Week 7: Essay - Writing Through the Years

There aren't very many things I miss about high school. I don't miss having the same schedule everyday, I don't miss having to ask to go to the bathroom (only to be reprimanded by a teacher who wanted to know why I didn't go during the three minutes I had to get clear across the school), and I certainly don't miss the cafeteria food. What I do miss, though, was the requirement for an English class every year. I was one of the few people who didn't dread going to AP Lit everyday because we had to write. We wrote extensively in AP Lit, and our teacher was no easy grader. I took it for granted back then, furious when Mrs. Roel gave me a seven instead of a nine on a timed writing assignment, but now I realize that she probably improved my writing exponentially. Going into that class was a little like how I've heard other students describe some college classes - we were basically told that everything we'd learned up to that point, so essentially the past twelve years, was wrong. We were indignant, but now that I think about it, just about everything that I implement in my writing style now, I learned from that class. When we wrote our literary analysis papers in preparation for the dreaded AP test, we were reminded over and over (and over) that our analysis should contain a small amount of concrete detail in relation to commentary. To punctuate this idea, every time we wrote anything, as part of the editing process, we were to highlight our papers using two different colors: yellow for concrete details, and green for commentary. The idea was that we should have only one or two lines of 'yellow' for every several lines of 'green.' This was a slightly irritating and seemingly tedious practice, we felt, but we gritted our teeth and got on with it. Now when I'm writing a paper and I go back to edit, I think to myself, 'okay, there is way too much yellow here and not nearly enough green!' From that experience, I've learned how important it is to rely on analysis and commentary when writing a paper - to look deeper than what the text says in order gain a better understanding of what you are reading. This translates not only to literature, but to any kind of reading. I don't believe I would have understood that if I'd never had to look for the yellow and green in my papers.

This class has really reminded me how much I love writing. I've lived with a Letters major for the past three years and watching her stress and agonize over her various research papers (she is, admittedly, a bit of a procrastinator) made me think I was lucky that I, as a science major, had minimal writing to do. However, when I realized how much writing I would be doing for this class, instead of an impeding sense of doom, which one might expect from a Biology major who has been exposed to very little major writing, I found myself rather excited at the prospect. You see, science doesn't leave a lot of room for creativity. My life is governed, for the most part, by laws and theorems - Kinetics, Thermodynamics, Newtonian, and what have you - which are, for the most part, rigid and unchanging. This is the first class I've had in a long time - since high school, quite possibly - that has allowed me to stretch my abilities and really just create. Writing as much as I have for this class has allowed, and in some ways, forced, me to play around with my writing style. This class would be terribly monotonous if I were to write the exact same way every week so I enjoy challenging myself on a weekly basis. I believe this has really enabled me to grow as a writer - there are so many possibilities I had never considered! Perspective, setting, characterization, these are all words I knew only as a means of analyzing the writing of others, yet it never occurred to me that I could apply all of these concepts to my own writing. Now, I'm fascinated with each of these domains, along with many others, and try to take them into consideration with my writing every week.

I like to think that these two experiences have improved my writing. There is still so much to learn and I feel that I have such a limited time to do so. Being a science major doesn't leave a lot of room in my schedule for non-science classes, so I am trying to soak up as much as I can from this class. It is my hope, however, that I will be able to continue to improve my writing whenever I can. For now, though, I'm just enjoying the ride.

 

Image Information: Personal photo from Facebook - Me, my roommate Laura, our friend Sarah (far left), and my AP Lit teacher, Mrs. Roel at our high school graduation.

Week 7: Storytelling - The Fish Monitor

"Mrs. King, as much as it pains me to say this, your son is out of control."

Mrs. King sheepishly looked across the conference table at her son's school principal. He met her gaze with a look of both exhaustion and utter contempt. This was the third time she had been called to the school this year because of her son's "issues". Even though it was her son, Reese, that was causing all the problems, she couldn't help but feel that she was the one being called to the principal's office to get reprimanded. For this particular meeting, there were five teachers in addition to the principal seated around the table as if there for an intervention of some sort. She knew each of the teachers quite well. She'd had at least one phone conference with each one, all concerning Reese.

"He's just a very spirited little boy," she finally replied, but with no real conviction, trying to avoid eye contact with everyone in the room. Even she was tired of hearing the same excuses time and time again.

"There are plenty of 'spirited little boys' in the first grade, Mrs. King," interjected Ms. McKay, the art teacher, curtly, "they're seven years old, for goodness sake! Your boy is a menace!"

