Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

The Tiger, The Brahman, The Jackal by Joseph Jacobs in "Indian Fairy Tales." :

(Bengal Tiger source)

Characters: A Tiger, Brahman, Jackal, Tree, Buffalo, and a Road.

Plot: The Brahman frees a tiger from a cage, but the tiger wants to eat him. He goes and asks a Tree, Road, and a Jackal if he should accept being eaten. Everyone except the Jackal says he should accept being eaten. The Jackal tricks the tiger into going back into the cage, saving the Brahman. 

Techniques that were interesting: The author build tension by having by having two of the character that the Brahman asks for help tell him to just accept his fate like it's just how the world works. He (author) made it seem like the Brahman would probably have to accept it. Also, how convincing was this tiger, Like having a tiger slave would be cool, but like what were the logistics of it. Why'd he think this was at all a good idea. 

Also, I liked that the jackal didn't go right into helping the man out. He led them all through his own game and didn't let them dictate what was happening. I really liked that I didn't know how the issue was going to resolve. There were a lot of ways it could have gone, but I do like ending. Maybe a cool twist would be that the tiger ends up actually having to be the man's servant. I also enjoyed how the tiger had a bit of personality and wasn't some monolithic evil force. Like with him joking about how the Brahman was late for their dinner. 

I feel like each of the characters that don't help the Brahman are all jaded and just telling him things that could be taken as important life lessons. Like how important the road is, but no one pays it any mind because they are just so used to how the road is always there. These things are important but ultimately unhelpful because the threat the Brahman is facing is immediate and could be solved quickly, like by the jackal