Reading Diary A: Nursery Rhymes

Here are my favorites from the Nursery Rhymes reading unit:

Tales: There were two particularly funny nursery rhymes in this section. One is about Punch and Judy. Basically, Punch punched Judy in the eye over a pie. I don't know why I thought that was so funny, but I did. Maybe because it's early in the morning. The other one is about Taffy, a thief. The narrator goes over to Taffy's house and he's never there, but Taffy keeps coming back to his house to steal stuff. He finally catches Taffy at home in bed and flings a poker at his head. Yes, I probably laughed too much at this one. This also had the rhyme about the fat man from Bombay that I used to write my first retelling this semester! :)

Taffy the thief on the prowl
(L. Leslie Brooke)

Songs, Part 1: This section included some classics and favorites of mine. I'm pretty sure most people have heard the rhyme about Little Bo-Peep who lost her sheep. There was also a longer, different version of London bridge is falling down. My favorite was probably Sing a Song of Sixpence because I sang a song with lyrics from this rhyme when I was in choir in high school. It brought back a bunch of old memories that I hadn't thought about in a long time. Near the end was a nursery rhyme I recognized from the movie Ted, "I love my sixpence, my pretty little sixpence." The rhyme isn't as creepy as Mark Walburg made it sound.

Riddles: I love a good riddle and most of these stumped me. I got one of them, though, about a bunch of legs with the answer being a man threw a stool at a dog for stealing hit leg of mutton. I've heard the St. Ives riddle before and I'm pretty sure the answer is one man is going to St. Ives, the narrator. The point of some riddles is to make you think really hard in the wrong direction and the answer is actually really simple; I think the St. Ives riddle is one of these. I kinda got the last one right, too. I thought they might all be the names of one girl.

Reading Diary B: Celtic Fairy Tales

These are my favorites from the second half of the Celtic Fairy Tales unit:

Beth Gellert: I have not a read a sadder story in all the units I've completed so far. You know that scene in Lady and the Tramp where Aunt Sarah (that terrible woman) has Tramp sent to the pound because he "attacked the baby?" When really he had just saved him from a rat. This story is a lot like that. Gellert is the prince's favorite greyhound and he protected his son from a wolf, but all he saw was the blood on the dog and all around the child's room. So he STABS HIM but then hears his son, finding him unharmed under the crib next to the dead wolf. I'm glad he feels terrible because he MURDERED his most loyal dog. How could you!?

The Tale of Ivan: This is an odd little adventure tale. Instead of being paid wages for 3 years, Ivan accepts advice from his master which helps him a lot more than the 9 pounds would have. I was still skeptical of this decision, though. His wife had to live without money (at least none contribute by Ivan) for 3 years! In the end, the advice saved his life twice, got him a good job as a lord's servant, and the wages he was owed for all the work he did. So it was good advice but I still can't help feeling sorry for the wife who had to live without any money. It is just a fairy tale, though, so it's possible for people to live on little to no money for years somehow.

Andrew Coffey: If the first story was the saddest I've read so far, this one is nearly the weirdest I've read so far. A bunch of strange things happen and without very much logic, reason, or explanation. At one point, Andrew is roasting a dead guy, who was supposedly lost at sea, on a spit (the picture below is the illustration that goes along with the story). I kept waiting for the part where it would make sense or some explanation would come, but it never did. So after thinking about it, I've decided that Andrew Coffey was probably just being haunted the spirit of the dead man. It all seems like a bad dream which could be another explanation, but I think the haunting is more probable.

Andrew roasting the dead man (who still talks and move) on a spit (John D. Batten)

Brewery of Eggshells: I don't know how a story can be silly and creepy at the same time but this one manages to do just that. A couple realizes their children aren't growing and suspect they've been stolen and replaced. A wise man tells the mother to bake eggshells and try to give them to someone as food which causes one of the fake children to talk. She throws them in a lake and the thieves give her the real children back. I'm glad we don't live in a fairy tale world sometimes so that we don't have to worry about things like this happening or creepy witches like from the first half of the unit or the odd happenings of the previous story. Some things are better left imaginary.

Reading Diary A: Celtic Fairy Tales

Here are my favorites from the first half of the Celtic Fairy Tale unit:

Connla and the Fairy Maiden: I liked this story because it reminded me a bit of The Fairy Bride from the American Indian Fairy Tales unit I read two weeks ago. This time the fairy is a woman and the human desiring to go to the land of the fairies is a man. I wonder why it is that only Connla can see the fairy maiden and no one else can. Maybe it's because he's the only one that has been chosen to go to the immortal paradise. I wish a magical person or creature of some kind would come ask me to run away to a magical place like that (especially Hogwarts). Maybe I'll rewrite this story later this week and make my dreams come true.

The Horned Women: This was a creepy little tale about witches that invade a woman's home and are a nuisance. It seems like one of those scary stories from that children's book series, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It has the same odd plot and aura of creepiness, without being gruesome. Even the illustration (below) looks like it would fit right in to one of those books. I don't know what I would do if some scary women with horns growing out of their heads invaded my home. Actually, I probably wouldn't have even opened the door. Then again, they could probably just open it with magic

The Horned Witches (John D. Batten)

The Sprightly Tailor: This story proved to be just as creepy as the last and also in the same character as the Stories to Tell in the Dark series. A tailor's lord basically dares him to work in the old church over night for a handsome reward and some giant human-like creature starts crawling out of the floor and talking about how big he is. If that was me in that church, I would have been gone when that giant head popped up; forget the money. Then again, I'm a big scaredy cat so I probably wouldn't have agreed to the bet in the first place. If I'm sleeping by myself, I prefer to have a light on. I hope I don't have a creepy nightmare about this story tonight.

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree: This story is very similar to Snow White. A queen is jealous of her daughter's beauty because of magical being says Gold-Tree is prettier. This time the ways used to try to kill her are a poison stab (a needle maybe?) and a poisoned drink. The big difference in this version is that Gold-Tree's husband marries after he thinks she's dead and decides to keep both wives whenever the second revives Gold-Tree. That seems a little selfish to me on the prince's part. I could hardly see the two wives being happy about it in real life but the second wife does save Gold-Tree from her mother's plot again so they seem to be handling it fine. If they're okay with it then I don't see the harm.

