A Final Goodbye

Four is a common 'magic number'- Pic from Google

In this past semester, one of the things I am most thankful for is the increase in my reading analysis and writing skills. I truly enjoyed each story we read and the different takes on the fairy tales I read and watched as I had grown. Some of the more subtle references to things such as religion in some of the stories went over my head, but one of the things I learned in this class that I will always think of is the idea of ‘magic numbers’. Once I learned about this in class, I began to look for numbers everywhere in books- perhaps because I am more logically and mathematically inclined as opposed to creatively inclined. I just find is so interesting and fascinating the idea of a number being repeated within a story- whether in an outright way or a subtle way. 

As I said, what I found to be most challenging was some of the creative and religious analysis, as that is something, I did not grow up around in my daily life, so learning to look for those clues took time for me to adjust to.

McDaniel College, where I will hopefully graduate in the fall!

I made sure to devote as much time and preparation as necessary to reading the required materials, as with the way Dr. Esa would randomly sort us to discuss the stories- we never knew which story would be the one that we would have to analyze more in  depth than one or another. Therefore, we had to prepare, or at least read over once, each one of the stories so that we could be ready for whatever was thrown at us in the next class period.

 However, I'm very excited for the fall semester, when I will be able to be the teaching assistant for the 'From Grimm to Disney' course, as this will give me the chance to further increase my creative analysis skills, while also practicing to become my dream career choice- a Professor!

Arabic Stories

My mind was somewhat blown if I’m being honest when I found out that the Arabic stories were made for entertainment purposes. Perhaps what shocked me the most actually is that they freely admit that the stories are for entertainment only. Many writes would create stories for entertainment purposes, for money, but to admit so would have been greedy. 

1001 Nights contains over 200 Arabic stories- pic from Google

I believe that the honesty regarding the origins of the stories is also what makes the stories so enjoyable. Knowing that these stories were meant for entertainment, you can go in with an open mind. The stories can be extremely short as well, but they pack an extreme amount of hilarity and fun in just a few sentences. 

Very few of the European stories that we read, as with the Jewish and Indian tales, allowed for a large amount of fun in the story, as many of the stories had a purpose, or a lesson they were attempting to teach. While the lessons varied anywhere from having faith in a higher power, to listening to your parents, the Arabic tales were just simple tales. 

The Arabic tales are closest to the African tales, as there is a huge cultural influence or each of the stories. It’s also important to have some knowledge about these cultures in order to understand the stories- such as with the Arabic tales, it’s important to know that the Arabic culture is extremely conservative. If you didn’t know, you would not be able to fully appreciate the story as it was meant to be enjoyed.

Oscar Wilde

Prior to this week’s class about Oscar Wilde, I had never read anything by the famous author (I had thought I did, but I was wrong). These stories are quite different than any other type of story analyzed thus far- and we’ve looked at a variety of stories from European, to Native American. But the tales from Jewish religion are the ones that come closest to the tales of Wilde. It’s important to note, personally, I was not raised Christian, and so many of the symbolism very much “flew over my head” so to speak. But I found the sacrificial elements in all the stories to be quite interesting.

Most so in “The Happy Prince”, where the spirit of the Prince made great strides to save his people. I also found the end scene with the Mayor arguing about whom the statue should be made after next to be poignant- with some people, once the history is gone, they focus on which of the people has done the most charity work, but in a selfish competition, not done out of the goodness of a heart. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story, as I felt that it was something that could easily be related to the modern society. 

As stated before, what makes these stories different from those of any of the other European stories we have read is the element of religion in combination with sacrifice. Many of the tales of Judaism, of course, discuss the key role of religion when miracles occur, and the idea of having faith in a higher power- just as with “The Selfish Giant”.