Online Education Review

Online Education

Online classes are a great option for students who have busy schedules. I love the freedom that online classes give you. It is nice to be able to do your classwork at your own pace and not have to worry about going to class two to three times a week. One of my favorite online classes was my history class. My history teacher posted all of the assignments and tests for the semester and then gave us a deadline on when we had to complete them. If you wanted to, you could take a test each week or you could wait until the last minute but it did not matter as long as you finished everything by the deadline. This was really convenient because it let each student set their own pace and allowed you to finish the class as early or as late as you wanted to.   

(Online Class Meme)

Reading Diary B: Grimm (LibriVox) (Continued)

Briar Rose

I

’ve always known that the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty was a lot more PG and family friendly than the original version but I did not know that there were 13 fairies. I always assumed that there were 3 fairies and of course Maleficent. It seems like all of this drama could have been avoided if the king and queen would have invited all of the fairies despite the fact that they didn’t have enough plates. Was it completely impossible to buy another plate or to maybe borrow on from someone in the kingdom or in the court?

The Twelve Dancing Princesses

I enjoyed this story. It was not at all how I expected it to be. I thought that the cutting off of heads was s little harsh just because they feel asleep on the job. A lot of people lost their lives because of those princesses. 

(Illustration by Walter Crane)

Reading Diary A: Myth-Folklore Unit: Grimm (LibriVox)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Grimm (LibriVox)

The Frog Prince

I used to watch this show on HBO called “Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.” The show took different fairy tales and animated them and put a unique spin on them but still managed to stay true to the stories. One of the stories they did was The Frog Prince. The Princess and the Frog, the Disney remake of this story, is one of my favorite Disney princess movies but, it is quite different than the original story.

Rapunzel

Once again, the HBO show I used to watch did this story as well. This version of Rapunzel is the one I knew before I saw the Disney remake, “Tangled.” The original version makes Rapunzel’s parents seem like bad people because they agreed to give up their daughter for a vegetable. I guess Disney wanted the audience to feel more empathetic towards Rapunzel’s family by making them royalty and by having Rapunzel kidnapped by Mother Gothel. 

(Illustration by Walter Crane)

OU Gen. Ed. Review

OU General Education Review

Although I feel that some Gen. Ed. classes are a waste of time, some of the Gen. Ed. classes I have taken have been some of my favorite classes. For my Gen. Ed. language credit, I decided to take Italian and then after 2 grueling semesters I switched to Cherokee. I am currently in Cherokee III and I have to say that it has been one of my favorite classes. The language is so much fun and my professor, Mrs. Armer, is fantastic. For the most part, the same group of classmates I had in Cherokee I have stayed together through Cherokee III. We have become like a little family and it’s great to have that kind of support system. Bonding with the same people for 3 semesters is so much fun and it makes going to class every day that much more fun. My History of American Musical Theatre has also been an awesome Gen. Ed. fine arts class. Watching and analyzing musicals was a blast and I couldn’t believe that a class like that exists. Everything about that class was fantastic and I still recommend it to people to this day. 

(Cherokee Syllabary)

College Writing Review

College Writing Review

Throughout my college career, I have been exposed to many different forms of writing. I’ve wrote everything from standard run of the mill English papers to theatre reviews. As a Psychology major, the majority of the writing I have done is researched based. Research writing is very different from other forms of writing because it is all about the structure. This type of writing leaves very little room for creativity and is strictly about conveying information and new ideas. I have also written compare and contrast pieces and analytical pieces about different types of music. In my African Repercussions class, all of our tests were essay based and we had to write a paper analyzing lyrics to specific songs. Once again, these pieces were about conveying ideas and information.

My favorite things I have written are for this class and for my History of American Musical Theatre class. Both of these classes gave the writers creative freedom to write whatever it was that came flowing out of our minds. Although the reviews I wrote in my theatre class were about conveying information, it was less structured. We got to offer our opinions about different shows we watched in class and live at OU. Much like this class, my theatre class allowed each student to have their own voice and writing style. We may have all had the same opinions about the plays we watched but, each paper had a different feel. 

