Essay: Tragedy in the Folktales of Laos

    In the Folktales of Laos, there were a lot of tragedies. For instance in the Lover's Leap, the story ended in the main characters' death. The Lover's Leap is a romantic tragedy. The story begins with a young man who falls in love with a maiden. The maiden loves him as well. Because the maiden's father would never allow this romantic relationship, they kept their love a secret. Believing that he has his daughter under control, the father throws a feast in celebration of this. While feasting, the daughter steps out and runs into the young man. The young man asks for her hand in marriage. She accepts. They decide to run away. Word got out that the two lovers were running away. This infuriated the father. He decided to go after them. With the father nearing them, the two lovers had a decision to make: go back or leap over to the other side of the cliff. They decided to take their chances and make the leap. Sadly, they missed the opposite cliff and fell to their death.
   This story was tragic because of the death of the two lovers. These two characters were innocent and deserved to be happy. They were young and never really got to experience life whereas the father who is old and has experienced life gets to live on. This seems kind of unfair to me.

(Lover's Leap)

    Another story that was tragic was the story of the One Woman. This story was tragic because in this story the bad-guy wins. This story is about a woman who uses her beauty and craftiness to manipulate her suitors to do her bidding. The men are so blinded by love they will do anything for her. This unfortunately leads to their downfall and the prevail of the woman. The story ended with the woman living richly in a beautiful home.
    The One Woman is a tragic story because it just seems unfair to me. These men were characterized as loyal and hard-working who were just blinded by love. In contrast the woman is described as deceitful, manipulative, and selfish. It is tragic that the good people lose and the bad people win.

Essay: Tricksters in nigerian Folk Stories

In the Nigerian Folk Stories, there were quite a few tricksters. For instance in The Pretty Stranger who Killed the King story a witch turned herself into beautiful woman in order to seduce the King. The King of this story was a greedy and selfish man. He gained his riches by enslaving people. This angered the people of Itu. The plotted to get rid of the King with the help of a witch. With magic, the witch turned herself into a beautiful woman and tricked the King into marrying. While the King was asleep the witch cut his head off.

Another trickster that can be found in this reading unit is the skull in The Disobedient Daughter who Married a Skull. In this story a skull falls in love with a beautiful young lady. The Skull knew that the girl would never fall for someone like him for he is scary and ugly looking. So to seduce the girl, the Skull borrowed different human body parts that when put together made him into an attractive man. The Skull was successful in seducing the girl and was able to bring her home into her his world -- the spirit land. As soon as the entered the spirit land the Skull's true form was revealed and the girl realized that she had been tricked.

(Skull)

A third trickster can also be found in the story of Why the Bat flies by Night. In this story a Bat tricks a rat into boiling himself. He does this by telling the rat that if you boil yourself before you cook the actual food, the food will be sweeter. The rat believes him and consequently boils himself to death. Because of this the bat is a wanted animal and therefore can only go out at night when no one can see him.

Essay: Tricksters in Bengal Fairy Tales

Bengal Fairy Tales Table of Contents

In this particular unit, there were a lot of supernatural happenings. For instance, in A Ghostly Wife there was a ghost. The ghost in this story was a "trickster." She hid the Brahman's wife in a tree and took her place as the Brahman's wife. She did this by putting on the wife's clothes to fool the Brahman and the mother-in-law and it worked. For some time the ghost lived peacefully with the Brahman and the mother-in-law without raising any suspicions.

Eventually though, the ghost could not resist her supernatural instincts. For an example, when asked to obtain something that was in a different room or far from reach, the ghost would unconsciously stretch her hand several yards distance to get it; this is not something a human-being could do. Having witnessing this, the Brahman and mother-in-law realized that this was a ghost and that they have been tricked. They invited an exorcist and were able to force information out of the ghost about the whereabouts of the wife.

