I am really enjoying these readings. My favorite by far has
been The Two Traveling Companions. I think
it has been my favorite so far because of the fact that the tailor is so much
of a human. What I mean by this is he isn’t a knight who is beyond legends and
can overcome anything with his sword and his strength. The tailor also is
affected by stress and fear unlike many heroes we see who fear nothing. The tailor
fears the consequences of the king if he cannot complete the tasks the kings
asks for him to. He is not arrogant and does not foolishly think he can do
these tasks without any trouble. Instead, he fears he will fail and he runs
from fear of the consequences. Although this can be seen as cowardly, it can
also be seen as smart. The tailor also shows compassion towards many different
creatures and in return he receives their help in his time of need. This is
what I like about this story the most; you cannot do everything on your own and
you should always help those who need it so when you need help yourself, they
will feel more inclined to help you. Also,
let’s be honest, I like seeing justice being served. Therefore, when the
shoemaker lost his way at the end, I was sort of happy.
The next reading I really want to talk about is Hans My-Hedgehog. This story was
interesting to say the least. A boy born to a mother and father who is half
boy, half hedgehog and can play the bagpipes, what else is there to say? Oh yeah,
he can “take off” his hedgehog half off his body and turn into a normal looking
boy. When I read this I was completely shocked, I did not see that coming. I understand
the whole reason behind not taking it off in the very beginning, but it kind of
still seems weird he didn’t take it off sooner. I also didn’t like the fact that the boy let
his father return with him to the kingdom with him. He didn’t want you when you
were a hedgehog-boy, why would you want him now?
Finally, The Cat and
the Mouse Set Up House was a fun read as well. This reading had an ending I
didn’t see coming. . . not. I knew as soon as the cat started eating the fat
that it was going to come winter time and there would be no food left to eat so
the cat would end up eating the mouse. Although it didn’t quite end up as I thought,
the mouse still ended up being eaten. What can you expect? It is a cat and a
mouse. Not quite sure what the lesson here would be; don’t say too much? Either
way, this reading was funny; I loved the names the cat came up with; come on
mouse, those names were a dead give away from the very beginning.
These readings have been very interesting; it is fun to read
these stories in the non-Disney version. They have some of the same elements as
the Disney movies, but have many differing elements as well; especially the
cannibalism, murder, and mutilation elements of them.