Mrs. King bristled. "I wouldn't go so far as to call a little boy a menace. I mean, he's not perfect, but-"

"Not perfect!" shouted Mr. Donnahue, the gym teacher, indignantly, "Your kid set my hair on fire!"

"He stole the toys we collected for the toy drive!" added Mrs. Mead, the librarian

"He locked me out of my own classroom and tried to teach the day's lesson as if he was the teacher! I don't know how you allow him to act when he is at home, but we have rules here that we expect to be followed even if he is a 'spirited little boy' as you put it. He should be expelled!" cried Ms. Blanchard, the first grade teacher.

Mrs. King looked as though she were about to cry. She looked frantically about the room, trying to find an ally. Finally, Ms. Starr, the guidance counselor. who had remained silent all this time, spoke up.
"I don't think we need to throw the poor child out on his ear," she said calmly, "and I don't think you're being very fair to Mrs. King. She is obviously doing the best she can and is likewise distressed by her son's conduct." She gave Mrs. King a sympathetic look before continuing. "I think it is true that Reese has a lot of energy," there was a snort from somewhere in the room, "but I think, if funneled into the correct activity, all that energy could serve a purpose."

"What do you suggest, Ms. Starr?" asked Mrs. King eagerly.

"Well, perhaps if we give him some sort of small charge or responsibility, he would focus his energy on that."

"What sort of responsibility could you give a boy like that?" said Ms. Blanchard under her breath.

"Ms. Blanchard," said Ms. Starr suddenly, turning to Ms. Blanchard, who nearly jumped out her seat at the abruptness of Ms. Starr's address, "I believe your classroom has a pet fish, correct?"

"Yes a goldfish. I thought it would be fun for the children to have a class pet. They've named him Batman."

"Well maybe you could send the fish home with Reese over the weekend and he could take care of it and -"

"Forgive me, Ms. Starr," interrupted the principal, "but you want to give this child, this child, charge over the life of a living creature? Do you think that wise?"

"I think he will be excited to have such a grown up job, especially if we explain to him what an important job it is." Ms. Blanchard looked skeptical but said nothing. "And if it doesn't work out, you can always go pick up another goldfish at Wal-Mart, Nancy," added Ms. Starr venomously.

So it was decided that the fish would go home with Reese over the weekend. Mrs. King was overjoyed that a solution had been reached that didn't involve expelling her son. Just as Ms. Starr predicted, Reese felt very important with his little job. Ms. Blanchard even gave his job a title - Fish Monitor - and Reese was very pleased indeed. He took his title very seriously - Mrs. King entered her son's room several times that weekend to find him counting out individual specks of fish food while he talked to Batman. Once the weekend was over and Monday arrived, Reese continued to watch Batman to make sure that his bowl was always clean and that he had enough (but not too much!) food, and after a few days, it was decided that Reese should be named the permanent Fish Monitor for the class. In the weeks that followed, Mrs. King eventually grew to stop expecting the principal to call her back to his office. It came to  be that all of the boy's teachers found him a most charming and well-behaved child.

Reese and Batman (image source: FamilyCorner)



The End

 

Author's Note: This story is adapted from the original The Lord of the Heavens story  from the The Monkey King Unit. In the original telling. The Monkey King, Sun Wu Kung, has angered several celestial beings who complain to the Lord of the Heavens. All those in the Heavens wish to condemn the rogue Monkey King and sentence him to prison, but the Evening Starr speaks up for him and suggests that Sun Wu be brought up to Heaven and given some small charge to keep him occupied. He is named the stablemaster, which Sun Wu sees as a great honor, and he excels at his job and keeps out of trouble for a time. I decided to represent the Monkey King as a rambunctious child because that is what I was reminded of the entire time I was reading of his adventures.

 

Bibliography Information: "The Lord of the Heavens." The Ape Sun Wu Kung- The Chinese Fairy Book. ed. R. Wilhelm, trans. Frederick H. Martens

 







Week 7: Reading Diary - The Monkey King

The Monkey King Unit

Part A: Favorites

Handsome King of the Apes
From a high rock in the Great Sea, a stone ape is hatched from an egg. The Lord of the Heavens, frightened by the sudden golden radiance that emanates from the ape's eyes, sends two gods to see what has happened. They report that a stone ape has been born by magic and need not be feared. The stone ape grows up among the other apes and one day they decide that whichever ape can get through a waterfall which sits high up on a mountain without getting hurt will be the king. The stone ape, of course is able to do such, leaping in and out of the waterfall and showing the others what he finds behind the fall. He is appointed king, with other monkeys as his attendants.

