Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

In the story of Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal several people were fools. The tiger made a promise to the Brahman that he would not harm him if he let him out of the cage. At the beginning of the story, the Brahman eventually felt bad for the tiger and let his emotions override him, which led him to open the cage for the tiger. Of course, as soon as the tiger was out, he basically betrayed the Brahman and told him that he was still gonna eat him and he was a fool. When the Brahman asked a tree, a buffalo, and the road what they thought about the situation they basically asked him what he expected. They help everyone and never get anything in return.

I feel like that was a lesson or moral of the story. This relates to real life and I like how the author put a moral in the story. The tree is always giving shade, yet people always break its branches off. The road is always useful to everyone and everything, yet people only trample on it and wear it down. None of the three people/things that he consulted ever got anything in return for the things that they offered for others.

On the way back to the tiger's cage, the Brahman met a jackal who asked how the Brahman was doing. The Brahman started to tell his story but the jackal acted like he did not understand anything that the jackal was saying. The Brahman kept retelling the story to the jackal the whole way back to the cage and the jackal still acted confused. After retelling the story several times and the jackal "not understanding," the tiger got frustrated and went back in the cage to show him how the whole story started so that he would understand. When the tiger went into the cage, the jackal shut the cage and locked it. He tricked the tiger and the Brahman into thinking that he did not understand the story so that he could lock the tiger back in there and the Brahman would not get eaten.

What I got from this story is that tricking people will eventually come back on you and you will get tricked as well. In a sense lying and not keeping your word is not a very smart thing to do because someone out there will outsmart you just like you outsmarted someone.

A picture of the Brahman, the tiger, and the jackal;

Source: illustration by John Batten

Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal
By: Joseph Jacobs