Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part B

Hello VagaBuddies!

Welcome to the Reading Notes for Jataka Tales Part B! These stories were the spiciest stories out of all of them (And my favorite story of all the Jataka Tales!) Here is the reading list for this week:

Reading Part B
How the Monkey Saved His Troop
The Hawks and their Friends
The Brave Little Bowman
The Foolhardy Wolf
The Stolen Plow
The Lion in Bad Company
The Wise Goat and the Wolf
Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals
Beauty and the Brownie
The Elephant and the Dog

One of the better stories in this reading was the story How the Monkey Saved His Troop, because I really liked the sacrifice that the Chief Monkey made to save his troop. However, I was curious about the actual distance between the trees. because if one monkey could stretch across and grip both ends, then surely all the monkeys could jump that distance!  Then the monkeys would be much easier saved, without needing the king to grant the chief monkey his life in order for everyone to make it out alive. Regardless, great story about heroism and bravery.

Without further ado, my favorite story: The Stolen Plow!  I loved this story so much mostly because I feel like I would react exactly as the second farmer would! I am not usually petty, but sometimes I get so in my head that I overreact! So when the first farmer stole the plow, and the second farmer reacted by stealing the other guy's fucking KID,  I instantly felt like I was the second farmer. And his response to the JUDGE was also so petty. Like imagine going up to a judge, someone who has the power to send you to prison, and you just use him as a way to further your petty plot. Imagine being called into a legal battle, and you bring up a completely separate incident as a justification for the current situation. It's ridiculous! And I loved it. 10/10 would definitely read more petty stories like this again.



















Bibliography:
Babbit, Ellen C. "More Jataka Tales" http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=babbitt&book=morejataka&story=troop

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales Part A

Hello VagaBuddies,

In this assignment, I read even more Jataka Tales! I am really enjoying these quick little fables! Here are the ones I read for this post:


Reading Part AThe Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls
The Three Fishes
The Tricky Wolf and the Rats
The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer
The Golden Goose
The Stupid Monkeys
The Cunning Wolf
The Penny-Wise Monkey
The Red-Bud Tree
The Woodpecker and the Lion
The Otters and the Wolf

One story that threw me off this week was the story of the Golden Goose. I felt like I knew what this story was going to be about, but instead the goose was a personified character and not just the possession of the woman like I had expected. However, it still ended in a way that I could predict, with the woman becoming too greedy and capturing the goose. Unfortunately for her, the goose's golden feathers stop being golden when they are plucked involuntarily, so the woman becomes poor again.

My favorite story this week was the The Tricky Wolf and the Rats, because it was filled with clever characters! As I have said before, I enjoy stories that center around clever (but not necessarily moral) characters. In this story, the wolf had a really good trick of pretending to be lame so that the rats would get close to him. He was capitalizing off of the rats' kindness, sure, but I really like this story because it ends with the rats winning. Although normally I wouldn't root for rats, the rats in this story were very kind to the wolf, and the king of the rats was able to figure out the wolf's trick. However, the rat just straight up kills the wolf, which I thought seemed a bit extreme but whatever. (To be fair, the wolf did kill several rats, soooo). Anyway, I am glad the rats won but figuring out the ruse.

The Tricky Wolf standing on his hind legs: Gateway to the Classics

Bibliography:
Babbit, Ellen. "More Jataka Tales." http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=babbitt&book=morejataka&story=monkey