Week 13 Reading Diary: Italian Popular Tales

This week I decided to read the Italian Popular Tales unit and specifically focus on my favorite story, Catherine and Her Fate. I was immediately drawn to the story based off of the title because I enjoy stories and tales that have a message, especially when it comes to the idea of fate. I think fate is such a strong concept and I believe in fate and knowing that there is a higher power that has it all planned out for me.

I thought it was so clever to have the women be Catherine’s Fate. In many fairy tales I have read this semester there have been spirits or people who represent inanimate characteristics of the person’s life. When Catherine’s Fate asked the question: “when would you rather enjoy your life, in youth or in old age?" I thought to myself what would be the answer I would give. I think I would agree with Catherine and choose old age. If I choose youth, I would know that hard times would come in the future and it might be hard to enjoy myself in youth. But, in youth I could struggle and know that good is to come in old age. Although, Catherine suffered this torture from her Fate for seven years, which seems like a very long time!

It was amusing that the mistress tells Catherine to ask the mistress’s Fate to tell Catherine’s fate to stop the torture. It is such a strange concept to think that they are asking their Fate to be changed. I believe that we have some control over where we end up in life- going to school, getting a job, etc… but ultimately it a all part of a bigger plan we can not ask to be changed.

I LOVED the ending where the only thing that equaled the weight of the silk was the crown. Therefore Catherine must be made queen.

This was probably my favorite story I have read this semester! 

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After reading the introduction about The Three Goslingsbeing like the tale of the Three Little Pigs I was intrigued as to how the Italian story would compare to the version I grew up hearing. I made sure to keep an eye out for this story as I was reading the unit, and decided to focus my diary post on the comparisons and contrasts to the classical version I know.

The first thing I noticed was the absence of the word “Little” in the title. It made me wonder if this tale would not be as kid friendly as the tale I know.  

I had to look up what a Gosling was. (Google search tried to point me in the direction of Ryan Gosling- but I do not think that the fairy tale includes the actor). A gosling is actually a young goose, and makes sense as to why there would be three young geese who were afraid of the wolf. I thought it was interesting that the three main characters, the geese, were different than the characters I know, the pigs, but the wolf was still the enemy in both stories.

Another difference was the way in which the three main characters went about building their houses. The Goslings started off building the straw house for all three of them to live in, but the eldest kicked out the other two and sent them off crying. In the story I know of The Three Little Pigs, the pigs choose to each individually build their own houses.

There was also no house of wood or brick in this tale. The first and second goslings build their houses of straw and hay, and the third uses iron and rocks.

The ending was by far the biggest difference! The Three Little Pigs tale ends after the other two pigs flee to the last house and the wolf cannot blow over the brick house, so they all survive. This Italian version has the last gosling trick the wolf into sticking out his tongue, which the gosling burns with hot water and kills the wolf. The gosling then cuts open the stomach of the wolf where the other two goslings are still alive. I think this ending is especially interesting in comparing the tale to The Three Little Pigs because throughout the semester I have seen how stories from other places can be more violent and gruesome then the tales I know.

Week 15 Writing Review

I really enjoyed how we were encouraged to explore different writing styles that fit our personal writing style. You gave ample suggestions in how we could transform the original tales into our own; such as switching the narrator, making it in present day, making it a diary post, etc. It allowed us to really see how different storytelling aspects can be used to tell the same story. I chose the storybook and am happy with my choice. I enjoyed having total creativity in the stories, but they all tied together. Although, it may have seemed easier to just edit my old stories in the Portfolio option, I am glad that I chose to create new ones with a central theme. The comments I found most useful were the constructive ones. I know that we all want to compliment each other on the creative work we did, but I found it useful when students told me something was confusing, or something could be expanded upon more to make it more dramatic. Those comments were the most helpful because it really helped me to see how a reader interprets my story and how the writing can be enhanced. I do think this class helped to improve my writing immensely! I do not write much in my major, and will not write much in my career. My career consists of writing abbreviations on medical charts and simple daily notes of patient progress. There is not much room for creativity and elaboration because it all needs to be in plain language for anyone to understand. For next semester, I advice the students to explore with the different writing styles. Don’t just always retell the story in the present day or switch the narrator. I struggle with poetry, but I wanted to try it out on a storytelling post one week and actually enjoyed it! I would suggest taking this class as an opportunity to expand out of your comfort zone with your writing.

