Week 11 Story: The Stupid Monkeys

Backstory

A long time ago there lived a group of three monkey friends named John, Chester, and Ray. They were known around the monkey village as the three stooges.  The reasoning for this nickname is because they could never complete a task they were given without screwing it up.  The most recent job that they had messed up was bringing back wood to the village so they could roast their bananas. Instead of bringing back wood, they pretended to sword fight and ended up breaking the sticks into tiny pieces that could not sustain fire. Ever since they were young they were the outcasts of the society and no one paid any attention to them.  Lal the other monkeys thought they were just failures but unbeknownst to them, they strategically did that so that they wouldn’t have to be counted on to do anything important. That is how they wanted to live their life.

Bananas and Freedom

One day they were walking along the trees and noticed a huge cache of bananas just hanging in a tree.  They all looked at each other and decided that that if they brought it back to the village that they would be considered heroes and treated as such.  They also agreed that if they were able to do that then they probably wouldn’t have to ever do any other task that the village asked of them.  So, John climbed to right above the bananas and started to pick each off one the bundle connected to the tree.  He started throwing them to Chester and Ray who started to have a competition to see who could catch and then carry the most bananas. Eventually, the tree was picked clean and they proceeded to make their way back to their village. When they arrived and all the other monkeys saw all the food they carried, they went wild.  They were going crazy over having an abundance on bananas to eat.  John, Chester, and Ray were proclaimed hero’s and from that day on they were never asked to do anything for the village.  They proceeded to live their life and be lazy for the rest of their days.

Three Monkeys. (No date)

iirliinnaa. Source: Pixabay

Author’s Note:
I wanted to make this story a little bit longer than the original.  I wanted to monkey’s to be lazy yet cunning not just lazy. It made sense to have to have them just want to live their lives and no be counted on. Having the three friends always mess up the tasks they are given was a cunning ploy by them to not have to do work.  It is the sign of intelligence, especially when they realize if they bring the bananas back they won’t have to do another task for the village.

Bibliography: Babbitt, Ellen. The Stupid Monkeys. The Stupid Monkeys

Reading Notes Part B: How the Monkey Saved His Troop

Since I complained so much about how Monkeys were treated as idiots and buffoons in the world, I decided to read a story that talks about how a monkey saves his troops.  What I love about this story is that it is showing monkeys off in a good light finally.  The monkey does not seem stupid or lazy.  This monkey is able to help the chief save his men from being destroyed by the enemy by finding out what they are doing and where they are planning to attack. I like that the monkey is given a large task and is able to succeed in that task. It seems that this is not the first time the monkey has been asked to help humans out. It seems he/ she is very good at his/her job. What I love about this animal is that it seems to have no hesitation when I comes to helping out humans. This shows how selfless the monkey really is.

One thing that I am wondering about is why are humans relying on animals to help them survive? I wonder if that is because they view animals as gods and that by having them in their stories as saviors then they will be rewarded? In past stories we see animals talking and that makes me wonder why the monkey and the king are not talking together. It just makes the monkey seem primitive but that it knows exactly what the king is saying.  That makes no sense at all. If an animal cannot speak then there is no way it should understand what humans are asking it. Overall, I think the story is pretty good, but it does have some flaws in it like any story typically would. I might consider writing my story about this but I am not sure how I would change it.

Archers. (May 22, 1918)

Joseph Fawcett. Source: Wikicommons

Bibliography: Babbitt, Ellen. How the Monkey Saved His Troop. How the Monkey Saved His Troop

Reading Notes Part A: The Stupid Monkeys

For Part A reading I focused on the story of the The Stupid Monkeys. I actually really enjoyed this story because it holds to true to how people view monkeys.  Monkeys are often thought about as not being the smartest animal on the planet and what they do with their daily live as boring.  Often in media Monkeys are depicted as dumb and incompetent and that is exactly what this story does with the monkeys.  It is funny to see that stories way back in the day have the exact same thoughts on how monkeys should be portrayed the people in this day and age do. Monkeys aren’t always known for being the most intelligent creatures and I am interested to know why. The rest of the stories in this section are quite entertaining and maybe next time I will focus on them.

