Possible Styles for Storytelling

Topic: The topic for my storybook will probably be lessons learned through Native American storytelling. I know I can find many stories with endless amounts of resources to the actual meanings of each story. My goal is to find different stories about atlas four different lessons to be learned through the stories by Native Americans. Finding the perfect stories to use and the specific styles will be my biggest challenge that I have throughout writing this storybook. On book I would like to use is How the Summer Came and The Origin of the Tides

Bibliography: 
1. The Origin of the Tides, from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911)
2. How the Summer Came, from American Indian Fairy Tales, by W.T. Larned (1921)

Possible Styles:

Animals as Storytellers: I think it would be quite easy to write these stories as an animal because most of them are either in an animals perspective or it is a story about a specific animal. Telling the story from a different viewpoint would give me opportunity to give different aspects to the story to make it more creative. It would allow me to choose different animals that would have different outlooks on different stories to tell their side of the story.

First Person: First person would be an interesting style to use beaus most Native American stories are in the third person story telling style. Also telling the story from a different view point would give an interesting new view on the story and give me room to play with different details of the story and its meaning.

Third Person: This would be an interesting style to use for the same reason as the first person. Most Native American stories are originally written in the third person storytelling style because they were passed down by word of mouth in a third person sense of style. I could use this style by writing from an all knowing third person storyteller or by a third person that is looking in on the situation but is telling the story as the way they saw it.

Legal Argument: I think it would be interesting to rewrite these stories in a setting as if there were two people arguing against one another for legal reasoning to figure out an outcome and to present their case for the happenings. This style would allow me to create a story with new details while allowing me to give two sides to the story and letting me portray what should have happened vicariously through the "judge's decision". By doing this I would be combining the first and third person style of storytelling.

Native American Storytelling

Essay: One of the Best

The use of the term hero has a broad area of uses. Most people think of a hero as someone out of a comic book or someone that saves hundreds of people's lives. My definition of a hero would be someone who completes something that is against their character in a good way or someone that accomplishes something for the good of himself and/or the people around him. This stories of Odysseus are what I would consider a rounded hero. He saves his land from being taken over in the war and then he fights through many hardships on his way home. He does all of this while keeping his men calm and preparing them for the worst but still giving them the courage to fulfill their task at hand. Some of the character's of the epic may not see Odysseus as a hero but as villain form their view but everyone always has atlas two ways of viewing a story. I haven't read the Iliad but have only read clips and reviews of the epic literature. I have thoroughly read and studied the Odessey and time and tim again Odysseus portrays himself of never being afraid of anything and being this aggressive, brave person while inside he questions everything about himself. He also knows that many of his men will die if not all of them and maybe even himself but he still has the drive to return home to his family and his land that he calls his own. Later in the epic he returns home and fulfills many tasks along while the one his own wife gives him to prove that he is himself. All that Odysseus goes through and is still driven to the very end is what I would classify as a hero. 

Odysseus in one of his last tasks

Storytelling For Week 3: Misunderstood Men

Hi, my name is Polyphemus. I am a greater known as the cyclops. I live on the Island of the Cyclops. Here we are very blessed by the gods and have very prosperous croups. Zeus blesses us with all the rains we could ever need. Our land is so rich that we never have to work it and we still have the best crops. Our society is so calm that we need no laws to control. We only make up our family rules. The reasoning for our bountiful lands were that the gods felt sorry for us because they forgot to give us two eyes and only gave us one which made our depth perception seem almost absent.

One day I was doing my normal chores of rounding up my sheep and bringing them to my cave for milking. These sheep weren't just any sheep. My sheep were very well fed and had the thickest wool. I brought the sheep in for milking and curdled half for storing and saved  the other half for drinking. After all of this was done I sat next to a fire I built and notice strange men in my cave. I asked them who they were and why they were in my cave. The leader of the group then threatened to take over my land and kill every cyclops that lived on it. I didn't much like this so I ate two of his men. After doing so I went to sleep knowing that none of his men were strong enough to hurt me.