Week 15: Reading Review

Overall, I really enjoyed this readings for this class. I thought the variety kept me on my toes and never feeling like I was reading the same thing over and over, as in many classes. Sometimes reading ten articles on the same topic or subject can get very repetitive, so it was nice to know in the class I would always have something new. And the ability for us to choose from the untextbook was very nice. I have very different interests from a lot of people in the class, as I got to see through their storytelling and storybooks, and it allowed us to each create our own “textbook” filled with only things that interested us. The overall balance between reading, writing, and commenting was difficult in the beginning but I learned the best strategy for me. I liked to do only half the reading and take notes and then do the other half, rather than read it all at one time. Sometimes I felt my comments got repetitive and maybe commenting on 3 people’s storytellings was a little excessive. My suggestions would definitely be to stay on top of it. Get the readings, storybook, and essay done by Monday or Tuesday so you can get the weekend stuff started on. Another suggestion I have might be to get rid of the essay blog post. I felt as though sometimes I was struggling to come up with a topic. My diary already covered much of the information from the unit so I did not want to be repetitive, and then I found myself just writing about random things that I was just writing to write. I think you did a great job including images and so that is not an area that needs to be improved on. Some of the introductions could be expanded upon. I thought you did a great job in the Ovid units of explaining any significant animals or symbols. Making the anthology units sounds like a great idea!! I know I would really enjoy being able to compare Hawaiian love stories to Japanese love stories. Another idea I had would to be a free choice week. After reading some of the storybooks, I really wish I would have had the chance to read the Hawaiian unit but the week had already passed. It might be nice to have a week where students can go back and pick one or have the option to pick a new unit.

Week 12 Essay

This week for my essay topic I decided to focus on the different styles of poems and rhyming. I remember learning them in elementary school but have since forgotten them. The English Nursery Rhymes unit utilizes many of the different rhyming patterns, so I thought the essay this week would be a great opportunity to review them. 

One of the patterns is the ABAB pattern. This is where the first and third line rhyme and the second and fourth line rhyme. This is often called the alternating or interlocking rhyme scheme. An example of this rhyme scheme from the English Nursey Rhymes unit is the nursery rhyme Simple Simon. It reads:

Says the pieman to Simple Simon,
"Show me first your penny."
Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
"Indeed I have not any."

Another scheme is the AAXA pattern. This style has all lines rhyme but the third. This seems to me like it would be a bit harder of the patterns to write because you have to time the out of place word to fall into the third line of the rhyme. An example of this type of pattern can be seen in the Tales section of the Nursery Rhymes entitled Babes in the Wood. It reads:

MY dear, do you know,
How a long time ago,
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don't know,

The pattern AABB is a very commonly used in rhyming because it is an easy pattern to follow.  The first two lines rhyme and the third and fourth line rhyme. An example of this type of pattern is present in the common nursery rhyme Rock-a-Bye Baby.

HUSH-A-BYE, baby, on the tree top;
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock;
When the bough bends, the cradle will fall;
Down will come baby, bough, cradle, and all.

 

Rock-a-Bye Baby nursery Rhyme, source: blogspot

A strategy used to break up the monotony of having multiple lines in a row rhyme is to follow the XAXA pattern. In this pattern, the first and third lines are “wild cards” that do not rhyme with each other or with lines two or four. This pattern is not as common, but there was a nursery rhyme I found that utilized this pattern. The nursery rhyme reads:

Jack's mother came in,
And caught the goose soon,
And mounting its back,
Flow up to the moon.

Another pattern to add some interest is to end the last line with a non-rhyming word and following the AAAX style. In this pattern, all of the first three lines rhyme with each other and the last line is the un-like line that does not rhyme. This pattern can be seen in the nursery rhyme that reads:

You shall have a fishy,
In a little dishy;
You shall have a fishy
When the boat comes in.

Week 12 Storytelling: Simon and Sylvia

Man alone in Bar, image source: blogspot

Simon longingly admired Sylvia from across the bar.

Her perfectly curled blonde hair shimmered in the florescent lights hanging from above the bar. She leaned over the bar and laughed as the bartender poured her another martini- her third one of the night if Simon had counted right. He noticed how her perfectly white teeth shone from beneath her full lips and that there was a slight smudge of rocket red lipstick on her front tooth. With her tight black pants and low-cut blouse, Simon noticed every curve of her body. She came to this bar, just a short walk from her building, after work about three nights a week to enjoy martinis. Simon noticed she liked them extra-dry and always asked for an extra olive. He felt like he knew more about this woman than he knew about any other. And he had never even spoken to her.

If only he had the courage to tell her how he felt. It drove him to despair to watch her night after night and know she had no idea how he felt about her. Was she secretly longing after him too?

Sylvia had always noticed a shy man in the corner watching her a couple nights a week at the bar.

The man was normal enough: messy dark brown hair, light brown eyes, and a somewhat crooked nose. He had never approached Sylvia, and seeing as he was not her type at all, she had never acted on his clear display of watching her as she drank her martinis after work. She did not know his name, and she really had no desire to. She was honestly somewhat creeped out by his constant stares but knew he could be of no harm in his denim shirt, faded cords, and loafers. He kind of reminded her of her grandpa.

It was a Thursday night and Simon had suffered through a particularly rough day at the office. His boss would not put him on a project that he clearly deserved to be a part of. He had dropped his coffee all over his lap this morning and went through the rest of the day with a big stain on his pants, to which his coworkers would not stop giving him grief about. When the clock struck 5 pm on the dot, he was out of the office and walking down the street to the bar. He was secretly hoping that Sylvia would be there already martini in hand.