Reading Diary B: Native American Hero Tales

Here are my favorites from the second half of the Native American Hero Tales unit:

The Son-in-Law Tests: What is it with the men in these stories killing of their family members? This time it's a family member by marriage, specifically sons-in-law. A (demon?) man named Wemicus continues to "test" his daughter's husbands in order to kill them and marry her to another one. If I knew what had happened to the rest of them, I wouldn't have agreed to marry her. But maybe she was really pretty or the guys thought they would be the one that wouldn't die. The unnamed hero of this story only avoids his fate because he wife tells him what her father is going to do. Why didn't she help any of her other husbands? Maybe she did but they were still outwitted by her father still. After he is defeated by his son-in-law, Wemicus turns into a pike, another animal I did not know about. Apparently, it is the fish you see below. I find it kind of creepy looking.

Pike
(Wikimedia Commons)

The Jealous Father: It seems like the heroes in these stories have some pretty messed up family members. The father in this story thinks his son from one of his two wives has "played tricks" on his stepmother (yes, that's a euphemism) so he leaves him on an island all by himself. The boy must undertake an adventurous journey home, avoiding the traps his father has laid in his way. He's assisted by people his mother sent to help him get home and their aid is what allows him to succeed. The story takes a dark turn when the boy sets the forest on fire and convinces his father that hiding in grease will save him. The father ends up being burned alive. Yikes. That's a bad way to go.

Dirt-Boy: Finally, a story with more than one person that you like. The Sun and his sister Star come down from the sky so he can make his claim to marry the sought-after daughters of a chief. The one who doesn't care that they are (disguised as) poor and ugly people is thoroughly rewarded. Though her father tried to avoid giving his daughters to Dirt-Boy (Sun in disguise), he was only thinking of their happiness and it's hard to hold that against him. I could see myself rewriting this story because I like the protagonists and its positive message. I'm not sure yet if I want to make it more modern, more realistic, or stick close to the original.

Reading Diary A: Native American Hero Tales

Here are my favorites from the first half of the Native American Hero Tales unit:

The Jealous Uncle: This was a bit of a strange story but interesting. The motivation for "Unnatural Uncle" killing all his nephews is never really explained. He just seems like he's not right in the head. What I liked about the story, though, were the traditional storytelling features like the repetition of the boy going out with his uncle, the uncle's attempts to trap or kill the boy in various ways, and the ingenious ways the boy managed to escape. The other thing I really liked was the eagle village the boy floated away to, where they can don eagle skins and actually become eagles. I wish this kind of thing was possible in real life. I would become a lion or a wolf or even just a little bird so I could experience what it was like to fly.

Bluejay and His Companions: This story was funny because of the silly antics the characters get up to. The same kind of repetition seen in The Jealous Uncle appears in this story too. The group shows up somewhere, are challenged to some kind of competition, and usually prevail. This sometimes involve hitting other critters on the head with a bone. What a silly provision of a competition! And it all happened because they were mean to the widower Grouse with a lot of kids. The bullies learn their lesson from their journey and are much nicer to him afterwards. If only there were some kind of program like this in real life for groups of bullies that could change their attitudes toward the people they pick on. In case you were wondering, the picture below is of a grouse (I didn't know what it was when I first read the story either).

Grouse
(Wikipedia)

The Attack on the Giant Elf and the Great Eagle: This was an interesting adventure tale. It's got giant animals, epic battles, and epic feats (like walking across large areas of land in only four steps). Four is the number in this story that is often repeated. It usually takes four tries for someone to do something or get a result from their efforts. I liked the explanation for why eagles aren't giant anymore: because the hero hit the giant eagle babies on the head with a bone to keep them from growing. I like reading Native American tales that explain why things are the way they are so I really enjoyed this story and I hope there are more like it in the second half of the unit.

Reading Diary B: American Indian Fairy Tales

Here are my favorites from the second half of the American Indian Fairy Tales unit:

The Boy Who Snared the Sun, Part 2: So far I've enjoyed this cute and intriguing tale. For one thing, the story mentions mastodons. I wonder if this was a part of the original story or if maybe this element was added by the author who compiled the stories. Obviously, the stories were translated into English, so it's possible that the traditional tale did tell of a giant creature like the mastodon and the translator or editor assumed this was the creature they were talking about. I also find it strange that there are only two people left in the whole world, a sister and a brother (who is a dwarf). What happened to their parents? What happened to everyone else in the world? How did humanity continue with just a brother and a sister? Hopefully these questions will be answered in the third part of the story.

The large mastodon
Illustrated by John Rae

The Boy Who Snared the Sun, Part 3: Well my questions about humanity were not answered, but I still liked this story. It was a bit sad that the Dormouse, who used to be the biggest animal in the world once the mastodon left, gave up his immense size while trying to cut the cord the boy used to snare the sun. It was a very selfless act to choose to lose his defining attribute so that everyone could reap the benefit of having the sun in the sky. This story does still leave many unanswered questions, though. What happened to the boy and his sister afterwards? Obviously human life in ancient North American didn't end. How did humans make their comeback? I wonder if the next stories will tell or if the answers are not in this group of stories but must be searched out in other places. My curiosity wants to be satisfied!

How the Summer Came, Part 1: I sympathize sooooo much with Morning Glory in this story! I much prefer summer over winter so I'm very tired of the winter weather. It always feels like the longest season of all. I had an epiphany while reading this story that the time when winter ruled the earth was probably the ice age! It's mind-blowing to think that there is a people who might actually have a consciousness that dates back to this far away point in human history. Not only that but they have a story about why they think the ice age finally ended, thanks to a man who could turn into an animal called a Marten. Another interesting thing about this story is that the marten man sacrifices himself to bring summer and, in fact, this animal is no longer found in the southern parts of North America (where the people who told this story likely would have lived). They now exist mostly in Canada (I found this out when I looked up what a marten is because I had never heard of it before).

The Fairy Bride, Part 2: This story reminds me a little bit of Pocahontas, the Disney movie. A parent of a free-spirited dreamer wants her to settle down and marry a man that is quite the opposite of her, very stern and concerned with killing (one is a hunter and the other a warrior). Even when you consider Grandmother Willow, The Fairy Bride involves more magic and magical creatures. The young maiden dreams of a world that is basically a paradise, where it's always summer and no one dies and everyone is always happy. The ending is kind of creepy, though. The hunter who spots her going into the enchanted forest says she looks like she is in a trance as she walks forward and then she disappears never to be seen again. Thankfully, this is something that she wanted and she has not been kidnapped like some girls in other stories have been. Although it is a bit creepy, it's actually a happy ending.

