Essay Week 7: Assess the Unit

Assess the reading unit:

This week I decided to pick the reading unit Stories From Congo. Unfortunately due to this being a very busy week I was only able to read half of the overall unit. I decided to read the second half of the reading. I think that the overall way these stories were written and the language that was used was useful to the unit’s success. I really overall enjoyed the stories that I read, many of which included animals. This was a unit that was interesting to me because I have never read any pieces that are from the ‘Congo’. I think it is so important to read stories from other cultures in order to broaden our knowledge.

Source: Flickr

One of the most interesting stories I read in this unit was The Turtle and Man. The main messages that I took from this story was to always be true to your word. I think that when you say you will do something it is very important to always go through with that.

I think that a common theme that can be seen in this overall unit it that most of the stories portray some kind of moral message. It is very useful to preach these messages through the use of animals because they catch people’s attention.

I had a fun time retelling the story The Leopard and the Crocodile. I was able to retell it through a different voice. I did decide to keep most of the main elements the same but change the ending outcome.

I had a lot of fun with this unit and I think that I was able to read several stories that were different than anything I have ever read before! Because I enjoyed the second half of this unit so much I think I will go back and read the first half just for fun!

Reading Diary Week 7: Congo

Below I have presented half of my favorite stories from Storiesfrom Congo.

The first story that I read and thought was interesting was The Turtle and the Man. This story was about a turtle that teamed up with a man and they built one large trap they then decided to split it up in to two separate smaller traps. The turtle picked the better of the two and caught an antelope that night. Then tricked an ox in to helping him prepare it in exchange for sharing the meat, the ox helped but then the turtle said he would receive nothing. Out of anger the ox went to ruin the turtles trap but got killed by it instead. The along came a leopard and the same thing happened to him except he wasn’t really dead and ended up biting off the turtles head. I think that the moral of this story is to really stand by what you say and not go back on your words or promises.

The next story I thought was interesting was The Leopard and the Crocodile. This story was about how a man who had many wives was having a hard time feeding all of them so he asked that the leopard catch him meet and he would provide him and him only palm-nuts. Then the man made this same promise to the crocodile, the animals held up their end of the bargain and gave the man all the meet he could want. One day though the animals grew tired of all the palm-nuts and so they asked for dog meat, the man knew he could not provide. So he told each of them to go to the same place, they both showed up and had never seen a dog before so they each thought each other was a dog. They fought and fought and the man called the whole town to watch. The animals ended up killing each other and the town rejoiced.

The final story I enjoyed from the second half of the reading was The Three Brothers. This story was about a woman who had three sons but could not take care of them so she laid them in a grassy field and left. They ended up growing up strong and wise thanks to the river spirit that guided them. The river spirit also provided them with wives and they created a whole town. One day their father saw them from afar and ran home to their mother to tell her the news. The following day they set out to find them, the mother walked as long as she could before passing out. Then the boys took her in to their home and fed her and helped to get her better.

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.