Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part B

Mr. Miacca

One of the aspects that I feel I can take from this story and apply to my own story telling is foreshadowing. What I liked about the way this story sets the events is by having the first paragraph describe Tommy. This paragraph is crucial to the story by letting it be known that Tommy couldn't resist getting into trouble and disobeying. When analyzing this as a writer it is perfect in the sense that not only do we get an idea of the character but we also can start to predict the future of the story. I think that in my own writing that it would be important for me to learn how to set up an early part of the story that can foreshadow the later events. This is a great example of how to do so and as a writer I think I could match this especially in terms of trickster stories.

Another aspect of the story in which I feel I could take away to make my writing better is the use of slang in dialogue. When Mrs. Miacca says 'What d'ye want, my dear?' I think it gives a better illustration of what kind of person she is. I think that I should try to imagine how I think my characters would talk and try to match it. This allows the reader to feel more connected to the character in my opinion.

When thinking about how I could try and base a story off of this one, I was thinking about maybe trying to mask it off of the movie IT. I think that it could be a fun version of the story plus a more modern approach since the movie just came out. This is just an idea but I think it could be fun to make this a trickster story mixed with a horror story. 

This is a picture of Pennywise from the movie IT. I found this image on Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography:

 English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

The link to the specific story can be seen at the top. 

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part A

The Story of the Three Little Pigs

I feel like you didn't have a childhood if you didn't hear some version of the the three little pigs. This is why I couldn't resist but liking the style of this story and feeling the need to take my reading notes on them. The most important thing that I think I could take away from this story for my own writing would be the rhythm or cadence as I would call it. 

I find that in this story one of the great ways that build the anticipation is the rhythm of the story. By keeping a pattern of the words before an event it lets the reader know exactly what is going to happen. For example the "huff and puff" is used before each house is broken down but as the materials used become stronger he adds more of the "huffing and puffing" action. Same goes with the wolf inviting the third pig and saying a time with each event. This allows the reader to feel more included in the story by allowing them to kind of guess what would take place which I think brings excitement into a story. As a writer I think the way I could match this style is trying to come up with a fun little saying before events. 

Another aspect of writing that I feel I could try to include is the simple rhyming. This wasn't a poem or nursery rhyme but the rhyming creates a more fun aspect for the reader which keeps them involved. I think that in my own writing I should try to have the rhyming go along with the repetition of the cadence in order to create a path for the story. 

In terms of creating a story based on this one, I was thinking of having three neighborhood kids building a fort in which they brag about having it be the strongest while there is a bully who wants to break it down. This is just an idea but I think that I could possibly create a more modern version of this story that still is relevant towards children as this one does. 

This is an image of 3 little pigs that I found on Flickr.

Bibliography: 

 English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

The specific story can be seen using the link in the header. 

Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part A

The Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting

This week I didn't have time to do the Part A section of the reading before the due date so I decided to go back and read it for the extra credit reading. 

As I have mentioned in the past in my blogs, I truly enjoy a good trickster story so this one grabbed my attention for taking notes. What I really enjoyed about this was the confidence of the Rabbit. I think that in writing a good trickster story you must have the trickster be the most confident character until possibly the end if he is shown up. I know this has to do with the story but I think that strong defined characters is a something that I could focus on in my writing. I believe that the tone of a story can be set through the actions and words of characters. A good example of this is  when the rabbit says "Just watch me". I find that this simple but definite word choice sets the story. 

Another aspect that I enjoyed in this story was the emphasis on certain words through spacing and italics. I think that the song the rabbit sings is made crucial in the aspect that it is separated from the rest of the text and put into italics. This is a small thing to notice but as a writer the way you format the text can truly manipulate the reader into focusing on what you write. 

When thinking about how I can take this story and possibly write my own version  and add these aspects which I felt truly made the writing better, I think that I should write it with humans. I was thinking about having two children try to catch a duck but some how one of the kids tricks the other. I would like to include something along the lines of the song though as well which I'm not sure how I would incorporate. 

I included this picture because in the Trix commercials the rabbit is trying to trick humans into giving him the cereal. I got this image from Flickr. 

Bibliography:

 Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).

The specific story I wrote about can be seen in the link above. 

Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part B

The Bullfrog Lover

What I like about this story is the spacing out of the dramatic parts. To make a point of emphasis it would set it by itself which I found to be interesting. I have tried to do this a little bit in my stories but this seems to be a very good way to do it being that. I also liked how this story had such an emphasis on the ending. I thought that this made the point of climax a lot stronger which I could use because sometimes I rush my endings but this had the perfect amount of detail which made the ending crucial.   I think that one thing that I would like to do is have a story like this where I have children be scared of some type of ghost instead of a witch. At the beginning of this class I considered doing horror stories so this could be a good one to model off of. I also don't know how I could have some type of metamorphosis but I really like the idea of this. I was thinking maybe have the ghost turn out to be some type of animal they know kind of like the tadpole guy. Overall I wasn't too impressed with the cherokee stories I read so this is the only one I felt I could write about and will maybe not even use this story as my basing. 

A picture of a bullfrog from Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography:

 Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney (1900).

The link to the specific story is above. 