(Seussical Logo)

Extra Reading Diary: Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales

The Horned Women

I was excited when I saw that this story was in this unit! When I was researching stories to use in my storybook I came across this story but because of time and the fact that it didn’t really fit with the direction I wanted my storybook to go in. I’m glad that I got a second chance to go back and read this story. I noticed that this story had some similarities to one of the stories that used in my storybook – Baba Yaga. In this story, the woman tried to get water for the witches by carrying it in a sieve just like the little boy in the Baba Yaga story. Both characters tried many times to carry the water but the water kept running out. Both sets of witches told the characters to seal the sieve with clay. I thought it was kind of interesting that in both stories, a sieve was used to try to carry water. I wonder if there is some symbolic reasoning behind this or do witches just enjoy watching their “victims” carry water. 

(Sieve)

Storytelling Week 12: The Curse of the Piper

The Curse of the Piper

.It’s been a week since it happened. All of the adults don’t seem to understand. They have tried almost everything to keep this outbreak from harming more children but it seems as if they have absolutely no way of stopping it. My grandmother thinks that the town is cursed and I am starting to believe her. She has always told me tales of the piper and how he lured all of the children away. Every time she told me the story I would blow her off and call her crazy but now, I think she may be the only one who knows what’s going on. According to granny, many years ago, a man known as the Pied Piper did a great deed for the people of a town called Newtown. Unfortunately for him and for the people, the mayor of the town refused to pay the piper for his services and in return, the piper lured away all of the children of the town with his hypnotic tunes.

The people of town tried for years and years to have more children but after a few years, the piper would come back and the children would vanish. The people finally decided to relocate in order to get away from the Piper and start their lives over. This seemed to work and the townspeople had more children, and their children had children and so on. Now, kids are starting to go missing. Only this time, the ones going missing are girls. Girls ageing from 16-21. The whole town is in a panic. They have decided that the only way to keep us safe is to lock us up and keep an eye on us twenty-four seven. They have no clue what is causing this but, I think I might. Every girl went missing the same way. It all started with an iPod. I saw Sarah and Rachel sharing headphones on the bus one day. The next day, they were listening to the same iPod together and refused to put it down. When our teacher tried to take it away from them the kicked and screamed about how much they needed it. After that, every time they listened to this iPod, they would start screaming and jumping up and down and crying. When we would ask them what was wrong, they would reply, “Oh my Gosh! I love them so much!”

Not long after that, they were gone. These “symptoms” started happening to more and more of us and soon, girls all over town were having what they called “meet ups.” At these meet ups they would listen to their iPods and scream with each other. I’ve been trying to warm everyone about this but no one will listen except for Granny. She has decided to listen to whatever is on these mysterious iPods for herself. I watched her as she tore an iPod from one of the infected girls. I give her a day or so and she too will be gone like the rest of them. Granny puts the earbuds in and as I nervously stare at her. In an instant her eyes light up. When I ask her what is on the iPod, she stares blankly and says, “It sounds like a boyband. The Piper, he has found us. He must be using these boys to lure away our girls.” I stared at her, confused as she continued rambling. “He is smart. He’s taking away our girls. No girls, no children, just like all those years ago.  Curiosity gets the best of me and I snatch the earbuds from her. The last thing I remember is hearing the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard singing “You don’t know you’re beautiful” and then everything went dark.   

(Girls)

Author’s Note: This story is based on the fairy tale, The Pied Piper. As I was reading this story, I started thinking about things that could willingly lure kids away from their parents and I automatically thought about a tweet that I saw from a girl who said, “I would give up and sell my parents for One Direction.” As a self-proclaimed professional fangirl, I know how passionate girls can get about their favorite boy bands. You hear one amazing song from them and watch one music video ad next thing you know, you’ve been locked away in your room researching them for hours. I took this and thought to myself, if the Pied Piper used boy bands to do his dirty work, he could easily lure away hundreds of girls in an instant.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story The Pied Piper from the book, More English FairyTales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten(1894).

Reading Diary B: More English Fairy Tales(Continued)

The Children in the Wood

I really liked that this story was actually a poem! There was a poem in one of the stories in Through the Looking Glass but, it was a poem within a story instead of just a stand-alone poem. It is funny how as soon as you start reading a poem you read it with a certain rhythm or flow. The poem started out quite sad and depressing. Those poor kids lost both of their parents at the same time and were forced to live with an uncle who pretended to be nice while actually plotting their deaths. As soon as I read that the parents were rich and were leaving their children with a large sum of money, I knew that the uncle was going to get greedy and try to get rid of the children and take the money. I’m glad that he got what he deserved at the end.

