Week 9 Story Planning: The Trickster Monkey

For this week, I am planning on a story that I will write for week 10. I am going to try something different this week, which will be the use of personification with animals. As I really haven't written any stories besides what I have done for this class, I've never expanded on the idea of writing a story where the main characters are animals. My idea is to have a story about a monkey who is constantly playing pranks on animals. He will annoy animals the time until he comes across another animal that puts an end to it.

My main motivation for writing this story is from the reading I have done from the various tales in the book Twenty Jakata Tales. Most, if not all, of the stories in the book are about animals who end up learning important morals that they can use for the rest of their lives. I was intrigued, and figured I would try to make a story about an animal who learns their lesson. 

I don't think I'm going to have any kind of advanced style (or should I say my kind of advanced style of writing) for this story. With the story being about an animal learing a lesson, I feel it would be too weird to try and force a harder style of writing for the message that it will portray.

Characters:

 Jaroo: The main character of the story, a genius monkey who uses his wit to play tricks on every animal he comes across.

Tamlar: An elephant, the first animal that Jaroo plays a trick on. He doesn't care too much and goes on about his day.

Jahko: A lion, he is very easy to make mad. Jahko puts and end to Jaroo's shenanigans.

                                    A drawing of a monkey I found online that I liked. Link

Bibliography: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales. Link

Week 9 Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales, Part B

The idea of personifying animals is something that I had never really considered, but after reading these tales, I may really consider it.

Like, The Two pigs, there are so many things you can do with the animals once you personify them.

These stories are especially corny, but still the most important thing is they teach morals. These morals can be used throughout life.

The dialogue of the animals creates a sense of pleasure because they all seem to be able to communicate mostly peacefully betwwen species.

In The Patient Buffalo displays the same preconceived thoguhts that most have. For example, the monkey was a bit of a trickster.

The idea of a monkey being a playful creation is only increased through the personification of the animal.

This personification can be used to exacerbate a set of characteristics about an animal tat most people would be able to comprehend. I had never thought of this as a reason before to use personification.

                                         A cool cover that I think think represents the tales well. Link

Bibliography: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales. Link

Week 9 Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales, Part A

The idea of using monkeys in a jakata story is not something that I would have ever thought of. There's no reason for me to think this though haha

The search for the tree could have introduced a possibly troublesome time due to greed.

The idea for the king to build a temple for somebody like he did, struck me in a way I didn't expect, considering it's monkeys.

The start of this story is something I could really simulate in a story of my own, as it creates some type of mystery.

The king not going beyond the woods, in Banyan, really demonstrates a sense of great respect that I wish to employ in my own stories.

The use of animals in these stories and personifying them makes you think about the animals in the wild and if they really do have these human characteristics.

The tortoise and the geese immediately made me think about the tortoise and the hare, so I'm curious to see if there will be any similarities despite the difference in animals.

Also, I find it rather interesting in these stories how animals are working together to achieve a goal that doesn't necessarily benefit all parties involved.

Some of the morlas of these stories seem rather like common sense, but I'm sure that if I were to go back and look at many of the American stories, i would feel the same.

One thing I need to think about for my upcoming story, is the idea of learning a life lesson. This is because I v'e realized that I only write stories with the idea of making something interesting, but never have I cared about the actual lesson it's telling.

                           A cool detail picture I found that portrays various Jakata tales. (Wikipedia)

Bibliography: Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales. Link