Reading Diary B: The Wife Who Lied

The second unit of the Eskimo Folk Tales was not as strange as the first unit. But that is okay because the stories were still interesting and entertaining! My favorite story from the unit was The Wife Who Lied, which is one of the weirder stories in the second unit. The story is about a woman who is wed to a man in a different village, one that did not eat men. When she went to visit her people in her old village, she wore mittens on her feet and boots on her hands to show the villagers that she was being ill-treated. To me, this act was really strange to get the villagers attention. She could have easily lied a different way, telling the people of her village that she was not being treated well. If someone came up to me with reversed clothing, ill treatment is not the first thing I think about. Perhaps I my first thought would be insanity or lack of sleep but not ill treatment. Anyway, once her villagers saw this they went to attack her husband’s village while the men were away. They murdered all the women, excluded the three women who hid well, and stuck spears threw them. When the men came home, they were enraged because they knew the wife had run away and what village she was apart of. While they prepared for war against the enemies, the wife’s village summoned spirits and saw when the villagers would swarm them and take revenge. So they beat them to the punch, killing all the men and leaving the rest of the women to be chosen by the village. When it came down to chose the wife, two men took her to the forest and cut off her arms and let her bleed out because she lied about her ill treatment.  

A Luzon Negrito with Spear by Dr. A. B. Meyer's (2009)

Reading Diary A: The Coming of Men

The first unit of the Eskimo Folk Tales was a pleasant surprise. I feel like these stories are very random, like a weird dream or nightmare. With that said, I absolutely love it! It is so different and makes the reader use their wide range of imagination. For example, the story Makíte had different types of instances, people, creatures and powers that made me think of a dream. After Makíte ran away from his wife and her family because he was unable to catch seal like the wife’s brother, the family chased out after him. Once he outran them, however, he came across a weird house. What caused me to think it was a dream was because when he opened the door, there was a weird noise than a strange man who lived in the house. By sunrise, Makíte wanted to leave but the owner hunted him down. The way the story explains the visit at the house as well as the chase seemed very strange and almost terrifying. Thinking of a stranger with animal skins hanging from the ceiling and a creepy sounding house chasing after you is absolutely terrifying. The story just gets even crazier when Makíte stumbled upon a house of dwarfs that were waking a line inside and out of the house. This was interesting to picture for me because I saw a line of dwarfs circling inside then out the house in a line with cartoon music. The weirdest part is when something dark appeared in the west when Makíte joined the line. The dwarfs then attacked the darkness but not with weapons, but with dogs that summoned waves to drown the darkness. That was super crazy to imagine, causing me to think I would dream something weird like that. I loved how weird this and the other stories were.

Inuit Woman by Crisco (1907)

Essay: Native American Hero Tales

The unit I chose for this week was the Native American Hero Tales. I felt like the stories were all written well with description as well as their animal personas. I loved how all of the stories had something to do with animals and that they had a lot of symbolism.  For example, in the story of Bluejay and His Companions, four of the five friends give crap to one of the men, Grouse, by giving him barely any meet when they went hunting. Not only that, but the Grouse was a widow and was taking care of a child by himself. So when the men bullied him, it broke the stick on the camels back and he wanted revenge. Reading this story, it made it seem like the four men were the “bad guys” in the situations because they were picking on Grouse who he thought was their friends and was going through a hard time. For revenge, Grouse casted a spell on a wooden seal to take them far out to sea to leave them. I think putting them out to fend for themselves in the middle of the sea days away from their home land was a bit far for revenge. But when the men returned home they always remembered to give Grouse the most meat from their hunts so I guess his actions worked in his favor. Another example that involves a “bad guy” is in the story The Jealous Father, which is about a man who has two wives. One of the wives had a son that the father was very jealous of. So what makes the father the “bad guy” is when he left his son on a random island for him to die. But after risking his life during his journey home, the son burned the forest around his home as well as his father. Even though his father intended for his son to die, it was still drastic for the son to burn him alive.

Baby Weddell Seal by Samuel Blanc (2006).

Storytelling: The White Butterflies

Once there were newlyweds that lived deep in a forest in Connecticut. They lived in a secluded house that was covered by high trees. The most peaceful part of the area was that there were always signs of woodland creatures: prancing deer, singing birds, hopping rabbits and hooting owls. After they were settled in their new home, they thought it would be the perfect place to raise a child.

            A year later, their baby Ashley was born. She was perfection in her parent’s eyes and they cherished every moment they could with her. Ashley’s childhood was full of adventure and laughter with her amazing parents. They would take her hiking around their house to animal watch and at night the family would get together for bonding time and play instruments or board games to connect with one another. But one day, it all changed.

