Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales, Part A

                                                          Red Fox, link to online source

These stories were unlike any others I have read. They were very strange, but their strange nature kept me reading more. I really do enjoy the "Once..." stories. They are so simple and classic. Perfect for children.  I like the idea of the animals and humans interacting, but I was slightly weirded out by the idea of animals and humans having romantic sort relationships, as well as the story where the girl married the rock. Sounds weird, huh? It was interesting that all natural things were interacting in some way though, even trees and rocks. I think this is a good testament to how we are all connected. These stories had very odd things happening, but they were explained as if they were commonplace, which gave them more intrigue. Some of the descriptions in the stories were a bit too gruesome for me, and some were just too plain weird honestly. I enjoyed the twists and turns in the stories and, of course, the happy endings were my favorite. The tales did contain justice in the end, even if the ending wasn't all that happy. I enjoyed the short stories better than the longer ones. The long ones seemed to have multiple stories within them, which actually made them a little hard to follow. I hated that the poor fox-woman couldn't be the man's husband simply for her smell. I would like to alter that story. I would like to give her more justice somehow because all the other stories seemed to give justice to those who deserved it. I could incorporate nature into that story as well because it only talks about animals and humans interacting. I would love the fox-woman and man to live happily ever after because the original ending was very sad to me. I want the husband to be grateful for his new wife.

Bibliography: Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson, link to online source

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