Once there was a man named Father Carlotta. He possessed all of the wisdom within the world and people from all over the land would seek him out for wisdom and advice.
He was not easily angered, but there was a group of men who were able to anger him. They would come to him with questions and instead of taking his advice would decide what to do on their own. Father Carlotta saw this and felt as if his wisdom was being thrown away. Because of this he decided to no longer share his wisdom, but that he would hide it away from everyone. So he began to collect all of the wisdom that he had given away, plucking it from those who needed it most. This left people afraid and questioning every decision that they made. When Father Carlotta had succeeded in collecting all of this wisdom he sealed it in a jar and put that jar around his neck.
Now Father Carlotta had a daughter, Arya. Arya loved all the people of the land and they loved her back. She began to notice that the people were acting very strange and saw so many decisions that were not taken with wisdom. So she snuck into her father's room and saw the jar of wisdom around her father's neck. She did not know what to do. She could not confront him, so she began to follow him.He took the jar into the mountains and began to climb as high as he could. He began to struggle to climb when the ice had become too slick. Again and again he tried, but always he failed. Angered he did not know what to do.
Suddenly Arya jumped out from around the side. "Father, here, try this," and she showed him how to climb the ice. She showed him the metal shards she had stuck to her shoes that helped her stick to the ice and be able to climb. "And here I thought I had all the.."
The ice began to shift and collapsed below the feet of Arya. She began to fall into a chasm when her father, using the jar and the string around his neck, reached out to grab her.
She grabbed the string just in time and was soon hanging over the edge. "Father, the string is about to break," Arya screamed out in terror. Father Carlotta had only an instant to decide. He could save the jar that held all of his wisdom and all the wisdom throughout the land or he could reach for his daughter saving her from certain doom. The string snapped and the father, reaching out, grabbed the sleeve of his daughter, throwing her to safety, in the blink of an eye, all while the jar containing the wisdom fell and fell to the bottom of the chasm. "Why, why did you save me? I thought nothing was more important to you than your wisdom." The father looked at the tears flowing down his daughter's eyes. "I made the wisest decision I could have ever made and I would make it again just to know that you are safe." Without the notice of the father or daughter the jar had reached the bottom and shattered. And with that shatter all the wisdom within the jar spread throughout the land giving to all who lived there wisdom.
Author's Note: The original story tells of a trickster-spider who had all the wisdom in the land. His role was to give wisdom to those who sought it out. Out of anger he collected all of his wisdom and devised a plan to hide it forever. A place where I made a change is in the original the wise man had gone into the woods and tried to climb a tree so he could hide the jar of wisdom in a place to where no one could every get it, whereas my story goes to the mountain where he tries to climb very high. In the original Anansi's son gave the father advice about an easier way to climb the tree. In my story I added a daughter instead of a son, but each proved to be wise without wisdom from the father when they showed their father a better way to do something. The original story Father Anansi became angry because his son made a wiser decision than he had and in his anger threw the jar of wisdom on the ground. The jar broke, spreading the wisdom all through the land.
Bibliography: West African Folktales: How Wisdom Became the Property of the Human Race by William Barker and Cecilia Sinclair;
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John, this was a very entertaining read and a great story. I could tell once I started reading your story that this was apart of the West African Folktales, as I also read this unit. I always found these tales somewhat humorous in the way which they are told. Many are an interesting story that ultimately teach a moral like you have done here. Thanks for sharing and I look forward to more of your posts.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I have never read the original story, but your author’s note gives good detail so that it is easy to compare your story to the original. I really liked the story you wrote and think that the changes you made panned out really well. The life or death situation definitely showed what was most important in the man’s life and also provided a good moral aspect to the story. I also liked how much detail and information you were able to fit into the short story. It was short, sweet, and concise and I think you did a great job!
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteI find it ironic that a man who supposedly was so wise was decided to climb to the top of the mountain he obviously was not capable of climbing. I like the message however, I feel like the story is telling you to not let ego come before family.
Thanks so much for sharing, I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to reading more of your work in the future.
Andrew Wright
Great story! I like the changes that you made to your story, although the original story sounds very interesting too. I would suggest in your author’s note putting all of the facts from the original story together in its own mini story and then adding in the things that you changed after that so that it is easier to follow along. I think you did a great job in your writing and your story was detailed and clear in what was happening. I also like how at the end the wisdom is spread throughout the land. I think an important message you could incorporate is that things are better when we share them with one another. For example if one person is great at math and holds it to himself, this is no good. If he were to share this knowledge with others, then many can flourish in things such as architecture, accounting, etc. I look forward to reading more of your stories!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the sudden danger to Arya. It was a twist that I did not see coming, yet you wrote it very well. Adding some background information as to why the father put wisdom in the jar and about Arya really helped me understand the story better. I was very glad that the wisdom in the jar was not lost, but it was given to the people surrounding the area. I wonder what the father was planning to do with the jar. Also, was he surprised to see his daughter up in the mountains with him?
ReplyDeleteJohn! I think your portfolio is wonderful! I decided to read your story “Wisdom’s True Heart.” The title caught my attention and your image of jars is what made me curious to look into it further.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to Father Carlotta’s frustration in telling the same people the same advice over and over again and then they decide not to listen and do their own thing regardless of what you might of told them. That was one incredibly long run on sentence to simply say that I’ve been in the same position before. Maybe I should also put my wisdom in a jar haha.
After finishing your story I was initially very shocked that Arya was falling through the ice. I really thought it was clever that you had Father Carlotta’s sentence trail off at the climax of the story.
The ending of your story added such a nice touch. Honestly, this story could’ve been a movie plot line. I also have a deep love of mountains and appreciated the setting of your story. Great job, I look forward to reading more of your stories in the future.