Reading stories that share wisdom brings me immense satisfaction. "The Man in the Moon" gives advice to those of us who cannot seem to settle and be accepting of what we have. The plot is so basic, but it ends up speaking volumes. Everything that the man chose to turn into--a stone, the sun, the moon, a cutter--was beautiful or reasonable, and yet he found something that did not settle well with him about it. The specific transformations do a wonderful job of illustrating how something "perfect" in one person's eyes can be seen as imperfect in another's. Every transformation was chosen carefully and acts as a grounding tool to make the plot and meaning stronger.
While the story is beautiful, the ending is dissatisfying to me. I am not one to prefer sad endings, and as a person who frequently seeks change in life, I was sad to see that the Man in the Moon did not end up getting his final wish of being returned to a blacksmith. I was hoping to see and have closure with his final character development. As the story progressed, I found myself rooting for him and wanting him to find peace in being a blacksmith. While I can see why the author did not do this, I believe that I would have ended the story with the final wish of him returning to his original state.
The Three Roses from The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis
My favorite part of "The Three Roses" was the significance of the character contrast. The first two daughters were presented negatively, with traits of greed and overindulgence. The following sentences emphasized the third daughter's goodness by her simply and gently saying that all she wanted, if possible, was three roses. Her character is already set up so that the reader only expects good from her. If the first two daughters had not been mentioned, the reader would have barely noticed the heart of gold the third daughter had. I adore this style of writing in which supporting characters are used to stress the importance of and contrast a trait in another character. I also noticed that there is not just one greedy daughter, but two. This high quantity of negative characters even more so plays up the third daughter's good nature. It leaves the reader realizing how much easier it is to be a negative character in this fictional world. Characters should all have a reason for being present. Otherwise the reader gets lost in the content and forgets what is important. This is something I hope I can bring into my own writing.
Image credit:
Image credit:
Moon image from Myth-Folklore Anthology site
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