Simon took his normal seat in the corner of the bar and ordered a double vodka-soda. He needed a double after the day he had. And to his disappointment, Sylvia had not arrived at the bar for her normal martinis. Simon closed his eyes and gulped down the drink. He debated whether to get up and leave right then, but decided another drink was well deserved for the pain he suffered at work. He ordered another double vodka-soda and went back to his seat in the corner right when Sylvia walked in the bar.

Sylvia took her normal seat at the bar and asked Bill for her regular. She took off her coat and scanned the bar to find the man sitting in the corner looking at her again. She turned back to face the bar and started on her first martini of the night.

Simon admired how beautiful Sylvia looked today. He wanted to approach her but did not know how. With the two drinks swirling around in his system, he decided he could go up to the bar and pretend to order another drink and "accidentally" bump into her. He got up and walked to the bar. He was about to bump into Sylvia and place his plan into action when he chickened out. He couldn't do it. Now he was standing at the bar with no excuse. He had to order another drink. So he asked for another double vodka-soda and returned to his seat in the corner. Ashamed by his failed attempt, he downed the drink.

In his misery of a day and now failure of talking to his long-time lust, Simon decided it was time to leave the bar and go home. As he stood up his legs felt wobbly beneath him. The drinks had hit him hard. His vision started to blur but he could still make out the beautiful woman sitting at the bar. He decided, with the help of the liquid courage, he would go up and introduce himself. It was now or never.

Sylvia watched as the creepy man walked towards her at the bar. He was staring right at her, not even being subtle, as he stumbled around the tables.

"I like you. You beautiful. I have watched you long time over there. Please be mine. Go on a date with me?" muttered Simon.

Sylvia was appalled. She could not help but laugh.

"You clearly have had too much to drink. You are acting like a clown. You should probably go before you make a bigger fool of yourself," responded Sylvia as she turned to the bar and ignored the sad excuse for a proclamation of love from the drunk man in the corner.



Author's Note: For my story this week I decided to retell one of the nursery rhymes from the Loves and Matrimony section. The original is only 12 lines long. It includes a boy named Simon asking Sylvia if she would be his and Sylvia responds that she would give up her crown rather than marry a clown and tells him to go. This short exchange between the two provides enough information to create a story, but allowed me plenty of room for elaboration.

Bibliography: The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897).

Week 12 Reading Diary: Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes- Tales: Many of the tales I had actually not heard of before. I did recognize the Jack a Nory tale. My favorite part of this reading was focusing on the different rhyming patterns of the different tales. Some had rhyming words at the end of every other line. Some rhymed each line except one. And some rhymed in each line for a given set. I think the rhyming pattern plays an important role in how the tales are interpreted. Choppy rhyming with a random line set in that does not rhythm crates a somewhat anxious flow. While a tale that rhymes every other line seemed to be more up and down and sing-song-ish (such as in Simple Simon).

Nursery Rhymes-Proverbs: The first proverb starts off with very formal and old language such as the inclusion of the words “thou” and “twill.” My favorite one started “a man of words…”  The reason I liked this proverb so much was for the way it was written with every other line following the same basic structure. There was a beginning line that said “And when the…” and the next line reads “It’s like a…” This continues throughout the proverb with each line building on the other.

Nursery Rhymes- Riddles: My ALL TIME favorite unit because I love riddles. I thought these riddles particularly hard because they were very short with little information to reach the conclusion. I am glad the answers to the riddles were included or I would have gone crazy trying to figure them out. After reading the answer, I often said “ohhhh I got it” but some I did not draw the connection to (like the walnut).

 Nursery Rhymes- Paradoxes: I was unsure what to think when first starting this section because I did not know how paradoxes would be presented in a nursery rhyme. Some I found silly like the one about apple-pie and ink and what we would drink. Others I really enjoyed. One I enjoyed the most was the one about the Guinea Pig. Even though it was simply stating the opposite of what he did, it was written in a way that made me enjoy the simplicity of it.

Nursery Rhymes- Charms and Lullabies: I enjoyed reading Peter Piper because as a kid I always loved reciting it to impress my friends. I also recognized the Bye, Baby Bunting rhyme but I can not pin-point why it sticks out to me. And, of course, Rock-a-bye Baby was included.

Nursery Rhymes- Games: I did not think to include some of the rhymes in the games section that were. I am familiar with the rhymes of The Three Pigs and Hickory Dickory Dock, but have never played them as a game. I enjoyed the instructions included as to what the children act out during the nursery rhyme.

Nursery Rhymes- Jingles:  The jingles section included Hey Diddle Diddle which is one of my favorite nursery rhymes and am glad there was an illustration to match. In reading it now as an adult and analyzing it as a part of this class, I do not see the real meaning in it. I enjoyed it as a kid, and still do, but the dish and the spoon at the end are very random. Many of the others I had not heard of or recognized. Many involved cats, which I thought was interesting.

