Week 10 Story Planning: The Jealous Uncle

After reading the story about the jealous uncle I want to retell it my own words. This story is set in the past where tribes and villages were still relevant. It also involves an uncle who takes the sons of his people and kills them. However, one son who he tried and tries to kill somehow outwits him every time. Eventually he exacts revenge on his uncle and kills him by dropping him into the ocean where he cannot swim. The son then takes his mom and dad away via means of eagle-like abilities.

In my retelling of this story I want to change a lot about the setting, characters, emotions, etc. But I will still keep the same moral and have a similar plot line. Instead of it being set in the past, I want my story to be modernized to a middle school. This way whoever reads my story can relate to it better and build a connection to the characters since most of us went to middle school. I also want to change the characters such as the jealous uncle and the son that he tries to kill. Instead, I would like a jealous and popular middle school girl and a new girl from out of town. This will eliminate the aspect of death from the original story. The story line will essentially be the same where the jealous girl will try to bully the new girl and pull stunts on her. The new girl will rebuke all attempts and in the end get her "revenge" and everyone will like her. 

Although I have everything planned out and the overall backbone of the story set, I still haven't figured out what the jealous girl will do to the new girl. In the original story the jealous uncle tries to kill the son by trapping him in a log and leaving him to die, trapping him in a clam, pushing him down a hill, and even encasing him in a wooden box and throwing him into the ocean. These are all extreme cases of trying to get rid of the son, so I will have to tone down the events and make it more petty and something a middle school girl would try and do.

(Middle School Classroom, Source: Responsive Classroom)

Bibliography: "The Jealous Uncle" by Stith Thompson. Web Source