Old Mother Wiggle-Waggle

This poem was so much fun! I knew I was going to enjoy it as soon as I read the title. My favorite part of the poem is that every stanza ended with a variation of “o”(hey-o, fox-o, den-o). I think this poem would be a cool thing to read to kids(if you leave out the end about picking bones out of their teeth) because they would be able to participate by saying the “o” parts. 

(Illustrated by John D. Batten)

Reading Diary A: More English Fairy Tales

More English Fairy Tales

The Pied Piper

The more and more I think about it, I do not think that I have ever actually read the story of The Pied Piper. I’ve heard of the story and I know the basics of the story but I have never read it. The most memorable reference of this tale for me is the version of the Piper in the Shrek movie. I always thought the Pied Piper was a bad guy who lured children to their doom. I had no idea that the only reason why he took the children of the town is because the mayor did not hold up hi end of the deal and refused to pay the Piper.  

Scrapefoot

When I read this title I had no idea that it was basically Goldie Locks and the Three Bears! I’ve never read or heard of another version of this story before but I found Scrapefoot to be adorable! Poor Scrapefoot. I didn’t think that the bears were actually going to throw him out of the window. Imagine if the bears in Goldie Lock’s version did that to her.

The Three Wishes

The only thing I have to say about this story is that the Woodman and his wife wasted a great opportunity. 

(Scrapefoot by John D. Batten)

Extra Reading Diary: Aesop's Fables(English)

Aesop’s Fables (English)

I really enjoyed all of the Aesop’s Fables that I read in the previous units so, I obviously had to read the fables of this unit as well. The Aesop’s Fables of the other units were quite similar and followed the same basic layout. The fables of this unit are kind of different. I felt that the fables of this unit flowed differently than the fables of the previous units. The previous fables had more dialogue in them and felt more like stories. The English fables seemed to be structured more like poems. Most of the stories got right to the point or moral of the story. I also noticed that the fables of this unit had dialect. At first I thought they were just typos but then I noticed that it was the dialect that the author was using. 

(Picture illustrated by Arthur Rackham)

Reading Diary B: The Looking Glass (continued)

My Own Invention

When Alice mentioned Punch and Judy I got so excited. I just learned about the Mr. Punch puppet show a week ago while watching a Buzzfeed video. The video discussed the origins of different sayings and I learned that the saying “pleased as punch” is in reference to the Mr. Punch puppet show. It was such a great coincidence that I watched that video because it allowed me to understand the reference Alice was making comparing the knights and the puppet. Other than my excitement over the Mr. Punch reference, this story was not my favorite. I tried and tried but I could not get into this story. The first half of the story was great but this half did not capture much of my attention. The knights just were not as interesting as Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

(illustration by John Tenniel)

Reading Diary A: Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass

I was so excited to start reading this story! I read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when I was in elementary school but I never got around to reading the second novel, Through the Looking-Glass. It seems like this school year has been full of Alice in Wonderland for me. I wrote my final capstone paper on the character of Alice and her self-concept and stages of her self-identity. I had to watch both the animated version and the live action remake with Johnny Depp. I also had to reread some of the first novel and do a lot of research on Carrol’s process when writing the character of Alice. I also remember seeing the remake for the first time. It was my first 3D IMAX movie and I saw it with one of my best friends.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Tweedledum and Tweedledee are two of my favorite characters besides the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat. I remember reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and being slightly confused whenever the two boys would speak but also laughing once I finally figured out what they were talking about. I love the way they always contradict each other like many siblings do. The poem that they recited in the story was quite entertaining. I could actually picture the boys reciting this poem to Alice. Poor Alice, constantly being told that you are not real must be quite frustrating! 

(Illustration by John Tenniel)

Extra Reading Diary Week 10

Tejas Legends 


How the North Wind Lost His Hair

As a Texan, I was really excited to read these stories. When I was in elementary school, we took a field trip to a Native Museum and the guide told us some stories from some of the Native American tribes in Texas. I really enjoyed this story. I see Spanish moss all of the time back home and I ever really knew what it was called but I knew that it kind of creeped me out. Its grey color always gave it an eerie feel but this story has made me look at Spanish moss in a whole new light. I love the idea that the moss is actually North Wind’s hair! It actually makes sense. It hardly ever gets cold and Texas and now I know that it is because South Wind fought the North Wind and scared him away! Such a fun and cool story! 

