Blog 11 Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales are very interesting. The little mermaid is one of my favorite children’s movies so it was interesting to see the differences between this version and the movie. Andersen’s tales were not made for children and you can see this because there are vulgar parts and you can see that there is a lot of pain and/or suffering. This is a difference from some of the stories we have read. As well as there isn’t really that fairy tale ending that we normally see. In the little mermaid we see that the mermaid doesn’t get to marry the love of her life and because of this she turns into air. Normally we see the main characters live happily ever after, they don’t normally die. Although there are differences some things seen in his story are similar to others that we have read. We see some similar motifs such as love and villains and also the main character goes through a transformation of some sort. The villain of the Little Mermaid was the sea witch and when we meet her you see how the mermaid is going to have to suffer, but she does it for her love. When we look at the stories you see that the main character is very young and that is normally a common theme seen through most of the stories that we have read. Because the character is so young, I think it made if very easy to change this story into a children’s movie. 

Blog 10 African Fairy Tales

Dr. Ochieng’ K’Olewe’s presentation was very interesting. I thought that out of all the guest speakers that we have in class so far, he was one of the most entertaining presenters to listen to. When he came to our class you could tell right away that he was going to be very energetic and enthusiastic when telling the class about folktales and story telling in Africa. Another reason why I enjoyed this lecture is because Dr. Ochieng’ K’Olewe was very interactive with the class, having us sing and dance along with him as he told us his tales. This lecture enriched my knowledge of folk and fairy tales because it gave me a better understanding of how people in Africa look at these tales and why they tell them. The professor told us the reasons that people use these tales were to celebrate wit and their culture, as well as to entertain the people. They teach people values, beliefs, rules, and different taboos. These tales and stories were normally told at night after everyone was done with work. And they wanted everyone to focus only on the voice so they liked to tell them in the dark so people could only listen to the words of the tale. The main thing I learned about these tales are that they bring the African community together, that even now more people use the verbal form of the stories than the written versions. The stories bring the old and young together for bonding time and it gives the people a sense that the community is not lost. 

Blog 9 Fitchers Bird

My favorite Bluebeard tale out of those we read would have to be Fitcher’s Bird. This tale was my favorite because it has the women getting revenge on the villain. Bluebeard is a evil old man that takes the lives of beautiful young girls because they let their curiosity get the best of them. Unlike the other versions of the tale the women are given keys and an egg. The sorcerer tells the girls when he is about to leave that they need to, ”Carry it with you wherever you go, because if it gets lost, something terrible will happen.” Even after this warning and after he told the women not to go into the small room they still disobey him and the first to women are brought to their doom. The last sister of the Three is still obeying her husband but is seen as being so much smarter than the other two because she keeps the egg in a safe place. Once she sees the room and that her sisters are in the room she knows that she must do something to save them. This part is probably my favorite when the third sister put the pieces of the first two sisters back together and they magically are alive again. The last sister is so smart that she even gets Bluebeard to take the sisters that he killed home and fools him when she walks right past him dressed up as a bird. The reason this version of the tale is my favorite is because everyone is fooled by the last sister and because of her wit all the villains are killed.