Reading Diary A: American Indian Fairy Tales

Here are my favorites from the first half of the American Indian Fairy Tales unit:

Iagoo the Storyteller: This is a great introduction into the other stories in the unit because it sets the tone so well. I can see everything the narrator is describing from the beautiful beads the children string on their necklaces to the bending bow and strong arrow to the children huddled around the fire in Iagoo's wigwam in the winter. I can hear the North Wind blowing against the walls of the wigwam and imagine the darkness in the surrounding forest. The overall impression I am getting makes me imagine that I am there with the children crowded by the fire hearing these stories just as real children once did on cold winter nights, learning about the rich storytelling tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. Really wonderful story.

Shen-ge-bis Fools the North Wind, Part 1: Another great introductory section, this time to the story about Shen-ge-bis and how he plans to outlast the harsh, freezing North Wind when he brings winter to the land. I love stories from other, older cultures that explain why things are the way the are or how things came to be the way they are. I especially love Sha-won-dasee, the South Wind who lives in a land (you guessed it, in the south) where it is perpetually summer. The description of this place is so enticing to me. I would move to this warm southern place in a heartbeat if I could. The good things (at least in my opinion) that Sha-won-dasee brings to the lands that he visits basically include everything that I adore about summer and Ka-bib-on-okka (the North Wind) embodies basically everything I despise about winter. This story intensifies my desire for the warm spring days that are supposed to be just days away this week!

The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds, Part 1: I don't know what it is with me and the introductory sections of this unit, but I am loving them. The places they describe seem like paradises to me. In this story, the beautiful scenery is that of a valley at the beginning of time where man and animals were friends. The grass is a green carpet that stretches like soft carpet from one wall of the world to another, dotted by colorful flowers and cut across by a glittering river that all the animals come to in order to drink from it. So basically, I just want to live in all the places these stories are set in or mention. Now would be a good time to mention the gorgeous illustrations in this unit. Soft, tranquil water color illustrations perfectly capture the beauty of the settings as well as the overall feeling created in these stories. Just look at that picture down there! Wouldn't you want to live in that valley, too?

Beautiful valley from The Little Boy and Girl in the Clouds
Illustrated by John Rae

The Child of the Evening Star, Part 1: I like this introductory section for a whole different reason than I liked the other ones. This story feels like a prototypical fairy tale. The heroine is beautiful but humble and is not concerned with outward beauty or riches. She has sisters who are also beautiful but who do not have as kind of hearts as she does (it also seems like a typical fairy tale convention for the "best" sister to be the youngest). The heroine turns away many eligible suitors because she doesn't like what she sees in their hearts and instead marries an old man, who is by far the most worthy. Compared to the previous stories, this one just seems like the most "fairy-tale-like." I predict that the couple will face a difficulty in the remaining parts of the story but will overcome them and live happily ever after.

Reading Diary B: Brer Rabbit

Here are my favorites from the Brer Rabbit unit:

A Story about the Little Rabbits: This story reminded me of an Aesop fable that I read the first week of school. In the fable, a wolf tries to find (i.e. makes up) supposed slights made against him by a sheep so that he could eat him. In "A Story about the Little Rabbits," Brer Wolf tries to get Brer Rabbit's children to fail at tasks he asks them to complete so that he can have a "valid" reason to eat them. Thankfully, a little bird tells them how to complete the feats and then their father comes home. I like when I find similar stories throughout the different units that I read so it was awesome to find this connection between two very distant units (in terms of when and where they originated from).

Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear: This story should actually be called an UN-favorite because it made me really mad, but I wanted to rant about it. Brer Rabbit is a tricky character; he usually outsmarts the scheming Brer Fox in a comical way. However, this time I think he took it way too far. He was stealing peanuts from Brer Fox's garden and, when he gots caught, he tricks Brer B'ar into getting him out of the trap and putting himself in it. Not only that, then he brings Brer Fox to the trapped bear, tells him he was the one stealing from his garden, and then suggests he beat the bear with a stick. Not cool at all, Brer Rabbit. You could have just had Brer B'ar take you down and then run off. What did he ever do to you to deserve this fate? Nothing. Shame on you.

Brer Rabbit caught in Brer Fox's trap
(Illustration by A. B. Frost)

The Story of the Deluge: This story was very different from most of the other stories. It's not actually a Brer Rabbit story because the titular character doesn't make an appearance in it. Instead, it appears to take place somewhere in Africa. The big message I took away from it was "Don't step on those beneath you, just because they're beneath you. If they band together, they can be a force to reckon with." The elephant sees no problem with smashing the crawfish with his big feet. They eventually get fed up with it, so they and some other small, water animals make the place flood to show the big animal bullies that they're not going to take it anymore.

Plantation Proverbs: This was just a long list of proverbs, but I found a few that I thought were very thoughtful or funny. The first one was "Looks won't do ter split rails with." Basically, it's saying that good looks aren't very useful. Attractiveness is nice and all, but there are more important things. The second one was "Licker (liquor) talks mighty loud w'en it get loose fum (from) de jug." This is just a pretty accurate statement. Most people know what drunk calling and drunk texting is; you tend to say things you don't mean to when you've had too much to drink. The last one I really enjoyed was "Watch out w'en you'er (you're) gittin all you want. Fattenin' hogs ain't in luck." This is basically saying to beware of things that seem too good to be true because they probably are.

Reading Diary A: Brer Rabbit

Here are my favorites from the Brer Rabbit unit:

The Calamus Foot: This is the first story in the unit and it really sets the tone for how the rest of the first half plays out. Brer Fox tries his hardest to catch Brer Rabbit so that he can eat him, but Brer Rabbit outsmarts him like he always does. Brer Fox tries to cook up plans to trick Brer Rabbit, but they hardly ever work. And even when they do work, he still manages to let Brer Rabbit get away. I like Brer Rabbit because he's clever and he's self-described as sassy. I also think it's interesting how, in these stories, the fox is the one who is always outwitted whereas in most other storytelling traditions, the fox is usually the clever, sly one.