The Cottonwood Remembers

When I think of cottonwood trees, I think of my Grandparents’ house. There are tons of cottonwood trees where my grandparents live. Whenever my cousins and I would go outside and play, there would always be cotton floating around in the air. We would sometimes make a game of it and see who could try and catch the most cotton. This story is quite sad and nostalgic at the same time. I liked that it explained multiple things as opposed to just why the cottonwood’s seeds fly off and travel through the air. The poor owl and loon were cursed and the poor pigeon’s wife dies all because of a misunderstanding.  Not only does this story serve as a good origin story but it also serves as a lesson in communication. 

(Cottonwood Tree in the Fall)

Week 10 Storytelling: The Secret

The Secret

At my age, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I had to find a wife. The task proved difficult for me for I was not like other “men.” As a matter of fact, I was not a man at all. I searched and searched for a wife until I finally came across a widow looking for a suitor for her daughter. The only condition she had was that the man who would marry her daughter had to be a good hunter. I was not the best of hunters but I was desperate for love that I lied and told her that I was a great hunter. Soon, our marriage was arranged and I went to live with my new wife.

Hiding my secret from my new wife and her mother was a difficult task. When I felt the change happening, I would rise early in the morning and leave and not return until late that night. The first time this happened, my wife’s mother questioned my sudden departure. When she asked where I was going, I almost made the mistake of saying hunting but quickly changed my mind. Hunting was definitely not the smartest thing I could have said. As I mentioned before, I was a terrible hunter. If I traveled down that path, she would definitely grow suspicious. Instead, I simply said, “Fishing.” This too was a dumb decision because I realized that she would expect me to come home with a mountain of fish.  Before returning home, all I could find were three measly guppies. I saw the questioning look in her eye and tried to curb her doubt by telling her that I would be more successful tomorrow. This became a never-ending cycle until one day; I finally had to change up my excuse. Once again my mother in law asked where I was going but this time I said, “Hunting.” I returned later that night with only two duwë'gä (lizards) and I knew I was in trouble. The other men of the tribe had gone hunting that day too but unlike me, they came home with many cuts of deer.

I knew my time was running out but as hard as I tried I could not stop the change. Once again, I rose early and left my wife and mother in law. I went down to the river like I did every morning and waited for my transformation to begin. Once in my true form, I dove down into the water and caught a crawfish. Crawfish were my favorite snack and I was quite pleased with how swiftly I spotted and captured my prey. With the crawfish in hand, I flew back down to the shore and took my human form and began to walk home. When I walked through the door, my wife began to question me about my lack of fish. I quickly explained to her that as I was fishing, an owl swooped down and scared away the fish. Then, my wife gave me a look; a look that I knew meant that my secret was out. She yelled at me and said, “You’re the owl! I thought I married a man but I married an owl!” Those were the last words my wife ever spoke to me. She ran me out of the house and I took shelter in the woods. That is where I have been ever since; grieving the love that I once had. The love that I wanted more than anything else in the world. The love that I knew I would never have again.  

(Barn Owl or Lulu)

Author's Note: In this story, an old woman tries to find a good hunter to marry her daughter. The man that the old woman picks, turns out to have a secret; he is not a man but an owl. In the end, the two women find out the husband's secret and drives him out of the house. The story is told from the two women's point of view but I wanted to write about the husband/owl's side of the story.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story, The Owl Gets Married from the book, Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).  

Reading Diary B: Cherokee Myths Continued

The Ball Game of the Birds and Animals

As I was reading this story all I could imagine is a huge stickball game being played between these two groups of animals. Stickball was not only a game played for fun but it was also used as a way to create peace between feuding tribes. The players usually were the tribe’s greatest warriors like the bear and the terrapin were for the animal team. In the case of the bird team, their greatest warriors might not have been strong but they were cunning and determined to prove themselves. I think that this story shows that you may be the underdog but that should never keep you from trying. If the two small animals (the bat and the flying squirrel) would have given up, they never would have had the opportunity to see who they really were and become who they were supposed to be. 

