Arabian Nights Quiz 1
- Is this a feminist story, or anti-feminist? (Be careful. The answer is ambiguous. You have to be a subtle reader to play with this question.)
- In what ways is story-telling like magic here? In other words, what powers do good stories give the story-tellers?
- What do we learn about Muslim (Arab and Persian/Iranian) civilization, compared to Medieval Christian Europe, when we “watch” these stories (they are like movies)?
- What’s the worst story in the selection you read? Why?
- What’s the best story in the selection you read? Why?
about Feed
34 comments:
1. Is this a feminist story, or anti-feminist? (Be careful. The answer is ambiguous. You have to be a subtle reader to play with this question.)
This story is anti-feminist. It shows the power of the men and women at the sametime and the role of them. Actually men are more powerfully discribed but their action depends on the women. Such as atraction and love.
2.In what ways is story-telling like magic here? In other words, what powers do good stories give the story-tellers?
Most of the stories have patterns and similarities
3.What do we learn about Muslim (Arab and Persian/Iranian) civilization, compared to Medieval Christian Europe, when we “watch” these stories (they are like movies)?
About the power of the Christian. Christian seems to have a bigger power and force than the muslim
4.What’s the worst story in the selection you read? Why?
I think Barbar's tale is the worst story because at the first time I looked at it, it seemed that the story was keep going on and on like it never will stop.
5.What’s the best story in the selection you read? Why?
The Christian Brocker's tale was probably the best. The term love was explained like it is our story.
Sun Hong, B period
1) It's an anti feminist, but on the other hand, it's feminist story. Because first, King Shahryar and his brother's wives had affairs with other men, so they got killed by their husbands. (this part belittles women and shows how dirty they are.)But still, the last woman named Scheherazade told the stories to the king Sharyar and changed him. (This part shows that women are wise and it shows they can rule over men. So it's ambiguous.
2)It's so magical, because some magical characters like Jinne comes out.
3)We can learn that Muslims are open-minded compared to Medieval Christian Europe. For exmpale, in Medieval time, people didn't think by themselves and believed what pope says, and church says, and also if you kill someone you would get killed too. But in this story people are so opened, and the king has tolerance. Even they killed the person!!
4)The worst story is "The hunchback's tale " ,because characters are so irresponsible. If I were the tailor, I would have surrendered.
5)The best story is "Conclusion: The marriage of King Shahryar and Scheherazade". It was a happy ending!! It shows that women's wisdom changes men.
Scott Class B
1. Arabian nights is a feminist story in my opinion. All the stories tell the women decieving men and how they ruined their lifes. This says that women got it their way and not the men's way. For example in the story with the barbers brother. An old woman has lured the brother into the womans palace. He was decieved and humiliated himself in public with his naked body chasing after a woman. He went back to seek revenge and killed the slaves that decieved him. When he was about to kill the lady who had planned all this she decieved him with her smooth words causing him to suffer a great loss.
Therefore I think that Arabian Nights is supporting women. In the end of volume one they lived a happy life. In the last story it shows that the two kings forgot about their past affairs and married the two new brides and treated them as princesses.
2. These stories show magic showing that women are superior to men to me. It tells many stories with women being rich and living in huge palaces. They give no respect to men instead of the men that they "love". In one story where a rich girl comes along to buy an item she screams at the merchant just because he didn't let her send the money to him after.
3. Arabic culture do not listen to a leader who controls all the people like in the Medieval Christianity. In Europe the pope who can listen to the Gods words tell the believers of what to do. In the muslim stories it shows no text of a high leader telling people what to do for Allah. Instead they do what they want especially the females.
4. The worst story in my opinion is the Tailors story. It shows a guy who can't sit next to the barber who ruined his life. At first I thought he had a good reason but after I read it, it was the most stupidest reason I've heard for hating someone that much. Just because he talked so much and did not cut his hair he is suddenly handicap with missing body parts. To me that is just nonsense.
5. The best story is the conclusion. It amazes me that the two brothers who are kings that expierenced cheating forgave the female race just because of these stories. After the king killing bride after bride he finally fell in love. After they had married the brother wanted to live like that also. So he married her sister and abandoned his kingdom to live with this woman.
Jin Soo
1. I think this story is both a feminist and anti-feminist story. IN all the stories that i was assigned to read, there have been a lot of conflicts between the 2 genders. In the story of The Ox and the Donkey, the wife keeps bothering her husband about his secret but the husband still finds out a way to stop her. In other stories such as the stories of the six brothers of the Silent Man, they were all fooled by women. Some of them were injured just because they wern't wise.
2. Story-telling is magic here becuase the author uses a style that is kinda 'weird'. the author creates a story within a story within another story. I think this could be bad because the reader could get lost. I was a little irritated because i had to go back and check which story i'm actually in. Especially the story of the Jewish doctor. He had the story of the injured prince, and the prince told the story of how his , i think, toes and thumbs were cut off.
3. I learned a lot of things when i 'watched' these stories. Muslims are very sacred in their rituals. I think it was the story of the tailor that had the story where the man was in love in a very rich woman and when he forgot to wash his hands before dinner and went to bed with her, she ordered her slaves to cut of his thumbs and toes or was it his hands...? Also, they are very strong in their religion. what i mean by this is they rely mostly in religion than science. When they say "May Allah make you well and healthy" or something like that, they actually believe that Allah will heal them.
4. I liked the story of the Ox and the Donkey because the story was just 1 story and had simple messages. The way the husband stopped his wife was kind of violent but at least it worked.
5. I didn't like the story of the 6 brothers because i thought they were pointless. they're just stories about how the barber's brothers were swindled and how they all failed in their lives. Sometmes they're just really, really unlucky.
JESSICA YUN, B pd.
1. This story is is able to play the part of the feminist and the anti-feminist. You see, the women the Arabian Nights have power. They had plenty of power. Powercomes with rights, even those that go beyond what man (a male) can have. You may recall the 570 ring woman who demanded sex from the two kings. not requested, demanded! She said,"...whatever a woman wants, she will get, no matter how much a man might try to prevent it..." Then there was the one who lacked in power, but had tremendous knowledge. I am referring to Sheherezade. She had libraries full of knowledge, of the human nature and its history. If women are just as powerful...just as smart, shouldn't they have rights?
