Essay for Week 5: Insanity

Insanity

(Shah Abbas in Persia, Source: Wikipedia)

I am actually really stumped for what to write about for this week's essay. The stories in the Persian Tales unit are very odd. Very hard to follow. They are very entertaining, don't get me wrong, but they did not have any point or logic. It was almost as if the point of the stories got lost in translation from Persian to English. I feel like these stories were meant for children, to an extent. The death aspect of the tales are what prevent me from fully thinking they're for kids.

For example, The Wolf and the Goat, was a good story for kids. It told them to not give up on what they want. It also shows kids that moms are determined to keep them safe. The goat kills the wolf by means of over drinking water in order to get her kids back. She was so determined and not afraid of the big bad wolf because her kids were in harm's way. This was an odd story, but the ideas given are positive ones.

The City of Nothing in the World was ESPECIALLY weird and hard to follow for me. There was absolutely no point! There also was no death, which made this the most kid friendly story of them all! Kids are really good at weaving crazy stories at the drop of a hat and this seemed like a tale straight from the mouth of babes! Eggs magically turning into chickens, making poles out of needles, gigantic watermelons being fallen into, and cities inside fruits. I never would have come up with this.

The one story that made any sense was Shah Abbas and the Poor Mother. This ine was a story for kids on how to be good to others no matter the circumstances. The weird part of this one was that when the Shah was nice to the mother, it backfired and she was arrested for stealing something she didn't steal. He was nice and honorable a second time around and everything turned out really well for the mother and the kids! The bad guys were arrested and everyone lived happily ever after. This one probably made sense because bringing a bad name to the King of Iran would have been punishable by death. Either they think very highly of their king or they made a nice story about him to keep their lives. It makes sense! Raising children on the idea that they should love their rulers. It's very good.