Indian Epics by Reid

And here I am going back in time to week 14 to finish the semester. I wanted to take this last post to go back over the Jataka Tales and why I think they are so important. Every culture has their own stories they tell children. Some more than others are more direct on the messages they're trying to send, but to me, it makes it better that these are so direct. When we want to be able to raise someone with the right values or ethics, it's important to start getting that across to them early. Compare the tales to that on the old lady who swallowed a fly that some of us grew up with. Where swallowing a fly, then other things to cover the last thing swallowed leads us to see that you cant just keep using something to take care of the next thing. At some point we need to stop and hit a stable point instead of digging a deeper hole for ourselves. It can be hard to understand that for someone younger reading. In these tales I read in class, it's very deliberate on how blunt

And here we end my journey through every tale we could read in class. I really enjoyed these, and I hope people liked the stories I made from them. In this story, a fox, a hare, and a wolf get involved in a bit of a game of cunning. A hungry wolf is about to eat a hare, when the hare offers a plump fox as dinner instead. Taking up the offer, the wolf follows the hare. Trying to deceive the fox, the hare tries to lure it into a false sense of security. Sensing something is at play, the fox outwits the hare with a secret trap. Upon entering with the wolf, both the hare and wolf become trapped together, in which the wolf devours the hare. The fox slips away in his secret exit. Games of with and cunning are always fun to read, especially when the loser deserved it all along. From: The Hare, the Fox, and the Wolf by Maude Barrows Dutton An adorable Alaskan Fox

All semester long I've loved the Jataka Tales. Little did I know I was missing out on some other tales! In an odd friendship, a scorpion and a tortoise become inseparable. The two were so close that when forced to move, the tortoise offered to take the scorpion on his back across the stream. Well, curiosity kill the cat (the scorpion). The scorpion wanted to see if he could sting through the tortoises shell, and the tortoise promptly flipped over, making the scorpion fall into the river. This is almost akin to parent who just want the kids in the car to be quiet on a road trip, though this was written much before normal car rides! From: The Scorpion and the Tortoise by Maude Barrows Dutton This poor little guy didn't make it

Six Word Story: Treasure the silence. It is key. Hint Fiction: Born different into this world, I must stay silent. I fear I may out myself in the place I don't belong. Author's Note: These are loosely based off the tale  Silence is Golden  by W. H. D. Rouse. In that story, the character si unable to make a noise lest the other around him know he's different and treat him as so. One day, he breaks and he is forced to leave the group in shame. It was hard to fit it all into these short stories, but I wanted to get the main point of silence being so important across. Should've been silenced

Once upon a time, a man and his son were travelling across the United States. Stopping when needed at hotels, they slowly made their way stat by state. When they reached Oklahoma, they hadn't taken into account graduation season! All the hotels were booked and they were beginning to lose hope. One of the hotel managers mentioned that he knew where they could stay, but that there are rumors that it's haunted. Having no fear of ghosts, the two decide it would be fine to spend the night there. Shortly after settling in, they here a knock on the door. A strange man in a long, black cape stood outside. He said he too was a weary traveler and this is the only place he could find to stay. This man and his son did not want visitors, so they told him to go away. The man, starting to look desperate said if he could just step in for a minute he would be alright. The man at the door asks why he's so persistent to get an invitation into the house, and that's when he remembered tho

Out of all the Jataka tales, this one came across, to me, as the most sad. In this story, a Lion and Jackal have a baby that looks like a lion, but sounds like a jackal. The hybrid would pretend to be a lion, by never speaking up. One time, during a game with real lions, he thought he would be able to scare the lions with his roar, but all he let out was a jackal's yelp! He was quickly shunned and forced away from the lions who were much stronger. He learned from that day forward to stay silent and not try to talk back to those who were stronger than him. This is one of the stories that felt like it missed the mark to me. I know it's supposed talk about not talking back to those you shouldn't talk back to, but it comes across as being born different and not being able to be yourself. From: Silence is Golden by W. H. D. Rouse Jackal

