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