Blog Entry 11

Oscar Wilde Fairy Tales

          

  Oscar Wilde wrote three fairy tales that we read, and discussed in class. These fairy tales include, “The Selfish Giant,” “The Happy Prince,” and lastly, “The Nightingale and the Rose.” Each of these fairy tales are intended for people aged 18-80. They are unique because they are not truly meant for children, and reflect his Irish and religious background. Majority of Irish people indulge with the Roman Catholic Religion, and each of his fairy tales involve symbols that relate to this religion. Also all of these fairy tales result in death at the end, but in a positive light because the death leads to a deeper meaning. 

           

“The Selfish Giant” is a story about an emotional giant who lives in a beautiful garden. The children always want to play in his garden, but he scares them away. The garden freezes over, with snow and coldness due to no children playing there. One little boy appeared in the garden trying to climb a tree, but he was too short. The giant helped the young boy, into the tree and realized he felt love for the children. After this, the giant allowed all the children in his garden, and the garden prospered. The only missing was the little boy who the giant helped. Time went on, and the giant waited for the little boy to return. One day, the giant saw the little boy. He had marks on his hands and feet with nails. This is an allusion to Jesus Christ. Since the Giant was saved, and learned his lesson to be kind and welcoming to everyone (love thy neighbor) he died, and was welcomed into Paradise.

            “The Happy Prince” is an allegorical story, representing the social class system. The wealth of the upper classes people versus the poor and struggling. In “The Happy Prince,” the statue of the prince has jewels from the poor; the prince can now see the people in poverty instead of being hidden from the reality. Soon, the statue loses all its wealth, but he is richer on the inside for helping the needy. The townspeople remove the prince’s statue, and discuss the next statue that will replace him, because material wealth is more important to them than helping others, or being a good person on the inside.

           

Lastly, “The Nightingale and the Rose,” tells the story of a young man who has fallen in love with a girl who promises to dance with him at a ball, if he brings her a red rose. The boy soon becomes upset because he does not have a red rose. A nightingale overhears the boy, and decides to help. The nightingale desperately searches for a red rose, but she is unsuccessful. Eventually, she sacrifices her life, using her blood to stain a white rose red. The girl who the boy loves changes her mind despite her promise, and goes to another suitor. The boy leaves the ball, and goes home. The story ends with him indulging in a book.

           

All of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales are different from the typical fairy tale story. These are not children stories, they include religious symbolism, obtain symbols dealing with his culture, and include deep morals for a reader to have to analyze and interpret. They all include a sad death, and often a confusing ending, which must be interpreted to understand the meaning Oscar Wilde is trying to say.
           
Photo Source: Google Images 

Blog Entry 10

Traditional Jewish Folktales            

            Jewish folktale tradition stories differ from those of European origin in many ways. They are unique. Almost all the Jewish folktales that we read and analyzed in class include religious believes, and majority used a rabbi as the heroic symbol. Many also discussed tension between religion, used an abundance of the number three, and contained lessons, jokes, or tricks.

            The short stories that we read used rabbis as the hero over and over again. In stories like, “The Rabbi and the Inquisitor” the rabbi was falsely accused of murdering a Christian boy. This speaks on the tension between the Jewish people and the Christian people. In the end, the rabbi emerged the hero, and used his wits to outsmart his enemies. Also in the story, “The Rabbi Who Was Turned into a Werewolf,” the rabbi underwent hardships against his wife, and at the end of the story was turned back into himself, and his wife (enemy) was turned into a donkey.

            I noticed throughout reading these stories the number three was used, and repeated a lot. Tasks were completed in sets of three in some stories as well. This reminded me of some European stories. For example, “The Three Blind Mice,” “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” and “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” These all include the number three as an important numeric symbol. In “The Rabbi Who Was Turned into a Werewolf,” the “advisor tried to attack the wolf a third time.” Also, in “The Magic Mirror of Rabbi Adam,” there were three different tests of magical power.

            Lastly, something that I find very unique about these Jewish folktales is the wit, humor, and comedic factor. In almost every story, the writer included things to make the reader giggle, or smile. Some of the humor is dark, but it all leads to the moral in the end. For example, in “A Dispute in Sign Language,” the man, and the priest both have different meanings, but they believe it to mean something else. This touches on the power of interpretation, and is humorous in a sense. Also in, “Chelm Justice” one may think the story makes no sense, why would the judge agree to kill a random roofer, over an actual murderer just because of his needed job position. This touches on false logic, and injustice in a dark, yet funny light.

            Traditional Jewish folktales are unique, and contain different aspects to make them how they are. These factors are different and similar to European folktales in many ways, but they stand out, and are very important culturally.

Photo source: Google images 

Blog Entry 9

Nathaniel Wright Blog Review

I read over Nathaniel’s latest three blog posts, and am very impressed. His tone while writing is very mature, and detailed. He has a unique perspective about these tales which shines through his writing. I think his blog is done very well, and I enjoyed reading his unique interpretation of these tales.