The Great Sea
The Monkey King is distressed by the imminence of death and despairs to his subjects. An older ape tells the King that there exist three beings that can escape death: the Buddhas, Blessed Spirits, and gods. The King asks where these beings can be found and the old ape tells him at the tops of the highest mountain and goes out to seek their knowledge. While he is searching, he happens to hear a man singing in the woods...This reminds me very much of the Tales of Buddha in that the despair of death and suffering leads the king on a quest.

Sun Wu Kung Gets His Name
The singing belongs to a woodcutter, who the Monkey King mistakes for a saint. The woodcutter tells the King where he can find the actual saint. The Saint welcomes the Monkey King into his home and makes the King his student, giving him the name Sun Wu Kung. But the Monkey King has trouble leaving off his wild nature and is reproached by the master.

The Master
I found this story pretty funny. The Master inquires of the Monkey King what he wishes to learn. Sun Wu Kung declines to learn about anything that will not earn him eternal life. The Master, apparently, becomes frustrated with the King and strikes him over the head 3 times before withdrawing to his own quarters. We learn, however, that the Master was only pretending to be angry and is giving Sun Wu Kung a coded message. The message is that the Monkey King must meet the Master in secret and then will he be given the Great Truth. Sun Wu Kung picks up on the message immediately showing that the Monkey King does possess wisdom even though he is portrayed rather comically at times.

Learning the Art
The Master is impressed with the Monkey King's perception of his message and decides to reveal to him the incantation that would allow him to concentrate his powers. The Monkey King masters this art after a relatively short time, but the Master reveals that while he is seeking truth and knowledge, the Monkey King will be in danger of three beings. In order to protect himself, the Monkey King must learn the incantation that will allow him to transform himself 72 times - it does not state why there is a limit on the number of times he can transform, maybe that will come into play in a later story. Soon the Monkey King masters this art as well and is able to fly up to the clouds and walk on them. I think this may be a metaphor for the elevated level and truth and knowledge that the Monkey King now possesses that is far above the heads of all, including his very own teacher.

Sun Wu Kung Departs
I feel that this story may be foreshadowing what will become of the Monkey King and his "monkey-mindedness." Sun Wu is talking with the other disciples of his Master teacher and tells them that he can change his shape to whatever he wishes. The disciples demand a demonstration, telling the Monkey King to transform himself into a pine tree. Eager to impress the other disciples, Sun Wu obliges, despite the fact that the secret to his transformation is supposed to remain just that - secret. When the Master happens upon the display, he is angry and reprimands the Monkey King, demanding that he leave and tell no one who his teacher was. If he tells, the Master threatens, he will have his soul locked up in the deepest part of hell. Sadly, the Monkey King swears not to tell a soul and departs from the company of the Master and his disciples. I believe with near certainty, simply based on the character that has been revealed thus far,  that Sun Wu Kung will be unable to keep this promise and will suffer consequences.


The Devil-King
This story was a little strange, but probably my favorite so far. When Sun Wu Kung returns home, he is greeted by his apes who tell him that not long ago a Devil-King arrived and tried to take their home by force. They were able to fight him off, but he carried away many of their children and was expected to return. Sun Wu is outraged and flies off to the north where this Devil-King is said to live. He demands to see the Devil-King who scoffs at his seemingly unimpressive appearance. The Devil-King is huge and clad in black armor, but he is clumsy and so Sun Wu Kung is able to fight him. This is where things begin to get a little strange. During the fight, Sun Wu pulls a hair from his body, chews it up and spits it out, and commands it to transform into hundreds of small apes that can fight the Devil-King. He does this with all 84,000 of the hairs on his body, thus demonstrating the power he has learned from the Master. After the Devil-King is defeated, Sun Wu releases the apes that had been prisoners and returns home in a cloud of triumph with the Devil-King's knife as a trophy.

The Nether World
After finally obtaining a weapon worthy to protect his family and his home from the Dragon-King - a long powerful rod that grows and shrinks as commanded - the Monkey King falls into a sleep. He dreams that he is led down to the Nether World. He is furious because he has learned from the Master how Death can be conquered. He demands of the princes of Death to see the book of life where he finds his own date of mortality. He strikes his name and the entire ape family from the book, so that they will now be immortal. When he wakes up, all that he has done in his dream takes effect, and none of the apes ever die.

