Week 9 Story: The Chickens
One day there were a chicken who had three little chicks. They lived happily on a farm just outside of the nearest city. One day these chickens started hanging out with a new friend--Mr. Anansi. The chickens would go on walks with Anansi and talk all day. But they would mostly eat dinner with Anansi. Every day the chicken would take her chick to Anansi's in the evening, and Anansi would prepare a meal for them. More often than not, Anansi would make a soup. The chicken thought it was very kind of Anansi to go out of his way to help her feed her family. But more and more often chicken would leave dinner at Anansi's feeling sickly.
One day, the chicken started to feel ill. Not knowing what do do, the chicks went to their friend Anansi for help. Sure enough, Anansi offered his help right away. Anansi offered to let the chicken stay with him for next week so she could get some rest and heal. The chicks, having no reason to think otherwise, thought that this was a swell idea.
The next week, the chicks went to check on their mom at Anansi's. Anansi, however, informed them that their mom was still sick and would need time to heal. The chicks noticed that Anansi was starting to look fatter, but they brushed it off with the news that there mom was getting better.
The next few days, the chicks became sickly one by one. Each of them went to Anansi's house to be taken care of, and he accepted each one of them into his home happily. Unfortunately for these chickens, they learned too late that Anansi's favorite food was fried chicken. And so everyone learned, you should be careful if you ever go to Anansi's house for dinner. You should be especially careful if you happen to be a chicken,
Bibliography: The Fishes by Martha Warren Beckwith
Author's Note: I based my story off of a Jamaican fairy tale about Anansi called The Fishes. In the original story, there were three little fish whose mother was sick. Anansi, being the stand up guy that he is, offers to heal the mother. He said all he needs is a frying pan and some sweet oil, and then if they are locked in a room together the mother will be healed. The fish, naïve as could be, accepted the offer. The fish soon find out that Anansi had in fact eaten the mother fish. A mule offers to chase down Anansi for the young fish. After the mule returns Anansi to the fish to be reprimanded, Anansi still manages to evade punishment. In my story, I decided to change the fish to chickens. I could see Anansi liking chicken! Also in my story, all of the chickens get sick and so they all learn the hard way that Anansi is not their friend! I had fun writing this fairy tale, I hope you enjoyed reading it!
Hi Christian!
ReplyDeleteI think the changes you made to the ending of the folktale were interesting!
Instead of the children learning their lesson indirectly about blind trust, they learn it directly in a rather unfortunate and brutal way.
And honestly, I kind of feel this story was better than the original in that it doesn't feel like the audience was cheated out of the villain meeting justice.
Hello, I did really enjoy reading your story even though I feel bad for the little chicks because they did not know any better. Anansi seems to be very deceiving to animals and the animals seem to be very naïve when it comes to Anansi. I thought this story was very creative and I am excited to continue reading your stories.
ReplyDeleteHey Christian,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your twist on this folktale, I found the ending to be very interesting! I think your story, though maybe a little brutal, is much better than the original. If I had to make any changes, I would just add details to your story. I think that if maybe you hinted more about the smell of yummy soup at Mr. Anansi's house or really reiterate the fact that he is trying to fatten the chicks up could make readers look back and really see the negative signs about him, which could make this a very thought provoking story.
Hi Christian, i enjoyed reading your story. I felt bad about the ending for the little chicks, it was brutal, they learned their lesson the hard way. I also liked in the story how you said that the chicken would go for a walk with mr Anansi and talk all day. It's very creative to have a conversation between human and animals. I wish you could incorporate a dialogue between them in the story, it would be fun to read it that way.
ReplyDelete