Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology
This story comes from Laos in Southeast Asia. Story source: Laos Folk-Lore by Katherine Neville Fleeson (1899).
The Man in the Moon
The plot of this story is concise and succinct. It mainly describes two man's dialogue - a wise man, and a man who was once a blacksmith. The man who was a blacksmith always complains about his identity. He wants to be stone, cutter, sun and moon since he only sees the short-termed benefit. The weakness of the blacksmith is his greed. The wise man realizes his requirements once and once again, and he is weary.
In terms of style, the repetition is used in this story. The author shows the reason why the blacksmith wants to be other things. I think this kind of style also shows the characteristic of the character successfully. It foregrounds the greediness of the blacksmith.
In my opinion, the most difficult part for me is how to start a story. The story begins through introduce one of the characters in this story. I think I can use the same way to tell my own story.
Besides, the story uses the punishment of the blacksmith as the ending: "And in yon high heaven lives he to this day." The most beautiful sentence in this story, but it actually full of tragic atmosphere. Heaven usually represents some good ending or attractive places. However, in this story, high heaven is the eternal jail of the blacksmith.
Like I said before, the story has a concise and succinct plot. There are fewer vivid descriptions in the story, and the author always uses the tersest sentence to represent content. For me, I like this kind of narrative skill but I am not sure whether should I use this strategy in my own story. I think the concise word may endow our story a sense of profound. But in other words, detailed content would attract readers in a fantastic world.
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