The next day the wolf woke up and was thirsty. He again made his way down to the river bank to get himself a drink. After he took his drink of water from the river, he again noticed that all of the other animals of the forest were on the other side of the river far away from him. The wolf began to think to himself that maybe he had a stench or maybe the water on the side of the river where he was drinking was not as good as the other side of the river. The wolf decided to bathe himself in the river and then went back home to go to sleep.
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On the third day, the wolf woke up and was thirsty as usual. He made his way down to his spot on the riverbank where he would normally drink from. This time before taking a drink of water he looked around and noticed again that all the other animals of the forest were on the other side of the river. So, the wolf decided to cross to where the cranes were drinking water and take a drink from there.
Once the wolf had made it to the other side of the river near the cranes, he took a drink of water. After he took his drink of water he noticed all of the other animals of the forest started moving to the spot where he drank the previous days.
Feeling frustrated the wolf cried out to the cranes, “Why will no one drink from the same side of the river as me?”
Once the cranes had crossed the river to the other bank, one yelled back, “Because a wolf cannot be trusted by a crane.”
The wolf, beginning to feel angry, then yelled at the group of goats, “Why will goats not drink from the same side of the river as me?”
One of the goats then yelled back, “Because a wolf cannot be trusted by a goat.”
The wolf, now feeling even angrier about being an outcast, then yelled to the other wolves, “Can a wolf not be trusted by other wolves?”
A moment of silence came over the wolves until the alpha wolf stated, “A wolf who is not trusted by a crane nor a goat cannot be trusted by his own kind.”
The wolf, feeling that he had heard enough, made his way back to his home. He began to eat his sorrows away enjoying his favorite meal of goat and later cleaning his teeth with a crane’s beak.
Once the wolf had made it to the other side of the river near the cranes, he took a drink of water. After he took his drink of water he noticed all of the other animals of the forest started moving to the spot where he drank the previous days.
Feeling frustrated the wolf cried out to the cranes, “Why will no one drink from the same side of the river as me?”
Once the cranes had crossed the river to the other bank, one yelled back, “Because a wolf cannot be trusted by a crane.”
The wolf, beginning to feel angry, then yelled at the group of goats, “Why will goats not drink from the same side of the river as me?”
One of the goats then yelled back, “Because a wolf cannot be trusted by a goat.”
The wolf, now feeling even angrier about being an outcast, then yelled to the other wolves, “Can a wolf not be trusted by other wolves?”
A moment of silence came over the wolves until the alpha wolf stated, “A wolf who is not trusted by a crane nor a goat cannot be trusted by his own kind.”
The wolf, feeling that he had heard enough, made his way back to his home. He began to eat his sorrows away enjoying his favorite meal of goat and later cleaning his teeth with a crane’s beak.
Author’s Note: This story is inspired from Aesop's Fables. In many of the fables, the wolf is portrayed as the antagonist in the story and I wanted to keep that theme. The specific stories that came to mind were The Wolf and the Crane as well as the Wolf and the Goat. These are both tales where the wolf is either ungrateful or forcefully harmful to another animal of the forest. In addition, I also liked the writing style in the fables where many times there will be a build-up to the punch line. I was able to replicate this by having the wolf revisit the river three days. Ultimately, he finally builds the curiosity and anger to ask the other animals why no one will drink water by him. In doing so, I was able to set up the story so that the other animals gave an indirect answer to his question. This was an element which kept the reader wondering and the wolf as well. Then, in the end, the subtle details of what the wolf does when he arrives back at home alludes to the moral of the story. I wrote the ending of the story to be somewhat ambiguous and give the reader an ending thought on what it might be. Lastly, another element to my story, that I didn’t include last week, was the use of dialogue. Thanks for reading.
Picture courtesy of W.H. Drake: The Two Jungle Books
Bibliography: The Wolf and the Crane, The Wolf and the Goat by Jenny H. Stickney
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see you wrote a story about Aesop's Fables, I did the same last week.
I have to say, the twist ending in your story caught me off guard. I expected the wolf to do something to gain back the trust of the other animals, including his wolf friends, rather than embrace his identity as an outcast. I wonder if you had written the story to have a "happier" ending, how would the tone of the story been changed? I can see how the wolf would want to embrace his new identity to spite the other animals. If you wanted to expand on this story, I would like to know how this wolf specifically came to be distrusted by so many other animals.