This was a very odd story, but one that stuck out to me while reading the Rouse stories. In this story, a goblin haunts a house and lies in wait to eat people, but there's a catch. The goblin can't eat people unless they sneeze, and on top of that, he can't eat them if they get blessed. If the person who sneezed doesn't bless the person back, the goblin can then eat the person who said the original "bless you." So 2 people enter the house he haunts, but neither are sneezing. The goblin puts a fine dust in the air to force one to sneeze, but just before eating him, the other blesses him. Then just before he eats the other, the man blesses him back. They talk to the goblin saying that he should not prey on humans and end up convincing it to become a vegetarian! What a weird twist! On top of that he becomes loyal to the guys, much like a cat! This strange story caught my eye and shows the importance of not taking advantage of people. it also touches on how go

The Jataka Tales are already pretty short, so turning them into microfictions is pretty simple. I did one of these previously with the Girly-face elephant story, but this time I wanted to revisit a different story. 6 WORD STORY Coming together, we are the strongest. TWITTERATURE @QuailCatcher2020: These damn quails are working together! I swear they'll break one day and I'll be victorious again! Author's note: The Quarrelsome Quails by Noor Inayat is a story all about working together even in stressful situations. The premise is simple, and I wanted to think of what an angry twitter poster would post when dealing with these quarrelsome quails. Blue-headed quail dove

Moving on to more of Noor Inayat's Jataka Tales, I wanted to go back to one I didn't really get to focus on in my other notes, The Master's Test. In this quick story, a master asks his students to go steal money for him because he's too weak to do so himself. Specifically, he mentions not letting anyone see you when you do it, and make sure to do no harm. Some students, seeing as they will do no harm go out right away, but one remains. he is worried that it is impossible for no one to watch as he himself will be watching. The teacher is happy that he truly understands, and that he has passed his test. By watching themselves, they all go on to live happy lives. This story is one of the more impactful (to me) of all the Jataka Tales. We can't rely on others to keep our lives in check, we have to focus on ourselves for that. Keeping on our own path without hurting the lives of others is a hard thing to keep in balance, but stories like these can teach that to child

The Jataka Tales have been some of my favorite readings from this semester, so I wanted to go back to some of the authors I hadn't read yet and see how they went! This time I'd like to focus on The Quarrelsome Quails, a story I had read a rendition of from another student earlier in the semester. In this story, a man is catching quails in large groups with his net with ease, as the quails have no way to escape. The quails had a plan though, at least the king quail did. If all the quails flew in the same direction, they could lift the net and escape! And so they did, and they left the net in the thorns for the man to spend lots of time untangling it. One time, however, a few quails got in a fight an could not work together, so they were caught. All the quails that followed the lead of the king escaped. In this story, we can see that the power of working together is extremely important. It is also important to follow in the words of an experienced elder, in this case the king

A social worker named Dave was walking up and down Main Street making his weekly rounds throughout the homeless population. He saw an unfamiliar face and began to talk to them to find out where they were from and how he could possibly be of assistance. The man said he had been homeless for only a few months and just recently started wandering Main in hopes of finding a job so he could eat. Dave mentioned a soup kitchen just a few streets over that he volunteered for and told the man he could come by once a day for a warm meal, free of charge. Weeks go by while the homeless man, who turns out to be named Chris, goes to the soup kitchen. He loves the food, but maybe he loves it just a little too much. One early morning, Chris asks Dave if he could help out volunteering in the kitchen, as a thank you for letting him come in. Dave, elated, is happy to let Chris help! Unbeknownst to Dave, it was Chris's plan all along to steal the daily soup all for himself so he could eat all he wa

This second section of the extra Jataka tales seemed a bit bit darker than some of the other's we've read. The one I want to focus on is The Foolhardy Wolf. Similar to the golden goose story I chose yesterday, this is a story about greed, but with a few differences. In this story, the wolf begins hungry and is treated to meat as long as he servers a mighty lion. After eating all this meat, however, he grows stronger and stronger until he decides he does not have to feast with this lion any more. The first thing he tries to kill and eat on his own is an elephant. The lion calls upon him to slay the elephant, but he misses and is killed. This story is great for a few reasons. It tackles the topic of becoming independent, but shows that you cannot get too cocky in independence. On top of that, similar to the golden goose story, this shows how one should not take advantage of a good thing when it is given to you. Bibliography: The Foolhardy Wolf by Ellen C. Babbitt Wolf