On the other hand, some women were comparable to "thorny roses". They were extremely beautiful but had sharp thorns piercing the skin of men. Many were mentioned in the Arabian Nights. In the Barber's 2nd brother tale, the women shaved off all of his brother's hair, dyed his eyebrows, and left him in the middle of the market to be laughed at. What a horrible picture! These details spoke to me: What devilish women, why trust them with rights?
2) The Arabian Nights is like having a personal storyteller beside you. The storyteller paints pictures in your mind through their words. They create the atmosphere...a movie in your head. In fact, Sheherezade was creating this story as entertainment, and it did somewhat feel like magic. It felt like a little movie playing your head.
3) The pictures created from the Arabian Nights were somewhat like a fantasy compared to the poorly constructed Medieval Europe life. They had doctors and medicine. They had beautiful gardens, beautiful cities, and beautiful homes. Also, What I clearly remember from the Arabian Nights was the phrase, or term, "White slaves". It was such a weird image. It was like hearing the word "Delectable Medicine" The Muslim civilization was ffffaaaaar more advanced than the Christians.
4)The worst story in the Arabian Nights was probably theSteward's Tale. I thought that the idea was very plain, and it had repeated itself many times previous to the story.
5)I loved the story of the Barber's Tale of the Sixth Brother. The dialogue was interesting and it makes a really funny image. I had recalled following the same prank in my childhood, and it made me feel much closer to the story of the Arabian Nights.
G Song
1. I believe that this story is both. My reasons for this is because women seem both suerior and inferior to men in most of the chapters. Most women in the story praise their master, aka their husbands, this shows that men are superior. But in some scenes where the women are beautiful, men beg to for their love. In this case, women are superior.
2. One of the ways how this story seem more magical is because it is through many people's perspective. Since it is first- person point of view, the protagonists of the stories will put their comments. But in their story, we get to read the other character's memories by them telling us. This method is continued through out the entire story. First the visor's daughter tells the king. In her story the tailor, broker etc tells their story, in the tailor's story they go into the barber's story. So it seems more magical because we are kinda like reading into everyone's mind.
3. We learn that the Muslims are very strict with religion and laws. And they do very gruesome tortures. Almost everyone in the story goes to churches onece a week, unlike some eople today, me. Their laws are bit harsh, they freaking cut your hand off for the smallest reasons, well it's not that small but it's just pickpocketing. They also do some disgusting tortures, cutting of the guy's dick/ penis/ whinner.
4. The worst selection for me were the stories that were rejected by the Chinese king. I fill that they were just fillers, without these the story still could continue. So they were just waste of paper, ink, and time for me.
5. My favorite art was the beginning of the hunchback's tale. The reaason was, it was funny how everybody beat up the dead body and thinking they killed the dead man. It was just hilrarious.
Iris Ryou, B period
1. This story is both a feminist and anti-feminist story. In "The Story of King Shahryar and His Brother" Kings' wives slept with other men and that seems the story is criticizing and insulting the women by that they slept and made love with other men. However, the story also gives us some faminist ideas on conclusion, the vizier's daughter, Sceherdzade, tell stories to the King and make him to not kill her. She was really wise and smart to make plan to make king to not kill women anymore. Because of her work, the king came back to a understood man. So I think the story gives us both feminist and anti-feminist ideas by giving us 2 opposite ideas of women in the story.
2.
3. Muslim in these stories seems educated and civilized and Christian in the middle age. One of the stories tell us that Muslim people had a time to read Koran have a time to discus with people. And I thoght that it was really different to Christians because in the Middle Age, the Christians didn't know how to read the Bible and they just believed what the Pope and bishops were talking to him. However, Muslim was really different, they read Koran together discus what the Koran was saying and what's the Almighty Allah was telling them through the Koran. I really surprised because at least some Muslims can read the Koran who's not even a bishops but then the Christians were like wondered when they read the Bible because they couldn't read the Latin. When the Christians were just listening to the Pope, Muslims were talking and thinking about the Koran. Those are difference and thing I learned and got surprised during I was reading it.
4. The worst story was "Christian Broker's Tale". It was seriously boring. After I read this story I only thought that the story was boing. I couldn't remember what the story was about because it was too complecated. The story was really long and had no point in it. So I thought "Chrisitian Borker's Tale" is a story which is long, complecated and boring.
5. In Hunchbake's Tale, the king of China sait the Barber's story was the best but I think the Hunchback's tale was the best.
1. I think that the Arabian Nights was a feminist book. All the story's had parts where the women deceive the men and where they could do anything they wanted. Even though there were many slave girls in the story's it I still think it's feminist because the slaves were small and probably children. For example, in the very first story with King Shahryar and his brother, a women who was captured by a jinnee made the brothers mount her. She had deceived the jinnee and and also received precious rings.
2.
3. What we learn about Muslim civilization is, that there are a lot of things about love. They are similar to many of the Korean dramas nowadays. For example, the guy gets cheated on someone, or there is a triangle love, etc.
4. The worst story in the selection is read was The Barber's Tale of His Sixth Brother. I thought this was very boring compared to the other tales of the Barber. All the other Barber tales had someone getting whipped a 100 times, or getting deceived by a girl. But this story is about a rich guy making fun of the brother. And they had lived 20 good years and then everything just got ruined because the nobleman died.
5. My favorite story is the Barber's Tale of his
Sharon C.
1. I think this is feminist story because almost all the story told were about men who fell in love with a woman. I think to Muslims, marrying was important, so all the men in this story fell in love and most of the times they suffered. Women had power in some ways because if she thought he had done something wrong, the man got wipped or got cut off of their body. For example, a man got cut off of his thumb because he didn't wash hands after eating and the smell disgusted his wife. Therefore, I think the stories are showing high values of women.
2. The story-telling is like magic in here because the story leads into many different stories. The listener or reader gets curious of what will happen in the end after all the different stories.
3. We learn that Muslims take marriage, being rich, prayer time, and respecting the riches as important subjects of their lives. To me it seems, the muslims do everything in honor of God. When something bad happens, they don't cry to God why this happened. They never question god, but respect him very well.
4.The worst story in the selection was the barber's tale of his sixth brother because I thought it was very stupid. Two men pretending to eat, I thought it was boring. There were no story line, but just lists of names of food. I got tired of reading it.
5. The best story in the selection i read was the tailor's tale. I thought it was funny because the barber would keep talking and the character's reaction was funny. I felt irritated like the character was. I felt like i was part of the scene and felt the same feeling.
