Week 2 Extra Credit Reading Notes
For my Week 2 extra credit reading, I chose to focus on a couple of stories. Both stories are from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse.
The first story I wanted to take notes over was The Mouse and the Farmer. On a side note I like the fact that most of these stories use animals to convey human thoughts and emotions, and often the humans are the unintelligent ones in the story. Regardless, my first thought about this story and many of the other stories was how much luck and randomness seems to be involved. I understand that the point of the stories are to convey a certain lesson or moral, but in this story for example, how unlikely is it that the farmer's land is completely covered in gold that he's just not aware of. And that the only reason the gold is included in the story is to eventually lead to the cat being overly greedy about food. I know I'm overanalyzing this but it, like many of the other stories, seem like quite a stretch to get simple ideas across, similar to many of the tall tales we were all told as children. The other thing that was interesting to me, which also occurs in many of the other stories, is the odd ways in which the characters in the story are killed. It's never something simple, it's always a "magical axe", or starvation, or in this case, swallowing a glass object. Many of the stories seem to end in death, and this was no exception.
The second story I wanted to take notes over was The Wise Parrot and the Foolish Parrot. Another theme that was interesting to me which is emphasized in multiple stories is the importance and value of keeping one's mouth shut. Especially in this story, the wise parrot is the one who says nothing and just observes patiently, while the foolish parrot is the one who is constantly talking. This was interesting to me because in this story, the foolish parrot is technically doing his job and what is owner asked him to do, he just does it in a slightly obnoxious manner. He is then punished for it, while the wise parrot, who doesn't quite do what his owner asked him to, is rewarded for saying nothing. This emphasis on silence and patience is a recurring idea throughout these stories, and felt important enough for me to mention in my notes. This was also one of the few stories that didn't end in death, but rather the maid just being fired. Still a dramatic exit, just not quite the same.
The first story I wanted to take notes over was The Mouse and the Farmer. On a side note I like the fact that most of these stories use animals to convey human thoughts and emotions, and often the humans are the unintelligent ones in the story. Regardless, my first thought about this story and many of the other stories was how much luck and randomness seems to be involved. I understand that the point of the stories are to convey a certain lesson or moral, but in this story for example, how unlikely is it that the farmer's land is completely covered in gold that he's just not aware of. And that the only reason the gold is included in the story is to eventually lead to the cat being overly greedy about food. I know I'm overanalyzing this but it, like many of the other stories, seem like quite a stretch to get simple ideas across, similar to many of the tall tales we were all told as children. The other thing that was interesting to me, which also occurs in many of the other stories, is the odd ways in which the characters in the story are killed. It's never something simple, it's always a "magical axe", or starvation, or in this case, swallowing a glass object. Many of the stories seem to end in death, and this was no exception.
The second story I wanted to take notes over was The Wise Parrot and the Foolish Parrot. Another theme that was interesting to me which is emphasized in multiple stories is the importance and value of keeping one's mouth shut. Especially in this story, the wise parrot is the one who says nothing and just observes patiently, while the foolish parrot is the one who is constantly talking. This was interesting to me because in this story, the foolish parrot is technically doing his job and what is owner asked him to do, he just does it in a slightly obnoxious manner. He is then punished for it, while the wise parrot, who doesn't quite do what his owner asked him to, is rewarded for saying nothing. This emphasis on silence and patience is a recurring idea throughout these stories, and felt important enough for me to mention in my notes. This was also one of the few stories that didn't end in death, but rather the maid just being fired. Still a dramatic exit, just not quite the same.
Image of Two Parrots and their Owner
Comments
Post a Comment