How Mr. Rabbit for too Smart for Mr. Fox: Remember how I said Brer Fox's plans don't work out even when they do? This is what I was talking about. He manages to get Brer Rabbit caught on a "tar-baby" (basically a doll covered in tar). This should be the end of Brer Rabbit, right? He should just stick him over the fire and be done with it. But Brer Rabbit is very clever. He convinces Brer Fox to throw him into the brier patch by asking him to do anything but that, using a bit of reverse psychology. Of course, Brer Fox wants to stick it to Brer Rabbit real good for all the trouble he caused him so he does what he thinks is the worse thing he could do to him. Brer Rabbit ends up getting away and Brer Fox is left empty-handed and disappointed like always. The picture below is from this story, but this is how I imagine Brer Fox looks at the end of most of the stories.

Mr. Fox outwitted again
(Illustration by A.B. Frost)

How Mr. Fox is Outdone by Mr. Buzzard: It's not just Brer Rabbit who gets the best of Brer Fox in these stories. Brer Fox had enlisted Brer Buzzard's help in catching Brer Rabbit, thinking he had caught him sleeping in a tree trunk. When it turns out he isn't there, Brer Fox turns on Brer Buzzard and catches him by the neck. It seems like it should be another easy win for Brer Fox; he just needs to take the ax he was using to fell the tree to chop Brer Buzzard's neck (I know that's violent, but this is something a typical villain would do). But, of course, that's not what Brer Fox does. After Brer Buzzard begs for a while, Brer Fox decides to grab him by the tail feathers before finishing him off. The tail feathers come right off and Brer Fox can't do anything but watch as another one gets away.

Mr. Wolf Makes a Failure: In this story, Brer Fox gets some help from Brer Wolf. The wolf in literature is another character that is often portrayed as clever or cunning. Two heads are supposed to be better than one, but Brer Rabbit still manages to outsmart both the antagonists in this tale. Really, it's mostly Brer Fox's fault. Brer Wolf's plan had worked perfectly: Brer Rabbit went to Brer Fox's house to see if he was really dead or not. Brer Wolf had told Brer Fox not to move at all until Brer Rabbit came up to put a hand on him, but the rabbit tricked him into moving by saying that real dead people kick their foot and make a noise. Brer Fox does exactly what Brer Rabbit says and the rabbit gets his tail out of there as fast as he can. If he had just followed Brer Wolfs's instructions, Brer Rabbit might have really believed the fox was dead and might have been caught for good. Not that I'm rooting for Brer Fox, it just seems to me that the title is incorrect; the fox was the one who failed, not the wolf.

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Here are my favorites from the second half of the Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) unit:

Schippeitaro: This was a nice story with a happy ending. It features a dog as the minor hero who lends his name to the title. He defeats the evil cat mountain spirit, who has been eating the village girls, with the help of the nameless main character. Although, he saves some poor girl from being eaten by the giant cat spirit, the girl mor her parents do not offer her to the man as a reward for his help. I liked this part of the story because, while I appreciate what the heroes in tales like this do, I don't think they need to be compensated with a wife. What if they don't get along? Sure, he was heroic, but what do you really know about the guy? Not much. 

The Crab and the Monkey: I liked this story because the crab's friends help right the injustice wrought upon her by the monkey. She was nice enough to share with him, but then he goes and takes advantage of her generosity and then nearly beats her to death when she tricks him into giving her some of the good fruit from her own tree. Thankfully, the egg (who makes friends with an egg, by the way?) shatters and pokes him in the eye, the wasp stings him on the nose, and the mortar falls on top of his head, a just reward (at least to me) for the monkey's foul treatment of the crab. The recurring theme of "greed leads to bad consequences" is carried out again in this Japanese fairy tale, but this time in animal form.

The Magic Kettle: This was such a sweet story where good things happen to good people and no one is greedy (and, therefore, needing to be punished). One man's neighbor tells him how to get rich off of the kettle he just bought which turns out to be a shape-shifting tanuki (the cute little creature in the picture below; however, a quite different version of the tanuki is featured in later stories), instead of taking the kettle for himself to get rich. Then, after the man does what his neighbor says and gets rich, the man feels like he should give some kind of compensation to the guy who gave him the means to his riches, so he gives him back the kettle with 100 gold pieces in it. How nice of him! It's refreshing to read such a positive fairy tale.

Cute Tanuki from The Magic Kettle
The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903)

The Slaying of the Tanuki: Unfortunately, the other tanuki tales are not nearly so positive. As you can see in the picture below, this version of the tanuki isn't quite so cute as the kettle one and he's not a very nice guy either. In this story, he steals food a man leaves out for his hare friend. When the man gets angry and captures the mischievous creature, the tanuki attacks the mans wife, puts her in a pot, changes himself to look like her, and then feeds the wife to the man. Yeah, very dark stuff. The man is obviously distraught at this and his friend, the hare, helps him get back at the tanuki by setting a pile of sticks on his back on fire and applying a stinging oil to the burn. Something I noticed about most of these stories is that they end by basically saying "everyone was happy and everything was good for the rest of their lives until they died." I like these kinds of endings much more than the very dark endings, like the one story where the guy realizes his parents have been dead for 300 years and he basically turns into a mummy and dies. Yikes.

Creepy tanuki from The Slaying of the Tanuki
The Crimson Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1903)

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Here are my favorite stories from the Japanese Fairy Tale (Lang) unit:

The Stonecutter: I liked this story because it had a good moral: be happy with what you have. This is a very relevant message even today. Our society is all about buying the newest TV, phone, car, clothes, shoes, basically everything. We can't be happy with what we have; we just bought the iPhone 6 but we're already getting ready for the iPhone 7. We need a bigger house, a bigger car, a bigger TV. The stonecutter is envious of what others have, but once he gets exactly what they have, he realizes that he still isn't happy. He keeps asking for more and more, but he still isn't happy, just like how buying more things doesn't make us happier (that's actually been scientifically proven). The ills of greed are actually a theme that ran through most of the stories in this first half of the unit.