Nursery Rhymes- Love and Matrimony: I was surprised to see Jack and Jill included in the love and matrimony section, but I guess that the interpretation would be that Jack and Jill loved eachother. I greatly enjoyed the rhyme that started with SYLVIA. It started with Simon’s proclamation of love for Sylvia and the next part included her response where she said she would rather “give a crown than be married to a clown.” When reading her response, it made me giggle at her directness. The other interesting rhyme was the one which included the man asking the woman to “walk with thee” which she would not until he offered her his key to his chest of silver and gold (his wealth). How typical?

Nursery Rhymes- Natural History: My favorite of this section was the Cuckoo rhyme which explaines, by each month, the migration patterns of the bird from April to August. Short, but also nice, was the rhyme “THE cock doth crow, To let you know, If you be wise, 'Tis time to rise.” This is the premise behind the expression “waking up at the rooster’s crow” I was intrigued by the version of Baa, Baa, Black Sheep because it was not exactly the version I grew up saying. The last lines are changed from what I know as “one for the little boy who lives down the lane.” I think I like my version better because it is happier instead of the boy getting none and crying.

Nursery Rhymes- Accumulative Stories: I have always loved the accumulative stories and these nursery rhymes did not disappoint. It is interesting to compare them to other tales, specifically the Japanese tales, where the accumulation stories were very dark and often included death and betrayal. The first story was very repetitive and not my favorite accumulation story, but the second nursery rhyme was great! I love when the dialogue becomes the accumulation as the narrator comes up to different people and adds on to the experience just before.

Week 11 Essay: Wisdom in the Looking-Glass

This week after reading the Through the Looking Glass Unit, I decided to focus my Essay topic on the idea of wisdom. I also throw some random ideas in about the idea of wisdom as we age.

Throughout the stories, especially in the last stories QueenAlice and Shaking and Waking, we see where the idea of wisdom is tested through riddles. The Red and White Queen are constantly asking Alice questions of what should be simple addition and subtraction but they add a twist to it. A dig minus a bone is a temper. Because when a dog loses his bone he is angry and what is left is his temper. The frog in this story also tricks Alice when she is trying to have someone open the door when she knocks. The frog replies by asking what the door is asking for it to need to be answered.

These concepts stretch our idea of wisdom. We often get stuck in the tradition wisdom that addition and subtraction are easy athematic equations. Rarely would someone answer a subtraction problem in the way that the Queens present them to Alice in this story. It goes to show that we can often become so narrow-minded in our interpretation of certain things. We let our wisdom be filtered or focused on the real and not the abstract. I think the riddles in these stories try to show us that: that we have wisdom and imagination but we must stretch ourselves to think in that abstract way. It is not natural to us.

I also found it interesting as I was reading the story to think about the wisdom I gain from the story now vs. when I was a kid. As a child hearing about Alice in Wonderland I thought about a magical cat and this great kingdom, which was pretty. Now, I realize the depth of the story and the message it was trying to convey. It is interesting to see how our perspectives change as we age. 

Alice in the dream-like world, illustration by John Tenniel

Week 11 Storytelling: The House

Crying Baby, Source: flickr

Out of the blue, there came a loud crying from across the room.

The mom turned around just in time to see her daughter Lilly flailing about and crying hysterically. She was helpless and alone. The mom needed to be by her side immediately in order to comfort her daughter. She flew to the other side of the room so swiftly it was as if she floated. It was all a blur; she did not even know how she got from one side of the room to another. She was only concerned with comforting her crying daughter. Apparently, she had managed to knock down her husband in the process. He was not happy and covered in dust from the fall. The mom called to her husband that he must come to their daughter’s side as quick as he could.

The dad made his way to the daughter’s side, a little more slowly than the Queen, as he was recovering from the fall. On his way to the other side of the room, he noticed how filthy he was from the dust. He was appalled at the thought of a man being so filthy. His face squished together in a look of most discontent as he began to clean his clothes, skin, and hair of the dirt.

As he made his way to his daughter’s side, he could see why Lilly was crying. He took one look at her, and he was so shocked he fell over again.

The dad finally recovered from fainting and looked again at his daughter and then to his wife. The look in his eyes told his wife everything. They both looked at each other completely frightened.

Lilly had been crying for quite some time now. And rightfully so. Her body was covered in red dots all the way from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. She was rubbing all over as if she was trying to get out of her own skin.

Luckily, the dad was a doctor. The mom advised him to take notes on what he saw. He pulled out a pen and pad of paper to write down his observations. He noted the feverish look to her pale skin. Next, he wrote down where and how many red dots covered each portion of Lilly’s skin. He kept writing until it was clear he had no more to write.