Part B: Favorites
The Lord of the Heavens
The Lord of the Heavens, Jade Emperor, receives complaints about the Monkey king from both the Dragon King and the princes of Death. Everyone in Heaven seems to want to punish Sun Wu but the Evening Star alone speaks on his behalf, saying that he has attained truth and knowledge and should be forgiven his sins. Then, the Evening Star is sent down to retrieve the Monkey King and bring him up to Heaven so that he might be given a charge. He is placed in charge of the heavenly stables, albeit with some misgivings from those in Heaven whom he immediately offends, but nonetheless, he excels at his charge.

The Great Saint
Once again it is demonstrated that Hubris is not a strictly Greek vice, because this is where the Monkey King begins to get himself into serious trouble. He discovers, at the feast in his honor that his title of stablemaster is not one of great honor. He is furious and decides to go back down to earth to reign as a true king, forcing his way out of Heaven using his magic rod. When he arrives back at his mountain, his apes tell him that he has been gone for ten years (he thought he had only been gone a few days). Monkey King decides that he is better suited to live on earth and decides that he should henceforth be known as The Great Saint Who is Heaven's Equal.

Notscha, Son of Li Dsing
The Lord of the Heavens is concerned by the Monkey King's abrupt exist and sends a party to capture Sun Wu and imprison him. Among this party is Notscha, the third son of the Lord of the Heavens. He is a great warrior, but even he is no match for the clever trickery of the arrogant Monkey King. Once again, the Evening Star intercedes on behalf of Sun Wu and proposes that Sun Wu be given an empty title in order to appease the Monkey King's ego but not give him any  real power. He is officially given the title the Great Saint Who is Heaven's Equal, which is, apparently, a very high title. The fact that the Monkey King blindly accepts the title without questioning its charge or real meaning show that, for all his cleverness, his arrogance leads him repeatedly to foolish acts and decisions.

The Queen Mother of the West
Per his chargeless title,  the  Great Saint spends a great deal of time loafing around and doing as he pleases. The Lord of the Heavens begins to worry that with such idleness mischief was sure to ensue (as they say, the idle mind is the devil's playground). He decides to give the Great Saint a seemingly small charge - guarding the sacred life-giving peaches of the Queen-Mother. The Great Saint accepts this charge with great enthusiasm and it seems that all will go well, that is, until he discovers the power of the sacred fruit he is to protect. One group has the power to give great health, another prevents the consumer from aging, and still another group gives everlasting life. The Great Saint eats to his hearts content. Meanwhile, the Queen-Mother is preparing for the banquet and sends her fairies to collect the fruit in baskets. They discover that much of the fruit is missing.

Laotzse
This story provides really the straw (or series of straws) that broke the camel's back, if you will, in terms of the patience of the Lord of the Heavens for the Monkey King. His true selfish nature is revealed once and for all. From the fairies, the Great Saint learns of the banquet (to which he was not invited) and freezes them where they are so they are unable to tell anyone anything. Through a series of deceptive acts and trickery, the Great Saint manages to divert a god from the banquet, get himself drunk on the sacred nectar of the Heaven, and consume a great deal of life giving pills from the sage Laotzse. Feeling that he has gone maybe just a little too far this time, the Monkey King decides to returen to earth once and for all. For a moment, I feel that he may feel remorse for what he has done, however, he then steals more nectar from its storehouse to take to his ape children proving that he is not sorry for what he has done, but worried that he will be caught.

Yang Oerlang
So the Lord of the Heaven's is reasonably furious about the entire situation and considers how this rogue ape might be stopped. His daughter suggests that he send his grandson, Yang Oerlang, to defeat the Monkey King. They are pretty evenly matched, both can shift shapes, both are strong, and both possess special weapons. So they fall into a battle - one of strength, wit, and wills. Neither can seem to outdo the other.

The Destiny of Sun Wu Kung
After enlisting the help of Buddha to help subdue the out of control Monkey King, those in the Heavens manage to temporarily trap the Monkey King. Once he escapes the Buddha calmly approaches the Monkey King and tells him of his desire to tame the ape. Sun Wu is that anyone try to tame someone as powerful as he. Buddha says that if he is so powerful, Sun Wu should be able to leave Buddha's hand - if he does so, Buddha will beg for pardon of the Lord of the Heavens and if not, we will have to yield to Buddha. The Monkey King somersaults and somersaults until he believes he has reached the edge of the earth. He writes his name so that he can prove that he has been there and then returns to Buddha, feeling triumphant. However, Buddha reveals that what Sun Wu thought was the edge of the earth was really Buddha's middle finger. So Sun Wu has lost and is captured under a mountain for hundreds of years. Once he is reformed, he becomes an assistant to a Monk and is then know as the Wanderer. On his head, he wears a golden circlet that the Monk has the power to tighten if Sun Wu disobeys, but it is, apparently, rarely needed. Maybe the Monkey King has learned after all.

