator of mice. The moral could be salvaged and made into something like: be careful who you get into bed with; don’t partner someone who is known to be an enemy. This moral, however, could lead children to be overly distrusting of people.

Again, in The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, the wolf was trying to deceive seven young kids (baby goats). He goes to the miller for help. The miller is scared of the wolf, so he agrees, even though he knows it is wrong. The story says “that is the way people are.” I again object to this moral. The miller feared the consequences of doing the right thing, so he helped the wolf. People cannot live that way; they must do what is right because it is right.

Perhaps these stories were written in this way on purpose. Perhaps the Brothers Grimm intended on me to find the moral disgusting. That way, I object strongly to them and do not become like the characters in their story. In this way, reading their stories could create a better world.

 

Essay for Week 12: Robin Hood

Often times, I find myself getting bored with some of the stories I have to read, especially the lengthy ones. I am to blame for most my boredom, because I usually wait to the last minute to read the stories and I’m tired and grumpy. The unit of Robin Hood seemed even more troublesome as I began it, since the stories were written as ballads. Poetry and song-type literature can become very dull when simply read in your head. They require tune and rhythm to be fully enjoyed, otherwise they are dry and lifeless.

One thing that I really enjoyed when I read the Robin Hood unit in the Un-textbook was the video added to the ballad of Robin Hood and Little John. This was a particularly long ballad, but, instead of reading the ballad, the unit provided the option of listening to a man sing it accompanied by his acoustic guitar. This helped the story flow much more smoothly and held my interest much longer. I ended up retelling this story in my Storytelling blog post. Not only did the song help me enjoy this particular ballad, but others as well. I then had a tune in my head to which I could read the other ballads, which helped keep me moving along and stay interested in the story.

Bottom line, I think this was a great tool to add to the Robin Hood unit. I know that there are also some units that provide audio recording so that one can listen to the story instead of reading it. This can be especially useful for someone who is tired from a long day and does not want to read several stories. Instead, they can relax and listen and think about what they find interesting in the story. This helps motivate creativity when it is their turn to write the story.

Robin Hood and Little John by L. Rhead

Essay Week 7: I Before E Except After...What?



Cartoon By Dan Piraro

There are several humorous elements in this cartoon.. First, it pokes fun at the many rules of the English language that we learned when studying spelling in elementary school, the most famous being "'i' before 'e' except after 'c'". Then it puts this rule we learned in English and puts it in the perspective of ancient Egyptians, who wrote in hieroglyphics. Its also funny, because the writer is writing with a chisel, so his mistake is much more permanent than if a student made the mistake on pencil and paper.


Thus, the cartoon had enough humor to cause me to chuckle a bit. Soon after I remembered actually learning the "'i' before 'e' except after 'c'" rule in elementary. As with most rules in English spelling and grammar, it was followed by a long list of exceptions. Here are a few of the exceptions to the rule: science, society, fancied, financier, efficient, glacier, either, neither, heinous, seize, leisure. One quickly learns that the English language isn't very strict when implementing its rules.


That is one reason why I liked studying the German language. It was pretty cut and dry. When you heard the “i” sound, you knew that the “i” came after “e”. When it made the “e” sound, you knew that the “e” came after the “i”. That was it. The only exceptions came from foreign languages, like English. Consistency in spelling was one reason why learning the German language would be easier than learning English.


Another fun fact about German, is they didn’t like making up new words. If they found something new and they needed a new word for it, they often just took two existing words and put them together. For example, the German word for “pork” is “Schweinefleisch”, which literally translates to “pig flesh.” The only downside is that some of these compound nouns can become ridiculously long, like “Gesundheitswiederherstellungszusammenmischungsverhaeltniskundiger” which means “one who knows the mixture ratio of a concoction that is sure to restore health.”




Essay Week 6: Proverbs in Tibetan Folktales

This week I read through the Tibetan Folktales unit of the Un-textbook. This unit contained a bunch of folktales that took place in distant lands with both animals and human playing the characters. At the beginning of each folktale there is always a Tibetan proverb that is supposed to relate to the story. However, the connection to the proverb and the story is not always obvious. My plan for this essay is to explore some of the stories and see how the proverb relates to the story.

The first story I want to look at is The Story of the Donkey and the Rock. The proverb for this story is “Between iron and brass there is union if the welding is skillful.” When I first read the story, I did not see how this could possibly relate. I then began to think about the proverb. My first thought is “who is the welder?” The answer seemed to most likely be the judge in the story. Then I needed to find an answer to what he was bringing a union to. In the story, both the accuser and the defendant were right, so a verdict was not clear. The judge, however, found a way for both to leave happy. His union of iron and brass could be his creativity in finding a solution. The skillful welding would be a wise solution. Therefore, while the proverb did not seem to fit at first, it really did have a connection to the story.

The next story I will examine is The Ingratitude of Man. The proverb for this story is “Whatever you have promised make it not as changeable as a loop in a string, but as firm as a line on a rock.” This proverb is easy to connect to the story since promises are made within it. The man’s promise was easily changeable. He promised to repay the traveler, yet later falsely accused him of stealing. The animals’ promises were firm as a line on a rock. They helped the man while he was in prison and also helped him escape.