Pola Shim
1. Is this a feminist story, or anti-feminist? (Be careful. The answer is ambiguous. You have to be a subtle reader to play with this question.)
--> This story can both be anti-feminist and feminist. It is a feminist story because women come out as more powerful than men. The women are able to do want they want with men like cutting there fingers off or telling them to do specific actions.
It is a more anti-feminist story because women seem to be heard or imaginated as a cruel living things. Also they become the ones that have to become killed. Because a man like King Shahryar thinks as if all women are the same dirty living things, so every women in the city gets killed when only one person who was the wife of the King did something very wrong.
2. In what ways is story-telling like magic here? In other words, what powers do good stories give the story-tellers?
--> Anybody who reads the story can be a magical story- teller. The story gives good words for story tellers that are heard magical, which makes listeners imagine the story and character while listening to the story.
3. What do we learn about Muslim (Arab and Persian/Iranian) civilization, compared to Medieval Christian Europe, when we “watch” these stories (they are like movies)?
--> Everybody relies on their god very strongly. Comparing to the Christian society people from this story are all close to their god, even low rated people. They seem as if they are talking with their god anytime they try to make decisions by saying,"By Allah," In the Christian society only high rated people like the Pope is able to communicate with God.
Also the people from the story get to meet many jinnees. But there are all kinds of jinnees comparing to the Christian society only having demons and angels.
4. What’s the worst story in the selection you read? Why?
--> The Christian Breaker's Story. It was a little boring to me because I thought the Christian's explaining was not very specific. Especially at the end, the Christian does not have a reason why he was going to follow the man.
5. What’s the best story in the selection you read? Why?
--> The Story of King Shahryar and his brother. It was well explaining and it makes me imagine the situation happening and I thought it was interesting to me.
Ilwon Chang
Is this a feminist story, or anti-feminist? (Be careful. The answer is ambiguous. You have to be a subtle reader to play with this question.)
- Stories are anti-feminist. Women are powerful and they can control people in stories.
In what ways is story-telling like magic here? In other words, what powers do good stories give the story-tellers?
- Each stories has their own stories. Also, all stories are connected to each other.
What do we learn about Muslim (Arab and Persian/Iranian) civilization, compared to Medieval Christian Europe, when we “watch” these stories (they are like movies)?
- Muslim leaders are not powerful as Christian leaders. Sultan has no power to control unlike powerful Christian leaders.
What’s the worst story in the selection you read? Why?
- The barber's tale. Since the barber keep talking though people say not to speak, some guy lost his leg. The barber is annoying in this story.
What’s the best story in the selection you read? Why?
- The Christian brocker's tale. In this story a guy lost his arm for a woman. This story is about romance and love.
Younsuk
1, I think this is a feminist story. Even though many slave girls come out in the story, many male slaves come out, too. Also, there are many rich females in high-position giving orders to the male slaves.
2, All the stories have a common pattern. A guy falls in love with a women, but ends up losing her and a part of his body. The use of language is kind of romantic. It gives us a romantic mood.
3, Muslim Civilization has a lot of slaveries. Also, people are guilty until proven innocent. In one story, a guy was arrested for just looking similar to a murderer.
4, The worst story was the Barber's Tale of his Sixth Brother. In other stories, a guy is usually tricked by somebody else and ends up badly, but in this story, the main character loses hope because his friendly kings dies. since there was no trickery on him, the main character was just unlucky. I was expecting another trickery but there wasn't, so it was my worst story.
5, The best story was the Christian Broker's Tale. In this story, a guy fell in love with a female deeply and devotes himself to the female. He uses all his money for her and ends up being a beggar. One day, he couldn't hold himself and reaches into somebody's pocket and takes the wallet. He gets his hand cut off for stealing. This story shows the nature of human clearly. He devotes himself to a women, which is love, and ends up stealing a wallet, which is greediness.
andrewj
1.
This is quite ambiguous to talk about. In the beginning, before the older daughter of the viceroy started to tell the arabian nights to the king, it seemed to me that woman's life depended on how her husband feels and being infringed their rights regularly as an equal human being.
However, as the daughter starts telling the story to the king, women with the abilities to win the heart of men started to indirectly control over them. By seducing the males, women made them do favors, and followed the males.
Thus, since there are both feminism and anti-faminism in the story, it cannot be concluded that this is one-sided.
2.
This story is giving powers to the story-tellers the ability to deliver the stories in an exotic and efficient way. For China and the east was new and different in various ways to the westerners back then and even now, it can be somewhat fresh and well accepted by the reader.
3.
When we get to watch these stories, the first thing that I noticed was that the Muslims were more active in trading and travelling. They had traders between samarkand to cairo, cairo to baghdad, etc. In comparison to the muslims, christian europe wasn't active in trading at all, but practicing feudalism. The other thing i noticed was that the muslims were cruel. Whenever someone was accused of something, they punished by cutting off body parts even though it wasn't fully proved.
4. The worst story I read was the tailor's tale. Though it doesn't get as insane as the ones of the barber's, for I don't like people being victimized by others, I didn't get to enjoy reading this tale that much.
5. The best one was the christian broker's tale. I liked it because it was funny to see the way muslims view christians. They viewed as misers(?) and similar to a jew as in christian europe. And it relates to the arab world we studied so it was interesting.
HOJUN .
1.All the stories are both feminist and anti-feminist with women as heroic characters and villainous roles and men as victims and punishers. The story of king Shahryar and his brother included the vizier's dautghter Scheherazade and Jinnee's lady as the feminst part. Schherazade is educated, smart, and brave and Jinnee's lady controls the kings with Jinee's power, which as mean that women were powerful. = feminist. IN the anti- feminist part there were two characters, Shah Zaman's wife and Shahryar's wife. Shah Zaman's and Shahryar wife gets punished by having love affairs with other men.
In the story of the Ox and Donkey, the wife in the beginning defies her husband and the husband gets victimize, which mean they are included in the feminist part. Later in the story the wife gets punished by her husband, which is the anti-feminist part.
2. The story telling is like magic because each chapter pauses and the climax links to the nest chapter. Also the story includes imagination = detailed descriptions of the setting, actions, and characters, Attention = shocking plot twists, excitement and mystery. When the husband slays her wife that's a chocking plot twist and when the vizier's daughter steps in to save her father that's the excitement. Also the poetic language makes me easy to remember and recite.