Week 6: Famous Last Words - The Storyteller

Oh my goodness, where is the semester going? Is it really almost time for week 7?! There seriously needs to be a day in between Saturday and Sunday because by the time I get to Saturday evening I feel a little bit like this:

Homer's Scream (image source:BlogSpot)

But I must persevere.

 It's been really interesting to read stories and posts from other people in the class and get ideas for my own writing style. This week, I've been working on writing from the third-person storyteller perspective. I used this method in both my storytelling for this week and in my first story for my storybook. It's pretty different from how I usually write, but I feel that it can add another dimension to a story. It's different from the third-person omniscient perspective in that the reader receives some commentary about the events occurring in the story rather than just the events themselves. Sure this commentary could be biased, and the narrator is less reliable than an omniscient narrator, but I think that the commentary provided  has the ability to provide analysis about important themes within the story or novel. One of the greatest examples I can think of where this proves true is in one of my all-time favorite novels, The Great Gatsby. Literary critics have called Nick an unreliable narrator, but I don't believe the readers would have been able to grasp the tragic beauty or the "greatness" of the character Gatsby if he were described by a more removed voice.

I can't in anyway say that I've achieved anything close to Fitzgerald level commentary with the use of the storyteller perspective - I should be so lucky as to even offer a fraction of a fraction of the skilled literary analysis he provides with Gatsby - but I hope with practice, I could use this style of writing to provide deeper insight into my own writing.

Week 6: Essay - The Trickster/Fool

Studying recurring archetypes in literature has always been a source of great interest to me such that I frequently find myself trying to identify the different archetypal roles in whatever I am reading. The West African Folktales unit provides a rather elegant example of the archetypal "trickster" in the character Anansi, also called "Spider." In this case, the role of trickster in in conjunction with the role of "the fool". These archetypes can and do exist separately in many examples of literature, but I believe the roles to be more impactful and significant when used together due to both the paradox the roles create and to the two-fold lessons one is able to derive from the single character. The significance of these two aspects of the Trickster/Fool role is illustrated throughout the stories involving the character Anansi.

 The Trickster/Fool (image source: Smith Music Online)

Anansi is a recurring character throughout the West African Folktales. He is the classic fool, constantly getting himself into comical predicaments which often result both he and the reader/listener learning a lesson of some sort. What is different, however, about the character Anansi's role as the fool is that he is repeatedly described as crafty or clever, which is a distinct trait of the archetypal trickster. Herein lies the paradox the merging of these two roles creates: how can anyone be a clever fool? To answer this, one must consider what it means to be a fool. When first brought to mind, the personified fool resembles something of a court jester (see above picture), or maybe a child with a dunce cap on his head. The term fool is often associated with lack of intelligence or sense, but it is certainly true that a so called intelligent person can make a foolish decision or act in a foolish manner. And if that person continues to conduct himself in said manner, he runs the risk of being labeled a fool, despite his above average intelligence. All this to say that a fool can be anyone who not only does foolish things repeatedly, but seems not to learn from the consequences of foolish behavior. One will observe time and time again how Anansi's greed or jealousy lead him into some convoluted plot that, in a sort of dramatic irony, the reader can be sure will lead to ruin, simply based upon the outcome of other stories. This impending sense of doom seems to elude Anansi no matter how many times his world is brought down around his ears, and he presses on with whatever clever trickery he has devised to get himself ahead in a particular story. One knows exactly what to expect from Anansi, and that is because he refuses to learn from his past mistakes.