(Ball Players by George Catlin)

Reading Diary A: Cherokee Myths

Cherokee Myths

I was really excited about reading this unit. I am currently in Cherokee 3 and my professor has told us some Cherokee stories before. It was very fun reading all of the Cherokee words in the stories. It felt cool to be able to pronounce them correctly and some of the words I already knew. I also love that these stories have tons of animals. My favorite type of origin stories are animal origin stories. I love learning about the reasons why animals behave the way they do or why they look a certain way.

How The World Was Made

This unit is once again filled with origin stories. I haven’t read or heard this story before but I have heard that the Cherokees believe that the earth is an island. The part of this story that caught my eye was the part about the Great Buzzard. My Cherokee teacher’s maiden name is Buzzard so; she has talked about the Buzzard before. I also noticed that the number seven was used quite a bit throughout this story. In my Cherokee class, we learned that there are seven Cherokee clans; Long Hair, Blue, Wolf, Wild Potato, Deer, Bird, and Red Paint. I don’t know if these two things are connected but, I thought that it was an interesting coincidence. 

(Buzzard)

Extra Reading Diary: Creation and Longevity Achomawi (Pit River, California)

Creation and Longevity

Achomawi (Pit River, California)

Once again, it is awesome how this unit perfectly goes hand and hand with my music class. Right now we are talking about tribes from the Plains. We learned how important the Eagle is to the several different Plains tribes and this story highlights that. Like I have mentioned before, I really enjoy creation stories because they are all so unique and it is cool to see how each group of people believe they were created. This creation story was interesting to me because it told the story of two creators. Usually, the creation stories that I have read only had one main creator. This story has both Coyote and Eagle as creators. 

(Majestic Eagle)

Storytelling Week 9: How One Smurfette Became Two

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.

(Smurfs and Smurfette)

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).

Reading Diary B: Alaskan Legends(Continued)

The First Woman

Eskimo (Bering Straits)

As I was reading this story, all I could think about is the TV show The Smurfs. Like the woman that lived in the southland, Smurfette was the only woman living among the male Smurfs. I wonder how she and the woman that lived in the southland felt. Did the Smurfs fight over Smurfette the way the men fought over the woman?

I did enjoy the story of the first woman. It was very cool how they explained why the women of the south and the women of the north are talented in different areas. When I was reading about how the men were fighting over the woman all I could picture is them pulling her like a tug-of-war rope and I couldn’t help but laugh. I was glad that they just split the woman in two instead of accidentally killing her. If this story was a part of the Asia and Africa unit then the woman probably would have died because there was a lot of murder involved in the stories in that unit.

The Boy in the Moon

Eskimo (Lower Yukon)

I have read a few moon and sun origin stories and almost all of them involve lovers. The moon is the woman/girl and the sun is the man/boy and vice versa. The use of food (berries and meat) to explain why the moon fades in Alaska is something I have never read before.

(Smurfs and Smurfette)

Reading Diary A: Alaskan Legends

Myth-Folklore Unit: Alaskan Legends

(Myths and Legends of Alaska)

I chose this unit because we just finished learning about the Haida and Inuit people in my Native American Music class. I really enjoy origin and creation stories. These stories are always fun and interesting. It is cool to read about the different beliefs that people have. I noticed that the number 4 is used a lot in these stories (4 days, 4 years, Raven waves his wings 4 times). In class, we learned that the number 4 is sacred to a lot of tribes because it is connected to nature through the 4 seasons, connected to the 4 directions, and connected to the 4 elements.  I also really enjoyed the polar bear and mosquito origins within these stories. I thought it was funny how the mosquitoes were told to bite people instead of bite/eat animals. In hindsight, I don’t think that was the best thing to tell the mosquitoes. I thought the story of how the reindeer lost their sharp teeth was interesting as well. Who would have known that the sweet little animals that we associate with Christmas and Santa Clause used to be vicious little creatures that terrorized and ate people. 

(Reindeer)

Commenting Review Week

Commenting is such a normal part of an online class that I don't really have many feelings about it. Sometimes it can seem like a pain to have to comment on something when there is a word/length requirement. Some things or stories are easier to comment on than others. Commenting is not hard and sometimes it can even be fun but, other times it can feel like a chore. On the other hand, it is fun being able to read everyone's stories and be able to offer positive feedback. It feels nice to be able to share how much you enjoyed someone's writing and I know that it feels just as good to read a positive comment.

