Reading Notes: Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal
For this weeks second reading, I chose to read the Indian folktale "Tiger, Brahman, and Jackal". Below are some of the notes I wrote while reading this folktale.
Plot: The plot for this story was extraordinarily simple. It consisted of a Brahman you set a tiger free and now was on the brink of becoming the tiger's dinner. When the tiger allowed the Brahman a chance to convince the tiger not to eat him. The plot took a twist when the animal/object that turned out to be the most helpful seemed as though he was the least helpful when the Brahman first encountered him. The Jackal seemingly failed to understand the Brahman's story and appeared to be a lost cause. This ignorance turned out to be a ruse to get the tiger back in the cage.
Character: The character that struck me as the most interesting was the jackal. If I were to re imagine this story, I would change the species of the jackal and cast him as a blind man. This still keeps the unsuspecting hero for the story but removes the necessity of personify human thoughts and speech onto animals and objects. Along this thought process, I would switch all the animals characters with human characters to make the story more realistic. Thus, the tiger would be a criminal locked in the jail, the jackal and blind man, and the other animals and objects people in the town.
Setting: The folktale itself doesn't devote much time to depicting the setting. Much of it is left to the imagination as a trapped tiger can only be found in so many possible locations (most probably the forest). Most of the remaining details were left up to my imagination. Aspects such as a small clearing where the cage is and a nearby forest were things I had imagined while reading the folktale.
Plot: The plot for this story was extraordinarily simple. It consisted of a Brahman you set a tiger free and now was on the brink of becoming the tiger's dinner. When the tiger allowed the Brahman a chance to convince the tiger not to eat him. The plot took a twist when the animal/object that turned out to be the most helpful seemed as though he was the least helpful when the Brahman first encountered him. The Jackal seemingly failed to understand the Brahman's story and appeared to be a lost cause. This ignorance turned out to be a ruse to get the tiger back in the cage.
Character: The character that struck me as the most interesting was the jackal. If I were to re imagine this story, I would change the species of the jackal and cast him as a blind man. This still keeps the unsuspecting hero for the story but removes the necessity of personify human thoughts and speech onto animals and objects. Along this thought process, I would switch all the animals characters with human characters to make the story more realistic. Thus, the tiger would be a criminal locked in the jail, the jackal and blind man, and the other animals and objects people in the town.
Setting: The folktale itself doesn't devote much time to depicting the setting. Much of it is left to the imagination as a trapped tiger can only be found in so many possible locations (most probably the forest). Most of the remaining details were left up to my imagination. Aspects such as a small clearing where the cage is and a nearby forest were things I had imagined while reading the folktale.
Bibliography
Indian Fairy Tales: The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D.
Batten (1912).
Photo of Brahman, Tiger and Jackal by John Dickson Batten
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