Week 4: Persian Tales Reading Diary

For the Persian Tales Unit, click here. ( Story source: Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919)) All illustrations are from the book.

For Reading A: In the first half of the reading, my favorite two stories were Nim Tanak (Half Boy) and the Praying Baker.  However, I really have enjoyed all the readings so far. The story topics are so unique and diverse from one another that it has  been fun to go through them. I think so far, this is my favorite unit.

Nim Tanak was a great story because it was a classic underdog story. When the two strong sons couldn't save the sister, Nim Tanak, who was only half of a person did. I also liked that in the end, Nim Tanak was made the heir of the king for his deeds, in front of his brothers. I was a little confused why the div (demon) was so unfrightened of his brothers and their armies because they were eating or drinking slowly, but he was terrified of Nim Tanak because he was drinking and eating everything. Maybe it was a Persian cultural thing, but I was confused by that.

The other story that I really liked was the Praying Baker. I thought the king was a jerk in this whole story, but I liked the baker’s response to obstacles and I thought the ending was great. I couldn't believe the king set the baker up for failure and planned on actually killing him if he couldn't find the ring that the king stole back from him. I could understand the king wanting to test him, but I thought that was way too extreme. I also didn't understand if the king dropped his ring in the water purposefully or not. In the description, it seemed like it slipped off on accident, but then the king said that if the baker found it, he wouldn't be killed. I loved that the baker bought the fish as a ‘last meal’ since he thought he would be killed the next day, but it turned out that was what ended up saving him.

For Reading B: I really loved this unit. I had two favorite stories in the second half of the reading. My favorites were Shah Abbas and the Poor Mother, and The Apparition of Prophet Khizr, I also really liked the Story of the Baker and the Grateful Fish, but I won't be talking about that one in this post. This has definitely been my favorite unit. All the stories were interesting and some were really surprising as well. I think part of the reason these three were my favorites, was that at the end of each, the wrongdoers received what they deserved.

 I liked the Shah Abbas, for a few reasons. One was that the king was actually very kind and tried to help his people as much as he could. I also liked that he went back to the family after, and didn't just figure he had helped and he would be done with them. Also that he took the family to the palace to be cared for when the mother's ears were cut off was very nice of him. He also punished both the baker, and the law enforcer who ordered the woman's ears cut off. However, my favorite thing was that he gave the woman and her children all of the money and property owned by the two who wronged her in the end. 

I also liked the Apparition of the Prophet Khizr, because the men who supported the torture and slow death of the poor man were fired and the one who wanted to show mercy was the only one kept. But my favorite part of this story was that the poor man used the money he received from the king to pay off his debts and to make sure his wife would have a good life after his death. This was a noble and selfless thing to do. He could have continued as he had, and just gotten more in debt, or he could have used the money to buy extravagant things for himself. But instead he wanted his wife to have a good life. I also like that he went to the king on his own. It showed that he knew what he had done and was willing to accept whatever punishment the king saw fit. That was also seen in the fact that he never argued with the kings advisers who wanted his slow death. I also liked that the Prophet did appear to vouch for the man and let him keep his life. The king’s reaction to the prophet was also funny, when he said he should have grabbed his sleeve to keep him from escaping.