The first blog post I read of Nathaniel’s is, Rags to Riches. He talks about Disney’s Cinderella, and the modern Cinderella story Pretty Woman. I really like the flow of this blog. He begins with an interesting first paragraph, which makes me want to continue. Then he briefly describes the two films in similarities and differences. Then he talks about exact details from the films, and relates them back to the topic. Finally, he concludes this blog with real life explanation. I really like how he talks about how the Cinderella story may be less common today, but not impossible. I wish he would have included a picture in this blog entry, but overall this entry is very good.

The next blog entry I read is, Bluebeard. I see that Nathaniel included two photographs in this blog entry, which is good. His beginning paragraph is full of wit, and humor. His style of writing is unique, and attention grabbing. He also has very good diction, and seems like a gifted writer. I also really like how he includes other stories and films that follow the same pattern as Bluebeard. He included titles like, Mr. Fox, which is his favorite out of the examples he gave. I really enjoyed reading this blog. It was unique, and interesting. His writing is easy to follow, and is entertaining.


The last blog post by Nathaniel that I read was, Child Heroes. In this blog post, he again starts with a unique hook, to draw a reader in. He has very good starting paragraphs, and uses humor, quotes, and personality in his writing. I like this because you can see the individualism in his writing, which makes the blog posts much for fun to read. The only difference in this blog from the others, is it is a bit shorter in length. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because with length in writing often comes repetition. I think he may be could have analyzed a little bit more, and extended the length, but overall this is again, a solid blog entry.

Nathaniel’s blogs are captivating, unique, humorous, and overall a strong example of his amazing writing skills. His personality shines through his words, and I really enjoyed reading over his interpretation of these fairy tales. 

Photo source: Google Images

Blog Entry 8

The Child as a Hero

            In the various tales we read in class involving Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and others, the children are highlighted as the heroes. In these stories death was a high probability for these children, but they had to work as heroes in order to escape death. For example, in Hansel and Gretel, the brother sister duo had to outsmart their parents to escape death. In The Singing Bones, and Jack and the Beanstalk the children had to uniquely emerge as heroes. It was not as clear as some of the other tales but the children impacted the stories immensely.  

            In The Singing Bones a man and a woman had 25 children. “The man was good, the woman was bad (Tatar, 254).” The husband was afraid of his wife, and ate whatever she made for him. Soon, he noticed that some of his children were missing. The wife lied to him, and said they were staying at the grandmothers’ house. Come to find out, the wife had been killing the children, and feeding them to the husband. The children are the heroes because the dead children had a voice and told the father, “Our mother killed us, our father ate us. We are not in a coffin, we are not in a cemetery (Tatar, 255).” The father then reacted to this news by killing his carnivorous wife, burying the children’s bones, and became vegetarian.

            The children in The Singing Bones may not have been able to escape death due to the mother killing them, but they still emerge as the heroes of this story because they saved the father from the evil mother by communicating what had occurred. The dead children, not only saved the father, but also saved the rest of the children whom were still alive from being murdered by the mother. The dead children did not technically save themselves from death, but they are still heroes for saving the other children, and helping the father realize what he was doing.

            In Joseph Jacobs, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack is a child hero. Jack, and his mother lived together and were very poor. They were often hungry. Jack’s mother sent him to sell there cow in order to get money for necessity’s for survival. Jack ran into a mysterious man, and sold the cow for magic beans. When he arrived with the beans, his mother threw them out into the yard, and was very upset that Jack sold there only source of money for a trick. Come to find out, the beans sprouted into a large beanstalk. Jack climbed the beanstalk, and ran into an ogress, and an ogre. The ogress was more motherly toward Jack, but the ogre did not like Jack. Jack had to outsmart the ogre in order to steal multiple gold items from them including a golden egg, hen, and harp. Jack successfully gained the golden items, and brought them back to his mother. They cut down the beanstalk, and now had plenty of money, and Jack even married a “great princess (Tatar, 277).”

            Jack is the hero in this story because even though at first his mother thought he was being a stupid child, and they would starve due to his careless actions, he ended up helping the family become rich. Jack had to be brave in order to face the ogre, and still managed to overcome the challenges as a child, and successfully bring back wealth for his mother.

            Bettelheim discusses the meaning of these stories from a Freudian point of view. His viewpoint is that the stories give insight to “childhood anxieties, and deep disappointments (Bettelheim, 159.)” He also talks about the “consequences of trying to deal with life’s problems by means of regression and denial, which reduces ones ability to solve problems (Bettelheim, 160).” This speaks on both of the stories I analyzed closely. In The Singing Bones the children regressed to the mother killing them before it was too late, and many children already died. Also in Jack and the Beanstalk, he regressed to their problem of being poor for making a careless decision of trading the cow for magic beans. In both stories, the children still emerge as heroes in the end, and solve their problems in unique ways.

Sources: google images