Story

Author's Note: Unfortunately, my scanner isn't working, but below is my story from the mid-term.

It wasn’t unusual to see these types lurking around at night – especially in bars at odd hours of the night. Unfortunately for me, the only open seat was the one next to him. Not that this was especially surprising.

I generally kept my distance from strangers, but I was cold and wet from braving the elements and if ever I needed a drink, it was now. I wasn’t afraid of his leathery green skin or his beat red eyes. I could handle myself in a sticky situation. I had proven it before and I’m sure I wouldn’t have had too much trouble proving myself again, if need be. Besides, despite all appearances, I never went anywhere unarmed.

Taking the empty seat next to him, I offered a slight smile and brief nod of acknowledgement before ordering a drink for myself. He seemed to take this as an invitation to start talking and staring down into his glass, he lamented. “Not sure there’s much worth livin’ for anymore.”

It seemed he expected me to listen. I sighed, raising my eyebrows, indicating that I was listening, despite myself.

“Made a huge mistake, I did. Killed me own wife and me own daughters – all because I was trying to make a quick bite to eat out of a foolish girl and her two sisters who decided to take refuge in my castle. Would’ve served her right, it would’ve. ‘Stead, she made a fool out of me. Took me for all I was worth. Left me with nothin’. Curse thee, Molly Whuppie!” He shouted to the air.

He downed the amber liquid in one, long swig before exhaling. “Never trust little girls.” He advised. He must have been drunk, as it seemed he hadn’t noticed that I was, in fact, a young girl myself. I drew my red cloak closer to me in hopes that it would continue to help shade my features from him. I wasn’t afraid of being able to defend myself, if need be, but preferring not to cause a scene.

“They might be tasty,” He continued, “ … but they ain’t worth it.”

I was, at this point, more or less certain he was off the stuff for good and relaxed a little. “So little girls have officially been taken off your diet, I’m assuming?” I asked after thanking the bartender for brining me the drink I had ordered upon sitting down.

“Yessireee,” He replied, his words slurred. “Certainly, learned my lesson.” He added with a chuckle. I was satisfied, for the moment, and went back to my drink.

They are, however,” He added, turning to look at me more closely, “my weakness.”

If I had learned anything, it had certainly been not to trust a man, beastly or otherwise, especially when he leered at you suggestively. Convinced he was lying and ready to pounce, I pulled out my trusty automatic and shot him right there and then.

Final Entry

Reviewing my blog and class notes, has shed light on just how much I have learned this semester.

Fairy tales were a staple in my childhood and when I was read to, I was more than willing to be swept up into the magical realms and distant lands. I always believed that there was a sort of enchantment behind them, but I never knew until this class why that was.

Fairy tales, despite being often very predictable and 1-dimensional, they still have the ability to not only captivate, but inspire hope. Children who grow up with these stories hope and believe in a bright future, even if the present is bleak.

They have the power to aid in analyzations of someone who has had a troubled past. Often, they are used in therapy to discover something about the person in question that may be helpful in their treatment. There have been cases when using fairy tales in therapy have been the key to the cure.

I learned a lot from this class. The Grimm Brother's stories aside, most of the fairy tales we read and analyzed this semester were completely new to me. I suppose I most enjoyed reading popular tales from different cultures and countries and catching not only the differences, but also the similarities.

I loved the readings and always kept up with them. I've also enjoyed keeping this blog and looked forward to curling up with a cup of hot tea as I thought over the assigned topic. Unfortunately, after we took a week off, I got out of the habit.

I would certainly suggest this class to other students who are considering taking it. It really is a great class where you are encouraged to use your talents in order to explore and master the material.

Blog Entry#11

Hans Christian Anderson and Oscar Wilde fairy tales, are presented as fairy tales that are not for children. They are dark stories which do not end with Happily Ever After -- in fact the hero or heroine often dies at the end and although there is sometimes a ray of hope as the author shares how the deceased is now within reach of heaven or has been reunited with loved ones, they never end the way that fairy tales are known to.

While I enjoyed the stories by Anderson, I have to say that I preferred reading Oscar Wilde. He is, and remains, a satirist, even when composing fairy tales. One of my favorite experts was from "The Happy Prince" when he talked about the sparrow and the wind.

" His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was in love with the most beautiful Reed. He had met her early in the spring as he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth, and had been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk to her.

"Shall I love you?" said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at once, and the Reed made him a low bow. So he flew round and round her, touching the water with his wings, and making silver ripples. This was his courtship, and it lasted all through the summer.

"It is a ridiculous attachment," twittered the other Swallows; "she has no money, and far too many relations"; and indeed the river was quite full of Reeds. Then, when the autumn came they all flew away.

After they had gone he felt lonely, and began to tire of his lady- love. "She has no conversation," he said, "and I am afraid that she is a coquette, for she is always flirting with the wind." And certainly, whenever the wind blew, the Reed made the most graceful curtseys. "I admit that she is domestic," he continued, "but I love travelling, and my wife, consequently, should love travelling also."

"Will you come away with me?" he said finally to her; but the Reed shook her head, she was so attached to her home.