The mom looked at his notes and was thoroughly confused. It all seemed like gibberish to her. The words could have been written backwards or in a different language for all she could make out of what her husband wrote. She was intrigued by his observations of their daughter and how he would cure her, but she could not comprehend any of the scribbles on his page. She just had to have faith that he knew the meaning.

 

Author’s Note: I decided to take the story of The Looking-Glass house and recreate it to be a realistic story. In the original there is a King and Queen chess piece who make their way to the Pawn (their daughter Lilly) and try to comfort her. Alice carries the Queen to the pawn, and because the Queen cannot see Alice, she is surprised how she gets there so quick. The King falls into ashes (falls into dust) and Alice then tries to clean him. He is again appalled at being in the air and cleaned by something he can’t see. The King decides to document his story in a memorandum of his feelings (doctors notes) and then writes the JABBERWOCKY poem. But, because it is in a looking-glass house the writing is backwards and Alice can’t understand it (just like the queen can not understand the medical notes). My story stretches the original but has the same essential plot line. My story just removes the “mystical” element that the Alice stories encompass and makes it a common story. 

Bibliography: The Looking-Glass House. Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll (1871).

Week 11 Reading Diary: Looking Glass Unit

This week I decided to focus on the Looking Glass unit and specifically the story entitled the Looking-Glass House. It seemed the most interesting to me how Alice ponders this glass house and how it appears.

Illustration by John Tenniel

She is explaining to her cats how she wishes she could see what was behind the fireplace. She ponders “I want so much to know whether they've a fire in the winter: you never CAN tell, you know, unless our fire smokes, and then smoke comes up in that room too — but that may be only pretense, just to make it look as if they had a fire.” You can really imagine the young Alice debating these ideas. When we are young our imagination is vast and you can see that as Alice tries to find any explanation for the smoke. She also finds it amazing how when she holds up a book. They hold up one in the other room. She does not understand the concept of a mirror, as many children don’t, and believes some other people are on the other side doing exactly as she does.

I took the time to look up the definition of looking glass and there were multiple. 1. A mirror  2. Being or involving the opposite of what is normal or expected. The first was an obvious one. But I think the second is important to this story too. Nothing in the story of Alice in Wonderland or Alice and the Looking Glass is normal or expected.

Her imagination continues as she melts into the looking glass room and explores what is in there: talking pawns, and kings, and queens. The fire in the fireplace is not just a fire but a volcano! The king and queen cannot see or hear her which I found interesting. The words of the poem are backwards as I expected from the looking glass element of the room. 

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The Queens, Illustration by John Tenniel

One of my favorite quotes comes from the beginning of the story Queen Alice. It reads: “if you only spoke when you were spoken to, and the other person always waited for YOU to begin, you see nobody would ever say anything.” I love this quote for the message it presents. If you always ask for permission to speak, then nothing ever gets spoken. The Queen then later makes another point about speaking that is very important. Alice tries to change her answer to a question but the Red Queen replies: 'when you've once said a thing, that fixes it, and you must take the consequences.” It is true that, although, we can apologize for the things we say, we can never truly take them back. We must face the consequences of our words.

The story continues with these types of riddles where the Red and White Queens quiz Alice on her mathematics skills and trick her with their cleverness. When you subtract a bone from a dog, Alice said nothing is left but the queen says that, the dog will be mad and therefore his temper will remain. An unusual answer to a mathematics question. The riddles continue with a frog who is perplexed when Alice asks who is to answer the door. The frog asks “What’s the door been asking of?” and at first I did not understand this riddle. But, then I realized the frog was spinning the wording to mean that if someone is to answer the door then the door must ask something. I enjoyed this story for the play on words and riddle-like aspect of it. It made me realize we often look so one-sided at things and do not realize the many ways that different people can interpret the same thing.

Week 10 Essay: Analyzing the Rabbit

Rabbit hides in brush as he plans his next trick, source: wikipedia

This week in the Cherokee myths unit, I noticed that every story included in the set of 26 stories included an animal. Some animals were reoccurring; such as the rabbit. And others had smaller roles in single stories. For this weeks essay blog post I decided to focus on the importance of animals in Cherokee culture. I specifically decided to focus on the role of the rabbit who constantly is tricking and fooling the other animals to get his way.

The rabbit is in multiple Cherokee myths and is always the trickster. He is jealous of the otter for having the best fur, so he tricks him into jumping into the water and steals his coat. The possum supposedly had the best tail, and the rabbit got jealous so he had the grasshopper cut off the fur. He is jealous of the deer and wants to win the set of antlers, so he tries to cheat in a competition. When he is bitter about losing the competition, he then tricks the deer into letting him shave his teeth down so that he can no longer eat anything but plants. The rabbit is always jealous of the other animals for what they have. He can not stand not being or having the best looks, so he constantly tricks the other animals. I found it somewhat strange it was a rabbit, because to me, rabbits do not seem like the typical cunning and sly animals. The myths and stories I always heard about rabbits were usually little bunnies. As in the “Tale of Peter Rabbit” and “The Tale of Benjamin Bunny” where you end up feeling sorry for Peter after he gets chased out of the garden and his clothes taken away. I did not find myself feeling bad for the rabbit in the Cherokee myths because he was very rude and hostile towards the other animals.

