For the first part of this week's reading, I chose to read the Nigerian Folk Stories. For the past several years, I have been really interested in the African culture and music, so I thought these stories would probably be really interesting. The story that first caught my attention was The Elephant and the Tortoise, primarily because I absolutely love elephants.
This story had a really interesting story line; it was basically a theory about why the elephants had such small eyes and why worms are blind. In the beginning, the story started with an elephant who used to join the King for dinner and he always ate proportions that were much too big. The tortoise decided one day that this was unfair, and he was going to stop the elephant from eating too much. So the tortoise put the elephant's favorite food in his bag and went to the elephant's house. He was visiting with the elephant, and pulled the food out of his bag and began to eat it. The tortoise closed one eye, to make it seem like he was eating his own eyeball. The elephant was intrigued and wanted some of the food, but the tortoise said that he would have to take his eye out. So the elephant agreed, and the tortoise was raised to eye-level and scooped out the elephant's eye. The elephant loved it, so he scooped out the other one too. When he left, the elephant was blind and wandered around town. He was asking all kinds of animals to borrow their eyes, but nobody would until the elephant stumbled upon the worm. The worm was kind enough to lend out his eyes to the elephant but the elephant could not remove them because they sunk into his face, so he could not return them to the worm. So this stories tells why the elephants have small eyes and why worms are blind.
If I was going to rewrite this story, I would not change a lot of the storyline because I really enjoy it. Most likely, I would try to create a similar story using two different characters, instead of the elephant and the tortoise. I think that would make a really unique story, but it will be difficult to develop. Otherwise, I may decide to change the ending - maybe he does manage to give the eyes back and the elephant ends up with big eyes!
Bibliography:
The Elephant and the Tortoise from Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).
Image information:
Asian Elephant and its baby. Web Source.
This story had a really interesting story line; it was basically a theory about why the elephants had such small eyes and why worms are blind. In the beginning, the story started with an elephant who used to join the King for dinner and he always ate proportions that were much too big. The tortoise decided one day that this was unfair, and he was going to stop the elephant from eating too much. So the tortoise put the elephant's favorite food in his bag and went to the elephant's house. He was visiting with the elephant, and pulled the food out of his bag and began to eat it. The tortoise closed one eye, to make it seem like he was eating his own eyeball. The elephant was intrigued and wanted some of the food, but the tortoise said that he would have to take his eye out. So the elephant agreed, and the tortoise was raised to eye-level and scooped out the elephant's eye. The elephant loved it, so he scooped out the other one too. When he left, the elephant was blind and wandered around town. He was asking all kinds of animals to borrow their eyes, but nobody would until the elephant stumbled upon the worm. The worm was kind enough to lend out his eyes to the elephant but the elephant could not remove them because they sunk into his face, so he could not return them to the worm. So this stories tells why the elephants have small eyes and why worms are blind.
If I was going to rewrite this story, I would not change a lot of the storyline because I really enjoy it. Most likely, I would try to create a similar story using two different characters, instead of the elephant and the tortoise. I think that would make a really unique story, but it will be difficult to develop. Otherwise, I may decide to change the ending - maybe he does manage to give the eyes back and the elephant ends up with big eyes!
Bibliography:
The Elephant and the Tortoise from Folk Stories From Southern Nigeria by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).
Image information:
Asian Elephant and its baby. Web Source.
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