Week 4 Reading Diary A: Indian Fairy Tales

The Broken Pot: I liked this story because it reminds me a lot of The Goose With the Golden Eggs that I read last week, because the man starts getting overly greedy and then destroys everything he has. The only difference between this story and The Goose With the Golden Eggs is that the Brahman is thinking all of this in his head and the man in The Goose With the Golden Eggs actually decides to kill the goose and cut it open to see what is inside. Therefore, the man is crazier than the Brahman!

The Magic Fiddle: This story reminded me of Cinderella immediately when I read it because she transformed into a bamboo plant. I imagined writing this for my Storytelling post this week and relating it to Cinderella transforming before the ball when she saw the prince. I also would relate this story by changing the boy who watched her to the prince searching the whole town to see if the glass slipper fit. Instead of her being bitter that her step mother and step sisters punished her, I would have her decide to be grateful that she was no longer in that situation.

The Tiger, The Brahman, and The Jackal: I really liked this story because even though the tiger kept saying how foolish everyone else was, he was the foolish one in the end! I like how the jackal pretended to be stupid in order to help the Brahman trick the tiger. I could see the Brahman being shocked when the jackal closed the gate on the tiger, but I imagine that he was very happy!

The Charmed Ring: I really liked this story because it had a lot of characters and also because it seemed so similar to The Lord of the Rings to me. It seemed so similar to The Lord of the Rings to me because everyone is fighting over a ring because it gives them magical powers. I think this would be a great story to do my Storytelling post over!

(Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, illustrations by John D. Batten (1912))