Storytelling Week 5: Always Trust Your Wife

There was once an older gentleman named Joe who worked as a farmer’s slave. This man only made money when the farmer made money, which was not often. Joe worked very hard because he had a big family back home: a wife and seven daughters. Joe did not like his family to go hungry, so he did everything he could to feed them every night.

There was a night Joe was very late in coming back from farming. When taking his usual route home there was a nice little old lady standing outside one of the houses waiting for him. When he approached her she said, "Oh brother! It has been forever since I have seen you. What have you been doing this whole time? Do you have a family? How do you earn your keep? Please come in tell me everything!"


So Joe went inside remembering that his mother told him once that he had a sister, but she was taken from the family when she was very young. Joe told the old lady everything, and mostly how hard it is to feed his large family every night.


It just so happened this woman is a very rich woman. She told Joe to go home and get his family, and they were going to come live with her. She was going to take care of them all. Joe was thrilled to have finally run into his sister, and that she was so generous. Joe ran home as fast as he could. He was so excited to tell his wife and kids the news.


After he told his wife she seemed skeptical about the whole thing. “No one randomly shows up with such a generous gift” is what went through her mind. Instead of going with her gut feeling, she trusted her husband, and if he believed it was the right thing to do then that is what the family was going to do. Who wouldn’t want free food?


All together the family went to where Joe had met his sister. They all followed her to their new home excited for all the food they were going to enjoy. Once they arrived she gave them all the things they needed to live a nice and happy life. They had never seen so much food before. It was definitely showing. They finally had some meat on their bones.


One day after being settled in for a good amount of time, Joe’s wife told him they needed to make something for his sister since she had been so generous to them. He agreed, "It is always nice to give back to the ones who have given to us".


Once Joe’s wife made up the gift she instructed one of her daughters to go take the gift to their aunt. The young girl did not want to go alone, so she asked one of her older sisters to go with her. Walking up to the door the girls heard their aunt talking to someone, "Once we get them all trained up, they are going to make me one rich lady. We can sell them for good profit."


The girls could not believe what they had heard. They ran back to their mother has fast as they could. Noticing something was wrong the girl’s mother urged them to spit it out, “what had happened?” The girls told her everything, but she was not surprised to hear such a thing. It still kind of came as a shock to her since she did not want to be right.


When Joe came home that night his wife warned him of what the girls heard, and that they needed to get out of there as fast as possible without being seen. Joe was so mad at his wife for coming up with such a thing after all the nice things his sister had done for them. He told her there was no way his sister would do such a thing.”


When everyone had gone to bed, Joe’s wife got up and woke all seven girls. They headed off in the dark night back to their old home. Joe awakened the next morning to find the home empty. They had all left. The first thing he thought to do was tell his sister so he ran over to her house.


"Last night when I got home my wife had told me that you were planning on selling us to the highest bidder once we had been trained. That we needed to flee as soon as possible, but I did not listen to her! Because there was no way my sister could do such a thing." said Joe.


Joe’s sister did not have much to say to him about his missing family, nor did she respond to the comments about her selling them to the highest bidder. Then that night Joe noticed a large group of men coming near his sister’s house. He went to see what all the commotion was.


Once he arrived at his sister’s house he heard, "Which of these fine gentlemen would like to start the bidding?" Joe could not believe what he was hearing. His wife was right. His sister was going to sell the family.


If Joe would of listened to his wife, he would be long gone. Instead he is going to be sold off to the highest bidder.

Old Farmer

Source:123RF

Author's Note:

I based my story off of the story The Wolf-Aunt in the Persian Tales unit. In the original story there is a poor thorn bush gatherer with a wife and seven daughters. The man one day ran into a random lady who claimed to be his sister. She had plenty of food to feed his whole family. The man and his family went to live with his sister, and she fed and took care of them. One day one of the daughters saw her aunt was actually a wolf. Realizing she turned into a human just to talk to them. They told their mother of what happened, and when their mother told their father what happened and said they should leave he did not believe her. So in the middle of the night his wife and daughters left. He told his sister what had happened, and that night she came to find him and eat him because she was actually a wolf. I wrote my story similar to the original but changed a few things. I gave the man a name, which was Joe and I did not want his "sister" to be a wolf. So she was just a regular human. Instead of having someone die or be eaten I just made it where he was sold off to the highest bidder. The reason I chose to use this story is because I believe there are a lot of men out there who do not listen to their significant others. This story shows the lesson to be learned.

Bibliography:

"The Wolf-Aunt" translated by D.L.R Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer, from Persian Fairy Tales Unit, Website:UnTextbook

Thoughts About Comments

At first I didn't think I would like people commenting on my post, mostly because I am not creative and I knew I would have a lot for people to comment on. I have always liked constructive criticism, but not so much when I know I am not good at something. What is cool about the comments is they are helping me get better at telling stories. The comments tell me what I am doing wrong, and what kind of things could make my storytelling better. My favorite thing to comment on when going to someones blog is their introduction, because I think it is cool to get to know everyone in the class cause its not something you usually get to do. The comments that speak to me the most are the ones that help me build on what I already have to make my stories that much better. Something I can do to make my comments better is to give better feed back on things that will make someones story better. It will be challenging for me because it is hard enough for me to write my own stories much less tell someone else how to make theirs better.