            There seems to be only one story included in the set where the rabbit is on the other end of the tricks. The Tarapin fools the rabbit in a race by stationing other Tarapins that look identical to the real one throughout the course. The real Tarapin is near the end of the course and he crosses the finish line before the rabbit. In this myth, the rabbit was fooled and not doing the fooling. According to the myth, rabbit stew is prepared and scattered on the path the night before a game so that the other players become tired and lose the game just as the rabbit did. I found it interesting that in this myth the rabbit somewhat gets revenge for all of his other tricking he does in the other myths.

Week 10 Storytelling: The Three Rings

Vintage Diamond Ring Robert gives to Jenny, Source: wikimedia

Jenny and Robert had been friends for a long time. If you asked Jenny, she would say they were strictly friends and nothing more. If you asked Robert, he would say they were strictly friends but he wanted to be more.

Robert had always viewed Jenny as a perfect woman. She was kind and loved by everyone, including him. She was beautiful: big brown eyes and dark skin with long flowing curls that perfectly framed her angelic face. It was hard not to be mesmerized by her pearly white smile that always seemed to radiate from her face.

One day Robert was sitting across from Jenny while they were eating during their lunch break at work. She was looking out the window admiring the perfect fall day outside as the trees were beginning to turn their leaves from green to shades of crimson and gold. Robert was too busy focusing on the beauty sitting across from him to notice the leaves outside. A man sitting at the table next to Robert and Jenny noticed Robert’s longing for her and took pity on him. When Jenny left to return to work, the man approached Robert at the table.

“I saw you were very interested in the woman you were with,” said the man with a grin on his face. “I think I may be able to make her yours if you would accept my help.”

“I do not know what you are talking about,” stammered Robert nervously. “Me and that woman are just friends.”

The man chuckled and smiled at Roberts. “She may think that, but you can not fool me. I know you want to be more than friends with her and that you think she is the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. I am a jeweler and design some of the most extravagant rings in the city. Let me design some rings for you and we will make that woman love you as you love her,” explained the man.

Robert was hesitant, but nodded a yes to the man and followed him to his store.

The man helped Robert pick out 3 rings for Jenny. Two of the rings were his best sellers and one of the rings was a one-of-a-kind vintage ring with multiple set diamonds.

The next day Robert gave Jenny the first ring, she was unimpressed and refused Robert’s offer. Robert was disappointed, but Jenny was the most beautiful woman. She needed the most beautiful ring.

The next day Robert presented Jenny with the second ring. She was, again, unimpressed and denied Robert’s proposal. Robert was starting to lose hope that she would ever be his. Maybe they were just destined to be friends forever.

The only ring Robert had left was the one-of-a-kind vintage ring. He knew that if this ring could not capture the heart of Jenny that she would never be his. He set up a romantic dinner and presented the ring to Jenny. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of the ring and a big smile spread across her face. She had never seen a ring this extravagant. She knew Robert loved her dearly and had done everything to show her how much he loved and cared for her. She said yes.

Author's Note: This story was adapted from the Cherokee myth The Origin of Strawberries. In the Cherokee myth, a woman leaves the man who is still in love with her. The great Apportioner (the Sun) takes pity on the man and helps him. He plants huckleberries in the path of the woman but she will not turn around. Next the Sun plants blackberries in front of the woman but she still does not turn around. Lastly, the Sun plants a brand new red berry, strawberries, in front of the woman and she is so intrigued by the new berry she stops and turns to look behind her. She sees her husband who has followed her this whole way and is reminded of her desire for him. She brings the strawberries to her husband and they live happily ever after. I made my story set in the present day and changed the berries to diamond rings. Jenny only says yes when she receives the most extravagant ring so unique she has never seen one like it before.

Bibliography: The Origin of Strawberries. Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900)

Week 10 Reading Diary

Because the tales were shorter for the Cherokee Myths unit, I decided to take notes on a few of my favorite:

How the World Was Made: I greatly enjoyed the imagery that this story entails. The description of the Great Buzzard flapping his wings and creating the valleys and mountains was creative. I enjoy the description of how the world came to be in the perspective of the Cherokee and explains why the Cherokee country is full of mountains. The explanation of how the panther and owl can see through the night, The end states that the woman was to only have one child in a year and it has been so ever since. It makes me wonder if it is still part of Cherokee tradition for woman to only have one child within a year. (what about twins?)

Journey to the Sunrise: The analogy of the sun being a human form but so bright that you could not make out the shape was very interesting. I thought it so creative that the door opened and closed and that was the presence or absence of light. The Sun walked across an archway which is why the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

Origin of the Pleiades and the Pine: I found it so amusing that the mother made the boys eat rocks instead of corn since they liked playing with the rocks so much. They flee from their mothers in anger and six of them become the Pleiades in the sky while the one under the earth became the Pine tree. The story explains that the pine is the same nature of the stars and holds itself in the same bright light. This represents the seven boys.