The Traveler in Prison. Web Source: Un-Textbook

Essay Week 5: The Restlessness of Sindbad

            Sindbad is an interesting character. He inherits a large sum of money from his parents, decides to sail with a band of merchants, and survives seven voyages of epic proportion. The interesting quality of Sindbad isn’t in the fact that he loves adventure. Any young person, especially one who is the protagonist of a story, can be expected to crave a little adventure. The interesting thing about Sindbad is that he experiences some of the most frightful and terrifying things that one could experience when out at sea, yet still he wants more. Of course, immediately after each voyage he tells himself that he will be content to live a quiet life, but at the start of each story to follow, he grows tired of his quiet life. Time and time again, Sindbad trades his safe, restful life for a daring and dangerous adventure.

            Sindbad experience some of the most terrible fates in each of his seven voyages. On his very first voyage, Sindbad and his company are shipwrecked by a whale they mistook for an island. This would most certainly be a dramatic first experience for a sailor. Sindbad expresses this feeling at the end of the first voyage, when he decides to “forget [his] past sufferings” and “live happily…in the enjoyment of all the pleasures of life.” However, at the start of the second voyage, we find Sindbad has become restless and tired of an “idle life.” He then goes on another voyage, where again he becomes shipwrecked and faces terrible adversity. This is the theme throughout all seven voyages.

Sindbad Fleeing From Giants. Web Source: Un-Textbook

            One thing that could explain Sindbad’s constant desire to return to the sea is the marvelous fortune that always results. In the midst of every misfortune, Sindbad always finds himself with a plethora of treasures and befriends powerful kings and merchants. When he returns home from the voyages, he is always far richer than when he had set out.

Read the full story here!

Essay Week 4: Stories within Stories

                Last week, for our Storybook Project assignment, we explored various storytelling options that we might later use for our final Storybook. It was a great way to learn about telling stories from different perspectives using various techniques. This week, I read stories in the Arabian Nights unit. These stories used a particular form of storytelling. The stories were layered in such a way that some of the stories were stories told within a story, and others were stories told within those stories. The style was very interesting in the way that it brought all of the stories together.

                The unit begins with a story of an evil sultan who takes a bride every night, then kills them the next morning. Scheherazade, the daughter of the sultan’s vizir, then offers herself as a bride and uses the following stories to postpone her death. Each night she will end the story at an interesting point, influencing the sultan to let her live another day so that he can hear the rest of the story the following night. It is a genius plan, but we don’t get to see how it ends for Scheherazade. I suppose that the entire story was too long to fit into this whole unit.

Scheherazade. Web Source: Un-Textbook

                Something very interesting about the stories she tells each night is that they often relate to the predicament she is in. In the Merchant and the Genius, the Merchant finds himself at the hands of an angry Genie. However, the Genie does not kill the Merchant because of the stories told by three old men. We see the same thing happen to a fisherman who is threatened by a genie. In this story, the genie tells a story, then is tricked by the fisherman, who then tells a story of his own. The stories are all so complex, so this provides Scheherazade many nights to postpone her death.

Essay Week 2: Infidelity of Jupiter

Several of the stories found in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 1-4) included the characters Jupiter and Juno, king and queen of the gods. In every story including these two characters, there was a general theme that one could easily pick up on: Jupiter cheats on his wife. It is seen over and over again. It leaves the reader with several questions. Why is Jupiter so unfaithful? Why does Juno tolerate Jupiter's infidelity? Examples from some of the stories read in this unit can lead the reader answers to these questions.

Jupiter and Juno by Franz Christoph Janneck (1703-1761). Web Source: Wikipedia Commons.

The first story that provides an example of Jupiter's infidelity is the story of Io. After Jupiter rapes Io, we see that Juno is already suspicious of his actions. She is used to his antics and has come to expect them. When she finds Jupiter and Io, whom Jupiter had disguised as a heifer, the reader can see her suspicion in the many questions she asks about the heifer. From this story, the reader learns that Jupiter is frequently unfaithful and that Juno anticipates this sort of behavior from him.

In the story of Callisto, the reader gains a little more insight on Jupiter's behavior. Again, in this story, Jupiter rapes Callisto, only this time he first dresses like a woman. He does not just overpower her from the start, but shows a little bit of his devious character. Just before he decides to rape Callisto, though, the reader can be sure that Jupiter is up to no good. He fears being caught by Juno, but decides that it will be worth the fight even if he does. This demonstrates that Jupiter is a trouble maker, and gets a thrill from causing chaos.

Juno eventually does catch Jupiter, but instead of showing her wrath on him, she turns Callisto into a bear. We can see her reasoning behind this in the story of Semele. When she becomes angry with Semele for bearing Jupiter's child, she states that as queen of the gods she must punish her. Her pride is hurt, and to not punish Semele would make her less of a god. 

The reader is still left curios as to why Juno does not take her wrath out on Jupiter. Perhaps other stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses could provide insight to this question. I, for one, hold the opinion that she cannot punish him directly, because he is superior to her in the world of the gods. I would not be surprised, however, if some stories contained some plot where Juno plays a trick on Jupiter.