Long ago there lived a Dryad
named Anna who lived within a forest. The nymphs and woodland
creatures that lived within the area believed that she was the most beautiful
creature they had ever seen. Her hair was a soft brown
flowing down to her thighs. The lightness of her skin paired with her striking
light blue eyes would make any man weak.
Even at the
young age of fourteen, all Anna could think about was finding the right man for
her. There have been men who would come out to the forest to try and impress the
Dryad but she wasn’t interested in any of them. The young lady wanted a man who
was charming yet had an edge to him. She wanted the love of her life to be very confidant. Because non of the suitors were what she was looking for, Anna left the forest to find the man of her
dreams.
Just passed
the woods, Anna noticed some nymphs walking along the path as well. She ran up
towards them and questioned the girls, “where are you three off too?” The other
three then replied in an excited manner, “to see Narcissus! We hear he is the
most attractive man in town,” the three then giggled in excitement. So all four
began their journey to the village to meet this man.
Once they
arrived, they saw a man who was surrounded by people who had stern looks on
their faces. The man with all the attention then grew a sly smirk, “you people waste
my time.” He would then turn to walk towards the women to look at them for
a brief moment and stopped at the sight of the Anna to let out a soft chuckle, “Yes,
ladies, I am Narcissus. It is cute how you think I will talk to you. But alas,
I have no time to speak to the likes of you. Farewell.” He said those words
without a care and just walked away into the woods without turning back. All nymphs
boiled in anger for how pretentious the man was but Anna just sat in awe. She
had found the man she had searched for.
The nymphs
made their way back into their section of the forest except for Anna. Running
around in search for the man, she then stopped to the see Narcissus leaning
over a fountain. Anna walked around the fountain to
see him starring into his own reflection. The Dryad tried to speak to the man but it
was useless because he would completely ignore her and continue to stare into the water. Out of frustration the nymph walked away to find a tree close to the fountain to watch him from.
Days had
passed and Narcissus was still staring into his own reflection in the water. She would bring him food and
leave it by his side but he would not touch it. He was so consumed with himself
to not notice anything around him. After Anna realized how full of himself the man was, she stopped trying to help him and walked away. Upon returning to the fountain, Anna could not find Narcissus in his usual spot. All she found was a flower in his place.
Authors note: I used the story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses:Narcissus by Tony Kline (2000). I came up with the first three paragraphs to bring an introduction
to my new character. Other than that the story mostly resembles the one I read
but just in the perspective of the Dryad.
I like how you wrote the story from another character's perspective. Your description of the dryad was so vivid with detail and I could picture the vainness and arrogance of the male character just by reading your story. Your story also leaves me wondering what happened to Narcissus at the end. It leaves me wanting to know more, which is a good thing since I'm not really a person who enjoys reading that much. I also wonder what the flower means at the end of the story. Did he leave it there or did something happen to him. I found your story very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your version of this story. I got to read the original as well, and it was cool getting to see it through the eyes of another character. I honestly preferred reading your story over the original, because of the way it was written, and it seemed to be more interesting for me. You have a great talent at writing and I look forward to reading more of your stories in the future.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I needed to spell Author’s Note correctly. Also, my Author’s Note could have had more information in it. Instead of just saying my storybook was the same in the actual story of Narcissus in all three of my paragraphs, I could have written a brief summary of the actual story of Narcissus. For example, “Narcissus was cursed to fall in love with his reflection from an angered man who got talked down upon by Narcissus. Because Narcissus was unable to leave the beautiful sight of himself, he died beside the water and turned into a flower. I just incorporated my own character to see Narcissus through someone else’s eyes. ” When I looked through tons of pictures of Narcissus I found a perfect picture of Echo and Narcissus. I know I could use this one because I thought that the reader could see the woman as the Dyrad, the character I created to be the narrator in the story. The way the women is placed makes it seem like she is trying to get the attention of Narcissus but he doesn’t want to give her the time of day. Narcissus looks so consumed in his own image to not even realize someone was before him.
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