Two Travellers, walking in the noonday sun, sought the shade of a widespreading tree to rest. As they lay looking up among the pleasant leaves, they saw that it was a Plane Tree.
"How useless is the Plane!" said one of them. "It bears no fruit whatever, and only serves to litter the ground with leaves."
"Ungrateful creatures!" said a voice from the Plane Tree. "You lie here in my cooling shade, and yet you say I am useless! Thus ungratefully, O Jupiter, do men receive their blessings!"
Our best blessings are often the least appreciated.
(Traditional Fable)
------------------------------------
There were two men traveling to go to see their Grandparents.
Their mother was very sick and they had to go tell their Grandparents so that
they could say their last goodbyes to their youngest daughter. They lived in
Dallas, but their Grandparents lived in Ft. Worth, so it was an all day walk to
get there. Because it was spring in Texas, it was very hot and sunny. Also, due
to excessive heat, the trees in North Texas didn’t bear much fruit.
As the two boys walked by a tree, they complained that it
was of no importance. “Why does this tree exist if it doesn’t even have fruit?”
They were so dehydrated, however, that they decided to stop and sit underneath
the shade of the plane tree that they were so ungrateful for.
Spring time in Texas means it was tornado season. As they
looked into the distance, they saw a funnel forming. Although the funnel did
not reach the boys, there were still extreme winds that were blowing the plane
tree and it’s surroundings. There was so much debris flying around in the air
that they hid behind the trunk for protection.
The calm after the storm was extremely eerie for the boys.
Just a moment ago they were complaining about this tree and how it was so plane
and worthless. However, it protected them from the debris and likely saved them
from an extreme injury. “Wow” one of the boys said, “if this tree had fruit on
it like we wanted it to, it would have hit us in the head and knocked us
unconscious!” What a relief.
Once they calmed down and retrieved their things, they set
off to relay the message to their grandparents. Their mom eventually passed
away in peace because she was able to say goodbye to all of her loved ones.
------------------------------------
------------------------------------
Author's Note: In the original fable, the two travelers laid underneath
the tree for shade because it was a sunny day. As they laid under the tree,
they complained about how it had no fruit and just made a mess because of it’s
leaves. The tree called them ungrateful.
In my version of The Plane Tree, I decided to have the boys complain about the tree, but also have the tree protect them so that they were grateful for it in the end. The moral of this fable is "our best blessings are often the least appreciated."
Title: The Æsop for Children
With pictures by Milo Winter
Author: Æsop
Illustrator: Milo Winter
Release Date: December 2, 2006 [EBook #19994]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
This a very interesting twist on the original fable. I really like how you put the setting in North Texas, which gave you a great opportunity to use a tornado to endanger the young men. I'm from North Texas as well, and actually drove near a tornado 5 or 6 years ago and it was terrifying! Those young men definitely had a great reason to be thankful to the tree. The moral of the story is extremely important, and I think you highlighted it even more by the men realizing the error in their thinking and seeing how grateful they should be for something as simple as a plain tree. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThe flow of your story is excellent, and I like how you included the original fable at the beginning of your post. Thinking back on it, I wish I would have done this with my own post, for your reader now has a chance to look for the moral of the fable throughout the tale instead of waiting for it to be revealed. I also like how you were able to take something that is explicitly stated in the original fable, and make it a general theme in your story instead. This shows that a moral can also be implied. The modern take of your story supports your overall flow, since being from Oklahoma, I as a reader can relate to the characters and understand their struggle in the southern summer.
ReplyDeleteTrying to be analytical, I can say that your character development and description of the setting are what have jumped out to me the most. You did not assume that your possible audience knew what the seasons are like in Texas, and you did well in conveying how the boys changed their opinion of the tree once they went through the storm.
I really liked your version of this fable. It was very well constructed and I enjoyed the southern spin on it. It was easy to compare this story back to the original fable because you inserted the fable at the beginning of the post instead of at the end in the author's note. The paragraphs transitioned very well. One small grammatical error that I noticed was in the third paragraph at the end of the third sentence-- " tree and it's surroundings." When using "its" as a possessive, the apostrophe is not used. I think adding the ending where the travelers become grateful for the tree's protection emphasizes the moral of the story even more. I also thought it was neat that you had them express gratitude for the tree not bearing fruit after all, because it would have harmed them in the end. This also implies that "our best blessings are often the least appreciated."
ReplyDeleteCourtney, I loved this twist you point on the original story! Your imagery and details of how tornado season is prominent in Texas during spring really helped connect the whole story. I enjoyed reading about the journey of the walk the two boys had to take and there encounter with the tree. It was easy for me to connect what you had to say back to the original fable, which I really liked. Your overall theme is something I really liked reading and how people take for granted much of what is around them. Sometimes people need a dramatic event in life to help put them on the path of realizing what is truly meaningful, and I got that from your storytelling! Can't wait to keep reading your stories!
ReplyDelete