Week 6 Famous Last Words

This week I chose to write about Brer Rabbit, which turned out to be fun and difficult at the same time. I used to hear these stories growing up as a child both in a Disney movie and a few times while visiting family in New Orleans, Louisiana. The hardest part of these stories was definitely the writing and overall “voice” of the narrator. Ebonics on steroids is what I am calling it, basically a type of broken up English. I did enjoy turning one of the stories into a type of petty rivalry, revenge type story, although I only did my storytelling over what could be considered part one of the original story. Since I am writing my Famous Last Words fairly early this week (this is due to the fact that my parents are coming to visit from Houston this weekend and I want as much time as I can with them), I have not fully decided what my reading will be on next week. Currently I am deciding between Chinese Fairy Tales and Nigerian Fairy Tales. I have read a little bit of both groups and I have to say that this is not going to be an easy decision to make. On one hand I really enjoyed reading African Tradition stories this week, they are filled with a little bit of old and a little bit of new along with fun, silliness, and free flowing. On the other hand, I have already done readings from the African Traditions sections so maybe I should do some reading from the Asia/ Pacific region instead. I feel as though the stories from the Chinese Fairy Tales are all about honor and loyalty, since those aspects are a crucial part of the Chinese culture (at least from what I previously know).  I am excited and am looking forward for the week to come.

Loquats and Mountain Bird (Source)

Essay Week 6: Brer Story Retold

For this week I wanted to see the African take on an old favorite of mine - Brer Rabbit. Not many people know this but Disney actually made a movie about Brer Rabbit, it’s called “Song of the South.” It was my favorite movie as a child. Unfortunately the movie was banned in the United States for reasons I am not too sure about. Just about everyone knows the song Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, so it was interesting seeing where an old favorite originated. 

What I find to be so interesting about these tales is their slave origin. They are African-American tales that are spoken in a certain dialect and framed by “Uncle Remus” who is an old African-American man, then he his telling the stories to a young white boy in Georgia. While reading the stories it felt as though Uncle Remus was in the room telling the stories to you because he would make references to things in the present at times. It would be as if I were telling you about someone who saw a Native American statue and then said that it was like the one on Oklahoma University’s campus near the clock tower. This allows the reader to feel present in the storytelling.

The dialect was what I found to be most difficult when reading these. Sometimes it seemed impossible to understand what it was talking about. It was like slang on steroids! However, I understand that these are classic tales and are written this way due to the culture of the time. That was how these stories were originally told and spoken. For one, after each character would talk it would say “sez” then the characters name then “sezee.” I found that to be incredibly interesting because that would be the equivalent to saying, “said Jessica, said she.” It was difficult but all very interesting and fun in the end. 

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by NarnMindWalker

Week 6 Storytelling: The Manikin

It was half way through her high school career and Sally was still being bullied by the queen-bee, Candace. Candace was always putting Sally into situations where everyone in the school would laugh and make fun of her. You see, Candace found joy in her cruelty toward other girls. Sally was tired of it and so she devised a plan to get back at Candace.

Sally knew everyday Candace got bored during her fifth period science class and would take the bathroom pass and roam the halls of the high school to make sure she was still the queen-bee. So one day, after the bell rang to start fifth period, Sally took a manikin, dressed it in a skirt, blouse, sunglasses, and a hat, covered it in extra sticky super glue, and sat it on a bench in the main hallway. Sally then hid in a dark empty classroom with a tiny window on the door so that she could watch.

As she predicted, Candace became increasingly board in class and decided to take the bathroom pass so that she could roam the hallways for the last ten minutes of class. “Miss Walters,” Candace said interrupting, “may I use the restroom?” Miss Walters turned from the chalkboard, grabbed the bathroom pass from her desk, and held it out saying, “Very well, Candace. But hurry up.” Candace leapt from her seat and strutted to the front of the classroom. She ripped the pass from her teacher’s hand and stormed out of the classroom grinning from ear to ear.

Candace was walking along when she noticed someone sitting on a bench down the main hallway. She did not recognize the person and walked strait towards them, not knowing that it was really the manikin.

