Reading Notes: Laos: The Man in the Moon, Part A

This story is part of the Laos unit. Story source: Laos Folk-Loreby Katherine Neville Fleeson, with photographs by W.A. Briggs (1899).

Source

This story stuck out to me because of its simplicity. Being only 300 words long, it was able to accomplish its goal in a relatively minimal amount of words. One aspect of the story that I thought could use some more background was the old man's character. He seemed to be conveniently within earshot of the blacksmith's complaints. If the setting was described as a small town where everyone was in close proximity with everyone else, this interaction would make sense. Looking at the plot, I really liked how it simply went from each complaint to the next. However, it would have been interesting for the wise old man to show signs of fatigue with each transformation rather than saying at the end “I am weary of your changing. You wanted to be the moon; the moon you are, and it you will remain.” If I were to rewrite this story, I would attempt to keep a similar theme of dissatisfaction but in a different context.

The Blacksmith's Studio from Wikipedia