Week 5: Names in Arabian Nights (Essay)

First I would like to say, I really enjoyed the Arabian Nights reading unit. I thought the stories were cleverly told and interwoven, as well as fun to read. I am very glad I chose this unit for week 5.

Throughout the Arabian Nights stories and the other fairy tales I have read, many characters are never named. They are simply known by their occupation or role in the story. But even fewer of the named character's are women. The main exceptions to this are, of course, Scheherazade and her sister, Dinarzade. However, in the main stories, the women are all known in terms of 'the wife', 'the enchantress', 'the fairy', or 'the princess.'

While this is not always a bad thing, there were some female characters in this unit I would have liked to be named. I understand that when most of these stories were written, they were made by men for children. They wanted them to focus on the lessons and morals of the tales. In that way, I think it's fine for the stories to not name characters. When no characters are named, it makes it almost more mystical. What I don't like is when they name the main male character, but not the main female character, who has an equally large part in the story.

The main story I'm talking about for this unit is Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp. In the story, the princess who Aladdin marries is central to many major plot points and is the constant motivation for all of Aladdin's actions after the second part of the story. Yet she is only called 'the princess' or 'Aladdin's wife' or 'the Sultan's Daughter'.

I will admit, after seeing she didn't receive a name in the story, I mentally assigned 'Jasmine' to her to keep in line with my Disney roots involved with this story. However, I would have liked to see the princess be officially named in the story.

As I said, I understood not naming many of the characters in the smaller stories, but I feel like the princess in the Aladdin story was very important. And in such a long story, it would have actually been easier to name her than to continuously refer to her in terms of other people or her title.

Still, I liked reading the story quite a lot, and am very glad I read the unit. This really is a small detail that shouldn't matter much. However, it was something that bugged me throughout the Aladdin story that I felt like I should mention.

By Walter Crane. Princess in Aladdin

Week 5: A Dog's Life (Storytelling)

I had been trotting along for a couple hours with my brothers when I felt a tug at my leash. I stopped and turned around to keep from choking myself. So did my older brother John, who was a few steps in front of me, his collar tight against his neck. Thomas, our youngest brother had stopped to talk with the crying man and the old man who were setting up near the trees.

John barked at Thomas and I did my best annoying dog whine, trying to communicate that we needed to keep moving. Thomas glared up at us and gave a sharp tug on the ropes, pulling us both backwards. John and I exchanged a look and began slowly meandering back. John growled quietly to show his discontent with the whole situation.  

When we got back to Thomas, he was listening intently to the old man, and looking very interested in the crying guy. “Wow!” said Thomas, “Mind if we hang out here too? I’d love to see what happens with the genie.” I yipped at him and he turned towards me. “We can stay a few hours Will.” I whined again.

“That’s fine,” the old man said. “Just make sure your dogs don’t try to eat my deer. The genie should show up soon”

I really didn’t want to see a genie. Last time I saw a magical creature, my fantastic opposable thumbs were turned into useless paws that can’t do anything but walk. They could scratch too, but apparently, I used them on Thomas too much, because he cut the nails short. Seriously, how was I supposed to communicate something as a dog? Whining and yipping, growling, and scratching only get you so far and now I couldn’t even scratch.

Thomas sat down and I reluctantly followed him. I walked a few steps away from Thomas and laid down, keeping as much distance between me and Thomas with the old man and his pet deer. John came and joined me, sighing heavily. Soon, another old man came. I didn’t pay him any mind, but Thomas started talking to him too.

I dozed off sometime, dreaming about standing up straight again and being able to go somewhere my brother doesn’t lead me. John and I had lived almost ten years as dogs, and we had almost made it.

I’ll admit I’m scared to see the fairy again. Who knows, maybe she’ll decide this last decade of torture wasn’t enough and kill us anyways or refuse to change us back. If that happens, I swear I will become an attack dog. I was dreaming of eating soup with a spoon again when I smelled smoke, or dust or something. I opened my eyes and turned my head towards the others.

There a huge genie stood, sword in hand, holding on to the crying man. I could smell the fear throughout the entire group; John could too, for he went and stood by Thomas. I followed. If anything happened to Thomas, we would never be turned back into humans. We had to make sure this crazy genie didn’t turn on him suddenly.

The first old man began babbling about something, I don’t really know. But the genie was listening intently, as was Thomas and the crying guy. I heard something about a cow, a son calf, and a deer wife… Oh, his wife is the deer he had on a leash. What a weird coincidence.

Then the genie looked at Thomas expectantly. Thomas began to tell our story, but he got it all wrong… Okay, maybe not all wrong, but we did not deserve to be turned into dogs.