“Hey, I’m Candace,” she said, “Are you new here?”

But the manikin said nothing, and Sally lay low, quietly looking through the tiny window in the distance.

“Where are you from?” said Candace.

Sally continued to watch, and the manikin said nothing.

“Well you could at least introduce yourself. Cute bracelet by the way, can I try it on?” Candace said, determined to take the bracelet.

Still the manikin said nothing, and Sally continued to lay low.

“It is rude to ignore people!” said Candace, becoming enraged. “Give me the bracelet!”

Sally tried not to giggle, while the manikin still continued to sit there.

“I cannot believe this! If you don’t say something then I am going to rip that bracelet off your wrist!” Candace said, angrily.

The manikin stayed still, and Sally watched excitedly.

“That’s it!” Candace said as she violently grabbed for the bracelet, but she could not remove her hand from the manikin’s wrist, no matter how hard she pulled. But the manikin stayed still, and Sally continued to watch from the window.

“Let go of me, crazy!” Candace yelled. “I will seriously slap you if you don’t let go of me this instance!”

The manikin did nothing, and Sally watched with anticipation.

“That’s it!” and Candace slapped the manikin on the face only to have her other hand glued on as well. “Get off of me you freak! What’s wrong with you?”

Still the manikin said nothing, and Sally tried to hold in her laughter.

As Candace was standing there glued to the manikin, the bell ending fifth period rang and the students began to fill the hallway. They began surrounding Candace, all of them pointing and laughing at her. Sally came out of her hiding spot and joined in the crowd’s laughter. She walked over to the stuck, thrashing Candace and said, “Well, well, well. Looks like you’re in a bit of a pickle there, huh Candace.” Candace immediately whipped around and glared at Sally. Grinning from ear-to-ear, Sally turned from Candace and the continuously laughing crowd and walked to her next class, satisfied with her pay back.  

Super Glue (Wikipedia Commons)

Authors Note. One of the wonderful things about Brer Rabbit is that they are somewhat continuous stories about Brer Fox coming up with elaborate schemes to catch Brer Rabbit and eat him. In The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story Brer Fox makes a person out of tar and then leaves it out on the side of the road where Brer Rabbit finds it and gets stuck in the tar. I kept to the story of getting stuck in something but I changed it so that it would be more of a prank/revenge concept. I also decided that I would not use the incredibly indecipherable language used in the original story.

Bibliography. Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings by Joel Chandler Harris (1881).

Week 6 Reading Diary: Brer Rabbit

The stories of Brer Rabbit were fairly difficult to understand because of the dialect. These took me far longer to read simply because I had to basically dissect the stories. It was similar to attempting to read another language. The stories of Brer Rabbit very much made me think of the "Tom and Jerry" cartoons. Tom (the cat) will stop at nothing to catch Jerry (the mouse), much like Brer Fox would stop a nothing to catch Brer Rabbit and would even resort to elaborate schemes, but Brer Rabbit would out whit him every time.

One thing I noticed was that the narrator would break from the story and make referenced to things in the present. Such as in The Calamus Root story when the narrator is describing Brer Rabbit's garden and say that his garden's "like Miss Sally's out dar." You can really see that he is telling the story to someone. 

The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story is one of my favorites. I found it to be much more easily understandable than many of the others, probably because it was familiar. It made me think of those pranks in cartoons when someone finds a dollar bill on the ground and just when they are about to pick it up the dollar is pulled away by someone hiding and holding onto a string attached to the dollar.

How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox is another favorite of mine. I just find it to be oh too funny. It is the continuation of The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story. Brer Fox continuously attempts to catch Brer Rabbit so he can eat him. Finally he was able to catch Brer Rabbit using tar. Well Brer Rabbit out whits Brer Fox by telling him that he can do whatever he wants to him, just don't throw him in the Brer Patch. Well of course Brer Fox believes that this is a fate worse than death and throws Brer Rabbit into it, all to see Brer Rabbit escape from the Brer Patch because he was born and raised in it.

I believe that the stories that I enjoy the most are the stories with Brer Rabbit. I find his whit and cleverness to be enjoyable and hilarious.