 

One can derive some important lessons from the double faceted archetype that is the Trickster/Fool, especially from one such as Anansi. First, it is immediately apparent that one does not need to lack intelligence to be a fool. This is clearly evidenced by the ever crafty Anansi frequently falling into sticky situations. To see clearly the second lesson one can learn from a character such as Anansi, one must delve a little bit into what exactly makes a character like Anansi tick. Why, exactly, does Anansi never seem to learn from his mistakes? If there is one thing the reader learns quickly about Anansi is that he is a very prideful character. The first story in the unit, How We Got the Name "Spider Tales", talks about how Anansi thought that the stories of the land should be named after him rather than after a god. In Greco-Roman Mythology, this would be referred to as hubris or excessive pride that, more often than not, leads to untold misery. Anansi's excessive pride prevents him from correcting his faults because in his head, he does not have any faults. It is generally accepted that only the extremely arrogant and/or foolish truly believe that they are free from faults or vices. The lesson the reader learns from this portrayal of the Trickster/Fool is one that warns against arrogance and pride. It is not a bad thing to take pride in oneself as a person or be proud of one's accomplishments, but when pride begins to distort reality and promote delusions of grandeur, it becomes reminiscent to hubris, and any Greek tragedy will explain why that is an extreme detriment.

I believe that the use of the trickster or the fool in any sort of storytelling serves the purpose of teaching the reader/listener a lesson. Separately, the roles of both the trickster and the fool teach their own lessons, but when combined, the lesson these roles teach is two-fold and the way the two roles contradict one another is central and significant to the overall purpose of this role in a story.

Week 6: Reading Diary - West African Folktales

West African Folktales Part A: Favorites

How We Got the Name Spider Tales
I found this story interesting in that it appears that excessive pride does not seem to warrant the punishment it does in Mythology of other cultures. In this story, Spider, also called Anansi, decides that he wants all of the stories told to be about him rather than the god Nyankupon and Nyankupon agrees as long as Anansi can perform three tasks - produce a jar of live bees, a boa constrictor, and a tiger. Through cunning and trickery, Anansi is able to perform all of these tasks and so now the stories are called Anansi Tales.

How Wisdom became Property of the Human Race
This is another example of folklore in which the supreme being, in this case, Father Anansi, becomes angry with humanity and seeks to punish it. In this case, however, the attempt of the god is almost a comical failure. Anansi, as previously stated, has become angry with the human race and decides to take all the world's knowledge from them. He throws all the wisdom in a pot and attempts to climb a high tree to put the wisdom just out of reach to all but himself. However, as he is climbing the tree, with the way he has the pot situated upon himself - on his front - he is unable to climb. Anansi's son Kweku Tsin witnesses his father's struggle and suggests that Anansi place the pot on his back instead. Frustrated by his son's apparent possession of knowledge despite Anansi's attempt to hide it, Anansi throws the pot down onto the ground, releasing all the world's knowledge back to the human race.

Anansi and Nothing
This story made me chuckle to myself. Not because of the content - the story itself is a bit sad - but because it involves a play on words. Anansi and his rich friend Nothing decide to go get wives from a neighboring town. Anansi convinces Nothing to let him wear Nothing's fancy clothes in exchange for Anansi's threadbare ones so that when they get to town, Anansi takes several wives and Nothing is only able to procure one, and out of pity. However, upon returning to their homes, Anansi's wives are distressed to see the hovel in which they are to live, so Nothing's wife, feeling pity for her friends, invites all of Anansi's wives to live in her palace. When Anansi's wives refuse to return home, Anansi grows angry and plots to kill Nothing. When he does, Nothing's wife mourns for him and travels about sharing her suffering with the village children so that they may join her in mourning. This is why it is said that when a child is found crying, seemingly for no reason, that the child is "crying for nothing."

Thunder and Anansi
Anansi, for all his selfish and trickster ways, seems to learn a bit of a lesson in this story. He and his family are very much in want of food. He goes out in search of food and through a series of events finds himself at the hut of Thunder who lives in the sea. After hearing Anansi's sad tale, Thunder provides Anansi a pot with which will provide him and his family with plenty of food. Anansi selfishly decides to keep the pot and the food from his family. They eventually find out about it, however, with the help of Anansi's eldest son who follows Anansi around in the form of a fly. The family uses the pot to provide the whole town with a meal but the large order causes the pot to melt away. Anansi discovers this and, resolving to punish his family, returns to Thunder. Thunder listens to his tale and provides him with a stick that beats Anansi until he regrets not being wiser with his fortune in the first place.

Tit for Tat
This story contrasts all the good virtues and characteristics of Kweku Tsin with the faults and vices of his father, Anansi. During a famine, Kweku discovers a wood in which he can hunt animals and sell them in town. Anansi soon becomes jealous of his son's growing wealth and sets out to steal from him. Anansi discovers where his son has been hunting and drives Kweku out of the wood to take all the game for himself. Kweku, however devises a clever scheme to trick his father into giving the meat back by making Anansi think that he has angered the gods. Once the famine is over, Anansi is forced to acknowledge his son's virtues and wisdom and promises to give over his selfish, trickster ways. He will soon break this promise.