(Ryan Gosling Meme)



Writing Review Week

My favorite part of this class has been the storytelling posts. I love them because it gives us the freedom to be creative and write whatever we want. Most of the writing that I have to do in my other classes is structure(APA, MLA) and academic. This class allows me to write for fun. It never feels like a chore and that's why I look forward to the storytelling assignments! It also makes me feel good whenever I open my email and see a nice comment about one of my stories. It is really cool to be able to write something that someone enjoys to read and it is fun to be able to read other people's stories. There are some great writers in this class that are super creative. The storytelling is definitely the highlight of this class!

(Sophie Turner)

 

I chose this picture because it is the picture that I used on the first page of my storybook project site. The storybook project is by far my favorite thing I have worked on in this class. At times it can be time consuming and a little difficult to work on but once I start writing and I see the comments that classmates leave on how much they enjoyed my story or suggestions they have on how to improve it, the struggle is well worth it. 



Reading Review Week

Reading Review Week

 

 I really like the reading diaries. It helps to take notes about what I have read that week because I go back and look at them when I am deciding on what story I want to use for my storytelling post. I think that my favorite units so far have been the Twenty-Two Goblins unit and the Japanese Fairy Tales unit. I liked the Twenty-Two Goblins unit because it was fun to try to figure out the riddles and to see how the king in the story solved them. The Japanese Fairy Tales unit was fun to read because it was very dark compared to the other units. The reading diaries also helped me connect and remember some of the fairy tales that I read when I was younger. It surprised me how many fairy tale units had the same or similar stories to those that I read when I was younger (Anansi, Alice in Wonderland, Aesop Fables). The reading diaries have also helped with my storybook. Going back and looking at my notes has helped me see the things that I liked best about all of the readings and try to incorporate them in my storybook.

(Enchanted Forest)

 

 

I chose this picture because of its mysterious look. When I think of fairy tales, I instantly think of enchanted forests. Forests are such great settings for stories because they can be beautiful and mystical or they can be dark and menacing but either way, they are magical and full of possibilities. 

Extra Reading Diary: The Twin Brothers

Congo: The Twin Brothers

 

I really liked that this story had twins! It made the story really interesting! I really liked this story until the end when the brothers started fighting and then murdered each other. I thought it was going to be happy and that they would save everyone but that seemed too good to be true and I was right. I did like the brother that won in the end! He seemed like he was doing the right thing! I probably would have done the same thing. It was pretty messed up that after he saved his brother, the other twin turned around and killed him over claim of the followers! I also think that in the grand scheme of things, they should have been the second brother’s followers because he was the one to go and save his brother. Whereas, the other brother was pretty stupid when his wife told him not to go to that town and he decided to go anyway. That wasn’t the smartest decision. Overall, I like this story, though.

(Fetish With Mirror)

 

Storytelling Week 7: The Dog Couple and Their Human

The Dog Couple and Their Human

 

A long time ago, there lived an old dog and his wife who had very little money and no pups to give all of their love and affection to so, they gave all of their love to their pet human. The little human was not spoiled and ungrateful but instead loved the old dog couple unconditionally and followed the couple everywhere they went.

                One hot afternoon, the dog was hard at work digging in his garden with his little human by his side. Growing tired, the old dog wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his paw and rose to head into the house. As he was leaving the garden, he noticed that his little human was digging at a spot on the other side of the garden. There was nothing unusual about this as his little human loved to pick up his toy shovel and dig but this time, the little human ran to his master and started jumping up and down and yelling. The human kept on doing this until the old dog followed him to the spot he was digging. The little human was so excited that his yelling brought the little old dog’s wife out of the house. The little human continued to dig until he dug up a small box. When the old dog grabbed the box and opened it, he found that it was filled with gold coins. Soon, the wealth of the little old dog couple and their incredible little human spread around the town.

                The little old dog couple’s neighbor, the cat, grew so envious of them that he found himself unable to eat, sleep, or think about anything else besides how to steal the dog couple’s wealth. The cat begged the old man to let him borrow his dear little human so that he may become rich as well. With much hesitation, the little old dog finally agreed to lend the cat his human only if he promised to take good care of him. As soon as the cat took the human home, he turned him loose into his backyard. Once in the backyard, the little did nothing but run around and play. He waited all day and all night for the dog to show him the way to the undiscovered riches. Alas, nothing happened and the cat grew so angry at the little human that he loaded him in his car, drove out into the forest and pushed the little human out of his car, leaving him there to die.

