Week 5 Reading Notes: Bidpai, Reading B

The Crane and the Crab was a really interesting story with multiple motifs in it. It deals with different species fighting for food, deception, and revenge. The crane was clever to trick the fish with so little work, but in the end the crab outsmarted the crane. The writing leads the reader to question a lot of what is happening, never quite sure of what the ending will be because there are so many aspects to the story. 

I really loved the story of The Partridge and the Crow because of its meaning. It tells the reader the importance of not comparing yourself to someone else because we all have our own paths and talents. We should never try to be like someone else because one person's way of life might not work for another person. The writing does a wonderful job of keeping the story to tell this message simple. 

The story of The Hen and the Falcon does a wonderful job of exemplifying the message that "the grass is always greener on the other side" by waiting to reveal until the end that the hen's life is really not as great as it seems. This is an important concept in a lot of these stories--wait until the end to change the reader's entire perspective. What they thought was true is completely transformed at the very end. 

It's interesting how most of the stories in this unit end up in murder. Most of the animals end up killing someone. This feels really important because it puts emphasis on how poor decisions can cause the worst-case scenario. 

The story about The Three Fish is really interesting. It lacks any kind of need for critical thinking. The reader just knows that the fish with wit will survive, and the fish without it will die. No surprises or anything. Just a very straightforward story about how one's personality can affect them. 

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Bibliography: From the Bidpai unit. Story source: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.

Image Information: Crane from Mythfolklore blog