The next day I woke up and ate two more men after gathering my sheep. This angered the man so much that he finally called for a truce. I asked him what his name is and he said Nobody. After we had a talk he proceeded to tell me that since we had a truce he would not kill me but would still kill everyone else! After I finished my days work I returned home and ate two more men. After this Nobody gave me a generous amount of wine and me being the nice fellow I am took the wine and happily finished the entire bowl. I passed out drunk from the wine. Later that night I woke up to a burning stick driven through my eye. The men had finally tricked me and overcame my powerful strength. I called for my fellow cyclops but when they came I had told them that Nobody had hurt me so they left. After I eventually lifted my door and left to tell the other cyclops what had happened they all left for the ocean. These actions by Odysseus made my father,Poseidon, very angry. I asked my father to make sure they did not return home eon favorable conditions. After this my life has never been the same

Odysseus gauging Polyphemus' eye

Author's Note:

This story is based off of the readings 1-4 from reading A in the UNtextbook of Homer's Odyssey. The original story is based off of first person reflections and actions from Odysseus. The story begins with Odysseus arriving at the Island of the Cyclops. Odysseus and his men explore the cave of Polyphemus and become trapped inside when Polyphemus arrives home. Polyphemus is angry with the men and eat a few of them. My story then follows along with the original story with the exception that Odysseus was the cruel one and Polyphemus was just protecting his home against the foreigners. I thought that since the original story was in first person that my story should be written in first person  because every story has two sides. I also thought the story should explain why they were given the land they had and why they behaved the way they did.  In the original, Polyphemus is describe as an animalistic being with no sympathy for the humans. In my version I described him as being more protective than animalistic and having a much more human side. The image I chose is form a museum gallery depicting the scene of Odysseus and his men gauging the eye of Polyphemus while he was passed out drunk. 

Reading Diary B: Homer's Odyssey

My second reading diary this week is over Homer's Odyssey. In the first reading, Ghosts of Erebus, Odysseus and his men arrive at the House of Hades and begins their Journey to locate Teiresias. The men must sacrifice lambs and let the ghosts drink from the blood to be able to converse. In the second reading, The Ghosts of Elpenor and Teiresias, Elpenor asks Odysseus to go back to the Circe's island and burn his body with his armor. He later talks with Teiresias. Teiresias tells Odysseus to not touch the flocks of Helios or he will encounter great trouble on his way home and if does make it alone he will find his land under rule by someone else and his wife will be taken by another man. Odysseus would also kill off the suitors and run away to a foreign land. In the next reading, The Spirit of Anticleia, Odysseus sees his mothers ghost and talks with her and tells him that his wife is still waiting for him along with his son while his father grieves in a rural place alone awaiting his son's return. She proceeds to tell him she died from yearning for him for so long. The next four readings are about Odysseus meeting various famous people in history and of battle and them telling Odysseus of their fall and asking him about their living family members. The last reading, The Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis, is about when Odysseus leaves the House of Hades and sails pasts the Sirens Island. The Sirens tempt Odysseus to come to the island but he had his men stop him to the mast and plug their ears with candle wax so that they were unable to hear the Siren's song. The next part is about the swirling seas around the home of Scylla. When the men reach Scylla she grabs four men and eat them.

Odysseus and the Sirens

Reading Diary A: Homer's Odyssey

The Odyssey is about Odysseus's journey on his return home from the Trojan war. The first four readings are about the encounters of Odysseus and his men along with the troubles encountered and their escape. The main cyclops mentioned is Polyphemus. Odysseus and his men enter the cave of Polyphemus where they are captured by this cyclops that eats multiple men. The men create a scheme to escape the cave of the cyclops by gouging out his eye so that he will open the cave for them to escape. Polyphemus is a large vicious man that doesn't have any civilized traits about him. The next reading is the curse of Polyphemus. Polyphemus calls on Poseidon to curse Odysseus and his men to where they will have troubles and not return home safely. The next four readings are about Circe and Odysseus's encounters with her. Circe enchants half of Odysseus's men and turns them into pigs. On the way to rescue his captured me, Odysseus encounters Hermes who gives him a drug to make Odysseus resistant to Circe's enchantments. Circe is a conniving woman who lures men into her home to turn them into various animals. Odysseus takes the drug given to him. This leads Circe to believe Odysseus is unable to be persuaded. Unable to take over Odysseus, Circe sleeps with Odysseus and lets his men go and treats them well where they stay for a year. The last reading is about Circe telling Odysseus he must go to the House of Hades and speak to Persephone about his future.

Polyphemus the Cyclops