            When Ashley turned twelve, she became a free spirited child.  It seemed like nothing could bring her down, until things turned for the worst. Ashley was in the middle of her English class when her grandmother released her from school. In a hurry, she took Ashley to a hospital in town and told her that her parents got into a severe car accident. Ashley’s heart dropped because she was so terrified. She had no idea if her parents were all right, if they had a few cuts or worse.

            Once they got into the hospital, they ran to the emergency wing and were told to wait. In tears, Ashley begged her grandmother and nurses to let her into the room but all they could tell her was to calm down and to wait until the two get out of surgery.

            Seconds turned into minutes, which then turned to hours until a nurse would update Ashley and her grandmother on her parents. With a hollow look, the nurse gave her condolences because Ashley’s parents passed away from blood loss. Ashley’s heart dropped and her blood turned cold. All she could do was stand there, staring at the nurse in disbelief. She then fell into her grandmother’s arms, crying hysterically.

            The entire week leading up to the funeral was terrible for Ashley. Due to the unfortunate events, she had to stay in her grandmother’s care. Because Ashley was so numb by the whole situation, she staid secluded in the guest room and rarely came out. The only incentive she had for leaving the room was to eat. Her grandmother tried to get her to get out and do something but Ashley would only refuse and lock the door.

Her whole life felt like it was over as she stood over her parent’s grave at the funeral. All she could do was cry and began to pray, “if you are here, parents, show yourself”. Suddenly, two white butterflies flew around her head and onto the coffin causing a swarm of emotions came over Ashley. She took a deep breath and smiled softly knowing that this was a sign of her parents telling her they were at peace and they wanted her to be happy. 

Cabbage white butterfly by Vera Buhl (2010).

Author's note: I used the story of The Jealous Father from the Native American Hero Tales Unit by Stith Thompson (1929). The story was about an old man who had two wives. The man was jealous of the son from one of the two wives and decided to rid of him by leaving him on a random island. His mother conjured up a walrus to save him by swimming him back to his island. But the father conjured up a storm and after the boy got dropped off at his island, the walrus was struck by the lightening. I liked the idea of the parents summoning upon creatures or weather to connect with their child so I decided to use that concept for my story.

Reading Diary B: Native American Hero Tales

The second half of the Native American Hero Tales was also great. I believe that this is my favorite unit by far. They are all similar in having animal personification, which makes the story very interesting because they are all symbolic. My favorite story in the second half of the unit was The Jealous Father, cont. In the story, there was an old man named Aioswé who had two wives. Of those two wives, one had a son and as that son grew older, the more Aioswé became jealous of him because he thought that he was having sexual relations with the wife. His suspicion and jealousy lead him to taking the son to hunt for eggs by the shore. But the father tricked the boy and took him far out to sea to then leave him there to die. A walrus that was conjured by his mother came to rescue him and take him to shore. But his father conjured up a thunderstorm and once the walrus got close enough for the boy to walk to shore, he was killed by lightning. His mother sent an old woman to head the boy for the journey ahead and what to do to survive. On his journey, he ran into two old blind witches with bones protruding out of their elbows. He made a stick and placed it between the two women, which were conjured by his father, and began to stab each other when they thought they were killing the boy. Then the boy ran into a village with bones hanging from trees. He dug a hole to hide because if something rustled the bones then the villagers would come out and kill who ever did it.  Once he escaped there, he went back home and set the trees and water on fire. He told his father that if he get into the barrel where he kept the fat and grease then he would be safe and he drew a ring around the mother. The father burned alive while the mother stayed safe. I really liked how the mother and father were able to conjure different animals and humans to do their bidding.

Grey Jay by Simon (2010).

Reading Diary A: Native American Hero Tales

This week, I chose to read the Native American Hero Tales unit. I chose this unit because they used animal personas for the people in the stories. My favorite story in the first half of the unit was Bluejay and His Companions, cont. The story is about 5 men who hunted together; Bluejay, Bluejay’s master, Grouse, Beaver, Land Otter. One day, they were out hunting and Bluejay told the rest of the men to give all the lean parts of the seal to Grouse. Grouse got so mad that he pulled a very messed up prank. When the 4 left one day without Grouse, he carved a seal out of wood and threw it into the water. When the 4 were paddling in ther canoe, the wooden seal came to life and grabbed onto the rope attached to the canoe and swam fast. The men were confused when they saw a seal was puling the canoe. They seal took the men far from shore and finally let go, giving the men time to spear it. But they knew it was the doing of Grouse when they saw it the seal turn back into a small wooden seal. They then paddled around for days to find their village but as they did that, they ran into many other villages. And in ever village, they faced many challenges to stay alive. They broke the rules to win most of them and in so, they were chased until they used their powers, tamanous, to drown the angry people following them. Once they finally reached home they made it important to give Grouse the biggest and fattest parts of the kill when they went hunting.

Blue jay perched in backyard by Jude (2008)