3. We learn that how the people treat their women harshly and by covering their women's face with veils because of mistrust. Both Muslim + Christian are both harsh in the medieval because they didn't know how to forgive.
4. The worst story is the 1~6 brothers' tale because it seemed forced and contrived because they lack my attention by having the predictable conclusion,
5. Absolutely the beginning of the Hunchback's tale is my favorite one because the characters in the story think that they are related to the hunchback's death and it goes on. Also because it includes so much details, it doesn't stops me to read more.
Jean Kwon
The stories of the Arabian Nights are an anti-feminist stories. The stories involve the bad reputations of a woman as they betray their own husband or demonstrate a selfish behavior. For instance, a wife tries to make her husband spill out the secrets that are sworn by the Allah. Eventually, she suffers as she get beaten by her own husband for demonstrating such a behavior. Another wife cuts off her husband's tumbs and toes for not washing his own hands for the fist night of their honeymoon. These negative aspects of women leads one to become an anti-feminist.
Story-telling is like magic in these stories as people save thier own lives by telling stories. As a wise daughter gets married to the king who is to kill her after the first night, she survives. By telling the stories of great adventures, she eventually saves her life and the lives of her sons.
Andrew SJ's comment or answers
1. This story is neutral to females. It shows how promiscuous and dirty females are at first, and then it shows how wise women potentially could be. I think it is trying to say that some women are good and some are bad. I definitely thought that this story was an anti-feminist at the beginning where kings slay cheating wives and all negative aspects of women are described. It shocked the two kings. However, is it 'right' for the kings to slay all of his wives when they just had single experience of being cheated? The blame for the murder is minimized. Men are actually described superior than women somehow. Then the new wife of king ms. S told stories and impressed the king, and was pardoned from the chain of deaths. Single women, a daughter of a vizier, a woman in high position had impressed the king. Other anonymous and low women are slayed without any attempts to stop it. This is REALLY ambiguous; it confuses me. The kings have changed their thoughts about women completely after meating Ms. S. So... it's kind of both but i felt that the part being anti-feminist was more emphisized than raising the women. So my conclusion is: some women are sluts and promiscous while others are wise and useful.
2. The story telling is magic that it involves lots of different kinds of people. They make intriguing scenes and other people force the character to tell the tale, so the reader is itching to hear the story. then the character in the story is telling a story, and the person in that story is telling another story. That way reader never gets bored by continuous twists and changes. Also there are various ups and downs, and humor, sex, and other various qualities that interests the reader.
3. Muslim civilizations have an open town. THere are various kinds of stores in a market, there's a fancy house of a rich. There are lots of rich widows. People are really strict about crimes, even minor ones like stealing bread. Beating was common for not working servants.
4. my worst selection is the one with the silent barber shaving a man. Although the barber said he was very silent and a man of few words, he talked crazily and annoyed the customer. It almost urged me to stop reading
5. My best story was the first one, when the kings find women are nasty. The events are pretty in order.
ilwonchang
Is this a feminist story, or anti-feminist? (Be careful. The answer is ambiguous. You have to be a subtle reader to play with this question.)
- Stories are anti-feminist. Women are powerful and they can control people in stories.
In what ways is story-telling like magic here? In other words, what powers do good stories give the story-tellers?
- Each stories has their own stories. Also, all stories are connected to each other.
What do we learn about Muslim (Arab and Persian/Iranian) civilization, compared to Medieval Christian Europe, when we “watch” these stories (they are like movies)?
- Muslim leaders are not powerful as Christian leaders. Sultan has no power to control unlike powerful Christian leaders.
What’s the worst story in the selection you read? Why?
- The barber's tale. Since the barber keep talking though people say not to speak, some guy lost his leg. The barber is annoying in this story.
What’s the best story in the selection you read? Why?
- The Christian brocker's tale. In this story a guy lost his arm for a woman. This story is about romance and love.
ilwonchang
Is this a feminist story, or anti-feminist? (Be careful. The answer is ambiguous. You have to be a subtle reader to play with this question.)
- Stories are anti-feminist. Women are powerful and they can control people in stories.
In what ways is story-telling like magic here? In other words, what powers do good stories give the story-tellers?
- Each stories has their own stories. Also, all stories are connected to each other.
What do we learn about Muslim (Arab and Persian/Iranian) civilization, compared to Medieval Christian Europe, when we “watch” these stories (they are like movies)?
- Muslim leaders are not powerful as Christian leaders. Sultan has no power to control unlike powerful Christian leaders.
What’s the worst story in the selection you read? Why?
- The barber's tale. Since the barber keep talking though people say not to speak, some guy lost his leg. The barber is annoying in this story.
What’s the best story in the selection you read? Why?
- The Christian brocker's tale. In this story a guy lost his arm for a woman. This story is about romance and love.
ilwonchang
Is this a feminist story, or anti-feminist? (Be careful. The answer is ambiguous. You have to be a subtle reader to play with this question.)
- Stories are anti-feminist. Women are powerful and they can control people in stories.
In what ways is story-telling like magic here? In other words, what powers do good stories give the story-tellers?
- Each stories has their own stories. Also, all stories are connected to each other.
What do we learn about Muslim (Arab and Persian/Iranian) civilization, compared to Medieval Christian Europe, when we “watch” these stories (they are like movies)?
- Muslim leaders are not powerful as Christian leaders. Sultan has no power to control unlike powerful Christian leaders.
What’s the worst story in the selection you read? Why?
- The barber's tale. Since the barber keep talking though people say not to speak, some guy lost his leg. The barber is annoying in this story.
What’s the best story in the selection you read? Why?
- The Christian brocker's tale. In this story a guy lost his arm for a woman. This story is about romance and love.
Sunghoon
1. In some stories it appears with characters who are feminist, how they fight for women and fight to beloved by their love. Although women are one of the important things in men's life, I argue that this whole story is based upon anti-feminist background. Particularly the 1st story shows how two kings(brothers) find out their wife(queen) cheating when they are not around with a filthy slaves. It's correct that women is important but these stories surely don't get treated fairly. They are treated almost as slaves, treated as an item a tool.
2. I really didn't sense much of magics in these stories but I would say those stories being all connected to each other seems magical. These stories were not all seperated but kind of related to each other and goes along instead of a whole different stories with different people with different cultures.
