Week 6 Essay: Filipino Stories

This week I read stories from the unit Filipino Popular Tales, for my essay post I have chosen to assess this unit as a whole. The initial reason that I chose this unit over all the others was because I thought that the fact that they were Filipino stories was very interesting. I knew that I had never read anything that was of Filipino origin so I thought it would be interesting to read about them.

Source: Wikipedia

(The flag of the Philippines) 

 One of my favorite stories from this unit was The Clever Husband and Wife. I enjoyed this story because it was kind of funny how the husband and wife were both being ‘tricksters’ to their bosses. As many would think (and I thought while reading this story) that tricking an employer would not turn out to be in your favor. Well in this case it did. The bosses though the whole scheme was funny and decided to offer the two a place to live free of charge.

One thing that I feel people should know before picking this unit to read is that a lot of the stories had animal’s characters that depicted various personas. For example there was a crocodile and monkey in a story together trying to gain something from each other. There was also a monkey that married a man and then became a beautiful woman later on in their relationship.

I think that the ever-persistent presence of monkeys in the majority of these stories is relevant because monkeys are very popular creatures in the Filipino lands. I think it is important to notice trends in the stories within the larger story because it allows you to see some element of consistency and connection. Overall this unit did meet my expectations because it allowed to me learn some more about a new culture that I had no knowledge of prior to reading.

Week 6 Storytelling: Lessons Learned

Once upon a time there was monkey and a crocodile, they lived near the same river but they did not get along at all. The monkey was young and wild, while the crocodile was old and wise. The monkey loved to tease him and disrupt the silence by swinging through the trees and singing at the top of his lungs. Now the old crocodile thought this was rather foolish of the monkey, so he thought he would try to teach him a lesson.

So the next day the monkey began his day as he did any other, he woke up and started to swing through the trees. He also found it his duty to wake everyone else up in jungle. He was singing and singing and then all of a sudden the old wise crocodile woke up.

He crawled about on the group searching for what tree the monkey was currently in, he found him and began calling out for the monkey’s attention. He called for the monkey and asked him to come down from the tree, the monkey laughed and kept on swinging through the trees. This angered the crocodile because he felt that he had given the monkey a chance to learn a lesson the nice way but now he knew there was only one option left.

Source: Wikipedia

(The crocodile waiting to locate the monkey)

The next night the crocodile was waiting for the monkey to fall asleep and when he finally did the crocodile swung his strong tail and hit the tree and the monkey came tumbling down. The monkey awoke in surprise and fear and then the crocodile ate him at once. The crocodile felt that this was the only way that the lesson could be taught.

From that night on all of the animals in the jungle knew it was best for them to listen to the words of wisdom of the old wise crocodile.

Authors note: I am retelling the story of The Monkey and the Crocodile. In the original story there was a monkey that needed to cross over to the other side of the river and so he asked the crocodile if he could take a ride on his back, the crocodile agreed. The monkey told him that if he took him across the river that he would lead him to all of the monkeys that he could ever dream of to eat. Once he was across the monkey jumped off his back and climbed straight in to a tree and laughed at him. I decided to keep some of the characters the same but I also decided to change the plot a little bit to put my own spin on it.

Bibliography: Filipino Popular Tales by Dean Fansler (1921).

Week 6 Reading Diary: Filipino Stories

Below I have presented my favorite stories from Filipino Popular Tales.

In the story The Clever Husband and Wife it seems that the story is being told from an outsiders perspective. It is about how a husband and wife get married and they have nothing at all so the husband keeps asking his employer for money. He approaches the employer several times making up excuse after excuse in order to gain more money. Then finally he ran out of excuses so he pretended that his wife had passed so he could gain money to give her a proper burial, then the wife did the same thing to her employer. Then the two employers got suspicious so they went to the house only to find that both husband were alive and well, they found it to be a funny joke so they let them live with them.

In the story Chonguita the story also seems to be being told by an outsiders point of view. This story is about a king that has three sons, he sends them all out to find their wives. Two of the sons found “normal” wives but one ended up marrying a monkey. The wives went through several trials and tasks assigned by the king but the money wife succeeded in every challenge and so the king crowned her husband the new heir to the thrown. The monkey wife ended up turning in to a beautiful woman at the end of story.

The story The Enchanted Prince is about a prince who falls in love with a witch but his father forces him to marry another girl. The witch gets angry so she places several spells on the city and the prince and makes him a monkey for five centuries. Only can the spell be broken when the time has passed and he has a girl fall in love with him.

In the story The Monkey and the Crocodile there is a monkey that is needed to cross a large river but he cannot do it by himself so he seeks out a large crocodile that can help him. He convinces the crocodile to let him ride on his back across the river and then the monkey will lead him to all the monkeys in he could dream of eating. The crocodile agrees and swims him across, then the monkey jumps off his back and climbs to a tree and laughs at the crocodile. Later on the monkey thinks the crocodile is dead so approaches him but then the crocodile attacks, later on they learn not to take the advice of others but to rather learn to trust yourself.

