Week Two: Famous Last Words

I think I honestly had more fun doing my storybook assignment (which just included brief ideas) than the main storytelling/reading assignment. I think when I first chose Bible Women I didn't realize the length of all of the stories and how much the language might throw me off from the plot line. The beginning paragraphs that outlined the story were very helpful, but in the end, reading 20 stories written in old English was difficult and made enjoying the stories harder. I still got the gist of what happened and liked reading about how women were portrayed in the Bible, but might have enjoyed another folktale more.

Doing the storybook assignment was fun because I got to see a lot of topics that I was interested in. I read plenty of stories while looking for ideas and was surprised that I liked so many. Especially the mermaid tales, they were really interesting. Through that assignment I got to read other Beauty and The Beast stories, a story about Hades and the creation of winter, mermaid myths and more of the many Aesop's fables.

(Hades and Perseph)

I enjoyed reading all of these stories and I know there are many more on each of these topics. I was especially drawn to the story of Hades and Persephone, because I like how the story ended with something that still exists today: winter. I know many Indian folktales end like that, and I always enjoyed reading about these alternative reasonings. I think stories about astrology and the stars are always fascinating because they have similar ideas and concepts. I think the storybook assignment will turn out to be really interesting and fun to write.

I have also gotten to read some past storybooks and have enjoyed seeing others' work. Everyone I've seen has been so creative and interesting. I really liked seeing how people used old myth and folktales to apply to modern context. I've seen Aesop's fables applied to Mean Girls, inside Tinkerbell's mind in Peter Pan and mermaid tales. All of them have impressed me, so I think making my own will be pretty cool.

Week Two Essay: Female Characters In The Bible

It's not necessarily surprising, but it was interesting to me the way women were portrayed in many of these stories. The first part, specifically, featured many stories that revolved around men with some female characters. Mostly sidelined as wives, child bearers and handmaids, women in stories like Rebekah and Rachel have a heavy focus on a primary male character. The woman's job is primarily to give birth to children and when she can't, she finds a way to give him sons anyway.

Furthermore, when women were unfavored by God, they were deemed barren and couldn't please their husbands with children. I think these stories show a lot about the priorities and circumstances in society during this time period (and for a long time after that as well) about how women were seen and treated. In Hannah, she is first barren and is so distraught she prays for days until she conceives. However, Hannah's husband's other wife, Peninnah, has children. In many of the stories (including Leah) one of the wives is cursed by being barren and the other has the Lord's favor, and has children. This creates a rivalry and pits wives against each other, each competing to have the most children -- especially sons. There were no stories of female friends, they only interacted in competition, which was an interesting point to the female relationships in the stories.

However, the second part of the Bible Women Unit portrayed women very differently. They are given more power, legitimized and used to seek advice. The same traditional themes of marriage, children and husbands are present, but other, more complicated story lines arise. In Susannah, she is almost sentenced to death because she is accused of cheating by two elders. At first her perspective isn't given any merit, but after an angel descends and clears the situation she is redeemed and seen as honest. Susannah is given a central part and portrayed in a positive, virtuous way.

(Susannah and The Elders, 15th Century)

I think that these common themes are associated with woman in many time periods and cultures. Seen primarily as child bearers, women throughout history have been sidelines to the desires and needs of men. These stories are an interesting take on the roles and responsibilities of women. I think it's interesting to read about how these roles and relationships have changed and evolved over time.

Week Two Storytelling: Bible Women

Susan -- Susie, for short -- had a habit for telling little white lies. Harmless, but still untrue, Susie sometimes tangled herself in a web of small lies about where she was, who she was with and what she was doing. Inherently good-natured, Susie used her lies just for fun. Instead of saying she was watching a movie with her mom, she'd tell her boyfriend that she was at the mall with friends. If she was practicing piano at home, she'd instead say she was having pizza with friends. Her lying never got her into trouble and she never lied about anything important, but her lying turned into a habit and her friends started to notice.

One day, when her boyfriend was out of town, two of Susie's friends, Adam and Charlie, decided to plan a scheme to show Susie the consequences of her lying. They told her friends, boyfriend and even her parents so that everyone was in on the scheme.

The two boys went over to Susie's to hang out, eat pizza and watch a movie. After the movie ended, Adam, asked to go to the bathroom. While he was gone, Charlie set the plan into action. He casually moved closer to Susie while telling a joke. Susie laughed at his punchline and he quickly put his hand on her leg. Susie looked at him quizzically, seeing as Charlie was one of Susie's boyfriend's good friends. At that moment, Adam walked back in the room. Seeing them sitting so close, Adam furrowed his brow but quickly looked away.

