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.