Week 5 Essay

Arabian Night Design

found on Wallpapers Wide

This week I chose to read the Arabian Nights reading unit from the un-textbook. I really enjoyed this week's reading! The first half of the unit was so exciting and fun to read! I loved the story of Scheherazade! It was dark and strange, full of vengeance and scheming. I really liked it. That's what I based my storytelling assignment on for this week. I also enjoyed the second half of the unit where I got to read the tale of Aladdin and the magic lamp! I love the Disney movie, Aladdin, and was excited to see what was different between the two. I liked that there were actually TWO genies in the original story of Aladdin! After reading it, I couldn't help but wish another movie would be made, a live-action one that would depict the original tale. How fun would that be?

Anyway, I was particularly interested because most of the original fairy tales that Disney bases their movies off of are far more graphic, dark, strange, and twisted than what we see on the big screen or on our TVs at home. I like the original stories because they were told to teach a lesson and that is why they often included scary themes. They wanted to scare children into acting properly and heeding their warnings. Plus, times were different back then, more brutal. It makes me glad I live in the time that I do, but definitely makes for some interesting reading.

Overall, I thought this reading unit was well put-together and organized. I enjoyed the readings and none of them felt like they were boring or tedious to read. Also, unlike with the Ancient Egypt unit, I didn't feel like there was really any missing information. I didn't need a whole lot of back-story because these stories didn't deal with ancient gods and goddesses from a far-off religion. Instead, it told stories of adventure, magic, and strange love (that whole.. let's kidnap the princess and prince every night and scare the crap out of them until they divorce thing.. yeah, that was really shady).

Bibliography:

1. The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898).
2. Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907).