What I was various about is why are monkeys always made to be looked at as the village idiots? It seems in some media and cultures they are regarded as wise so why do we make them look dumb? If I were to write a story I’d flip it and make the humans look like the dumb ones and the animals the wisest. What I didn’t like about this story as well is the fact that it was rather short. When you get to the climax of the story all the Monkeys did was pull up trees and they ended up dead.  That doesn’t really seem to make the monkeys stupid just not careful. Overall, I thought that this story was really lacking when it came to make the monkeys look stupid. I think what the story did, was in fact make sure that everyone is careful when doing a tsk because if they aren’t then there could be consequences, like killing a tree.

Monkey. (May 23, 2018)

Thomas Shahan. Source: Wikicommons

Bibliography: Babitt, Ellen. The Stupid Monkeys. The Stupid Monkeys

Week 10 Story: The Monkey and the Crocodile

There once was a young crocodile named Marty. He was the runt of his family and his older brothers always made fun of him because he could never seem to bring dinner home to the family.  On top of that there was also this monkey that lived up the bank that constantly made fun of Marty and made him feel inadequate. 

One day Marty’s mom, Dorothy, called him over and said, “Marty, I need you to go out and get dinner for us, your brothers and father are away hunting for gazelle.”

Marty replied, “Mom, what should I hunt for?”

His mom replied, “Just enough to feed us hunny.”

Marty then wagged his tale and went off in search of food for them.  Along the way up the bank to where the deer where he heard a voice call out to him.

“There goes that little runt, Marty. Says he is a crocodile but can never catch anything.”

Marty looked up and there was Damon, the wise cracker of the monkey’s, laughing at him. Marty grew mad just thinking about all the times Damon had called the other animals to laugh at Marty when he couldn’t secure dinner for the family.

 An idea formed in Marty’s head he thought, “If I pretend like i am giving up on hunting and pretend to cry maybe I can lure Damon down and we can eat him for dinner.”

After Marty had formulated this plan he proceeded to act it out.

He cried to Damon, “you are right, I am the worst hunter, so I give up! You win Damon, are you happy!”

Damon, upon hearing this, was shocked because he did not think that crocodiles would take jokes so seriously. He then proceeded to sing down to the lowest branch of the tree that he was in and looked at Marty.

He said, “We are just messing with you Marty, but if you want to give up why not just live on land. I’m sure the other animals will have use for a crocodile that can’t hunt.”

He then proceeded to laugh loudly and as he roared his head back he noticed that Marty winked at him.

He thought, “That is odd, why is Marty winkiiiiinnnngggg…”

Marty jumped out of the water and snatched Damon out of the tree as Damon was deep in thought.  With one powerful bite Damon was dead, no longer able to taunt and heckle Marty. When Marty returned home his father, brothers, and mother were all there.  Once they saw that Marty had Damon in his jaws they cheered for Marty had finally become one of them. That night a grand feast was held with the family heaping praise on Marty for killing the most annoying monkey in the jungle.

Monkey. (December 4, 2015)

Saidkarimail. Source: Wikicommons

Authors Note: 

I wanted to change up this story. In the original the monkey gets the best of the crocodile.  With this one I wanted the crocodile to turn the table on the monkey and get the last laugh.  I think having Marty being bullied by the monkey makes everyone feel for him and want him to finally get a kill.  This story isn’t as long as ones that I usually post because I want this one to be short, sweet, and to the point. It is serendipitous that that kill would be the Monkey. The lesson of the story is that karma will come around and bite you on the butt.

Bibliography: Babbitt, Ellen. The Monkey and the Crocodile. The Monkey and the Crocodile.

Reading Notes Part B: Jakata Tales Part B

After reading Part B I realized that all the stories were written by the same person, whoops.  Anyway, I think that all the stories in Part B are wonderfully done and there is hard to find any fault with them.  The descriptions that the writer uses helps me visualize and bring to life in my head what I am reading.  I know I have stated this countless time, but I think that it is super important to be able to have your reader visualize while they are reading what you have written.  That is the first and only way to draw their intention ion.  If the reading is bull and boring the person is most likely to skip it or read it once and then discard it from their mind.  With these stories, I know that they will stay with me for a long time. It definitely was not easy to pick a favorite story because I felt they were all very well written and conveyed the message well.

Again, the only thing that bugs me is the fact that most of the characters are animals.  I know that the Indians believed certain animals to be spiritual and holy, but I think it would be ok to throw human characters in there once and a while.  Reading about animals does get a bit stale after a while. I noticed that in this day and age it seems that the same animals that we think are dumb and stupid, the Indian’s did too.  We probably should treat all animals equal and not focus on what we think their intelligence is. That is probably the only thing that I have to nit-pick at. Overall, I did enjoy Part B stories and I kind of hope we get to read more stories like this because they were short and to the point.

