Project Topic Brainstorm

Topic 1: OU Ghost Stories 

I have always been interested in ghost stories and have once been on a ghost tour when I was in Saint Augustine in Florida. I really enjoyed learning about ghosts and seeing how into it the ghost tour guides get. When we did the assignment over storybooks, I read one over ghosts at OU and it really got my attention. As a student that goes to OU, I feel like learning about the history of OU even in ghost stories would be very interesting and something I am looking forward to. When retelling these stories, I would probably change the plot just a bit and add more details to the stories.

Topic 2: Dogs

Dogs are my absolute favorite animal in the entire world. The amount of love and happiness that a dog can bring into your life is unreal. I experienced it first-hand last year when I decided that I need a dog. This project would be fun because I would get to research things and stories about my favorite animal. With these stories, there are endless possibilities on how you can change them up to create your own. A good way to change them would be to either change the plot or change the location of the story and modify the story accordingly.

Topic 3: The Little Mermaid

This topic catches my interest because growing up I loved watching The little mermaid. It is awesome how things evolve as time passes. Mermaids evolved from sirens in the Odyssey that were half-bird and half-human. Now we have mermaids which are half-human and half-fish. I read some of Hans Christian Andersen's story of the Little Mermaid and I loved it. My idea to create my own story for the little mermaid would maybe be to change the personalities of the characters or maybe switch the characters as a whole and create new ones following the same storyline.

Topic 4: Nursery Rhymes

Nursery rhymes are always so much fun because they all rhyme and you can sing along to them. Some of my favorite memories in kindergarten and some in grade school are singing nursery rhymes together as a class and all just having so much fun. I even have memories of singing these with my parents and they once bought me a huge book full of nursery rhymes and bedtime stories that I loved. This topic would be fun to play with because I feel like you can go anywhere with this. I could change the characters and create a nursery rhyme with different characters or I could easily keep the characters and change the plot in the story.

Picture of the clock that the mouse runs up in Hickory Dickory Dock 

nursery rhyme; Source: Wikimedia Commons

Week 2 story: A lion and his villager

Note: This has been added to my portfolio. https://sites.google.com/view/hiddenmorals/a-lion-and-his-villager

There was once a lion and a villager. The lion was locked in the cage and the villager was in charge of feeding it every morning. 

One morning the lion said to the villager, "Please let me out of this cage as I am tired of being locked up and I want to be free." 

"I'm afraid if I do that you will harm me or my fellow villagers," replied the villager.

The lion sighs and says, "I promise if you let me out of this cage, I will be nothing but good to you."

The villager thought it through and replied, "I am giving you one chance, or I will find a way to lock you up again."

Lion being fed in a cage;

Source: Pixabay

So, the villager lets the lion out and they go about their day, but the villager was extremely worried that something would happen. He started asking others what they thought about the decision that he made.

He stopped to ask a tree and the tree replied, "I always give people shade and even though I get nothing in return except for people breaking off my branches it makes me feel good because I can help others."

The villager listened to what he had to say and said, "Thank you, I had not looked at it from that perspective" and went on his way.

The villager then kept walking and when he got to the road, he stopped to ask the road what his opinion on the matter was. The road replied, "I am always supporting people and all people do is trample all over me, but I know that they need me, so it feels good to be able to help." Once again, the villager listened and the went on his way. 

On his way back home, he came across another villager and asked him what he thought of the situation.

 The villager replied, "I do not feel like it is safe for everyone, but if you think it was the right decision then trust your gut." 

The villager said, "Thank you, I believe he deserved to be free" and went on his way again. 

When he got back to the cage, the lion was roaming around near it and was very happy to be free.

The lion thanked the villager and told him that he would help him out anytime he ever needed it.

The villager continued on with his daily routine, still giving the lion food every morning. The lion had not done any harm to anyone and just enjoyed his day roaming and being out of his cage. A few weeks later the villager got into some trouble and called for the lion's help. As soon as the lion heard he jumped up and went to the villager. He helped him get out of trouble and to this day they remain best friends. The lion kept his work to never harm anyone and be nothing but good to the villager. The villager realized he made the right decision and they lived happily ever after. 

Author's Note: My story was based on the "Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal." I kept most things the same except that I used a lion instead of a tiger and the plot was a bit different. Instead of the Brahman, the Jackal and the Tiger tricking each other, in my story the villager and the lion ended up being good friends. I also wrote the story to have a different moral than the original one. The original story's lesson was that you can do things to help others out, but never get anything in return and that you really can't trust anyone. My story had a different lesson which was that you should help people because it feels good and right to you and not to expect anything in return. 

Bibliography: Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal from Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

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

Week 2 Reading Overview

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4.

Week 3: Adam and Eve

Week 4: Cupid and Psyche

Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6.

Week 5: Twenty-Two Goblins

Week 6: Tales of a Parrot

Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.]

Week 7: Brer Rabbit

Week 9: Jamaica

Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11.

Week 10: Apache

Week 11: Cherokee

Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13.

Week 12: Nursery Rhymes

Week 13: Robin Hood

Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15.

Week 14: Hunt

Week 15: Ashliman

I am excited about all of these units, not just one! I tried to take mythology almost 3 years ago and it has just never worked out with my schedule. It is something that has interested me for years and that I want to learn more about. If I had to pick one I would say that I am most excited for the Native American unit only because Native American tribes are such a big part of Oklahoma and its history. For week 12, I chose nursery rhymes and I also excited for that one because of how much I loved nursery rhymes as a kid ad still do. Most of the nursery rhymes that I do know are in Spanish, and there's very few that I know in English so I am interested to learn more about them. 

Cartoon picture of Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall;

Source: Pixabay

I chose a picture of Humpty Dumpty because this is one of my favorite nursery rhymes that I remember from when I was a kid. It is also a very popular one that most children know.