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| (Wolf, Source:UnTextbook) |
The Wolf Aunt
There once was a family who was just scraping by. The father worked hard every day in order to provide for his wife and seven daughters. One day, while out gathering food, he came home very late.
On his way back to his house, he ran into a woman who claimed to be his long lost sister. "Dear brother, is that you? I haven't seen you since we were young, but I know it is you. Come in! Catch me up on your life!"
He spent a few hours with his sister and she knew almost everything about him. She knew about his family and all of the hardships he had overcome to support them. "Well, dear brother, I am very well off now and I do not have a family of my own. So I insist that I provide for you and your family. It is all I can do since I have missed being in your life. Go. Tell your family and bring them here."
The man was ecstatic. He ran all the way home to tell his family the great news. "Darling, girls! I have amazing news to tell you! We will never have to worry about where our next meal will come from! I have met my long lost sister and she has graciously offered to provide for us! Come, I will take you all to meet her."
The man and his family went to the aunt immediately. The aunt was delighted to see the family. She took them all home and tucked them in for the night.
The family loved staying with the aunt. She bought them all brand new clothes and gave them plenty to eat at every meal. The youngest daughter wasn't used to having so much food to eat that she overindulged and got sick.
Over the course of a few weeks, the family started to put on some weight due to the good eating. The mother was so happy that her family was well taken care of. She decided to make the aunt a lovely dinner to express her thanks.
The mother sent her husband to the market to buy a nice piece of liver. She made an elaborate dinner with nice-looking vegetables to go with it. When it was done cooking, she sent the youngest daughter to deliver it to the aunt.
The youngest daughter ran it over to the aunt's house, but when she got there, she heard a funny noise coming from inside the house. She peeked through the window and saw the aunt turn into a wolf and eat a man. The little girl shrieked and ran back home.
Luckily, the 'aunt' was too busy with her meal to notice the little girl.
When the youngest daughter arrived back home, she was out of breath and as pale as a ghost. "My child, what has happened?" cried the mother. The little girl told her mother about her encounter. "Oh dear! We must tell your father!" So off they went to find him.
When they found the father and told him what happened, he thought they were kidding. After a few minutes of listening to them ramble on, he realized they were being quite serious. He was furious. "How could she take us in like that and treat us like family and still plan to eat us?!" He went to the town and alerted the people.
The townspeople were also furious. They devised a plan to catch the wolf. They would sneak into her house while she was sleeping and they would tie her up and take her to the middle of the market. There the townspeople would stone her to death.
They waited until it was late at night and all the lights in the wolf's house were off. Three of the strongest men snuck into her house and tied her up. It wasn't that easy when she awoke and started struggling. They carried her to the market and tied her to a pole. All the townspeople stoned the wolf to death and nobody was in danger of the wolf again.
Bibliography: Story: The Wolf Aunt from The Persian Tales by D.L.R Lorimer (1919).
Hey Heather,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the ending of your story. I have not heard of someone being stoned in a very long time. I would have appreciated a little more creativity. I did the same unit; therefore, I had to read this story also. While ready your story, I felt like it was too similar. I do not feel like the story became your own until the last three paragraphs. Overall, I appreciate your writing. It was very easy to read.
First off great picture! I love that you put the Author’s Note first so the reader gets a little bit of background to your story before they read. Why does this man believe a complete stranger? He isn't too smart. I was relieved that no one from the family died. It was a good thing the daughter was cautious and a bit sneaky. You did a wonderful retelling of the story. Good job.
ReplyDeleteHey, Heather! I really enjoyed your storytelling post. To start off, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone put their author’s note in the beginning and really liked how it flowed into the story. I appreciate how you chose the story and were willing to step out and change the ending to how you wanted rather than just changing very minor details. As for the story itself, it is clear that you are a talented writer. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a very different take on the original story. As I whole, the story is satisfying because most readers feel angry when the villain gets away with whatever evil plot they carried out. We want to see justice done and I think the scales of justice were tipped back into balance. While I feel like the stoning of the wolf aunt was a bit harsh, this is actually a logical reaction based on what time period and setting the story feels like it is set in. I imagine that it takes place in a small village sometime in the 1600's and back then, witches and criminals were murdered in some very brutal ways (e.g. burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, beheaded, etc.). The townspeople's harsh reaction to the wolf woman's crimes makes sense if you think about it this way.
ReplyDeleteYour author's note was very informative and gave me a good idea about the motivation you had when rewriting the story. I knew which changes were yours and why you made them.
Finally, your blog is very pleasing to the eye. Nothing seems cluttered, all text is easily readable, and nothing in the background or on the side is distracting. Overall, great job on your story and your blog!
Heather!
ReplyDeleteMuch like Shelby, I really appreciated your writing style. Putting the author's note at the beginning was helpful without giving too much away about your own story. I also thought the stoning was harsh, but agree that it probably was appropriate for the time period.
You might consider using diction to support that early seventeenth century feel. This way, the reader doesn't question the punishment that the wolf aunt receives.
Another small thing, there are a few grammatical errors in here. (Nothing big, no worries!) I just wanted to point some general things out for future writing (and would love for you or anyone to do the same for me, frankly!). "Throw" I think needs to be "through" in the first paragraph. The word "were" might need to be "was" in the first sentence, also. There are also a few comma mistakes, so reviewing independent and dependent clauses could potentially be helpful!
Overall, awesome job!
Hey Heather!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story. I especially liked how you changed the outcome of the story. Like you, I prefer happy endings. Reading your story, I immediately thought about Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel. I like you incorporated these stories into your story. It made it really entertaining.
I did not really notice any punctuation or grammatical errors. Your writing was clean and to the point. The dialogue really illustrated the tone of the characters, allowing the reader to understand what the characters were going through. Although the picture of the wolf you selected for your story fits well with the story, I would suggest perhaps choosing a more menacing wolf. What I got from your story was that the wolf aunt was a sneaky, plotting, and menacing wolf. The wolf in the picture appears a little too indifferent. I does not really live up to the characterization of the world aunt. Good Job Heather!
I also read the original story and I was not too fond of how it left off. It felt like the wolf should have had some punishment after eating the man so I definitely liked how your story ended up. The father in the original was not very smart when he refused to listen to his family. He would have been able to live if he had just believed what they said was true. I really liked how your story had them find out and then had the father believe them. I like when there is at least a little bit of a happy ending to most stories. I think that your story flowed well and we well written. I also liked how you described how much bigger the family was getting to lead to the fact that the wolf was fattening them up so that she could eat them.Overall, I really enjoyed your version of the story.
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