Thanks so much for sharing this story, I'm looking forward to reading more of your work in the future. Good luck with the rest of the semester.
Andrew
Reading this, I really enjoyed how you used little narrative quirks from fairy tales and fables—the repetitions, the cycles of threes, and even just the narration style—to make this feel like something from the original set of Aesop’s fables. I also love how the ending kind of acts as a playful twist on the old “if you can’t beat them, join them” expression: the wolf can’t join them, so he b(eats) them instead. The dialogue sprinkled throughout really made the piece more engaging, too, I think. This one really got me thinking, so thanks for the read.
ReplyDeleteHi, Tyler!
ReplyDeleteI love using a wolf as a character! They have strong characteristics that are fun to use in a story. You could perhaps even add a paragraph describing the appearance of the wolf to give the reader a good sense of the character. Maybe you could add some inner dialogue for the wolf to better portray the internal conflict that he has.
I love the end of the story- the image of a wolf eating a goat and cleaning his teeth with a crane's beak is a great one. I love Jenna Morris' comment about putting a twist on "if you can't beat them join them". Although I kinda pity the wolf, this story really puts the whole 'lone wolf' thing into perspective. I probably wouldn't trust a wolf either, regardless of how much it resembles a dog (which I love so very much)
Great story! I am looking forward to reading more from you.
Emily
I think you did an excellent job rebelling the fable as your own story. I was very surprised by the ending as I kept expecting them to simply scared of him and that he would work to gain back their trust.
ReplyDeleteI am curious why the other wolves don't trust him? I understand that you mentioned it was because the crane didn't trust him, but would they not eat the same meals as the other wolf? Do they eat something different that allows them to be more trusted by other animals?
I really like the writing style. I think it stays true to style of a fable and captures the spirit of the story very well. Your plot twist was also very good, it's fitting that a wolf cannot be trusted. Overall, you're very descriptive and very well spoken. I also really like hat you added dialogue to the story. I think it really helps bring the story along.
I enjoyed this story. You did a great job with the build-up, and I could definitely tell that the wolf was getting more and more frustrated and confused as time went on.
ReplyDeleteAt first I felt bad for the wolf, but by the end my sympathy went away. He didn’t seem to care enough to stop harming the goats and cranes. It was kinda like “I don’t know why they hate me” as he eats some of their friends. I thought that was a little funny.
One thing I noticed when reading the first paragraph was that it was a little repetitive in the first couple of sentences. You say that he went to the “river to get a drink of water” and then in the next sentence you say “”when he arrived at the river to get a drink of water.” I don’t know if this was intentional or not.
But good job! Good luck with the rest of your portfolio!
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI saw your punch line style you were talking about in the story. I really enjoyed the way you did this. The pace of your story went very well. You kept me engaged into what may happen next.
I know you said that you meant to have the ending the way it was but I felt like it was to abrupt. In that it just ended. It almost felt like you ran out of time to finish the ending. There doesn't need to be closer at the end but maybe adding a little bit more detail of him eating the goat and clean his teeth may give your readers a better "just ended" ending. Almost giving them a cliff hanger type feeling.
Lastly don't forget to add a caption under your picture with the source. I really like the photo you chose. As well as the placement of the photo.
Nice Job!
What I enjoyed about this story most was its simplicity. I think your writing style stays true to the time of fable you used as inspiration. I don't know what suggestions I can offer you. I could say you should add more details to your story, but that might change one of the things I love about the story. You could write the moral of the story as the story's conclusion. Other than that the only thing I could suggest is to find a way to word each trip the wolf takes to the watering hole. If you wanted make your story longer, you could add more animals for the wolves to interact with at the watering hole, but if you do decide to add more I would include them in your conclusion the way you did the other two. Although I think the way you wrote the story works well and seems true to the style of the original story. I look forward to reading more of your portfolio throughout the semester.