Great Horned Owl. (March 9. 2016)

Peter K. Burian. Source: Wikicommons

Bibliography: Gibbs, Laura. Jataka Tales. Jataka Tales

Reading Notes Part A: Jataka Tales Part A

I really enjoyed all the stories in Part A. I thought they all did a good job of expanding on the stories from the old times and making them easier to understand.  I feel like the lessons that are being taught in these stories are a lot easier to understand than if we were reading something that written way back when. Sometimes, I do find it difficult to follow along with older stories because the way that they are written are very confusing. The story that I probably will write on is the monkey and crocodile.  What I may do to add a twist that instead of having the monkey get away from the crocodile, is have the monkey get too cocky and die.  While this is a dark take on the story it probably would be good to remind everyone that not all stories have good endings. I would also make the crocodile smarter than to monkey because too often crocodiles and sharks are considered quite dumb in stories like this and so having them being smart would be interesting. As Indian stories have shown us sometimes they do have the happiest ending.  

What I do find a little annoying about these stories is that they seem to all have a lesson to attach to them.  Why can’t a story just be a story and have no lesson with it.  Seems like all too often a story is trying to teach people something. I think having two evenly matched people/creatures would be an interesting take and make the story seem for even. Overall though, I did really enjoy reading all these stories. I liked how student made them up and put a more realistic spin on them than what we have read in the past.

Ox. (September 15, 2016)

AB.C. Source: Flickr

Bibliography: Gibbs, Laura. Jataka Tales. Jataka Tales

Reading Notes Part B: Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Mahabharata

One thing that I thought was interesting for Part B that I did not address in Part A was the fact that the characters in the stories are different than the ones I read about in Mythology and Folklore. What I mean by that is that each person seems to have emotional ties to whoever is going through a journey.  Generally, when reading a story, it focused on a major protagonist and then it had secondary characters who stood in the background mostly.  With Part B, the characters that I thought were background people are coming to the forefront.  I thought that was interesting because it allows us to get a better view of these people who we might not have considered important in the beginning. On top of that they all have backstories which I think is ingenious. By allowing them all to have backstories it gives us characters we can more easily relate to and cheer for. I do enjoy the fact that multiple stories are told through this novel. It gives us a chance to further expand our knowledge about Indian folklore.  These stories will help us be able to write better story books that everyone would be to understand.

Still one thing that I dislike and probably never get over is the fact that the characters names are hard to announce. Most people would not think that is a big deal but to me it is. When you cannot say the character’s name it is hard to generate a response to what they are going through. Going forward I hope the authors can keep one straight narrative and not split into 10 different ones. That would be very helpful, so I am not confused about what I am reading. Overall, thought Part B was a great read.

Devavrata. (1923)

B P Banerjee. Source: Wikicommons

Bibliography: Gibbs, Laura. Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Mahabharata. Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Mahabharata

Reading Notes Part A: Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Mahabharata

For the reading part A I chose The Myths of Hindus and Buddhists: Mahabhrata.  This was a very long and sophisticated reading.  For one, I feel that I still do not know how to pronounce the names still and with the inclusion of different gods and goddesses I still don’t know which one does what.  I do feel like the stories that are shown throughout the first part of Mahabhrata are good stepping stones until Part B is reached.  It seems like the trials and tribulations that the characters go through in Part A can easily be related to real life.  That to me is what I find fascinating.  Whenever I am reading a story for this class I can always sense a connection between what is going on in my person life/real world and what they were describing back then. It seems that the Indians type of storytelling was sort of foretelling the future because in a eerie way, some of the stories relate to what is happening in the world.

While there is a lot to praise to there are also some negatives.  One negative is that while the stories are good and just, there seems to be a lot going on.  What I mean by that is that there seems to be an overabundance of characters and journeys that are happening. Now, while this might good sometimes, here it is bad because it is hard to remember all the people’s names.  There also seems to be a lot of twists and turns that occur during the stories that might be a little unnecessary. Some parts of Part A are a little slow and seem to make me lose interest which is not the best because then I want to read something else. Overall though, I felt like the characters and the journey that each one went on during Part A were done very well.

Pandu. (1690)

NA. Source: Wikicommons

Bibliography: Gibbs, Laura. Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Mahabharata. Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists: Mahabharata