Week 6 Storytelling: Why Ben Lets Cassie On The Boys' Side

Once there was a school with many, many children in it. Every day they got let out to recess. The girls would go to their side, and the boys to theirs. This is how it had always been. 

School Yard
From Wikipedia

…that is until one day Cassie decided she wanted a drink of water. The problem was that the water was all the way on the boys’ side of the playground, and that was dangerous territory. You see, Cassie was a big, brave first grader, but there were some things even she knew were risky. Cassie could not stand it any longer, she needed some water. Her friends would not dare go with her, they just laughed and kept on playing. Cassie snuck over to the boys’ side, and seemed to go unnoticed.



That is until Ben walked over to her. Cassie could see that he had a few rocks in his hands, and knew that he wanted to throw them at her. It would be a fitting punishment for crossing over to the boys’ side. But Cassie was not dumb enough to come over without a plan if anything should happen. So when Ben got close enough to throw the rocks, she called out, “Brother, do not harm me!” Ben was very confused. He had two sisters, but Cassie was not one of them. She had never even met his parents! How could she be his sister?



For the rest of recess Ben wandered around in a state of confusion. This wore off though when they got back inside and had to focus on spelling….EW!



The next day everything was normal again, but halfway through recess Cassie had done a lot of running about. She was dying of thirst! She was no longer afraid of the boys side, and brazenly walked over to get herself a drink of water.



Ben saw this happen again, and grabbed his rocks. They were where he had left them the day before so he was prepared. He quietly crept over to where Cassie stood, and was just about ready to throw his rocks. Cassie again called out, “Brother, do not harm me!”



What was it with this girl and calling people her brother?



Ben would not forget this time. He was determined to tell his mom today when he went home. The rest of the day he was deep in thought over this puzzling matter. In the pickup line he ran into one of his older sister’s friends, Becky. She could tell something was bothering ben, so she asked him what was the matter. Ben told her the story of how Cassie had called him her brother, and how he was certain she was not his sister.



Becky explained to Ben that although he was no way related to Cassie, that sometimes people may refer to other people in their community as their brothers and sisters. This is because we are all tied to one another through our human nature. She then explained how we may all have our different quirks, but we are one in the same on the inside. Becky then scolded ben for trying to be so mean to Cassie, and taught him that it’s not right to be mean to someone just because they are different from us. It was not right to target Cassie for being a girl.



Ben realized that Becky was right, and he no longer needed to talk to his mom about all of this. From this day on he would let Cassie and any other girl get a drink from the fountain on the boys’ side. He also vowed to never purposefully be mean to another person.


Ben had learned his lesson.





Author’s Note: This story came from the story Why The Crocodile Does Not Eat The Hen. This is from the Congo unit, and tells of a hen that goes to a river to drink water. The Crocodile sees the hen and wants to eat it, which is where I came up with an idea to do a boys’ and a girls’ side of the playground. I remember when I was in grade school we always played separately on different side of the playgrounds. In the story the crocodile goes to eat the hen, but is puzzled when the hen tries to stop him, while also calling him brother. The crocodile is so confused that he goes away. When I had Ben throwing rocks, I came up with this because once when my sister went near the boys’ side of our playground a boy threw rocks at her for getting “too close,” which I thought was pretty funny. The story gets resolved when the crocodile goes to talk to a higher up, but runs into a friend who says that the chicken lays eggs like they do, so they are one in the same. This made me think of when you go to church and everyone is referred to as brothers and sisters, so that is how I decided to incorporate this aspect.

Bibliography: "Why The Crocodile Does Not Eat The Hen." Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898). 

 

Week 6 Reading Diary Continued: Why The Crocodile Does Not Eat The Hen

For the second portion of the Congo unit from Richard EdwardDennet I found the story of Why the Crocodile Does Not Eat the Hen very touching. It spoke of unity within a community where there are many different creatures, but one in which they can coexist. I think this has a message in it for everyone because many times when we see someone who is different we can be very cruel to them, instead of accepting. If I were to turn this into a story I would want to use humans instead of animals. I would want to put it in a school setting with young children. For the crocodile I would choose a young boy who was trying to pick on a young girl (the hen) by throwing rocks at her. She would stop him as the hen did in the story, by calling him her brother. He would be puzzled everyday, and finally on his way home that day to ask his mother about what was going on he would run into one of the older kids on the playground. The older kid would speak to him about community, and how although we may not be directly related we are all brothers and sisters, and should each other with dignity and respect. In the end the boy would end up playing at recess the next day with his new friend and “sister”. He would also vow to never be mean or to tease to anyone ever again.

Kids Playing
From Pixabay

Week 6 Reading Diary: The Vanishing Wife

I chose to read the Congo unit from R.E. Dennett this week. From the first part of the reading I found that I was most intrigued by the first story of the vanishing wife. I also really enjoyed the story of how the gazelle married, but I think I would rather write a story about the vanishing wife. I think it would be more fun to play around with, and find what does and doesn’t work. I would like to maybe make the story somewhat more modern. Instead of the house and all of Buite’s riches disappearing at the end, I would change the story and instead tell it from his perspective. He would have gone back to his brother’s place after losing everything, and would be telling him the story. After he had told him the story Buite would ask his brother to come looking for his wife with him, but his brother would deny all of his requests. He would then have him committed to the psych ward. After all, no one tells tales like these unless they are certifiably insane! If he were to tell everyone else in town, they would gossip and talk. This would make Swarmi nervous since he was very well liked, and would not want to lose this position with the people he hung out with everyday. 

