Reading Diary Week 4: Persian Tales

Below I have presented my favorite stories from Persian Tales.

            The first story that I read that I thought was interesting was called, The Wolf and the Goat. This story started out as a wolf disguising himself as a mother to 4 baby goats and so they let him in. He then takes 3 of them and is planning to eat them, the mother goat fights back and ends up saving her babies and killing the wolf. I think the central message that is being taught in this story is to not try and pretend to be someone else to get something because it will more than likely come back to haunt you. In this story the goat prevailed and the wolf was punished for his decisions.

            The next story I thought was interesting was The Wolf-Aunt. This story was interesting because it was about a man, his wife and their seven daughters who had nothing but all worked very hard. He came across what he thought was his long lost sister one day and she was full of wealth. She invited him and his family in and gave them all the food and clothing they could imagine. It turned out that the long lost sister was actually a wolf that was trying to “plump” his family up to eat them. The wife and seven daughters escaped but the wolf ended up eating the husband. This ending was very abrupt and kind of shocked me; I thought they were all going to escape. I think the overall message to take from this story is that you need to listen to those you trust on things.

            Another story I read that was interesting to me was The Praying Baker. In this story a king’s ring was lost but while in the possession of a baker so the king gives the baker ten days to find it or to replace it by the dollar amount. A fish swallows the ring, and on the eve of the ninth day the baker and his wife decide to have fish as his last meal. His wife cuts open a fish and then the ring falls out, the baker rushes it to the king and he is rewarded with many riches. I think the overall message of this story is to stay humble and work hard in what you do.

            The final story that stood out to me as I was reading this was The Man Who Went to Wake His Luck. This story was interesting to me because it was about how a poor brother was out on a quest to search for his luck. Along the way people ask him why their luck is not there. He says he will ask his luck when he reaches him. He eventually does and his luck is sleeping in a cave, so he wakes him up and asks all the other peoples question but not his own. As he leaves and travels back he tells them all the solution to their problem and it turns out he ends up getting eaten by a wolf. One trend that I’ve noticed in a lot of these stories is that there is a wolf character present.