3. Reading through these stories, we can know about basic culture of Muslims and Muslims daily life. We can find that Muslims have a strict schedule and time for their praying time. While in other hand, we learned that Christians don't have to pray in certain, given time and has no number of times that you HAVE to pray in a day.
4. I kind of don't remember what exactly the story's title was, but in my opinion, the worst stories was story with 6 brothers where the story had to deal with food. WHy my worst? this story had no interesting plot, or to be critical, this story was kind of meaningless to me. All it talked about was food. And lot of the parts of the stories, was just names of food. Yes it was good to know about Muslim's food, but this story wasn't the best of of all, rather i consider the worst one.
5. All the stories were great to read, great to know how muslim's culture work. But if I had to choose the best selection of all the stories, I would read again the first story. THe first story, i think it is kind of ironic with betrayals. And the story is kind of weird and kind of makes me to think about the story. I would like to read it again because it's kind of meaningful.
Steven Daniel
1. I believe the book was anti-feminist. Even though most stories explain how each men got punished under women's power, the moral of the stories reflect the idea of how women shows evil. For example, the women made Barber's brother to make bunch of clothes without paying any money. She tricked the Barber's brother into believing that she likes him, which stupidly made the brother to do all of the women's greedy tasks.
2. I believe these stories sounded magic and beautiful, because of a simple fact that they're all somehow connected. Basically the whole Arabian Night is a one huge story, which is broken into many small stories. The connection somehow makes it magically, because little bits of good stories combine which produces one giant unforgettable tale.
3. Muslims definitely seem to show more desire towards their religion. Just about every single sentences, they cry out their god, Allah. This shows more thoughts toward their religion, because they connect everyday life to their religion. Also, Muslims seem to love stories. When they find someone with something awkward to their physical appearances, or acts strange, they always ask to tell them how it happened. They like to listen to stories and mind other business, which i guess they enjoy that as their hobbies.
4. The worst story in this selection was about the black cook cheating on King Shahryar and His Brother. I just did not enjoyed it because of the description which sickened me. The details were so well written, the scene just popped out of my head which grossed me out. I did not enjoyed this selection because it lacked in writing skills, but because the details were so realistic and effective.
5. The best story in this book was the story of the man stripping his clothes and running around naked until full erection, just to win one lady. At the end he somehow ran into a city market, and everyone ridiculed him for his unexpected visit. I believe this story was full with imaginations, which made it comical. And again, the details were great which made me imagine clearly, making it more hilarious.
Won Seok
1. I think that this book is anti-feminist. In the first story, the two kings were both betrayed by their wives. Their wives had cheated to their husband by sleeping with another man. Even though, men were punished under power of women, the story told the reader that women are evil and untrustworthy. The moral of these stories relate to anti-feminist.
2. The story-telling in Arabian Nights are like magic because of the images it shows to the reader. The stories are deep and sophisticated. It gives us a moment to think about the moral and the meaning to the story. Arabian Nights had many different tales and stories that was connected to another stories. After all, the tales and stories magically fits together like puzzle pieces that forms a massive complete story.
3. We learn about Muslims that they are dedicated and faithful to their religion. They state their God, Allah, most of the time when they speak. I think that they also love literature. They liked to hear stories that are amazing and entertaining. They live by the rules and they are eager to hear from people.
4. I think the worst story in the selection i read is in the story of King Shahryar and His Brother. After they found out that their wives have been cheating to themselves, they are angry and felt sick. They slept with every virgin women and kill them the next day. I think this is the worst story because it does not make much sense how they had to kill the virgin women after they slept with them.
5. The best story is the Hunchback's tale because the story started with one conflict which led to a solution. But, that solution led to another conflict so forth and made the story much more complicated. I liked how they told tales after tales that were amazing as the Hunchback's tale. Some were tragic and some were deep. It was fun to read the Hunchback's tale and it is the best story in the selection
SHINHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
1. I think this is a feminist story. Just by looking at the cover of the booklet "Arabian Nights" a moslem woman is showing her power (in which, "control-ment") over man. Just to pull out some acts of the women, yes, women were selfish as wives though they could atrract men with their beauty and money. Also, it was not purely THEIR power but they used other people along with them to be evil. Like the Jenee's story, when she used the Jenee to threaten the men who were scared of the giant Jenee. Unlike the women who look foolish and very irritating, the men rather than the women looked more foolish, giving up all their rights and money for the women. Also, the king and scheherazed got married because of her intelligence. How could she have ever figured out that the King had to slay the virgin on their first night?
2. Yes, like many of the Arabian Night readers will agree, the story is not told from one person to one person. Broadly, it IS a story telling from one person to one person although the story that the vizier was telling his daughter had a person within his story, and in THAT story there was another story teller and in THAT story there was another story teller. This is how the story was told for 4 generations. The stories might have been told by different people, but it carried on the same message with the same flow which could easily be engaged back to where it first started, even in the middle of the story.
3. Not only that the Moslem gave privileges to the females by giving them power to control the other gender, which is men, they had strong reliability to their "god" who is Allah. From the beginning of the story to the end, whenever a person was in the situation of "threaten" or "murder" or any kinds of sin, they called out "ALLAH". Also, they had the belief that whenever they ask for forgiveness to Allah, Allah will forgive them straight away. But they do know that Allah does not physically punish people whom people ask for punishment. Therefore, they go to the governors’ place and ask for physically punishments. In other words, Moslems have faith for Allah, not to receive physical goods but mental relaxation. But for Christian, it is for the Pope or the Priest to receive forgiveness or punishments. They eat the bread to symbolize the body of Jesus Christ to gain faith that God is in people’s bodies.
4. The worst story in his selection I have read is Ox and the Donkey. Since I was a bias reader for the females in the story, I didn't like the story of the Ox and the Donkey which made the females look stupid and foolish. The wife who threatened her husband that if he did not tell her the big secret that only HIM and ALLAH knows, she would send him to the governor and pardon him. Why, does the wife need to threaten the man for such a stupid reason? I think the woman gained too much selfishness that men would instantly be on their side when they get married and be officially “husbands and wives”.
5. The best story in the selection I have read is the story of the hunchback. Even though the Barber continuously speaks for his 6 brothers, I found the main story interesting. The story of how the hunchback was moved from one to the other. Within that story, it conflicted the war between religions and did not really involve "feminist or anti-feminist" within JUST the main stream of the story of the Hunchback.