In the story The Ant there is a snake that goes up to God and asks him for power of poison in order to keep order in the village. God grants him the privilege of poison and so he goes back and brags to all, then the ant asks for the same power from God. He initially grants the ant the power and then the ant doesn’t listen to God so he lessens his power.

The Lost Necklace was a story about a crow that bought a very nice and fancy necklace. He then went to show it off to a hen, the hen asked to borrow the necklace. The crow allowed, then the next day the crow returned to get it back, but the hen had lost it. So the crow said he would eat one of her hens each day until he was repaid.

Week 5: Styles

Styles that interest me for my Portfolio project:

Telling the story as a villain. This is one of the topics that I thought could be interesting for the original storybook idea. I think that this is an interesting style to use to retell a story mainly because it gives the reader a very interesting perspective to hear and visualize it from. The villain can be very one sided and make it seem that they have done nothing wrong, so I feel this could be an interesting approach to take!

            One story I read that was titled Alexander the Great, Reborn! used the style of “futuristic” to tell the story. I think the main thing that draws me to this style is that most of the stories we are reading in the Un-Textbook are very old and told in very old grammar and language. I think it could be really fun to retell these stories and put somewhat of a futuristic spin on them to help modernize them. I also think it could be a style that has an advantage because if the stories are being told in a manner that “we” now days can really follow we are more likely to be engaged and want to know more!

            The story The Towers That Be took a very interesting approach on choosing a style; the story was told through inanimate objects. I think that this style choice is very interesting because it allows for something that is not necessarily apart of the story to be the one telling it, so like an outsider. With that kind of a style I think the storyteller will be much less bias because they are not directly involved in the story. I think this would be an interesting style to try out and play around with!

            In the story Delilah's Radio Hour, the author took on the approach of telling the story through an interview approach. I think that this can be a very useful approach to telling a story because it involves at least two characters heavily and really allows for direct questions and information to be asked and obtained allowing for clarity. I also think the radio interview approach is more modern and so it can put a fun new spin on a story that may be a bit older and dry. It is so important to find a style that will really catch your reader and draw them in. I think this approach could really do just that, so it is one that I will definitely be considering when I edit my portfolio stories each week!

            One story that really caught my eye was Rate my Rishi, this story used the style of telling it though a social media aspect. I think this approach is interesting because social media is something that is so prevalent and popular in the society that we live in today so it will always attract people. I also think the “rate my professor” spin off idea was great because that is something that we all use in this day and age to figure out who we what as our teachers before we enroll each semester.

            The final style idea that I really thought was interesting was seen in the story; Legendary Heroines: The Diary Accounts of Four Courageous Women. This story used the style of writing in a diary, the thing that drew me to this style is that it allows for multiple people to do entries in one area and also allows for entries to be done at various times. I think allowing for different times can definitely be a strong suit for a story because it can show progression of the story.

            

Storytelling Week 5: The Ring

Once upon a time there was prince who was about to take over the kingdom as his father was very ill and didn’t have much time left. The only thing he was missing was his beautiful queen to help him rule all of the lands. . .

Days passed and his father grew sicker and sicker, all his father wanted was to know he was leaving his kingdom in good hands, so he gave a green jewel ring to his son and told him “this ring will lead you to your wife”. The son did not believe that his would work nor did he understand how it would play out but he wanted to make his father happy so he devised a plan.

Source: The Green Jewel Ring

 The next morning he called upon his scribe to gather ten of the most beautiful women in the land and bring them before him. The scribe did as he was told, and once they had all arrived in the palace the prince informed them that they would be going on a boat ride.

Once on the water the prince was talking and getting to know all of the women but nothing seemed special. He was holding the ring his father had given him and as he was gazing at its beauty they hit the river bank and the sudden thump knocked the ring out of the princes hand and in to the water! He had no idea what to do and couldn’t spot it anywhere. He knew how disappointed his father was going to be, but then out of nowhere one of the girls spotted it floating on a lily pad and picked it up.

The prince immediately knew that this was the sign his father had prepared him for and he ran to the girl and asked for her hand in marriage and to help him rule the kingdom. She accepted and they lived happily ever after.

The end.

Authors note: I am translating the story of The Green Jewel. I decided to get pretty creative with my storytelling this week. In the original story a price is having women row a boat for him and one of the girls loses her green jewel in the river. Then the scribe is able to part the river and she gets her ring back. I decided to keep the green jewel ring constant but overall kind of change the whole storyline. I had a lot of fun interpreting this story and changing parts to make it different!

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend Ronald Mackenzie (1907)