                The next day, the cat realized what he had done and quickly ran to the old dog couple’s house. Instead of telling the truth, he lied to the old couple and said that their little human ran away. The little old dog couple was so devastated that they wept for days and days. Weeks passed and the little old couple began to lose all hope. One night, as the couple was sitting in their dining room having dinner, they heard a familiar sound. They jumped up from their table and ran outside. Running outside, they were reunited with their precious little human and vowed to never let him leave their sight again. The cat, plagued with guilt, fled the town and was never heard from again and everyone lived happily ever after.  

(Japanese Gold Coin)

Author's Note: This story is based on the Japanese tale, The Envious Neighbor. I decided to switch the roles of the dog and the humans to make the story a little more fun. In the story, the neighbor becomes so angry with the dog that he kills him. I decided to change this part because I felt that killing the dog was a little gruesome and I wanted to make my story a little more lighthearted.

Bibliography: This story is based on the story The Envious Neighbor that is part of the Japanese Fairy Tales(Lang)  written by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H.J. Ford(1901).

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished

This story is my favorite story in this unit. I thought that the Tanuki was going to secretly kill his son and that his wife, the fox, would find out and fins a clever way to punish him. The Tanuki reminded me of the trickster Anansi from the West African folklore/fairytales. Like the Tanuki, Anansi also selfishly betrayed his family members in order to gain something. In this case, both the Tanuki and Anansi betrayed their family for food. I also loved that the sons were the heroes in both of these stories. I was really happy when the Tanuki’s son realized that his father had betrayed and killed his mother and instead of confronting his father, he thought of a clever plan of how to use his father’s cockiness against him and avenge his mother’s death.

 

The Slaying of the Tanuki

There seems to be a lot of murder in the stories that involve the Tanuki. As I was reading the story, I knew that the Tanuki would play a cruel trick on the peasant man but, I never would have guessed that the “trick” would be the Tanuki murdering the peasant’s wife and then feeding her to him. That part of the story was a little extreme. It made for a good story but, it was still pretty extreme. When the hare set the Tanuki on fire and almost killed him, I thought that surely the Tanuki wouldn’t trust the hare anymore but, for some reason he did. The part of the story that said, “The Tanuki was still feeling angry with the hare about the trick he had played him, but he was weak and very hungry, so he gladly accepted the proposal” really shocked me. They made the hare’s attempt to kill the Tanuki seem as if it was not a big deal. I don’t know about whoever wrote this story but, attempting to set someone on fire is definitely not just a harmless “trick.”

 

(The Hare and the Tanuki illustrated by H. J. Ford 1897)

 

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

The Envious Neighbour
I
 liked this story. In a way, it kind of reminded me of the story The Ungrateful Man that was a part of the West African Folktales unit. Both of the antagonists in these stories were jealous of the protagonists in the story. Even though the old couple in The Envious Neighbor and the hunter in The Ungrateful Man were nothing but nice to their opposites, the neighbor and the man still betrayed them. I was shocked when the neighbor killed the old couple’s dog. I thought that he would try to steal the dog but I never thought he would actually harm the dog. In the end, the neighbor got what he deserved and the old couple came out on top.

The Cat's Elopement 

 

It seems like the characters in Japanese folklore/fairytales love their animals. The man and woman in this story are really attached to their cat just like the old couple was attached to their dog. Pets or animals in general must be important to the Japanese culture.

I love that this story is a love story about two cats. It was cute that the cats had human qualities and that the story was told through their eyes (kind of like the Disney movie The Aristocats). The part about the serpent always trying to get to the princess confused me a little. Why didn’t the princess’s servants kill the serpent instead of just shooing him away? I was glad that Gon and Koma found each other in the end and got to live with the princess and her prince. It was a happy ending for both the humans and the cats. I wonder what happened to Gon and Koma’s original owners?

