Writing Assignment: September 19,2018
The Stone and The Three Brass Pennies are two folktales from different parts of the world, yet they share the same universal morals of the dangers of wishes and how happiness comes from within.
In The Stone, a fellow called Maibon travels down a road and finds and old man. Feeling bad for him, Maibon offers him a ride, but being old and senile, the old man refuses. Maibon wishes that he could stay young forever, and soon his wish is granted when he finds a Fair Folk named Doli with his leg stuck under a log. Maibon offers to save Doli on one condition; Give him a stone that makes him live forever. Doli refuses at first, burt knows that he cannot say no to Maibon. When Maibon goes home, his wife is angry and horrified. All the things that could have helped Maibon's poor family, poured down the drain! Maibon still does not give back the stone. After a long time, Maibon realizes that the stone causes not just him, but all other things and animals around him to stop growing. Now that he fully regrets his decision, Maibon can finally return the stone to Doli. The theme of this story is that consequences come tailing along with great things sometimes. Learn your lesson from Maibon and be careful with what you wish for!
Now, let's talk about another story with a similar moral. In The Three Brass Pennies, Ah Fo strolls through a forest, coming across a bee entangled in a spider's web. He rescues it, and the bee proves to be a shapeshifting magician. The magician grants Ah Fo three wishes in the form of three brass pennies. Ah Fo chooses the pennies to have to powers of seeing into the future, reading minds, and acquiring all knowledge with no effort. Ah Fo soon regrets the wishes and asks the magician to undo all the effects of the pennies. Ah Fo, although he is a scholar and had pondered his choices for a whole day, still made regrettable wishes. For example, he had wanted to solve an extremely difficult math equation that no one had ever done before. He used the knowledge penny and knew the answer right away. He was happy at first, but it sucked out all of his enthusiasm for learning. Another example is when he used the mind reading penny to look into his friend Tuan See's mind. He saw that Tuan See actually didn't want to eat with him, and wanted to spend more time with his family. This offended Ah Fo, and made him secretly angry. These two things build up to show that Ah Fo made a mistake in wishing those things. Ah Fo realizes that happiness comes from within, and returns the pennies to the magician. Just like in The Stone, even things that seem so wonderful and amazing can prove to have consequences that you didn't consider.
The Stone and The Three Brass Pennies are two folktales from different parts of the world, yet they share the same universal morals of the dangers of wishes and how happiness comes from within.
In The Stone, a fellow called Maibon travels down a road and finds and old man. Feeling bad for him, Maibon offers him a ride, but being old and senile, the old man refuses. Maibon wishes that he could stay young forever, and soon his wish is granted when he finds a Fair Folk named Doli with his leg stuck under a log. Maibon offers to save Doli on one condition; Give him a stone that makes him live forever. Doli refuses at first, burt knows that he cannot say no to Maibon. When Maibon goes home, his wife is angry and horrified. All the things that could have helped Maibon's poor family, poured down the drain! Maibon still does not give back the stone. After a long time, Maibon realizes that the stone causes not just him, but all other things and animals around him to stop growing. Now that he fully regrets his decision, Maibon can finally return the stone to Doli. The theme of this story is that consequences come tailing along with great things sometimes. Learn your lesson from Maibon and be careful with what you wish for!
Now, let's talk about another story with a similar moral. In The Three Brass Pennies, Ah Fo strolls through a forest, coming across a bee entangled in a spider's web. He rescues it, and the bee proves to be a shapeshifting magician. The magician grants Ah Fo three wishes in the form of three brass pennies. Ah Fo chooses the pennies to have to powers of seeing into the future, reading minds, and acquiring all knowledge with no effort. Ah Fo soon regrets the wishes and asks the magician to undo all the effects of the pennies. Ah Fo, although he is a scholar and had pondered his choices for a whole day, still made regrettable wishes. For example, he had wanted to solve an extremely difficult math equation that no one had ever done before. He used the knowledge penny and knew the answer right away. He was happy at first, but it sucked out all of his enthusiasm for learning. Another example is when he used the mind reading penny to look into his friend Tuan See's mind. He saw that Tuan See actually didn't want to eat with him, and wanted to spend more time with his family. This offended Ah Fo, and made him secretly angry. These two things build up to show that Ah Fo made a mistake in wishing those things. Ah Fo realizes that happiness comes from within, and returns the pennies to the magician. Just like in The Stone, even things that seem so wonderful and amazing can prove to have consequences that you didn't consider.