Reading Diary B: Persian Tales

Persian Tales

Fayiz and the Peri Wife:

• All these stories have maidens that are beautiful, and no one has ever seen someone so beautiful. 
• These people must be caught up in looks
• He just goes off with some random girl and he is married?
• Why would the salve girls have their hands on their breast
• Things are always so complicated in these stories
• In the end the man lost everything

The Hemp-Smokers Dream:

• I like how the guy thought he was the most handsome guy, that is some confidence
• I like how the story was told from the guys dream

The Story of the Wolf Bride:

• First off I like how short the story is 
• How did the guy get a son with no wife? Makes no sense
• The girl didn't know how it happened, but she actually did
• It was very easy to understand

The Man Who Went to Wake His Luck:

• I like how they used the word luck, but in this story luck is a person
• All these lazy people wanting the poor brother to do their work for them
• The luck said the king is a woman, thats why no one obeys her....umm excuse me..
• Of course the wolf is going to eat the poor man...I could have called that when the luck told him to tell the wolf to eat the first foolish man he saw

Tortoise Bowl-On-The-Back and the Fox:

• Love these short stories, they are easy to read and keep up with
• Another person thinking they deserve everything for doing nothing
• What a smart Tortoise, he out smarted the fox!

The Shepard Who Found a Treasure:

• Haha a fly come out of the guys nose
• The fly was the shepherds soul
• The other shepherd bought the shepherds dream and became rich

The Merchant and The Saffron:

• I like how the people were nice to hime when he wasn't in a familiar place
• I still like how they talk about luck, Im always talking about my luck running out
• When the sheep stayed alive they knew his luck had awaked
• Story just randomly ends never says anything about the guy who took care of him

Shah Abbas and the Poor Mother:

• The guy who stole the ring gave it to someone else to give back to the person he stole it from without them knowing
• People in these stories are way to trusting
• So the baker was the liar not the Shah

The Apparition of the Prophet Khizr:

• The stakes are always so high in these stories
• The guy in this story was a good man, and did right by his family even if it meant his life
• The poor man ended up with a village and some money!

The Story of the Baker and the Grateful Fish:

• He didn't have to work for 40 days 
• But the 40th day he worked 2 hours and was carried to the top of the mountain
• He was supposed to throw down jewels when he was finished he asked for the way down 
• But there was really no way down, all the people up there were dead
• But he fell into the river that the fish he fed were in and they carried him to his place
• Then the baker did the same thing to the merchant who did it to him in the beginning

Baker and the Fish

Source:UnTextbook

Reading Diary A: Persian Tales

Persian Tales

The Wolf and the Goat:

• At the beginning of the story it said there was no one but god, but the next line talks about there being a goat with children. Maybe the writer meant no humans...hmmm
• I like how the mother used a secret code with her children for opening the door
• I wonder how long henna has been around because I have gotten henna tattoos before, and this story was written along time ago
• I like how there are rhymes used within the story
• The wolf thought he was tricky, but really he didn't fool anyone 
• The wolf thought he was smart in the beginning listening in on the conversations but the goat out smarted him in the end and the wolf ended up dead
• What did the writer mean by the sparrow never got home?

The City of Nothing-in-the-World:

• I see a reoccurrence of the first line
• I think its funny how in these stories people just know things, like how in the world do they know the things they know. The girl in this story some how knows what her eggs she dropped turned into
• Where do these writers come up with this kind of stuff, she lost her knife in the melon so she went in to get it and there was a town in there
• I must not have a very good imagination cause there is no way I could come up with this stuff
• Story made no sense, and the sparrow never got home again

Susku and Mushu:

• Why did the Susku say to get married twice, or was that a mistake?
• Why would Susku ask Mushu what he would beat her with, was that normal to be beat back then?
• Susku fell into the pot
• Someone new comes into the story every time and just adds to it 
• Why would all these things do something bad to themselves just because Susku fell into the pot

Mouse

Source:UnTextbook

The Boy Who Became a Bulbul:

• This is the first time I have heard of a stepmother in older stories
• What a loser of a father to steal from his sons pile
• And why would there be such a high wager, someones life is a lot
• This story is freaking weird
• He got his revenge on the step mother thats for sure
• Yep don't really understand this story either

The Wolf Aunt:

• The old woman in this was wearing a weird choice of clothes
• He had a newly discovered sister
• The woman that was the mans sister turned into a wolf, and ate humans
• The woman brought the man and his family there to fatten them up so he could eat them
• The mother did the smart thing and left with her children
• I LOVEEEEEE the moral of this story, always listen to your wife

Nim Tanak, or Half-Boy:

• The king had 4 wives but no daughters
• The wife who ate half the apple, had a half son
• The Div conquered the first and 2nd army
• The half-boy saved the day!

Muhammad Tirandaz , The Archer:

• Why would he catch his mother by the collar?
• Why in these stories do the people say the same thing over and over again
• Kind of annoying and kind of catchy
• He became the archer he thought he was supposed to be 
• only by working at it and doing what he was supposed to 

The Praying Baker:

• I like how the people always do what the king says to do
• And the king always gives a large reward
• The baker found the ring and was given the large reward
• Still no Sparrow

The Sad Tale of the Mouses Tail:

• I am not a fan of when they add and add to something and just keep repeating it
• The mouse really wanted his tail sewed on
• The dang sparrow never got home, maybe in reading B it will