ReplyDeleteI really love the photo you chose for your introduction! I have a soft spot for wolves and the artwork is just beautiful! The use of your photo in your second story may need to be different though because it doesn’t exactly showcase the story your trying to tell. Also, you forgot the link to the photo (oops)! “he realized that all of the other animals of the forest were beginning to make their way to the other side of the river away from the wolf. The wolf thought nothing of it and after getting his drink of water from the community river he went back home and went to bed.” Really long sentences, just needs a period or a comma to break it apart. You have a string of really long sentences throughout the story, the above is just one example. I write the same way, I get really excited and into the story and everything just goes POOF. I even do it in comments! I really liked the story you stayed true to Aesop’s Fables which is really hard to do! Good job!
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ReplyDeleteTyler, I thought your story was great. I felt like I was reading a fable right out of the Aesop collection. I have never read the two specific stories you alluded to, but I think I understood the gist of them. I liked how you incorporated so many aspects of how the fables are told and how you stayed true to them. I also liked the fact that you used two stories to draw your idea from. I thought you did a good job of building suspense by having the wolf return three days in a row and also by having him talk/think to himself what could be going on. Having the other wolves stay away from him helped show how truly isolated this one wolf was. I really enjoyed the ending because it kind of flips the whole story. Throughout the story I felt a little sorry for the wolf because everyone stayed away from him with no clear reason why. I still felt a little bad for him when the other animals were saying they didn’t trust him because up until that moment, there was no reason for them not to. Then, when he goes back to his home he is finishing eating goat and using a crane beak to pick his teeth, which shows that the animals were right not to trust him. I thought it was very well written and did a good job of grabbing and keeping my attention.
You were creative in mixing two aspects of a story together, which was the crane and the goat. Your story gave me enough details to better understand it. It did not jump in to a scene. It gave readers some background details to it. Additionally, I liked the part at the end where he ate goat and cleaned his teeth with a crane’s beak. It supported the decision of the animals’ distrust.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why the alpha wolf said what he did. Wolves are likely not trusted because they will eat others animals beside themselves. Either way, there is no way that a wolf will be trusted by other animals unless he starves himself to gain trust. And, if he does this, he will die. It is somewhat contradictory. I wondered what if you changed the reason for the alpha wolf. You could say how they dislike his appearance or eating habits.
Hi Tyler. The first thing I noticed while reading your story was that you reminded us that he was at the river in every sentence. It might be more fluid of a read if after you state he walks down to the river, you didn’t continue to reference the river. Having said that, I really enjoyed this story. The whole time I was reading the story, I was trying to guess why the no one would drink with the wolf. I liked how he was oblivious to the reason why they didn’t like him, even though his favorite meal was goat and he used a cranes beak to pick his teeth. I wonder why the other wolves do not trust him however. Do the other wolves not eat goat and cranes? I liked that you had him go to the river 3 days before finally asking why no one liked him. This was a good use of buildup to keep us curious. Good Work.
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ReplyDeleteI think this is a great story Tyler.
ReplyDeleteI like how not only is the wolf naive, but because of the order of presentation of certain details, the reader too is naive. Because of this while I was reading the story, I could not help but begin to feel bad and sympathetic for the wolf.
I was surprised when his own kind would not accept him and would not trust him. I think the best part of the story was where the wolf tries to compensate for the reason he thinks he is being avoided. When he finds out that his stench was not the case and he eats the meal of the goat and uses the beak of a crane was very ironic and a smart way to tell the reader the reason why he is not trusted. It was a really good story and I am impressed that you were able to come up with something like this from one of the short fables by Aesop.
I think Aesop’s Fables are really interesting and I enjoy reading them so as soon as I saw that this one was based on that, I was excited to read it. I have to say, you did a really great job. I like how the wolf did not even know why the other animals didn’t like him. You did a great job at making the wolf seem innocent with that ending. If you are not paying attention you will probably miss it because I had to re-read that sentence. Overall, you did a great job and the ending was perfect!
ReplyDeleteHi Tyler! I was not familiar with the original version of the story, The Wolf and the Crane, but your Author’s Note gave me a good amount of background information to understand how you changed it to make your own version of the story. I honestly felt bad for the wolf because I was not sure what exactly he had done to deserve being isolated from all of the other animals.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love the image you used! It looks kind of like a sketch or an old picture, which worked perfectly with your story. You incorporated a good amount of dialogue in your story as well! I always like when people incorporate conversations into their stories because it gives me an even better mental image of what all is happening in the story.
The only thing I would have suggested is to give the wolf a name – but that is just my personal preference when I am reading stories.