The Hunchback itself had a hidden symbol. The Hunchback was the unwanted rubbish as it got passed to the people of hated neighbors.
Lydia
1. I would say that this book is a bit on the feminist side. The women in the story are usually the ones who has a lot of power and money. In some stories the women play around with the men and betray them whenever they want to.
2. The stories give the story-tellers a power to continue their stories and they can keep connecting stories to explain the story that they told before. It's as if the stories are continuing until all the people involved get to tell their own side of the story
3. The Muslim civilization uses a different method of trading method than that of the medieval times. The people trust each other to pay back the money that they owe. Also there is a lot of little flings that go around the city that eventually end up in a marriage. But usually the marriages don't last long. Sometimes, or rather most of the time the woman or the man betrays one another and the marriage ends up pretty badly. A man is considered to be a madman if he does not wash his hands properly after a meal like in the steward's tale. I think that it's a sign of respect to have one's hand clean after a meal. I mean getting your hand cut off for not washing is kind of scary.
4. The worst story that i had read in the selection is the Tailor's Tale. I'm not sure why i don't like it but think one reason is that it's long and i don't really like the story. I'm not sure but there's something in there that is just not my taste.
5. The best story that i had read in the selection is probably the Christian Broker's Tale. I thought that the story sounded sweet on how the man had even risked his hand for the woman that he loves. The ending touched me a bit by how the woman had saved all that money and not spend it for her greed. Also the thought of giving practically her whole fortune is really really nice. I guess that by just loosing a hand the man had gotten a fortune he cannot imagine.
Dabin L
G period
1. Is this a feminist story, or anti-feminist? (Be careful. The answer is ambiguous. You have to be a subtle reader to play with this question.)
- The story, Arabian Nights, contains aspects from both points of feminism and anti-feminism. Females have power to make orders upon males, and they have rights to hold real-estate or receive property from their parents. These indicate that women in Arabian Nights are considered as the ones who have almost similar amount of power and rights as males—unlike the Bible’s description. However, the story still contains some ideas which are seemed to be anti-feminism. Women are described as the ones not worth deep-trusting, since several wives had betrayed their husbands by having affairs with other men. Although female is described as the sinful one, through these examples of betrayal of wives show equality between two sexes.
2. In what ways is story-telling like magic here? In other words, what powers do good stories give the story-tellers?
- I enjoyed reading this story since the style of the writing was quite special. Its transitions moving on to other stories—tales—are very smooth and witty, which attracted my attention to its plot and made me to stay more focused. Every time when a transition occurs, there is always similarity or connection between a previous tale and a later one. This elaborated the flow of the whole plot and the writer was able to open new roads and lead the readers through it without losing them.
3. What do we learn about Muslim (Arab and Persian/Iranian) civilization, compared to Medieval Christian Europe, when we “watch” these stories (they are like movies)?
- From the reading, Arabian Nights, state or position of female was such an easily recognizable difference compared to Medieval Christian Europe. Shown in the story, when a father is passed away, a daughter of him can success his wealth. This clearly proves that women were given rights to own property just as men do. Moreover, the Muslims respected beauty of women, and valued love. Love between two different genders was considered important and prior over certain things—for example a man losing his hand for his love. This shows great divergence from the Christian beliefs in which it only value devotion to their God—Yahweh. In addition, this story itself shows that Muslims are different from Christians. Christians did not really worked on developing tales to entertain themselves, indeed they only focused on the Bible, and “never took a risk” to make literature more enjoyable to read.
4. What’s the worst story in the selection you read? Why?
- Although I enjoyed the whole book, there is a part where I felt little boredom. It was the very beginning part where King Shahryar and his brother saw their wives’ betrayal and decided to take a journey looking for other man who had faced the same problem as they did. I wondered why they had done such a thing. I read that they were both great leaders who ruled their countries with great qualities, however, I couldn’t help myself feeling suspicious when they left their country without telling anyone. They also showed their weakness by being cowards in front of jinee. I constantly questioned their leadership and responsibility as rulers.
5. What’s the best story in the selection you read? Why?
- My favorite story in Arabian Nights was the Hunchback’s Tale. The whole plot was humorous although it handle the theme of death—murder. This story showed both good and evil points of human nature, since although at first everyone tried to get rid of the dead body and accuse other ones, later they all confessed the truth. Especially the ending of the story showed great sense of humor by making the hunchback come back to life again. This brilliant ending made the whole story delightful and less heavy, yet still delivered strong morals.
Lindsay
1. The book might seem like a feminist story since women is controlling men by telling the story and deceives the king. Women has power over men however, this power is actually evil. The story of Hunchback gives a bad impression of women since the women. The king is wanting to listen to the story more and more and the women has planned this not to die. However, once again the story is not totally feminist since women gets killed a lot as well. Therefore, this story is both feminist and anti-feminist.
2. The story telling is like magic. The storyteller might take big risks, but the story could save a life of one's. Like in the story, the girl did not stop her story and continued her story and made the King desperate for it. On purpose, she did not end her story. It is just wonderful how a skill of one person could save another life.
3. This story is all based on Muslim civilization. And as the Muslim civilization is very likely about Allah, their lives were mostly immersed in the religion. Yet there were violence, and so many risks--that the religion must go through. "Allah" was frequently mentioned and is a big part of the story. But when the christian told the Hunchback story, i didnt feel the sincerity of the story. Anyhow, the as the story mentioned the word Allah alot, i could learn how deep and immensely Allah was involved in the story.
3. The worst story i remember is the story of a man trying to So he went to her house trying not to get caught by her father, and meet her. But he saw the father hitting a woman. He thought it was the woman he loved but she was a slave. Anyway, the man gets caught and his plan fails. I thought this story failed not only in the plot but wasnt detailed enough. Unlike the other stories, this story was not involved in religion. Quite boring, not so deep it was.