Thinking nothing of it, Susie went about the rest of the week. When her boyfriend returned she happily went to his house for his welcome home party. After a few minutes, Susie's boyfriend came up to her and said quietly, "I heard what happened with you and Charlie while I was gone."

Confused, Susie opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. "The night you two watched a movie?" he continued, "Adam told me he walked in on you and Charlie."

Susie quickly looked at Adam and Charlie. "What are you guys talking about?" She exclaimed, "Nothing happened between us!"

"I know what I saw," Adam continued, "It just didn't seem right now to tell him."

"I have no idea what you're saying!" Susie said hysterically. Now everyone was staring at her and she turned bright red. She was so confused, how had this happened? Her and Charlie were just friends, everyone knew that. But now, as she looked around the room, she felt her friends' skepticism and judgement. Tears filled her eyes as she turned away. Why hadn't Charlie said anything?

She looked desperately at Charlie, hoping he would tell everyone the truth. Nobody is believing me… She thought.

(Web source)

After hushed whispers between her friends and some awkward silences, Charlie finally stepped forward.

"She's right," he said, "Nothing happened."

Relieved, Susie looked to her boyfriend hoping he'd believe her now.

"This was all set up to show you what your little white lies do to us," Susie's boyfriend said, "We're tired of your little lies and you don't realize that it hurts when you don't tell the truth."

Shocked and embarrassed, Susie looked at her friends standing before her. They all knew about this she thought. I can't believe I've been lying for no reason.

"I never realized how harmful lying can be," Susie tearfully said, "I promise to not do it again."

Susie was truthful from that day on, and she realized how good it felt to be honest.

---

Author's note. This story is roughly based on Susannah from Bible Women. In the story, Susannah is accused of being with another man while her husband is away. However, in the original story, Susannah isn't a liar, she is just wrongly accused and nobody believes her. She is accused by two elderly men who have bad intentions. Before being sentenced to death, an angel comes and saves Susannah by questioning their judgement and revealing that the elders were lying. I know my version strays from the original, but I wanted there to be a reason why Susannah (or Susie) is accused of cheating. I came up with the idea that her friends are trying to teach her a lesson and that's why they thought up this scheme. In the end I wanted Susie to be redeemed and learn a lesson.

Bibliography. "Susannah" from the Bible Women Unit in King James Bible (1611). Web Source. 

Week Two Reading Diary: Bible Women

Part A: I found the first series of the Bible Women very interesting to read. Many of the stories, while focusing on women, seemed more to surround marriage or relations with men. While I know this is common in history, it is still fascinating to see how self-worth, pride and honor are based on marriage and giving birth to sons. I noticed that in Leah Rachel was punished for her favor by being barren, which seemed to be the end all curse for this time period.

What was most interesting to me was that while these stories focused on women in the Bible, most stories started out with or spoke mostly to the male characters. The texts kept to a few topics, namely marriage, children and the happiness of their husbands.

I was intrigued by Delilah's story, which was the only story that didn't include marriage or children. As she attempted to trick her husband to show her his weakness, she continually believed his lies. I was also curious about why she would continuously believe what he said every day if it always turned out to be untrue? Additionally, why she would go through with cutting his hair, if it would weaken him on purpose so that he could be sent to prison? I think it might go against the role of a wife to betray her husband in this way.

Part B: The second half of these stories showed women in a different light in the Bible. Aside from common themes of marriage, children and following God, the stories outline more complicated situations. It was interesting to see a woman in The Witch of Endor is not a wife or daughter. Her role is to consult the king in his matters and show him the ghost of Samuel. I think these stories show a little bit more of power and influence for women than the previous section. In Herodias, she demands the head of John the Baptist of the king, and he obliges. Also in Esther, she pleads for the king's mercy and for the execution of Haman, which is granted. Throughout these stories women are portrayed with a bit more credibility than just wives and child bearers.

My favorite story was Susannah's, which showed how she kept her honor and word and in return found justice. It also showed more of the woman's side of the story, something that many of the previous stories don't show. I liked reading how the angel raised questions to the trial and helped the king see that the elders were lying.

Overall, I found these stories to be an interesting look into the values and circumstances during this time. It was cool to see the role of women in famous and lesser known stories. However, being stories from the Bible, sometimes I found the language difficult to read and understand. The blurbs at the top were very helpful when I was confused or trying to decipher what exactly happened.