Reading Notes: Jakata Tales by Ellen Babbitt

These readings are very much like the last readings, barely differing at all in method and style. I like that there are so many short stories to read since some rather than others stick with me. What makes some more compelling than others is hard to say, but I guess if I find the content of the story makes sense and shares a moral message in a clever way I like it more. Otherwise, I guess small things make a story charming in its own way. For example, some choices the writer makes isn’t what I would do myself but I suppose it keeps it interesting. In the first story, “How The Monkey Saved His Troop,” I thought it was funny that the author would choose to describe mangoes like peaches. Something about this comparison seems a little unusual to me and I don’t know why. This story in general confused me a bit, since logically the conclusion seemed a little far fetched since the human was sure they would shoot the monkeys. It does feature animals as main characters though, which is something that I for some reason associate with the Jakata Tales and prefer the stories that use creatures instead of humans. I think this is why “The Brave Little Bowman” wasn’t one of my favorites. I liked the one about the lion and the wolf a lot, it was sad but it’s tragedy like this that makes you feel so sad for characters that like the wolf dream too big. Something about lions or monkeys or whatever as main characters I suppose takes me back to childhood when I read stories like this. If I were to write a story based on these Tales I would surely be inspired by these stories that I have read since I was little.

Bibliography:

Title: More Jataka Tales
Author: Ellen C. Babbitt
Source: Web

(Image Source: The Wise Goat and The Wolf, Web)

Leave a Comment Reading, Week 11