Reading Notes: Great Plains, Part B

Why the Possum Plays Dead

This story was enjoyable to read because I never truly knew what was going to take place. I mean obviously the title lead the idea of the possum pretending to be dead but I would say it did a good job describing why he had to do so. What I didn’t like when thinking about the story as a writer was the fact that it didn’t really explain why the rabbit felt the need to say their should be a war. I think that one more sentence could have truly brought the story together more because the focus was them getting married but then it kind of just switched randomly.

Keeping this in mind gave me ideas for my own writing of stories. First of all as I mentioned I feel that I need to make sure that everything makes sense to the reader and not just in my mind as a writer. Second of all I think this makes me realize that as a writer I need to keep a patter in legend style stories. When I say that I mean keeping the same rhythm of going from town to town like the rabbit did.

In terms of ideas that this story gave me for writing my own story, I was thinking what if I did a story about two kids racing to get a girl they have a crush on. I was thinking that maybe one is faster so he reaches her first but on the way one of the other kids pretended to hurt himself so that she would notice him and take care of him. This way it would kind of be like him playing dead like the possum without the point of the war (which I didn’t enjoy). I feel like everyone would be able to relate to that type of story.

This is a picture of an opossum playing dead which I found on Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography:

 Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913).

The specific story link is above.

Reading Notes: Great Plains, Part A

Great Plains: The Eagle's Revenge

What I liked about this story was how concise it was yet still gave off a drastic amount of information. Somehow as a reader you could actually imagine the eagle, the people dancing, and of course the death. I think it was a cool aspect of saying the word "Hi!" and the reader already being able to tell what was going to happen next. I think this is a good way to tell a revenge story as a writer, which since I have written a revenge story already in this class, it sparked some ideas for me. Since my portfolio is based around children I was thinking what if I have a kid be a magician but with the single snap of his fingers he is able to perform some type of revenge. I'm not saying it has to be death because I feel that is a bit aggressive for the style of my portfolio but I think maybe it would be funny for him to get revenge on the kids who bullied him.I was even thinking about twisting this story around and having it be an eagle mad at humans instead just to add a different dynamic.Maybe even have the eagles and deer team up to fight the humans.

  One thing I would like to do differently than this story though is change the ending to be a little bit more descriptive. I felt that it kind of just slipped in the fact that he was brother's with the eagle and as a writer I feel something like that should be more climatic. Overall, I enjoyed the style of this writing in the sense that I respected the conciseness of the events yet fully being able to visualize each aspect, however even though it was meant to be concise I felt the connection of the man with the eagle could have been told better which I would like to change. 

Bibliography:

 Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913).

The link to the exact story is above. 

A picture of a kid magician I found on Pixabay.

Reading Notes: Congo Unit, Part B

Congo: The Antelope And The Leopard

What I really liked about this story was the use of dialogue to set the tones in the story. For example "What fearful eyes you have got..." this was a great way to communicate the idea that is supposed to be seen. I like this because as a reader you can fully imagine what is going on for the plot yet also build a visual. Also in my opinion this is a great way to understand where the character is coming from too. For me to try and use this story as a template with my own writing I should focus on trying to describe things while having to characters communicate with each other. For this story I was thinking that I could use the idea of hide and seek for children since that is kind of what the leopard and antelope are doing. In my portfolio since it is supposed to be younger things people can relate to I feel a good hide and seek with a twist to this story could be very entertaining. I could possibly change the ending around in some way too because I wasn't the biggest fan of this ending. Maybe it is just me but I haven't liked the ending or climaxes for most of the congo and west african stories. I feel like they are too rushed which makes me think that as a writer I should focus on delivering the final message with such detail that the reader could never say it was rushed. I don't like the feeling of wanting more so I need to make sure that in my own stories that I'm not leaving the reader hanging by lack of detail and emotion. Overall, I liked this story and it got by brain thinking about different ideas for a story, but I felt that it could have been delivered in the end better. 

This is a picture of the leopard found on Pixabay.

Bibliography:

This story is part of the Congo unit. Story source: Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).

Reading Notes: West African Folktales, Part A

Why Spiders Are Always Found in Corners of Ceilings

I truly enjoyed this story because of the way everything was built up. I felt like I was riding a rocking wave because it would build me up to be excited for his farm then he would get robbed. Then it would build me up for making the rubber man to catch the robber, and then it would bring me back down when Anansi got caught. This made me take away the aspect of keeping the reader fully entertained. I was just seeking the climax but from multiple aspects which is something I want to try and resemble in my stories. At one point I forgot the title was why they are found in the corners because the author had me focused on other issues. I think the way this did it was through the detail in the hard work or the emotions of the different characters. I think as a reader you grew to have empathy for the different characters because their reactions were described so well. I normally focus on details in my reading notes because I think that is the most important thing for me to catch on to as a writer but this time I’m going to say the details in the reactions are truly what made this a better story. The descriptions of what caused things to occur like a chair reaction made it easy to flow with the story. Then as you were flowing it all came together and you realized why spiders hide in corners.

Honestly though this made me think of this story of an example of how to end the story as well. I think it could have gone more into detail with how he felt embarrassed to fully explain why he hid. I liked the ending by all means but as a writer I think I should focus on not leaving any descriptive nature out as this story seemed to do for me. 

A spider picture I found on Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography:

This story is part of the West African Folktales unit. Story source: West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).

The specific story link is above in the header.