How One Smurfette Became Two
Long, long ago there was a Smurf village with many smurfs
living there. Far, far away in the Southern Smurf village, there were rumors of
a smurfette living there. When he heard about the rumor spread to the Northern
Smurf village, Brainy Smurf travelled down to the Southern Smurf village and married
Smurfette. As he looked at his wife, Brainy Smurf pleasantly thought to
himself, “Ha! I have married Smurfette, the only lady smurf in the village,
while Vanity Smurf, the son of our leader Papa Smurf, has no wife.”
What Brainy Smurf didn't know was that Vanity Smurf had also
heard the rumors about Smurfette living in the southern Smurf village and had
decided to travel there to marry Smurfette himself. Once Vanity Smurf arrived,
he stood in the hallway to the Smurf hut and overheard Brainy Smurf talking to himself.
Hearing what Brainy Smurf said, Vanity Smurf decided to wait until everyone in
the house was sound asleep. Once he was sure everyone was asleep, Vanity Smurf
snuck into Brainy Smurf and Smurfette’s bedroom and began to drag Smurfette
away by her shoulders. Brainy Smurf awoke with a start as he heard Vanity Smurf
dragging Smurfette away. He ran to the hallway and dove for Smurfette and
grabbed her by her feet. As Vanity Smurf pulled one way, and Brainy Smurf
pulled another, poor little Smurfette became a Smurf tug-of-war rope. The two
Smurfs pulled and pulled until suddenly, they pulled helpless little Smurfette
in two. Vanity Smurf carried Smurfette’s upper body back to the Northern Smurf
village. Once there, he carved wood to make Smurfette complete. The new
Smurfette of the Southern Smurf village was a very skilled dancer but, she was not
so skilled at doing intricate needlework in sewing furs. This is because she
had wooden hands. The new Smurfette of the Northern Smurf village was a
horrible dancer because her feet were wooden but, she was very good at sewing
fine stitches in the furs. Because of this one event, all of the Northern
Smurfettes are skillful with their hands and all of the Southern Smurfettes are
beautiful dancers.
Author's Note: This story is the Inuit origin story of the first woman. In the story, two men split the only woman in their village in half as they were fighting over her. When I read the story, I instantly thought about the Smurfs and how Smurfette was the only female Smurf in her village. Thoughts of all of the Smurf men fighting over her filled my head.
Bibliography: I based my story off of the Inuit origin story The First Woman that is from the book Myths and Legends of Alaska edited by Katherine Berry Judson (1911).
This is such a creative adaptation of the original story! I never watched the Smurfs, but I love that you adapted this traditional story to a modern(ish) cartoon. One thing I noticed is that at the beginning you said "Vanity Smurf pleasantly thought to himself" when I think it was supposed to be "Brainy Smurf." Great job overall!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really interesting how you meshed the childhood nostalgia of the Smurfs into a very old Inuit legend. I certainly wouldn't have thought of doing it! I haven't read the original story yet but I think I'm going to have to now after reading your re-telling of it. Envisioning this story as I was reading it was also very funny (and slightly morbid) when I thought about two guy smurfs pulling Smurfette in two! How did they fuse the two halves of her they got into wood? I guess that's just the magic of myths and legends - they don't really need an explanation.
ReplyDeleteHi Terrica,
ReplyDeletePoor Smurfettes! I liked how you adapted the original story to write in a few of the beloved Smurf characters. It's interesting how you connected the Southern Smurf's inability to do needlework with her carved wooden hands (and the Northern Smurf's opposite abilities) - was that in the original story? If so, perhaps there is a deeper meaning behind it.
The one critique I might offer is that the paragraph be split into several smaller paragraphs. It seems like one block of text that could be logically subdivided and thus easier to read. Just something to think of it!
The idea of the changing the men and woman to smurfs and smurfette, was clever and unique. There are two small things that I would suggest to help the story. The first thing is when you first mention Brainy Smurf. You say “When he heard . . . “ the reader doesn’t know who he is, so maybe mentioning brainy smurf first and then say he. Also at the end of the paragraph, I think you put Vanity Smurf when you meant to say Brainy Smurf.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you made this story into one about the smurfs! I love the smurfs, so this is a really fun story! And I like that you made the connection about Smurfette being the only girl and how this would cause them to fight over her. My only advice is to limit the amount of times you say the word Smurf, in your story, it seemed a little repetitive and distracted from the flow of the story a little bit. You could try referring to Brainy Smurf and Vanity Smurf as simply Brainy and Vanity. Great job!!
ReplyDelete