The Envious Neighbor: This story was actually kind of sad but also continues the theme about what happens to greedy people. The neighbor kills the old couple's really sweet dog with an ax. Yes, you read that right. He chopped up a cute little dog with an ax!! Because the dog didn't lead the greedy neighbor to any gold in his garden. This guy is messed up. Thankfully, these Japanese fairy tales don't let evil doers get away with their evil deeds. While we don't get the details of what happens, we do get the satisfaction of knowing his life ends miserably because of his greed. The nice elderly couple lives happily ever after, although they did lose their beloved pet who was basically like a child to them.

The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue: This story also features a sadistic bad guy (or woman, in this case) who mutilates a loved pet (I'm realizing these stories are actually kind of dark). This time, it is a greedy wife that meets a much deserved end. She is an obnoxious person in general, but then she attacks her husband's pet bird and slits its tongue. The bird then escapes into the woods and the husband is heartbroken until he finds it again, but now it's a woman. This part reminds me of the Turkish fairy tales I read last week which included a lot of shape-shifting bird-ladies. Like the greedy neighbor in the previous story, the wife gets what's coming to her but we get the satisfaction of knowing the details this time. She manages to a get a large chest from the bird-woman, expecting it to be full of jewels, but is greeted instead by two snakes that bite her and poison her until she dies. Harsh? Maybe. But she did cut a harmless bird's tongue because she was jealous of it.

The Cat's Elopement: This story was so cute!! It's about kitty love, and I couldn't help imagining my cat, Sweetie, being the female cat. While the two kitty lovers do get separated at one point after being threatened by a dog, this story is actually a happy one for the most part, especially the ending which is basically "they all lived happily ever after." It's sort of like a cat version of Romeo and Juliet (but with a much happier ending) or Lady and the Tramp. I'd love to rewrite this story in a modern setting (maybe starring Sweetie!). Maybe she falls in love with another cat in the neighborhood, although I would hate for her to run away because they couldn't be together. I sympathize with the owners who won't sell their cats to each other (because they love their cats) so they could be together; I wouldn't sell Sweetie if someone offered. I don't think the cats needed to elope, though. The owners could have set up play dates for them so they could see each other, but I also understand that the two cats wanted to be together all the time. All in all, the two end up together in a nice palace with a caring princess owner. If cats could write fairy tales, I imagine they would write something like this.

The two cats explaining their story to the male cat's new princess owner

The Pink Fairy Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897)

Reading Diary B: Turkish Fairy Tales

Here are my favorite stories from the second half of the Turkish Fairy Tale unit:

The Imp of the Well: This was probably my favorite story of the unit because of how comical it was. The unpleasant, nagging wife is the biggest fiend in this tale, so much so that the mere idea of her being behind a nearby door is enough to scare away the other villain, the imp. She gets what she deserves for being so overbearing and rude to her husband in the beginning of the story, being left down a well without a second thought (this may sound harsh, but trust me, everyone is better off). The hardworking woodcutter is able to find a much more suitable bride and even protects another woman from unwanted intrusion by the imp that helped him (by scaring him off with a suggestion of his ex-wife being near).

The wife scares away husband and imp
Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos and illustrated byWilly Pogany (1913)

The Soothesayer: This story reminded me a little bit of a story from the Indian Fairy Tales unit called Harisarman. Both of the main characters are men pretending to be something they're not and a confession from a thief allows them to continue the charade without losing their lives. However, Harisarman was a greedy, jealous man and I wasn't happy he succeeded in fooling everyone. The soothesayer was pressured into pretending to be something he wasn't because his wife was petty and jealous of the treatment a real soothesayer's wife received in the local bath house. He was originally a hardworking man at his own craft and was only trying to please his ungrateful wife.

The Wizard and his Pupil: I feel bad for the wizard in this story because he didn't bring the trouble he receives upon himself. He was the one who was approached by the boy and his mother to take the lad as his apprentice. He taught the boy everything he knew. Then, the ungrateful apprentice abandons the wizard to seek his own fortune. I don't think the wizard should have tried to kill the boy, but he certainly didn't deserve to die either. In the end, the boy gets magic, money, and lives happily with his mom, but the wizard who made it all possible died after being betrayed by him. That doesn't seem like a fair outcome to me at all.

Kunterbunt: This story was so weird! At first it made no sense whatsoever, and I seriously questioned the literary significance of the tale. However, making one simple fact known not only makes sense of the plot but proves how brilliant of a story it actually is: it was all a dream! Real dreams can be very strange at times and make little or no sense once you wake up and recall what happened. Knowing this piece of information, I realized that the whole confusing first scenes really do read just like a retelling of a strange dream someone had. I like stories that keep you guessing and reading so you can find out what in the world is going on until you come across the one missing piece to the puzzle that makes everything clear, so I really enjoyed this tale.

Reading Diary A: Turkish Fairy Tales

Here are my favorite stories from the first half of the Turkish Fairy Tales reading unit:

Fear: After I got into the story a little bit, I realized this was very similar to a story that I'd read before written by the brothers Grimm, something about a boy who goes searching to figure out what fear is. I don't remember the Grimm version very well, but this version of the tale is creepy yet funny. This guy really isn't afraid of anything at first. An arm grabs him in a graveyard asking for the food he's making and he's just like, "Get your hand away from my food." I would have freaked out! Then a creepy ghost girl stands on his shoulders to try to make some other creepy ghost kid stop crying and almost strangles him with her feet, but the hero just falls over and takes her bracelet that fell on the floor. Then he jumps into the sea and beats up a sea witch terrorizing a ship with no qualms. And what ends up scaring this guy? A bird flying out into his face! Seriously?!

The Wizard-Dervish: This story also reminded me of something I had previously read, a story from the Indian Fairy Tales unit I read last week called The Prince and the Fakir. Both stories involve a king making a deal with a man who can do magic so that he can have a son (or two). The magic man helps the king but says he'll be back to take the son when he is a certain age. The magic man makes good on his promise and the boy is taken away. However, I found The Wizard-Dervish to be funnier and more of a kids story. I can just imagine a group of kids giggling each time the dervish's daughter changes herself and the prince into different things, people, or animals and tricking her mom (a witch who wasn't asked her permission for the two to get married). I also noticed a similarity between the first two stories of the unit that would actually show up in all the readings: shape-shifting bird-ladies. In all the stories, there is at least one woman who shape-shifts from some kind of animal into a woman, and in the last 3 stories she ends up marrying the main character.