Basically, ten years ago we all decided to go traveling. Yes, Thomas had to give us some money to make due, but between you and me, I think he was ripping off some of our business. Seriously, how does the youngest brother make so much more money than two older brothers, who happen to be in the same? Because of that, and maybe a little gambling, John and I kept going broke.  Anyways we left, and it was all good for a while.

We were all making some money, having fun, and seeing the world. This this crazy chick comes up to Thomas and starts begging him to marry her. And let’s be honest, Thomas is a push over. This girl is obviously a gold digger. I mean she’s dressed in rags, and the first thing she gets Thomas to do is buy her a new, fancy dress.

My memory gets kinda sketchy here. After they were married for a while, John comes up to me and says he’s annoyed at Thomas and the new bride. She’s taking some of our money, not working, and Thomas just wants to hang out with her all the time. So John says we should play a little prank on them.

I remember thinking it was a good idea at the time, because I was sick of them too. But looking back, throwing them overboard doesn’t seem like such a good prank. I didn’t want them to die, but maybe John did, or maybe he wasn’t thinking straight either. Anyway, we threw them off the ship.

But lo and behold, the crazy girl is a fairy. I mean, we never would have messed with her if we knew she had magic and stuff. So she saves them both, then goes and turns us into dogs and sends us to Thomas. Then she told Thomas were to take is in ten years to turn us back human after our punishment was over.

Thomas finally finishes the story and the genie seems satisfied. I yip at Thomas, trying to spur him on. If he were a dog, he’d definitely be in more of a hurry right now. Then the third guy starts talking to the genie, and I lay back down. It’s gonna be a long night.

By Audrey. Black German Shepherd. Wikimedia

Author's Note: This rewrite was of Two Black Dogs, with a little bit from The Merchant and the Genius, and The Old Man with the Hind. All three of these stories were interconnected which is why mine had a little bit from each of them. In the Two Black Dogs story, two brothers get turned into dogs by a fairy after they throw their brother and the fairy off of a boat. The story is being told by the human brother to a genie inside of the Merchant and the Genius's story. 

I made the point of view as one of the dog brothers, just to change it up a bit. Also I thought the dog brothers would probably have a little different view of what had happened that led to them being turned into dogs, so I tried to include that. 

Bibliography: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

Week 5: Arabian Nights Reading Diary

For the Arabian Nights reading unit click here. 
Story source: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).

For Reading A: I'm going to do this reading diary a little different than I have done my others. This reading unit is different than the others I've done so I thought I'd take this opportunity to try something new.

While there were many interesting stories in this unit, I particularly liked how they all fit together into the stories that Scheherazade is telling the Sultan. In the first section, they talk quite a bit about the education that Scheherazade has received and how clever she is. Her wit and education really show through her tellings of the stories, how she sets them up and ends them each while still leaving some questions opened is very clever.
I saw this throughout the stories, but in particular I liked how she transitioned from the stories which came out of the Story of the Fisherman. I loved how the story of the Physician was developed to mirror the Genie and the Fisherman's dilemma, but also how more stories were inter-laid throughout the secondary stories to show the different choices the characters had, like the Parrot and the Ogress stories.

I also thought it was clever how, at the end of the man with the black dog's story (the end of the Merchant and Genie story line), how Scheherazade said she didn't know the third story told, but knew it was better than the other two. That was a great transition between the two overarching stories which she told to the Sultan. Because of this, he would be left wondering and not quite satisfied with the story Scheherazade had told. This probably made him more willing to hear another story which led to the Fisherman's section.

For Reading B: This part of the reading diary will also be different, because all of the second half was one continuous story. The second half was the readings were of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp.

The only Aladdin story I had ever seen or heard before this, was Disney's Aladdin. Overall I really enjoyed this story, and liked it more than the movie. The only thing I wish that was a little different was that I hoped it would still have some references or connections in the story of Scheherazade telling the story to her husband.

I was very creeped out when the princess married the Grand Vizir's son, that Aladdin kidnapped them each night until the boy was scared away. That was weird. I also didn't like the ending very much, just because of the second magician. I kind of feel like adding a brother was unnecessary. To me, the added ending after they returned home and everything went back to normal, didn't add anything to the plot. Therefore, I wish they had ended it with them returning home after killing the first evil magician.

That being said, I liked the inclusion of the magician in the story. I thought that was great, instead of just making the vizir the antagonist, although we are still not meant to like him in the story. I was also unaware that the original story was mostly set in China, but I thought that was an interesting choice. Although I can understand, in the context of Scheherazade telling the Sultan the story, she would want it to seem as exotic and mysterious as possible.

I really enjoyed reading the story of Aladdin and all of the other stories in this reading Unit.