Why White Ants Always Harm Man's Property
*I am unsure if, when the story mentions Spider, it is referring to Anansi
Spider, in the midst of another famine, happens upon a dead antelope and decides to take it for himself, concealing it cleverly. Wolf and Leopard suspect that Spider is up to something and eventually succeed in tricking Spider into losing his prize. Spider is angry and strings up Wolf and Leopard. A group of white ants (termites) happen by and help the two down so the Wolf and Leopard invite the white ants to a feast. Well, Spider disguises he and his family as white ants and attend the feast. When the real ants show up, Wolf and Leopard assume that they are Spider's family in disguise so they pour boiling water on the ants killing them all except the father. In his anger at this betrayal, White Ant vows to never help man again and instead be known as a perfect pest.

Squirrel and Spider
Spider is hit with some major karma in this story. HE steals crops from a hardworking squirrel saying that because there is no road leading to the farm, the farm cannot possibly be his. But then the same thing happens to spider: his bundles of crop are stolen by a crow who claims that no one would leave bundles by the road so the bundles clearly belong to the crow. Maybe now we will see if Spider will begin to change his conniving ways...

Why We See Ants Carrying Bundles as Big as Themselves
I cannot quite tell reading these stories if these creatures are actually figured as the creatures they represent or if these are people that represent each creature. However in this story we see Anansi again with his son Kweku, who is the opposite of his father in terms of virtue. Anansi's greed gets the better of him once again and he ends up killing the King's favorite jesters in the pursuit of "more." So the King wraps up the body of the poor jester and makes Anansi carry it on his head and he must continue to do so unless someone takes the load from him. Anansi, crafty fellow that he is, convinces Mr. Ant to hold the body for just a moment and Anansi promises to return. Being Anansi, however, he does not return, and poor Mr. Ant is doomed to carry that huge bundle on top of his head forever.

Part B: Favorites
The Moon and Stars
This story does not emphasize the faults and poor characteristics of Anansi, but rather makes him part of a heroic tale. Anansi and his son Kweku are captured by a dragon and held captive in the dragon's lair with a group of other unfortunates who were also captured by the dragon. Kweku soon devises a plan for escape that involves the group making a rope ladder and throwing it up to heaven to out climb the dragon. The group also employs several tricks along the way that keep the dragon from ascending the ladder, one of which includes playing a magic violin so that the dragon will have to return to the ground to dance. When the group reaches the heavens, the gods are so pleased with Kweku that they make him the sun in the sky. Anansi is made the moon and their friends are made the stars.

The Hunter and the Tortoise
This story is actually meant to teach a lesson rather than entertain or provide an etiology. A hunter hears the beautiful song of a tortoise and asks the tortoise to come home with him so that the hunter may hear her song everyday. The tortoise agrees, as long as the hunter promises to keep the tortoise a secret. Not unpredictably, the hunter does not keep his promise and begins to brag about his singing tortoise, so much so that the ruler of the land hears of the tale. The ruler and his officials do not believe the hunter's story, but the hunter swears that he is telling the truth and that if he cannot prove himself, he may be killed. So he brings the tortoise before the court to sing, but the tortoise will not utter a word. The hunter is executed, per his agreement with the ruler, and only then does the tortoise speak saying that if the hunter had been content to keep the tortoise a secret, no ill would have befallen him.

The Leopard and the Ram
 Another etiology, this story explains why rams are domesticated while leopards live in the wild. This is one of the more humorous stories in my opinion. In the story, through an odd turn of events, a ram and a leopard end up helping each other build the same house without either one of them realizing it. After they discover that they have both built the house, they decide to live together,  becoming good friends. Both wonder at the other's keen hunting ability and sends his son to discover the secret of the other's hunting success. The leopard's son discovers that the ram backs up and runs its head into its prey and thus warns his father that if he ever sees the ram backing up, he should fear for his life. One day, the ram slips on the wet floor of the hut and slides backward. Remembering his son's warning, the leopard runs for his life into the woods never to return to civilization. This is why leopards live in the wild

The Elephant and the Wren
Ah, the reappearance of the trickster, Spider! Spider wins a contest, through cunning and trickery of course, in which he chops down a great tree. His prize is an elephant. Spider, showing his selfish character once again, decides that he does not want to have to share the elephant with his family. He decides to try to catch a wren and act as though that is all that he has procured for the day. He ties up his elephant and goes after the wren. He is unsuccessful in catching the wren, and then while he is trying to catch the bird, the elephant gets loose. Now he has absolutely nothing to show for the day, and both he and his family must go hungry for the day. Spider seems to not learn from his past experiences as he keeps running into similar outcomes in return for his deceit and coveting.

Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They are Provoked
I have to admit that this story made me feel a bit uncomfortable - I am terrified of both tigers and lions. I also thought that it was interesting to include in folktales from Africa tigers, which are not found in Africa. As the story goes, a man befriends a tiger and convinces the tiger to come live with him for a time. The tiger agrees despite apprehensions that the man's friends will try to kill the tiger. On his way to visit the man sometime later, the tiger is shot, but not killed, by some of the man's friends. Fearing that he had been betrayed by his friend, the tiger feigns death to gage the reaction of the man in order to determine whether or not the man had anything to do with the shooting. When the man discovers the apparently dead tiger, the man mourns the loss of his friend and determines to protect the tiger's body as well as the tiger's cub. Upon seeing this, the tiger tells the man that he will never attack any man unless he is first provoked.

Week 5: Essay - Knowledge is Power

In the author's note for my story this week, I included a disclaimer noting that my story was not meant to be a social commentary or a criticism of the education system. While this is true, writing that story did lead me to begin thinking about the education is viewed in today's society. It has become apparent to me that educations is often viewed as a means to an end rather than an end in a of itself. What I mean by this is that we, as a society, do not learn for the sake of knowledge, but in order to get ahead. This is not to say that exceptions to my theory do not exist - they do exist and are numerous - however these people are just that, the exception, and the rule remains. The perception of education as a means to an end is detrimental for a number of reasons the main of which is that it trivializes the acquisition of knowledge.

In my story, I presented a rather dramatized scenario in which a teacher encounters a student that wishes to take initiative in his own education. I do not believe that all or even most teachers would respond so negatively to a student who showed such a keen interest in gaining knowledge - quite the opposite, fact. I believe that many teachers would be more than willing to facilitate the in depth study of particular subjects that interest students (though there are some who would not). The problem is that, with things like standardized tests, teachers are required to follow a rigid teaching plan that hits all of the points deemed important by the makers of these standardized tests. What the preparation for these tests teaches us, and from an early age, is that if you are not directly tested over a subject, knowledge of said subject is unimportant. I can't tell you how many times a I have heard a classmate ask a teacher during a lecture will this be on the exam? You can physically see the student's eyes glaze over and his mind begin to wander if the teacher dares to reply no. I won't deny that there are times that I won't even glance at a section in a book if a professor happens to let it slip that the content in that particular section will not appear on the test. Why should I waste my time? I think to myself. The real question I should be asking myself is why I would ever view learning of any sort as a waste of time.

My mother always complains that her high school education left her ill-prepared for college. She never learned how to study, she says, and when she did study, it was the night before the exam and she forgot everything she'd studied immediately after taking the exam. This is true for so many students, myself included. I can't tell you half the things I learned in my high school AP government class despite the fact that I passed the class with an A and scored well on the AP exam. This is a huge problem - not only are we qualifying the significance of knowledge based on whether or not it appears in the context of a test, but we aren't even remembering what we did learn. In essence we are merely regurgitating what we are told is important in exchange for a letter or score that we hope will help us succeed in life. I am not condemning the desire for academic success or the will to achieve - I too strive for good grades and high test scores - I am merely questioning what education might look like if approached from a different angle, from an angle that places knowledge itself above the quantification of said knowledge.

I don't have any studies or statistics to prove that education as an ends to a mean is detrimental to education itself. I can only speak from my own experience. In retrospect, I've had access to a plethora of fascinating subjects in my years in the education system, However, there is much of it that I was not able to appreciate because I was so concerned with discerning which information would benefit me most to study so that I could do well in the class. This, to me, is the saddest result of the perception of education as a means to an end - that we are constantly surrounded by knowledge, and the opportunity to absorb so much of it, but instead we focus our energy on weeding out the useless "fluff" in favor of the information we "need to know." Why not seek to know and understand everything rather than limit ourselves to what someone else has deemed as important? When we open ourselves up to the idea that all knowledge is worthwhile, then I believe we could begin to really explore just what all the mind can do.

"Knowledge is Power!" - School House Rock (image source Wikipedia-School House Rock)