Another trickster in the Bengal Fairy Tales was a young lady in the The Boy whom Seven Mothers Suckled. This young lady used her beauty to trick or blind the king into falling in love with her so that she may be queen. The young lady appeared to be beautiful, innocent, and having good intentions but really she was a Rackshasi, which is a Hindu demon.

The king blind with love married the young lady and made her queen. The young lady had such power over the king; he would do anything for her. For instance, he attempted to kill all seven of his previous queens just for her. The demonic young lady brought mischief and chaos on the kingdom under her ruling.

I guess the moral of this unit is to be careful who you trust.

(The Ghost and Brahman's Wife)

Essay: Heroes and Bad guys in Ancient Egypt

    In the unit of Ancient Egypt, there were a couple of heroes and bad guys but I will just talk about one particular hero ad bad guy that stood out to me-- Osiris and Set, respectively. The Ancient Egypt talks about the creation of the universe and Earth, the God Ra, and Goddesses. It is not until the chapter Osiris that the magnitude of Osiris's heroism is portrayed.
    In Osiris, the earth is illustrated as wicked and evil.The inhabitants of Earth are sinful and are not grateful of the Gods; it is chaotic on Earth. The God Ra was too old to handle this wickedness and thus Osiris took his place on the throne. Under Osiris's ruling the land of Egypt lived peacefully. He decreed laws and wisdom among the people. This allowed the population to live happily and peacefully. Osiris also taught the people how to utilize the land in their advantage. The land and people lived prosperously under his ruling.
    I characterize Osiris as a hero because he fulfills the traits of a hero: virtuous, just, wise, and courage. He is a role model to the people of Egypt. When he came to Egypt he probably encountered temptations and peer pressure. Despite the evil luring he sturdily stood his ground and implemented wisdom and justice. This to me is heroism. Fighting some epic battle or enduring torture are not the only definitions of heroism. Being able to withhold one's value despite external pressures is one though.
    In The Death of Osiris, Set appears with a bigger role; he is the bad guy in this story. Set is driven by jealousy. He is jealous of Osiris and his glory and thus wishes him dead. Set nails Osiris shut into a coffin, killing him, and carries him away. I chose Set as the bad guy because anyone that let's jealousy lead him/ her is only making trouble. Set killed an innocent man and went on to rule Egypt wickedly. Set is selfish, jealous, and violent; I believe these are characteristics of a bad guy.

(Horus, Osiris, Isis)

Essay: Parents/Elders and Children

    I really enjoyed this unit, Ovid's Metamorphoses. The story of Daedalus and Icarus stood out to me out of all the other stories. Reading this particular story, I believe that the moral of Daedalus and Icarus was it is important to respect and listen to your elders. It was clear from reading the story,  that Daedalus is a wise, intellectual, and practical man. Daedalus created the complex Labyrinth which housed the dangerous Minotaur. This is a great feat.
    Daedalus created wings for himself and his son to use to escape from imprisonment. He made the wings and thus one would think that Icarus would listen to Daedalus's instructions. He knows firsthand how the wings work; he made them. But Icarus succumbed into his curiosity and ignored his father's command. As a result, Icarus fell to his death.
   There is a reason people seek counsel from elders or parents. They have experienced life and therefore knows how life works. They know what life offers and what it takes away. Even though some elders may have not received a high education they are still wise in that they know how to survive and respond to certain situations that adolescents have yet to experience. These are things that one cannot simply learn from books or school. Experience is one of the best ways to learn. And elders have tons of experience.
     Children can sometimes look down at their parents or ignore their advice because they believe they know what is best for themselves, when really they do not. In this case, Icarus was so driven by curiosity he forgot his father's instruction and carelessly flew toward the sun. He believed he knew what was best for him. He thought that he was better than his father and therefore was capable of flying higher up. Icarus believed that his father was just being overprotective and hindering him from his full potential.
    Icarus's downfall was a result of his lack of obedience towards his father's command. The story of Daedalus and Icarus is a lesson to all of us that we should respect and listen to our parents or elders.

(Daedalus and Icarus)