5. The best story was the hunchback story. This story was quite long but i was impressed by the story of how the woman deceived the king and how she saved her life successfully. Yet i was nervous that the story might end and i the girl would get killed. However, she ended up not ending the story and saved herself. During the storytelling, i was impressed by her skills and how the King was always desperate for it. I love this story. Women over Men!HAHAHA
1. This is an anti-feminist story. It does end as a happy-ending by the woman telling a story. This woman end this whole conflict in which the king Shahryar kills all the virgin after a night with her. This conflict ended by the lady, but it also started by women. It started by his queen enjoying her time with another while the king was gone, and when he found this out he decided to kill all virgin after a night. This start gives a reader that women are evil, ones who sleep with any men even though they are married. Also, in the stories of tailor, Jew, Christian, and the steward, there was a woman involved. These women were the cause of a man to lose something. One man lost his thumbs, one man lost his hand, and so-on. Overall, the symbol of woman in Arabian Nights was "cause-of-conflicts-or- curse."
2. When people read they are able to go-on without quitting not just by the fact they like the story but because there is this magic that forces them to. I also felt this, and the king must've also. The story-telling is like magic here because the result is told at the beginning, and leaves the question 'how?' and 'why?'. There is a pause in between, just good enough to make the story more exciting. It's at the point where it seems like the answer will come out. These powers of a good stories are related to curiosity, that makes the reader want to read more. I think that is all, it is just how the story is organized and good so that the curiosity is strong. This is the magic or the power of good stories, the curiosity it forms.
3. As I read the story, there was a part where the four men, who were about to receive the capital punishment, tells the story to the Chinese king. These stories were meant to save themselves. Now, as I read, I mentioned that this wouldn't have happened in the Medieval Christian society. These four men included a steward, a Jew, and a Christian. The Medieval Christian would not give a chance to a Muslim or anyone who is not their religion. Here, everyone got a chance. Also, all the people here seem to be honest. Truths came up by people being honest in word. I'm not sure if this is their way of respecting others but I wasn't able to see lies. Also, women's beauty was based on the moon. This was very interesting because beautiful ladies were like 'something'-moon.
4. The worst story I read was 'The Christian Broker's Tale'. It was boring, first of all. There was nothing really pulling me to make me read. It was very straightforw- ard and simple. The man who lost his hand lost it because of love, and that didn't seem very interesting. Some other stories were similar with the idea of 'because-of-love', but this was the worst because it was a happy-ending, which seemed not very fun to me.
5. The best story in the selection I read was the hunchback story. It was really funny the way everyone tried to make sure they looked innocent. This simply proved that they want to be safe, ignoring the fact that what the other person will get. The dead-hunchback was passed on to another 3times, and it was very funny the way people tried to make others kill the one they didn't kill. The idea was simply funny; one feels guilty for killing a man who he/she didn't, and try to get rid of him to not feel the guilt which they do not need to feel at all! It seemed stupid but the way it drags on is not boring at all. Of course, it ended up by the hunchback alive again. This weird ending makes this whole story somewhat pointless but also allow the reader feel a weird-but-funny feeling. I liked the way this hunchback story was organized, and it's ending.
Lynn Hong- Arabian Nights Quiz1
1.
This story is both feminist and anti-feminist. It is anti-feminist because the stories in the Arabian Nights include malicious women who trick men or betray men. The stories are warning the readers to be careful with women, and not let them take control over you. However, The Arabian Nights is also a feminist story because it portrays a heroine called Scherezade(I do not remember the exact spelling of her name). Scherezade is intelligent, and she is the one who finally stops the king from murdering women every morning by telling him stories every night. The story tells the readers that women are just as smart as men through the story of Scherezade.
2.
Story-telling is like magic in The Arabian Nights because it is just as amusing as magic. For instance, Scherezade tells stories to the King every night to stop him from killing innocent women, like her. In the Tale of the Hunchback, the sultan promises that he will not hang the so-called-murders of the hunchback, if those people can tell him a better story than the one about the hunchback. Story-telling is like the power to live in this story, because if the stories are amusing, they are let off for their bad deeds.
3.
There are different cultural practices in the Muslim civilization compared to Medieval Christian Europe. First of all, Muslims eat with their hands, and it is considered insolent to eat with your left hand unless you are unable to use your right hand. Also, women are required to wear headdresses that cover their entire face(except for their eyes) and body. The religion of the Muslims holds prayer times throughout the day. Lastly, the penalty in the Muslim culture for crime is to cut off body parts.
4.
The worst story in the book was the Tailor’s story. Half of the story was composed of the barber’s babbling, which I eventually got bored of because it was too long. If the barber had talked less I feel like I would have enjoyed it more.
5.
The best story in the selection was the Hunchback’s Tale (Not including the tales told by the tailor, the barber, and so on). This story was particularly interesting because it was fun to read about how so many people thought they had killed the hunchback and tried to blame it on someone else. Also, the story had progress and excitement for new events occurred every time the hunchback was discovered “dead”. The “murderers” did not want to get executed, so they figured out a way to leave the hunchback’s body under someone else’s responsibility, and I felt that all of those methods that they used were creative and interesting.
1.
I think this book is feminist book, because this book shows how women make men nave or show people how great women are. Shahryar is the one who save the country. Before when King was doing such a ridiculous behavior, (killing women in the village after having physical intercourse) there was no one to stop him. But Shahryar change, not only change but actually you can say that she cured the King. She cure the king’s wounds, which he got it from his wife. From this we also can recognize that men can survive or live without women. So that means men and women are equal, may be women is better than men. When men is using their power to make people to his knees, women are using men’s emotion in other word, they are using “love” to kneel down. Even though women take very bad characters in some stories, but they show that they are better than man.
2. This story is very interesting because this story some way connect to real history. Not only that it show different view of the Muslims. This story is like stopping in the climax like Korean drama, making people to be curious. So that they can keep their interest. I think this is part of the magic. I think magic that is shown in the story, is true magic but power that keep the readers to read the book is the true magic
3. While I was reading this book I realized that the basic idea of this book was endless commendation of Arab culture. It also show the Arabic’s sense of value, Arab people consider faith and fame more important than their life. And Arabs solve the problem with their knowledge and wisdom. I think this part is different from Christian especially during medieval time. Christian always think in religious way so they make stupid mistakes and make weird solution for the conflict or solution. But Arabs, are actually using their brains! Not only thinking in religious way they are actually thinking like humans. Also this book contains some kind of moral saying love your neighbors, humans, and consider other people’s difficulties as yours and help them with your whole effort. I think Arab people consider even strangers as their brothers, but Christian consider strangers as their enemies
BrianS
1.