The Fish-Peri: This time the shape-shifting woman takes the form of a fish. She is caught by the hero, put in a well he made, and turns into a woman while he is gone fishing to take care of his house. He catches her in her human form and burns the fish skin she shed so she can't transform back. Though she says he shouldn't have done that, she doesn't seem upset at all. In fact, the careless boy does several things she tells him not to do, but each time there really aren't any consequences for his actions. In most fairy tales, the inability to follow instructions leads to the failure of a character's task or the breaking of some sort of spell or agreement, ending with the main character being sad. Overall, this story was a little odd or different, but in a good way. The main guy marries a fish lady, there are donkeys hatching from eggs, a talking baby slapping a king, and an Arab who lives in the ocean, seems like a genie, and provides the talking baby as well as other impossible, magical feats.

Baby slapping the padishah (great king) from
Forty-four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos and illustrated byWilly Pogany (1913)

The Crow-Peri: This story and The Fish-Peri have a few similarities. The main characters are both males, have a shape-shifting guide that they end up marrying, and must complete impossible tasks (which they do successfully thanks to their guides). In this story, we have another shape-shifting bird-lady; what is it with Turkish fairy tales and shape-shifting bird-ladies? Also, what's with the 40 day time limit on impossible tasks? (The shah sets the same kind of time limit for some of the tasks in The Fish-Peri, too.) This one was probably my favorite story of all because more than one person gets a happy ending. The hero marries his bird-lady, the shah marries the peri queen, and the queen is reunited with her pet bird and ex-servant. Everybody wins, except for the greedy lala (court official). Just the way things should be!

Reading Diary B: Indian Fairy Tales

Here are my favorite stories from the second half of the Indian Fairy Tales reading unit:

The Talkative Tortoise: I thought this story was very funny. The main conflict of the plot is humorous: the king talks too much and his adviser doesn't know how to tell him so or teach him a lesson. Thankfully (and comically), a tortoise who also talks too much lands dead in the courtyard of the palace, a victim of his own inability to stop talking. And ta-da! Lesson learned for the king, the lesson being "if you talk too much, bad things will happen to you!" Besides the death of the tortoise, this seems very much like a children's cautionary tale: "Don't bother your mom by talking too much all the time or you might end up like the tortoise."

The Gold-Giving Serpent: This story reminds me of an Aesop tale, The Man and the Serpent. In both stories, a man wishes to reconcile with a snake after his son has done the snake harm and the snake killed the man's son. The man comes to the snake to try to make amends, but the snake says that they can't be friends anymore. I can't decide if the snake is showing wisdom or stubbornness. It is true that it is hard to forgive and forget, but the man seems to have done so and when, I believe, he was the more injured party (the snake killed his son!). While you probably can't go back to the way things were before you hurt each other, you could at least be able to be civil to one another.

Why the Fish Laughed: This story was a bit long but actually quite interesting. At first, you don't really understand what is going on. You don't know why the fish laughed and you don't really understand the vazier's son's odd sayings either. However, once you meet the farmer's daughter and she explains everything, things begin to make sense. I think the test to figure out which maid is actually a man is a tad sexist. "Men are better athletes so if a maid can jump over this ditch then she must actually be a man." So because women are weaker than men, they aren't as good of athletes? Why didn't they just check each one for, you know, sings of being a man? What if they killed an innocent women simply because she could jump really far??

How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner: I liked this story because it was very different from all the others. However, I'm not so sure I agree with its logic. Mother Star punishes the (son?) Sun by making its rays hot and people dislike it. I, personally, like the sun even when it is unbelievably hot outside. I'd much rather be really hot than freezing cold (like it is now), but this is just my personal preference. I don't live in Indian where the sun might be a good deal more punishing than it is even here in Oklahoma. She punishes the Wind by making it blow while it's hot and making people dislike it, too. Where we live, though, the wind is greatly appreciated in the summer because it usually provides a cool reprieve from the hot sun (but sometimes blows waaay too hard). Again, the conditions may be different in Indian where the wind might not be a cool breeze. Finally, Mother Star rewards the Moon (who brought her back food unlike the other two selfish beings) by putting her in the night sky to be "beloved." I don't really like nor dislike the moon. It is nice that it keeps the world from being totally dark at night, though.

The sun, the moon, and the wind at dinner
(John Batten)

Reading Diary A: Indian Fairy Tales

Here are my favorite stories from the first half of the Indian Fairy Tales unit:

The Lion and the Crane: This story reminds me very much of an Aesop fable that I read in my week 2 reading unit, The Wolf and the Crane. In both stories a crane removes a bone lodged in a predator's throat and asks for a reward for his good deed. Both predators reply that the cranes should be grateful that they stuck their heads in the mouths of predators and were able to bring them back out again without being devoured.While I understand the "be grateful" message, I feel like you deserve at least a "thank you" for helping someone out, especially if the one being helped is an enemy because the helper could have let their enemy suffer but chose to help them instead. I think the lion and the wolf are both very ungrateful themselves for the crane's help.

The Broken Pot: This story also reminds me of another Aesop fable called The Milkmaid and Her Pail. In both stories the main character is daydreaming about what they will do and buy once they sell their sole resource (i.e. a pail of milk in Aesop and a pot full of rice). However, while daydreaming, the two main characters accidentally lose their resource by spilling or breaking it. These stories seek to teach the reader not to count their chickens before they hatch. While you're busy dreaming about the future, you may overlook important details or be careless with your actions. However, it is best to stay focused on the task ahead and not rely too heavily on a certain resource for the root of future success; you never know what might happen. I wonder which of these stories came first. 

The Cruel Crane Outwitted: I'm glad the crane in this story gets a taste of his own medicine. His fatal flaw was his greed; if he had quit while he was ahead, he would have had a happy ending. However, he coveted the crab in the water and it is this crab that ends up taking his life. I think he deserves this fate, though, for tricking the fish and eating them all (although, I don't like the graphic mental imagery of a crab decapitating a crane. Yeesh).  BUT the fish should have known better than to trust the crane. One fish made it back to safety, one time. If it were me, I would have wanted some kind of proof that the previous fish had made it to the pond alive and were still alive there.