"You have been trifling with me," he cried. "I am off to the Pyramids. Good-bye!" "

I thought it was terribly witty, this comparison between young women and the reeds and the swallow with young men. The way the beautiful Reed bends and sways, flirting with the wind and the swallow both, instantly painted for me a gorgeous, but flighty, young early 20th century women, who, although proclaimed to love one man, couldn't help but make advances elsewhere when someone should give her any speck of attention.

*Edit: I realize that this post is a week late and probably won't be credited. I just realized that I never actually wrote it, but thought I would anyway, regardless, because I truly loved this week's reading.

Blog Entry#10

Although many other fairy tales which we have read possessed religious undertones, none so much as the Jewish ones. Obviously, being a religion as well as a culture this is not surprisingly. Where European fairy tales focus on human protagonists, African on animals, the Jewish fairy tales focus on the Rabbi.

The tales present a moral to be learned -- as most fairy tales do. They underline the Jewish wit and intelligence. Most minorities, in their folk and fairy tales, tend to poke fun at the majorities such as in some of the stories where the priests are outwitted by the Jewish Rabbi. Or like in the story where the young man has to speak in sign language to the priest and although it is misinterpretation on both sides, it is the bravery and sense (the idea that if they do not at least try, they still will all die), that saves them all.

They also, as religious tales, incorporate motifs of faith and God, and draw on the divine power, as in the story as the Rabbi Adam who defeats the sorcerer with not only his intelligence, but also his own power which has been given to him from God and his trust that he will be able to overcome this evil with His help.

Blog Entry#9

Bluebeard is a much darker villain than we've seen in other stories. While there have certainly been other sinister antagonists, Bluebeard's cruelty runs much deeper. As a man who desires to marry young women whom he then sets up for failure. Bestowing upon them a test of their obedience which their curiosity is sure to win, he now feels he has a troublesome wife whose punishment can only be death and thus begins the vicious cycle as he looks for his next victim.

It is a twisted person, indeed, who keeps memorabilia of his bloodied victims in a locked room for his new wife to stumble over.

My favorite version of Bluebeard was certainly the Fitcher's Bird by The Brother's Grimm. Although her older sister's fell into the same trap as the young bride in Bluebeard by Charles Perrault, the youngest sister, who is "clever and cunning", is able to outwit her husband and save not only herself, but her dead sisters and any other young women who would have otherwise fallen victim to the sorcerer's cruelty.

It is still a brutal story, regardless of the cleverness of the heroine who does not rely so desperately on her siblings aid to free herself. The descriptions of the hacked up bodies as well as the dismembered remains of her sisters which were "chopped to pieces", leaves the reader with a truly chilling effect.

Still this version does, unlike Perrault's Bluebeard, was not as suspenseful. To have the sorcerer go through the first two sisters in a similar fashion, but then the third -- and youngest -- to prove to be the bright young heroine is typical in fairystories. However, to only have one young women and that desperate moment when she is living her last moments and waiting for the arrival of her brothers, the reader -- after witnessing how dark the story has been thus far -- does begin to fear for the life of the young bride.

Blog Entry #8

Cinderella is one of the so called “rise tales”, which features a narrative arc of “rags to riches through magic and marriage” (Ruth Bottigheimer). Write a reflection on this motif.

"Rags to Riches" is a story motif that has come to be known as giving a story that "Cinderellaistic" feel. The protagonist's life (although it doesn't always have to have been this way) is a hard one and at the end, they ascend into a place of comfort and wealth.

This is a very popular motif which finds itself in not only the tales about the poor girl (or boy) who is tormented by his step-mother, but also in many other fairy tales. If the hero or heroine is not already of noble blood, it is rare that they do not achieve a higher rank or a world of greater comforts than when they began.

It is, I feel, the author's sense of justice. The characters have gone through an especially displeasing circumstance and yet they remain humble and exemplary, even though their lives are the furthest thing from enviable. It seems only right that they should have a better life ahead of them. Stories like these give their viewers hope and anyone who is going through a particularly hard time, may just be able to hold on in hopes of those better times that must be ahead.

The rags to riches motif is used in many films and books that are not categorized as "fairy tales", stories such as Sense & Sensibility, Annie, and My Fair Lady.

Blog Entry #7

As I was listening to the presentation given by Dr. Rust and Dr. Rose, I thought about how much ASL storytelling is like folk tales that have been passed down orally. In our modern traditions, as a speaking community, we don't tell stories like we used to. We read books aloud to our children or retell them, but there isn't the creativity that used to be there. Stories are not taken and made our own. In fact, when we try to do that, we will receive odd looks and the "that's not the way it goes" response.

ASL story telling, as a hearing viewing, is more like a performance because it is so visual. ASL is really a wonderful language -- because it is dependent upon pure visuals, it can communicate so much in an instant. I feel that ASL forces you, too, to get more involved in the story you are telling. The grammar is in the facial expressions and because you can't change the "tone" of your voice, you use expressions of the character -- or "voice" -- you are trying to convey.

I feel that, more than any other foreign language, sign language will be able to draw you in -- especially when stories are being told in it. It's always fascinating to watch and, even if you don't know the language, you can understand much, much more than if you are simply listening into another spoken language with which you are unfamiliar.