Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Week 4, Reading Diary Continued: Turkish Fairy Tales

Today, I finished the second half of the  "Turkish Fairy Tales Unit" by Ignacz Kunos.

After reading the second half of the stories, I saw that they were very similar to the first half. The second half stories focused on accomplishing tasks, tricking people and personal relationships.

In these readings, I kept noticing the themes  “money” and “marriage.”  Many of the stories I read dealt with completing a task in order to gain money or a loved ones approval.

One story that really stood out to me was about a wizard who could transform himself in order to make money. In this story, the wizard transformed himself into a ram, horse, bathing establishment and a rare rose. At the end, the Padishah (which seemed similar to a king) was very impressed and let the wizard marry his daughter. The wizard became rich and was then able to provide for his mother.

Another story that stood out to me was about a man’s wife who fell into a well. When the man tried to get save her, he accidentally pulled out an “imp.” The imp rewarded him by telling him how to save the Sultan’s daughter. In the end, the man became rich and the Sultan's daughter became his bride.



By reading these stories, I learned the importance of marriage, money and tasks in this culture. I enjoyed the magical creatures and the symbolism embedded within the texts.


I thought it was cool how the stories were very “dreamlike” and made you feel as though you were in a different world. When I write my story this week, I want to focus on characters/tasks that are very unusual and unrealistic. Just like the Turkish Fairy Tales, I also want to end my own story with a happy ending and message to my readers. 

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