The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal: Dr. Gibbs was right! This is a wonderful fairy tale! I love that the jackal tricked the tiger into going back into the cage trap. I couldn't understand what the jackal was trying to accomplish by pretending to be confused but his plan worked perfectly. What I like about this story is that the trickster used his cunning to save an innocent person, in this case the Brahman. Usually, tricksters use their cunning to trick innocent people into making themselves vulnerable so that they may be devoured or taken advantage of. This is a great story and I would highly recommend that everyone read it, even if you don't read the whole unit. Just take a minute to read the one story and you won't regret it.

The Jackal tricks the Tiger into going back into the cage
(John D. Batten)

Reading Diary B: Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10)

Here are my favorites from the second half of Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10):

Orpheus and Eurydice: This is a sad story but it also seems like a turning point in the mood and themes of the unit. It kind of reminds me of that story from the bible where the guy is leaving a city and he's not supposed to look back at his wife, but he does and she turns into a pillar of salt. While the ending is tragic like so many other Greek myths, they kind of throw you a curve ball at the end. The narrator tells you how Orpheus never married again and you think, "Awww, how sad and sweet," but then they slip in at the end "Oh, by the way, he switched teams to men and was the first gay guy is Thrace." They just throw that last sentence in there and you don't really know what to think about it. It doesn't make me like the story any less, but it just makes it feel like the ending was rushed and there's probably an interesting story there that we don't get to hear.

Ganymede and Hyacinthus: This story was interesting because it was sort of an anomaly. Most of the time, the stories are about gods and their female lovers or goddesses and their male lovers, but this story is about two of the gods' male lovers. I didn't even know they had those until I read this story (although, it doesn't really surprise me because Zues/Jupiter has always been a very promiscuous character). Of course, the ending can't be too happy; it is a Greek myth after all. The male lover of the god Phoebus, named Hyacinthus, is killed when the earth throws Phoebus' discus back to him that Hyacinthis was going to retrieve and the discus ends up striking the boy in the head, killing him. Apparently, the male lovers of the gods are as prone to tragic ends as the female ones.

Pygmalion: This story is just odd. A guy falls in love with a statue he carved and Venus turns her into a real woman. But before that, he touches it and kisses it and puts clothes on it and lets it "sleep" in the bed with him as if it were a real person. If this story were to be told today, it would be about a creepy guy who treated a life-size doll or something like his girlfriend. If I were to rewrite the story, though, I would do something kind of like the movie Her. The guy (or girl) falls in love with a computer program or machine that (s)he created and it becomes a real person in a dream (s)he has. Overall, it was an interesting story but still very odd.

The Foot Race: The last story that caught my attention was about Hippomenes and Atalanta. The girl is literally running from being married and killing all the males who fail to beat her in a foot race, but she's so pretty that guys keep coming to race her. Hippomenes manages to beat her with some divine help, but it's alright because they are actually in love. If only the story had ended there. The two end up desecrating a sacred temple and are both turned into lions. Did any people in Greece NOT have a tragic tale of woe? Imagine being raised on these stories instead of the classic fairy tales we know and love. I think our ideas of life and love would be a lot different. Maybe I could do a story about that, about a modern day girl who is brought up on Greek myths instead of fairy tales and how her romantic relationships are affected by this. Would anyone be interested in reading that?

The Race between Hippomenes and Atalanta by Noël Hallé(Wikimedia Commons)

Reading Diary A: Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10)

Here are my favorite stories from the first half of Ovid's Meamorphoses (Books 8-10):

Philemon and Baucis: What I liked about this story was that it's one of the few where the usually wrathful gods are actually nice to some humans. Philemon and Baucis remind me of a sweet, hospitable old couple and their kindness to the gods Jupiter and Mercury causes them to spare the couple's lives. I guess they haven't completely given up their wrathful ways because they still flood and drown an entire neighborhood because the people didn't let them into their homes, but at least they didn't punish Philemon and Baucis for the mistakes of others. I also liked their transformation into trees so that they did not really die and can continue to be next to each other.

Ceres and Erysichthon: This is one of the stories where I feel like the human victim of the god(dess) really did deserve their fate and instead of pitying him, I feel like justice was served. What made this story a favorite, though, was the story idea I got from it. If I were to rewrite this story, I would update it, giving it a modern twist. In our society's desire for commercial expansion, a lot of the environment (including important habitats for certain animals) has been demolished to make way for strip malls and hotels and casinos and other commercial buildings. Along with this destruction of nature, we also seem to have this unquenchable need for material goods, which is a lot like the hunger (famine) Ceres plagued Erysichthon with (I'm pretty sure, I don't know how to correctly pronounce either of those names, but at least I can just spell them in a blog post).

Achelous: I found this story to be a little bit humorous. Achleous insults Hercules, his parentage, and even mocks the feats he has accomplished seemingly because he's not a god, just a demigod. I understand that a certain amount of pride comes with being a god, but in this case, Achelous had to put his money where his mouth was and it didn't work out very well for the "almighty" god in this story. While Hercules may not be a god, he sure has superhuman strength, not to mention a fine set of combat skills from all the trials he overcame successfully. To put it plainly, Achelous talked crap about Hercules and got his tail whipped for it (he even lost a horn which Hercules snapped right off his forehead).  There are several different lessons one can take away from this story, like the downfall of pride, being able to back up your words, and how words can have consequences.

The Death of Hercules: I have mixed feelings about this story because it is quite sad and gruesome. A dying Hercules, in immense pain from a poisoned shirt, decides to burn himself on a pyre to relive his suffering. Hercules is a great hero so this is a sad way for his epic story to end. However, the feeling is reduced by the gesture of Zues/Jupiter who takes the immortal part of him and puts it in the sky as a constellation. Jealous Hera/Juno does not speak out against the action, even though she has hated Hercules and put him through many trials throughout his life. In fact, it is overcoming her many trials that made him famous throughout Greece and beloved by the gods. Although, you can hardly blame Hera for hating him since he is one of the many illegitimate children her husband has had. Still, he didn't deserve her wrath or his painful death, but at least he was immortalized in the sky.

Hercules on Mount Oeta
(Stories from the Greek Tragedians)

Reading Diary B: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

Here are my favorite stories from the second half of Aesop's Fables (Jacobs).