 

(illustrated by H. J. Ford 1897 )



 

 

Extra Reading Diary: Brer Rabbit

Brer Rabbit

I have never read Brer Rabbit before so I was not too sure what to expect. The unique dialect is what really makes these folklore stories stand out. When I read the description of the book, I expected the stories to be very similar to Aesop’s Fables. Once I started reading the stories, I started to realize that the only thing that Aesop’s Fables and Brer Rabbit have in common is the use of animals as the main characters (at least in my opinion). I’ve seen dialect in a few stories but I do not think I have ever read a story that uses nothing but dialect throughout the whole story. I also listened to some of the stories using Libriox. Listening to someone read the stories made them come to life more than when I started reading the stories myself. While I was listening, the voices that the people reading the stories used reminded me of the crows in the movie Dumbo. The voices that were used in these stories were also similar to the voices used in the To Kill a Mockingbird auto.

                One thing that I liked about this unit is the use of similes. These stories are filled with southern similes and I absolutely love it. My grandparents and my friends’ grandparents use similes similar to the ones used in this unit. I guess those type of sayings are very unique and important in southern culture.

                Overall, I am on the fence about whether or not I really liked this unit. Overall, some of the stories were entertaining but, the dialect was a little hard to listen to.

 

(Illustrated by A. B. Frost)

 

Storytelling Week 6: The Ungratetful Young Woman

One day, a little girl in a red coat was walking through the forest in search of beautiful flowers to give to her sick grandmother. As she was searching, she stumbled upon a deep hole. She looked down in the hole and saw that there was a witch, an elf, a leprechaun, and a young woman. When they saw the girl, they began to beg her to help them out of the hole. The girl stood over the hole and contemplated whether or not she wanted to help them. She knew that she wanted to help the young women, for she was warm and beautiful but, the other three were a different story. The witch, she thought, tried to eat her best friends Hansel and Gretel. The dark elf used his magic to harm people. The leprechaun was just difficult to deal with. The little girl saw no use in helping them escape.

(Enchanted Forest)

 

The other three captives begged and begged for their freedom that the girl, being a kind hearted person, she decided to set them free. Each one of the creatures promised that they would compensate her kindness-except for the young woman. The young woman told the girl that she was very poor and could not offer her anything but, the girl allowed the young woman to stay with her and her grandmother.

A couple of days passed and the elf came to the girl and offered her a vile of his magic. “Make sure you always keep it close by,” he said. “You will find it very, very useful. When you want to use it, make sure you mix it with the blood of a beautiful maiden.”  Although the girl was a little frightened to possess such powerful magic, she thanked the elf and put the vile on a string and wore it as a necklace. The witch also showed her gratitude by promising to never harm the girl or any of her friends and always keeping her and her grandmother well fed.

The leprechaun also came to the girl and gave her a large pot of gold. “This pot of gold is magic. The gold in it will never run out and you and your grandmother will be very rich. After this, the girl and her grandmother lived in comfort and luxury and never went hungry again. The young woman who lived with the girl and her grandmother became jealous of the girl and all of her riches and constantly searched for a way to harm the girl.

The next day, there was an announcement that someone had robbed the Queen’s castle and stole all of her valuable jewels. The young woman rushed to the castle and told the Queen’s guards and told them that it was the girl who stole the Queen’s jewels. The Queen promised the young woman that she would give half of her jewels to the young woman for telling her who stole the jewels. The next day, the girl was thrown in jail and questioned about her newly acquired wealth. The girl truthfully told the witch, the elf, and the leprechaun but, no one believed her. The girl was condemned to die the next evening.

The next day before the girl’s execution, there was news that the Queen’s son was dying. Anyone who could save him was begged to help. The girl instantly clutched the vile that the elf gave her and asked if she could use it to save the Queen’s son. The Queen asked the girl if there was anything she needed and she said, “The blood of a beautiful maiden.” The Queen immediately pointed to the young woman who betrayed the girl and said, “There goes a beautiful maiden. She may be beautiful on the outside but her insides are filled with hate.” The young woman was beheaded and her blood was mixed with the vile of the elf’s magic.

As soon as it was given to the prince, he was cured and the Queen awarded the girl with the highest honors of the kingdom.

 

 

Author's Note: I chose to write my retelling in the same style as the original story. I made this decision because I really liked the way the original story flowed. I changed this story by making the characters storybook/fairytale characters and creatures, such as little red riding hood, instead of using animals.

Bibliography: This story was based on the story The Ungrateful Man. This story is part of the book West African Folktales written by William H. Baker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair(1917).