(harvesting from the palm tree;

photograph in Dennett's book)

Thoughts About Comments

I’ve really liked getting to see the variety of comments over the last few weeks! The ones I enjoy the most are the ones that are left on my introduction post because usually they tell a lot about the people commenting. It lets me get to know them a little better, and to see what we may or may not have in common, which is great! It is also very memorable when people leave what they liked about the story post that week. It helps me to get a picture of what is and isn’t relatable to my audience. As for my own commenting, I think I have been doing a fairly good job. It would be good to hear feedback on those to see if they are helpful or not. To improve I could go a little more into detail on the things that I really enjoyed, and why I enjoyed them.

Storytelling Week 5: Monkey Love

Once there was a little girl of about three years age. She had an intense love for the forest and all of the animals that resided there. There were plenty of other children in her village, but she never wanted to play with them. She always wanted to wander in the forest. One day she had not been paying attention to where she was going because she had followed a pretty blue butterfly deep into the forest. When she went go find her way home, she could not. She wandered for hours until the sun was starting to leave the sky. She knew her poor parents would be so worried for their only daughter, and began to worry herself.


A young monkey in the trees saw the girl looking very, very lost. He decided to help her. The girl rejoiced and followed the monkey. They made great friends on her way back to the edge of the forest, and she did not want to leave him. She decided that she would come back every day to hangout with her new friend, but upon her return the following day she could not find her friend no matter where she looked. The girl was heartbroken! Every day she returned, but her friend was nowhere to be found. Eventually she decided it was time she started playing with the children in her village instead.


One day the children got bored of playing in the village, and decided to go to the forest to find new adventures. While they were playing the girl saw a monkey in the trees. She and this new monkey became fast friends, and by the end of the day she had agreed to marry him. She was ecstatic to find such a love! She had dreamed of monkeys since her last encounter, and now she got to spend the rest of her life with one.


Soon the town began to talk because the other children had told their parents of the encounter. The girl had not yet told hers though. When her parents heard that their daughter was to marry a monkey they were shamed and outraged! How could she subject them to this ridicule? They forbade the girl from ever seeing this monkey again, and told her she was not allowed out of the house for quite some time. The girl was furious, and told them she would not obey their rules, and that she was going to marry this monkey. Worried this may actually happen, her parents sent a party out to find and kill the monkey. He was dead within two hours.


When the girl heard of the tragedy that her parents had caused, she wept for hours. Later there was news that the monkey was to be burned at the stake in the town square, and she begged her parents to let her go.


She told them they would never hear of this again from her if they allowed her to go, so they did.



When she got to town she saw the monkey all tied up, and it broke her heart even more. The town’s people lit the fire, and the girl set her plan into action. She cried out that a miracle was taking place in the stars! When everyone looked up she threw sand so that it would land in their eyes, so as to blind them all. When this was done she leapt into the fire to die with her love. If she could not have him in life, then she would have him in death. 

Death by Burning

Author’s Note: This story was based on the Story of The Monkey and the Girl. In the story it is from a third person point of view, and is a very short story. The girl goes into a jungle, sees a monkey, and gives him her word that she will marry him. When her parents find out they decide to kill it, and when he is burned the girl throws sand and jumps to be burned with the monkey. I thought it would be a good idea to add some backstory as to why this girl decided to fall in love with a monkey. It shows that she originally is more fixated with animals and nature, than she is with that of her own kind. She only plays with the other children because she had no other options. The original story says that she was extremely fascinated with the monkey when the children saw it, so her monkey friend when she was little explains her current fascination with the monkey. Her parents weren’t really a big part of the original story, so I wanted to show why they were so angry that their daughter was marrying a monkey, and why they decided to have the monkey killed.



Bibliography: “The Monkey and The Girl” from Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas (1909)

Week 5 Reading Diary: The Girl and The Monkey

The Girl and the Monkey was a very interesting story in this unit. It was a little short, so I think that would be a good opportunity to give some back-story for a storytelling post. I think it would be really interesting from the girl’s point of view; telling why she loved this monkey so much, and how she got to this point. I think it would be a good idea to give her some history with monkeys when she was little. Maybe she made friends with one as a small child, and this monkey reminded her of her companion, and so she fell in love with it. I could also add in a real argument with her parents, instead of just saying that one had been had. Her parents would be so embarrassed that their daughter chose to love a creature instead of a human. They would forbid her to see him, and when she refused they would send someone off to kill the monkey. I would also like to give the monkey a personality. It would be very charming, and the sweetest thing to the girl, which is why she fell in love with it. He would start off by giving her little gifts like a fruit from the trees, which he hung in, or even a little flower from a meadow. In the end when they burned the monkey I would portray the girl as very distraught over her love, crying endlessly. Then she would come up with the plan to die with her love, like Romeo and Juliet. 

Hanuman Langur Monkey