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| (Source: worthless-lies) |
There was a quaint little red brick house in the cul de sac of the suburbs of Oklahoma City which housed a sweet little nuclear family with the 2.5 kids and a dog. A regular American Dream come true. The tan brick house next door to the red brick house in that same cul de sac also housed a family with 2.5 kids and a dog, all of whom felt they were part of the American standard of middle class life. The two families shared many things in common, such as the neighborhood they lived in, family size and newspapers.
The two families also had many differences. The Ravenwoods that lived in the red brick house had a subscription to the local newspaper. The next door neighbors, the Serpents, also had a subscription, but for some reason found it necessary to steal the Ravenwoods' paper too. They had just moved to the house a few weeks before. The missing newspaper really angered the Ravenwoods as they were dependent on having the paper for their family's daily routine.
So, Mr. Ravenwood confronted Mr. Serpent one morning about the incident in question. Even though Mr. Ravenwood had been bothered by the uncaring manner that Mr. Serpent had shown, Mr. Ravenwood kindly extended an invitation to Mr. Serpent and his lovely family to come over as a friendly gesture. "Would you and yours please come and join my family tomorrow for a lovely backyard barbeque?"
Mr. Serpent was not only taken aback by the confrontation by Mr. Ravenwood's accusations of stealing, he was enraged about being invited to a backyard barbeque where animals' flesh would be being burned and consumed! He had no qualms at all about telling Mr. Ravenwood as much. He narrowed his eyes and answered, "Absolutely not! We Serpents are vegan vegetarians of course!"
After yelling rudely to Mr. Ravenwood, the brooding Mr. Serpent slithered off back into his tan brick house in the cul de sac.
And all this got Mr. Ravenwood to thinking.
So, Mr. Ravenwood confronted Mr. Serpent one morning about the incident in question. Even though Mr. Ravenwood had been bothered by the uncaring manner that Mr. Serpent had shown, Mr. Ravenwood kindly extended an invitation to Mr. Serpent and his lovely family to come over as a friendly gesture. "Would you and yours please come and join my family tomorrow for a lovely backyard barbeque?"
Mr. Serpent was not only taken aback by the confrontation by Mr. Ravenwood's accusations of stealing, he was enraged about being invited to a backyard barbeque where animals' flesh would be being burned and consumed! He had no qualms at all about telling Mr. Ravenwood as much. He narrowed his eyes and answered, "Absolutely not! We Serpents are vegan vegetarians of course!"
After yelling rudely to Mr. Ravenwood, the brooding Mr. Serpent slithered off back into his tan brick house in the cul de sac.
And all this got Mr. Ravenwood to thinking.
That night Mr. Ravenwood decided to set his trap for Mr. Serpent. He had thought long and hard about how to make sure that Mr. Serpent would no longer be stealing his newspaper, and end the troubles for good.
The other house in the neighborhood cul de sac was the grey brick house. The grey brick house owners, the Queens, cooperated with Mr. Ravenwood to set his trap.The family had a video camera for anti-theft surveillance, and they set it up so that it got pointed right at Mr. Serpent's house and also at Mr. Ravenwood's house in order to prove that in fact Mr. Serpent was stealing the newspapers.
Once the video footage had been recorded of the incident, Mr. Ravenwood presented the evidence to police officer Jewele Bangle. Mrs. Bangle found that it was enough proof to to have Mr. Serpent arrested for theft. Mr. Ravenwood watched smugly as Mr. Serpent was sped off in the back of the squad car. And once again the cul de sac was ideal.
Bibliography:Once the video footage had been recorded of the incident, Mr. Ravenwood presented the evidence to police officer Jewele Bangle. Mrs. Bangle found that it was enough proof to to have Mr. Serpent arrested for theft. Mr. Ravenwood watched smugly as Mr. Serpent was sped off in the back of the squad car. And once again the cul de sac was ideal.