The Origin of Strawberries: I have actually heard this tale before and was delighted to see it again. She was only intrigued with the new fruit, the strawberries, and her desire for her husband grew with every bite. I think it is also saying that we sometimes need a reminder of what great things we truly have. The strawberries were the reminder to the woman of how much she really did desire her husband. She only realized it when she looked back to the west to see him behind her.

How the Rabbit Stole the Otter’s Coat: The first paragraph had me drawing connections from the animals to people. “ Some wore long fur and others short, some had brown, others black or yellow and they were always disputing about their good looks” I love how the story explains the otter jumped in the river to escape the fire and has lived in the water ever since. The rabbit tried to pretend he was the otter and in the end he was discovered and run out of town by the bear. It goes to show that you can not pretend to be something you are not. I also wondered if the bear pulled the rabbit’s tail off and that is why rabbits do not have tails anymore.

Why the Possum’s Tail is Bare: The bear did pull off the rabbit’s tail and now we see in this story that he, again, becomes jealous of the possum who has the most beautiful tail of all the animals. The trickster rabbit sends the cricket to cut off all the hair from the possum’s tail. It was funny to hear the explanation of when a possum is stunned it rolls to the grown and grins. I could visualize it in my mind.

The Deer and the Rabbit: I love how the beginning starts with the contest to see who gets the horns. I obviously know the deer ends up with horns, as a rabbit does not have any, but was interested to hear the story of how the deer wins them. The rabbit tries to cheat and in the end is served his punishment. Since he was so fond of cutting down bushes he could do it for a living, and so he does to this day. I love the Cherokee stories that have an explanation for why things are the way they are.

Why the Deer’s Teeth are Blunt: The trickster rabbit is back at it again trying to get revenge on the deer for winning the antlers. Much like in the Possum tale, the rabbit tricks the deer into letting him shave his teeth to make them sharper, but he actually dulls them out so he can not bite anything but grass and leaves. 

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The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals: I thought it interesting that the animals and birds were separated. I always considered birds as animals but it seems the Cherokee tales distinguish them apart; not as equals. It later explains that the birds are two footed vs the four footed animals. The first small animal became the bat and has his wings and four feet. The next became the flying squirrel. It explains why these two animals have wings but four feet.

The Race Between the Crane and Hummingbird: I felt bad for the poor Crane. He wins the race by taking his journey nice and slow, but in the end he still does not get to marry the woman because she would never marry a bird so ugly. I am not sure what message this Cherokee tale has. I was expecting the Crane to win and for the message to be that you can not judge a book by its cover and underestimate anyone. But in the end, the crane still does not get what he wants.

The Owl Gets Married/The Huhu Gets Married: these two tales were very similar in the idea that a woman needs to find a suitable husband who can hunt and is a hard worker. In both cases the men turn into an owl or a huhu and do not provide for their wives. Since they are lazy, they do not get the hand of the woman in marriage.

The Uktena and the Ulûñsû'tï: The imagery used to describe the Uketna in this tale was great. I really got a sense of the massive size and ugliness of the giant snake through the use of similes. The importance of the 7^th spot from the head becomes apparent because that is where his heart and life are and the only way to kill it. The crystal he guards is what the Cherokee people seek. Its greatest use is for prophecy, yet everybody is afraid of it. I think it tries to show that the gift of knowing the future and holding all this power is a scary one, and something not to be taken lightly.

The Red Man and the Uktena: The hunter saves the life of The Red Man of the Lightening as he is getting strangled by a Uktena. In return, the Red Man gives him medicine and the scale of the Uktena so that the hunter may have game to catch everyday from now on. If you help someone, they will in turn help you back

The Rattlesnake’s Vengeance: I loved this story as the wife kills the rattlesnake and in turn the wife must die as a sacrifice. One for one. And because the husband obliged, he and his people will always be spared of death by singing the song the rattlesnake teaches him. The song is still part of Cherokee culture.

Week 9 Essay: Opposites

For this weeks Essay I decided to try something new and do the Cartoon Essay option. I spent some time looking through the different cartoons and this one made me giggle when I read it, which is always a good thing to be able to draw emotions in such a quick time.

Yesbody Cartoon by Rick Detorie

When reading this cartoon, it took me back to the days of learning antonyms and synonyms. I just wanted to ad un- in front of every word to make it the opposite of a word. I always wanted to say that I was unsad. I still to this day do not understand why unsad is not a word. If you want to say the opposite of happy you could say sad or unhappy. But, if you want to say the opposite of sad you can only say happy. It made no sense to me as a kid learning the rules of opposites. I can definitely relate to the little kid in the picture. You have always been taught that yes is the opposite of no so it seems logical. I think that kids actually think more logically than adults sometimes.