Birds, Part 2: The Cock and the Pearl is a fable I had never read before but was a happy edition to my previous knowledge. I tend to agree with those that think that the rooster is being practical by rejecting the pearl in favor of food. Honestly, what can a rooster do with a pearl? He probably can't trade it to another animal because other animals have no need or use for it either. Maybe in the make-believe world of Aesop he could trade it to a human for food (since in that world basically anything can talk), but I like to think of the moral (precious things are for those that can prize them) in terms of the real world. To a rooster, a heap of corn is a precious thing; to a person, corn would not be nearly so valuable as a pearl. Why should the rooster keep the pearl (something precious to others) when it is not of value to himself?

Crane's illustration of The Cock and the Pearl

Another story that I liked from this same section of reading was The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts. The bat tries to be on both sides of the war between birds and beasts, but ends up being disliked by both sides, the moral being he that is neither one thing nor the other has no friends. This story reminded me of Wormtail (a.k.a. Peter Pettigrew) from the Harry Potter series. He really didn't belong to either side of the first Wizarding War; he was only trying to be on the more powerful side. He flip-flopped allegiances and then went into hiding when Voldemort was supposedly dead. When Wormtail met his old Hogwarts friends, he was despised and nearly killed. When he went running back to Voldemort, he was treated poorly because the Dark Lord knew he was not a true follower. Being neither really on one side nor the other, Peter was left with no friends. (I also wonder if he disliked that, for the most part, he was only called Wormtail and not Peter)

Insects, Snakes, Crabs: I'm particularly fond of The Ant and the Grasshopper because I could connect it with things in my own life. I am definitely the ant and my boyfriend would certainly be the grasshopper. I'm a big planner and go-getter. I want to know what needs to be done and when, and I get it done. My boyfriend likes to "fly by the seat of his pants;" he does everything at the last minute, hardly ever planning, and sometimes things just don't get done. While I might say, "It will get done whenever it gets done," he might say, "It'll get done or it won't get done." I also wonder if this story had any influence on the Disney movie A Bug's Life in which the ants are hard workers and the lazy grasshoppers use their size to intimidate the ants into gathering food for them. The more I think about it the more I think this might be true, but I will have to do some research to find out for sure.

Family and Friends: After reading this story and asking myself a crucial question, I decided that the story I will rewrite this week is The Bundle of Sticks. When I came to the end of the story, I couldn't help thinking, "Well, that's a nice message, but what would he say to his daughters, if he had any?" I don't know and it's not explicitly stated whether or not the dying man in the story has any daughters, but when I imagined he did have daughters that he didn't give this important message to, I was a little upset. I imagined him thinking that this was a lesson about strength, so it didn't pertain to his daughters who didn't need to be strong. In the recent trailer for the new, live action Cinderella movie, Cinderella's mother, while on her deathbed, tells her daughter to always be kind. While kindness is a great trait, it should not only be taught to girls but to boys as well; the same can be said of strength being taught to boys as well as girls. So in my story, the dying father will give equal advice to all his children (or something like that, the final story may be different than my rough idea here).

People Wise and Foolish, Part 2: The last story I really enjoyed was The Miser and His Gold because its moral echoes a feeling I have always had about greedy people: wealth unused might as well not exist. What's the point of having all that money if you're not going to use it for anything? Many portrayals of Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol often depict the miser in plain close and living in a rundown mansion. He has piles and piles of gold but he's so greedy that he won't spend even a small bit of it to keep up his house and himself. I get that once greedy people have money, they usually aren't too keen to get rid of it quickly, but the whole point of having money is to use it to buy things you need or want. If you don't use it, you might as well not have it at all for all the good it does you. Sure, you can say that you're rich, but you don't have any of the benefits of having that money if you don't spend it. I may seem displeased, but I'm actually glad that somebody understands my annoyance with the flawed logic of misers.

Reading Diary A: Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

Here were my favorite stories from Aesop's Fables (Jacobs):

Lions, Part 1: One story I really liked was The Lion and the Statue. In the story, a man attempts to prove to a lion that humans are stronger by showing him a statue of Hercules defeating a lion, but the lion replies that if the statue was made by a lion then the victor would be the lion. The moral of the story is, "We can easily represent things as we wish them to be." I like this story because I recognize an element of psychology (my major) in it. There have been many studies about how we perceive things so that they are favorable to us or how we expect/want them to be. In the picture below, you can see Crane's illustration for the story as well as read the limerick version of the story.

The Lion and the Statue illustrated by Walter Crane

Lions, Part 2: Another story I enjoyed was The Lion in Love. One of the reasons is a bit of a comical connection to The Lion and the Statue: the strength of men boasted of by the man (intelligence) actually does allow some humans to overpower a lion. I also like the moral because it is so true: love can tame the wildest. Although it was sad, I also liked the bit of realism of the love story not working out. Love makes us vulnerable, especially the "wild ones" who must be tamed by love, and sometimes this vulnerability allows us to get hurt when feelings are unrequited or a relationship just doesn't work out. I could easily see myself rewriting this story with a person metaphorically taming themselves for love and ultimately being rejected.

Foxes, Part 1: The Fox and the Mask was another story I liked because of its moral (Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth). It's very relevant today because our society can be overly concerned about appearances, but a pretty face or nice house or nice clothes do not mean necessarily that someone is a good person "on the inside." They may be vain, greedy, ignorant, shallow, or just plain unpleasant, but you can't tell just by looking at them. I could also imagine rewriting this story so that a person makes an initial judgment about someone or something but soon finds out that sometimes outward appearance masks a lack of inner worth or quality.

Wolves: The Dog and the Wolf.What I liked about this story was that it made me think critically and ask questions. The moral of this story is, "Better starve free than to be a fat slave." This made me think of the price we pay or the sacrifices we make for freedom and luxury. People will lay down their lives to fight wars for freedom or the ability to govern themselves, like during the American Revolution. After the colonies were free from British rule, they were also without the protection of the British Empire. In the same way, we usually must pay a price for luxury. For the dog, this means giving up his freedom; for us, it could mean giving up time with our families to earn money.

Mice: The last story is one that most people know--The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse. It is similar to The Dog and the Wolf in its message; its moral explains, "Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear." Again, we see the theme of giving up something (in this case, safety) in order to enjoy some kind of luxury (in this case, high quality food). I could potentially do a rewriting of both stories, with the main character encountering two people: one who gives up freedom for food and another who lives dangerously in order to eat quality food. The main character would rather be free and eat less-than-great food than to have a master or fear for his life.