"THE RAVEN, THE SERPENT, AND THE BRACELET"Copyright (c) 2000-2015 Indian Fables by Ramaswami Raju (1887) Yesterday's Classics, LLC. All Rights Reserved. T h e B a l d w i n P r o j e c t@mainlesson.com
Author's note:
The story caught my attention on the list of fables. I to chose to read this one because of how iconic ravens and serpents are in folklore. I had great fun in the retelling of the story of the bird and the snake.The animals seem to find their way into all sorts of legends, myths and stories the world over. The moral of the story is,"The wicked often fail to appreciate kindness in others, and compel them to work their ruin." I find it is an interesting motif that is found in many great stories.The original story is about a raven and a snake who live in the same tree, and the two animals just act according to their own animal nature, such as the snake eating the baby birds in the nest because it was hungry and needed to survive. The raven being a very intelligent bird tried to reason with a snake, who was of course not willing to cooperate. The snake in the end was killed because the angry bird sought revenge on the snake for eating its offspring and for being rude. I tried to keep with the same moral of the story, but change the setting to make it more up to date and human related. The bracelet reference is the officer, Jewele Bangle. Punny?
word508note217
A very nice story to begin with. I can't wait to read more of your blogs throughout this course. Nice job LD.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story. It was very descriptive and very interesting. The story kind of reminded me of my neighbors and how they interact with each other, which made it easy to picture the characters in my mind. You did a great job, and I immediately understood the theme. I look forward to reading more of your work here on the blogs!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI love stories about nature and animals! I like how you changed up the story. This is one of the first stories I have read where the serpents were vegetarians. That was a twist I was not expecting. You did great in keeping the same moral of the story. I like how you gave the animals an actual human personification.
ReplyDeleteI did not really think the idea through about the serpent being a vegan. The more I ponder this the more it seems ironic indeed. Unless the serpent guy was lying to be rude! Good point.
DeleteI thought this story was really funny and so cleverly-written! It took me a minute to figure out where you were going with the nuclear families in this cul-de-sac, but as soon as I got to the last names and realized how you had updated this story, I was hooked. What a fun, creative way to impart the same morals as the original fable!
ReplyDeleteP.S.: As a vegetarian, I thought that detail about the Serpent was hilarious. ;)
Thank you for getting my strange sense of humor! This story was fun to write.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this story! It was light-hearted and fun to read. I liked your twist on an age old fable. My favorite thing about the story was that it was set in Oklahoma City. You did a great job with detail! I look forward to reading ore of your stories as the semester goes on!
ReplyDeleteHello LaDawn, it is nice to meet you! For the most part I like a picture of a story to be in the middle of the story but your post is an exception to that. I think that putting the crow at the beginning of the story created an eerie mood from the start. I also think the font of your story is fun and not like any other blogs I have seen but it might be a little easier to read if the font size was a little bigger. Beside my small critiques I think the story was great and very fun to read!! I think that you put a lot of thought into the details of your story and it makes it a good read. Also I saw that your mentioned a cul-de-sac in your story. Fun Fact: the plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading more of your stories!
-Sara
Good job adding your own type of domestic, suburban spin to the fable. It added a light touch of humor while staying true to the original message of the cautionary tale. I wonder if you will prefer to use animals as your main characters throughout the rest of the semester. It is definitely not a bad idea since so many Indian fables and epics rely on such a plot device.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this story and I’m sad I did not have the opportunity to read it sooner. It was written really well and I did not see any grammatical errors. It flowed nicely and that’s always a good sign that your grammar was spot on. I thought it was also clever of you to change the characters to human, the essence of the story you described is still there. Now it’s just more relatable, great moral of the story and you kept true to what you were trying to accomplish. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHello LaDawn!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun story. I really wish I had one more week so I could read the original story. I like how you make a feud between the Ravens and the Serpents into one as simple as stealing a newspaper. It would have been a fun twist if you have had another creature actually be the one to steal the newspaper. Like Mr. Rakshasa or something. I don’t know just a thought I had! It’s also a little funny to go to jail over a newspaper. I guess it is stealing!
Also, I would move the picture somewhere in the middle of your story just to break it up a little bit more. It is not a long story so it is not that big of a deal but it really does help break it up.
Good job on your nomination! It was a good read!
Great Job!
Hello La Dawn. I found your story to be so fun and I love the use of word play. Especially, when you said, “the brooding Mr. Serpent slithered off back into his tan brick house in the cul de sac.” I also enjoyed when you added extra scandal when you included the other neighbors to catch the serpents in the act of stealing.
ReplyDelete