I think this book is feminist book, because this book shows how women make men nave or show people how great women are. Shahryar is the one who save the country. Before when King was doing such a ridiculous behavior, (killing women in the village after having physical intercourse) there was no one to stop him. But Shahryar change, not only change but actually you can say that she cured the King. She cure the king’s wounds, which he got it from his wife. From this we also can recognize that men can survive or live without women. So that means men and women are equal, may be women is better than men. When men is using their power to make people to his knees, women are using men’s emotion in other word, they are using “love” to kneel down. Even though women take very bad characters in some stories, but they show that they are better than man.
2. This story is very interesting because this story some way connect to real history. Not only that it show different view of the Muslims. This story is like stopping in the climax like Korean drama, making people to be curious. So that they can keep their interest. I think this is part of the magic. I think magic that is shown in the story, is true magic but power that keep the readers to read the book is the true magic
3. While I was reading this book I realized that the basic idea of this book was endless commendation of Arab culture. It also show the Arabic’s sense of value, Arab people consider faith and fame more important than their life. And Arabs solve the problem with their knowledge and wisdom. I think this part is different from Christian especially during medieval time. Christian always think in religious way so they make stupid mistakes and make weird solution for the conflict or solution. But Arabs, are actually using their brains! Not only thinking in religious way they are actually thinking like humans. Also this book contains some kind of moral saying love your neighbors, humans, and consider other people’s difficulties as yours and help them with your whole effort. I think Arab people consider even strangers as their brothers, but Christian consider strangers as their enemies
WHO???
Julia
1. Overall, the book is a feminist book. In the beginning, women's affairs affected the kings to not trust females. The king even started to abuse his wives after the shock of his wife's betrayal. I thought the book was anti-feminist until finishing the book. Later, I figured out that women played big roles in terms of controlling men's emotions. The women made men depressed, happy, and cured. This book gave deeper meaning to females to the men, and it seemed like women are part of men's lives.
2. The vizier is telling the tales to his daughter. I was able to hear strong voices while reading the stories. Each story had a lesson and referred to the conflicts that Scheherazade faced. It made easier to catch the story throughout the book.
3. There are similarities and differences between Muslim and Christianity. They both consider that rich, merchant, and virgins are sacred. Rich and merchants have power and choices. Also the virgins are holy symbols in the book. Scheherazade is also a virgin who makes careful decision to whom to marry. Nuns and the monks should also be virgins to practice Christian beliefs. However, there are different cultures in these religions. Muslims rely on Allah’s decisions and will. Everything is meant to happen from Allah. Murders are accepted and not crucial because it is what Allah ordered to do. Shahryar killed his wives one by sent from Allah’s sayings. Also, their sins are forgiven if they just pray to Allah. It was new for me to find different religions’ beliefs and culture from the book and it was interesting.
4. The story failed me from expectations. After all the tales and stories, Scheherazade (the vizier’s daughter) still stood up for her will to marry the king (Shahryar). Vizier was trying to convince her not to marry him, but he eventually took the fame and power from Scheherazade’s marriage. He became the king of the palace that Shahrayr left. I felt that Vizier traded his daughter with his privileges.
5. My worst story in the selection is also my favorite part of the book. It sounds weird. Vizier seemed to betray his daughter and took the power. Scheherazade married with someone who she wanted to marry. Sharyar was cured and loved by his true lover. Lastly, Sharyar’s brother and Sharyar’s family lived together happily after. All the conflicts solved at once. I was worried and curious about the ending of this book but the last two pages. I was relieved after the book.
sorry... Amy's answer is between Lindsay and after Lynn
ShinheeL
Frequently in both western and asian countries, many couples and parents are creating issues by divorcing for many possible reasons. A major and a probabily one of the most obvious purpose of "divorcing" was clearly depicted in "The Arabian Nights". I, as a teenager female reader, couldn't really engage myself with this literature piece because firstly, I'm not married and lastly my parents are perfectl fine; I didn't experience any serious problems in my life. To be specific in this piece, one story showed the conflict between the husband's sin and woman's power then back to the woman's punishment. But for another story, a man was restrained from everything because of the uncontrollable mass of woman's power. So, how can a reader determine the "guidance" or "lessons"? Of course they can. They will feel "guiltiness" and "touchy" if they experienced a similiar incident with the story. I believe nothing else but "guiltiness" and "engagement or touching" defines the "guidance" or "lessons".
I improved !
Chai Young Lee
1. At first glance the story seems to be mostly anti-feminist. In the Arabian Knights women seem to be people who deceive or trick the men. You can see this in the story of the Story of King Shahryar and His Brother, where the brother sees his brother's wife secretly loving another man. It doesn't end there. In the story of the Barber's Tale of His Fifth Brother, it is a women who lured men into her house where they were later killed. However, perhaps not all of the stories are against women. In a different view, the fact that women can secretly trick the men may be saying that women are not stupid. Also, when king Shahryar kept on killing women one after another, it was Scheherazade, a daughter who prevented further killing of women by telling the king many stories, knowing at the same time that she might be killed. This shows that women clearly do have wisdom and courage.
2. The Arabian Knights always tells a tale within a tale, and the story tellers do indeed hold much power. In the end, the good story of the hunchback told by the tailor saves the lives of the people. If lives could be saved with one good story,wouldn't there be a whole lot more it could do? In Arabian Knights, stories are told within a story because they give the power to get rid of curiosity and to make people enjoy them.
3. The difference between the Muslims and Medieval Europe is pretty much immediately noticeable. First thing is that the stories in the Arabian Knights seem to show that people are a bit more strict. Cutting off a hand just because he didn't wash it? How crazy is that? There also seems to be more desire for pleasure. I read a lot about riches and luxurious palace and all these parties with sweetmeats, and other fancy foods. This seems unlike the medieval times where we learned that although kings and queens, and some other high religious people lived in luxury, the majority of the peoople lived for the afterlife (poor clothes, eating non-fancy foods.)
4. I sincerely can't say there was a worst story, because to me they were all great and very humorous.
5. The best story I read would have to be the tale where that one man complains about the barber. I nearly laughed when I imagined the barber talking SO much. I mean it was tiring to read, but imagining him talking so much is funny. You know, how in some movies there are those people who just talk really intelligently and fast that it's hard to comprehend what they are saying. I also liked how the story progressed and how the man would get away and prevent the barber from following him to his girl.
Post a Comment