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

Reading Notes: Native American Hero Tales Part B

Just like for Part A of the reading, Part B consisted of four stories. The story that stuck out to me and intrigued me the most was the one about the jealous father. This story was about a son who was born to the wife of the jealous father. He had two wives. One day he saw that the son had been on terms of intimacy with one of his wives. He then took the boy out to fish for eggs and once the son left the boat, the father turned around and deserted him on the island. He called for help and cried for hours. A walrus finally came to aid the son. He told the son to let him know if there was any lightning for he had to go underwater if there was. The boy lied which led to the walrus's death, but the son made it back to the island safely. The walrus was from the mother and the thunderstorms were from the father. On the island, an old woman from the mother came to aid the son. She gave him an animal disguise and he went into the forest. He stumbled upon two blind women who had bones sticking out their elbows. The son fooled them both into thinking he was sitting between them and had them stab each other to death. Next the boy came upon a pile of bones and a hut where dogs and people were. He dug a path underneath all the bones, but somehow managed to rustled the bones. This alarmed the dogs and the people so they went to search for him. He fooled them once again and made it back home safely. He burned down the world along with his father, but saved his mother. They both turned into birds and flew off.

Native American Hero Tales by Stith Thompson, link to online reading

 (Blue Jay, Source: Pinterest)

Reading Notes: Native American Hero Tales Part A

There were a total of four stories in Part A of Native American Hero Tales. My favorite of them all had to be the one called "The Jealous Uncle". This story was about an uncle who took the every son that this family bore and killed him. He had killed 3 before a 4th child came into this world. He was kept a secret and the uncle's wife told him that they had bore a daughter and not a a son. However, the uncle found out anyways when he saw what was underneath his clothes. The uncle asked for the son and took him out to get some logs. They wandered out far into the forest where the son got caught in one of the logs. The uncle left him there to die and rot however he had tools with him that led to his escape. He gathered the log and left them in front of his uncles tent. The uncle was furious and tried to kill him many more times. Next was with ducks and eggs, then it was with clams, and then finally he made the nephew a box. He trapped the son inside this box and threw him into the ocean where he drifted from island to island until finally he halted. Two daughters found him on the shore and brought him back to their village where the chief decided to care and raise him. However, he began to miss his previous home and his parents, so with permission from the Eagle people, he flew back to the previous village. He brought them back a huge whale, but the jealous uncle took it all for himself and left none for the nephews parents. He was furious and took the uncle up into the sky and dropped him into the ocean. He couldn't swim for he drowned and died. The nephew got his revenge and took his parents back to his new found home where they all lived happily. I like the story of death and revenge. It reminds me of high school or even middle school where a girl would get jealous of someone and try to ruin their life. If I choose to do this story I would modernize it into a school type story and leaving out death. 

Native American Hero Tales by Stith Thompson, link to online reading

(Native American Eagle, Source: Snow Owl)