I tried to follow the thought process of the boy and see if he was trying to say that a person had no body and the opposite would be that yes the person had a body. So this would be thinking in terms of describing physical characteristics of a person. You can also take it as looking at the word nobody as an adjective with a negative connotation. He is a nobody- not important, not exciting, a downer. And a yes body is the opposite- someone important, someone exciting, someone who says yes to adventure. Based on the expression of the boy in the images, I believe the second explanation is what the cartoonist was aiming for. In the nobody image the boy has a gloomy look on his face. In the yesbody image he is smiling.

This cartoon reminds me of the struggle learning all of the rules of the English language and of the pure creativity we have as children. We start thinking there is only up and down. Then they throw left and right at us. And then they expect us to think in diagonals and opposite angles. This cartoon made me laugh at remembering how simple it all used to be.

Week 9 Storytelling: Black Bear in the Sky

Ursa Major (Bear) Constellation map, Source: wikipedia

“Once there was a young woman with many suitors, but she refused to marry. She had seven brothers and one little sister. Their mother had been dead many years and they had no relatives, but lived alone with their father.”

Her name was Seke. Her brothers had tried to get her to fall in love with one of their friends. They had held competitions to see who could bring Seke the biggest deer that they had shot down with their bows. Many men had lined up and proclaimed how mesmerized they were by her beauty; how they could not imagine anyone else being her husband.

And Seke was beautiful. The eldest sister resembled their mother, who had passed in a tragic accident right after the youngest sister was born. She had big brown eyes and thick black hair that hung long to the small of her back. Her skin was made tan and rough from the long days spent in the sun.

One day, the little sister was bored picking berries and decided to follow her oldest sister while she was getting wood from the forest. The little sister followed Seke far into the forest where the thickest trees began to keep the rays of the sun from shining through. She could just make out the form of her older sister in front of her. She began to wonder why Seke would come so far into the forest just for wood when she saw a large black bear emerge from behind one of the trees and walk towards Seke. The little sister was frightened and was about to scream out when she saw her older sister lean in and hug the bear. They caressed while the younger sister stood in shock at what she was seeing. When she collected herself enough to move, she sprinted all the way back to the house.

Upon arriving at home, the little sister told the seven brothers and father of what she had seen. Seke and the bear were lovers. The father and brothers grew angry and now knew why Seke would not take any of the suitors they had arranged as her husband.

When Seke returned from gathering wood in the forest, she could see something was wrong with her brothers and father. They told her of their knowledge of her bear lover. The siblings wanted to meet him. If she did not oblige to this, they would kill him. Seke was distraught that her secret had been revealed, and she knew her family would not approve of her marriage to a bear. She cried herself to sleep that night, but knew the next day she would have to bring her family to the bear.

The next day, Seke, her seven brothers, and her younger sister ventured into the forest to find the bear that she claimed as her lover. Seke was nervous and did not know how the meeting would unfold. They traveled deep into the forest until the sun disappeared and the trees were thick. Seke went ahead of her family and called to her lover to come out of his cage. He approached Seke slowly and a gentle smile spread across his black lips on his bristly face. But then he growled and stood up on his hind legs, towering over Seke. He was a black beast with fury in his eyes. Seke did not expect her lover to be that furious with her for bringing her family to see him. She turned around to apologize to her family, when she saw why he was raging and growling.

There stood her family with loaded arrows pointed at the bear, ready to kill him. As her family began to charge towards her lover with arrows ready and he began to charge towards her family with teeth showing and claws out, Seke began to cry. Her family or her lover would die if she could not do something to stop them. But the fury in their eyes showed there was no peaceful solution.

Seke closed her eyes and said to herself “may they be in the only safe place I know, where no human or animal can harm them” And with that her seven brothers and younger sister disappeared from the forest. She was left alone in the forest with her lover, the bear, and they lived a happy life together.

And as for her siblings, they were cast into the sky in the shape of a bear. The little brother is the North Star. The six brothers and the little sister are seen in the Great Dipper. The little sister and eldest brother are in a line with the North Star, the little sister being nearest it because she used to carry her little brother on her back. The other brothers are arranged in order of their age, beginning with the eldest. This is how the seven stars came to be.

Author’s Note: This retelling comes from The Bear Woman. In the original story there is a quarrel between the eledest sister and her siblings when they find out she is in love with a bear. The eldest sister becomes angry with them and turns into a bear to kill them. She kills four of her brothers and then one of the eldest brothers finlly shoots her in the head with an arrow and kills her. The brother then brings the four dead brothers back to life and with no family left, they decide they have nothing left on earth and decide to live in the sky. I kept the idea of the woman being in love with the bear the same but changed how the siblings came to be the constellation in the sky. I thought it was a happier ending, and made it more interesting that the sister wanted to protect both her family and her lover, so she cast them into the sky. The name Seke means black and I thought it was appropriate as a black bear.

Bibliography: The Bear-Woman. Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).