I would like to consider myself a giant of routine. Up until recently, I would leave my humble castle every day at the crack of dawn, and I would go for my morning stroll around the island. This allowed me to mentally prepare for the day and to enjoy my beautiful surroundings.
I would then go and visit my cousins and discuss the weather and what the tide had brought in that morning. Afternoons and evenings were spent hiking and catching my evening meal.
I’ve always prided myself on my exquisite taste. I love fresh, locally grown produce and meats, but my guilty pleasure is humans. Call them my cheat meal. Since they don’t come around the island very often, I really feel like it’s my birthday when I get to have one, but I digress.
One day, after doing my usual activities, I returned to my castle to find the biggest surprise of my life. On the ground in my dining room was gathered a whole group of humans! I would have to count my calories for months after eating so many, but...WORTH IT. I decided to only eat one a night in order to at least somewhat keep up with portion control.
Upon examination, I discovered that they were all pretty measly. I at last found one that didn’t look like he would taste like uncooked rice, and after dining, I drifted off into a peaceful slumber. Life was looking really good.
I was able to enjoy some more humans over the next few nights, and I was beginning to think that eating one daily wouldn’t be such a bad thing at all! I began to get used to my routine of having one every night; eating dinner had become my favorite part of the day.
One night, everything changed. After I had supped, I lay down to go to sleep, as usual. The next thing I know, my morsels are stabbing me in the eye with the very spits I had used to cook them on! I was overcome with pain. It was with horror that I realized that I could no longer see! I got up, stumbled around, and after not being able to crush one of those evil creatures, I fled my castle in order to find some shelter from the monsters in my very home.
By some miracle, I got to the house of my two older cousins, who comforted me any way they could think to. They tried salves, organic eye drops, and just plain old ice, but nothing seemed to ease my eye pain.
“Those parasites! How inconceivable that our food would turn on us and treat us like we are the bad guys!” they cried.
The next morning, they decided to go over to my place and show those devils who’s boss. My cousins called up their friends, and, putting my arms around their shoulders for support, they took me to my castle. Not finding any humans there, they quickly guessed to run to the shoreline, where we suspected they would be trying to make their escape. We were correct. They had fashioned rafts and were quickly getting away! My fellow giants hurled large rocks at them and managed to destroy all rafts but one. Score! I was sad that we hadn’t gotten rid of all of them, but I took what I could get.
Author's Note: I chose to retell the story of Sindbad's Third Voyage from the point of view of the giant. In the original tale, Sindbad's crew is left on an island after a group of vicious red-furred savages overtake their ship and force them on to the island. They then take shelter in a castle that ends up belonging to a giant that has an affinity for human flesh. Every night, the giant eats one of the crew members for dinner, until one night the crew blinds him and makes their escape. They attempt to escape the island using rafts they had built during the day, but the only members of the crew that survive are the ones on Sindbad's raft because the others are destroyed by the rocks that the giants hurl at them. I tried to stick to the original as much as possible, but since virtually nothing was written about the giant's background, that gave me a lot of freedom. I especially liked that I could describe his daily activities and show why he ate the way he did, because I thought it would make him a little more relatable.
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898) Web source: UN-Textbook
Wow, that was a really cool way to tell the story. Knowing nothing about Sinbad's Third Voyage initially, I was very confused as to what was happening, but I quickly caught on. That was a great idea to tell the story from the giant's perspective. I like how you made the giant health conscious too. It was a good touch.
ReplyDeleteI read Sindbad this week, too! We even rewrote the same story! I really really liked the way you did this from the giant's perspective. You are a very talented writer, also. You have great diction, sentence structure, and transitions. Enjoyed this a heck of a lot, Tatyana!
ReplyDeleteTatyana: I really enjoyed this story! I especially appreciated that you retold this tale from the point of view of the giant…I actually felt some empathy for this fellow.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I liked how you used a sort of personal narrative style to tell the story. I felt as though the giant himself could have been telling me a story. On second thought, perhaps I shouldn't think that, lest I imagine being torn limb from limb by this deranged creature.
Overall, the structure of your story was quite good. You explained the giant's thought processes quite well and made his argument convincing and compelling. However, the one thing that could have improved the story even more might have been a bit of graphic imagery and figurative language. I know a giant probably wouldn't use too many analogies or metaphors, but since you're technically the narrator, a few more might sharpen up the picture that the giant paints for the reader.
Hey Tatyana!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story. It was really interesting that the story was told in the giant's point-of-view. Usually the story is told in the victim's, human's, point-of-view. But by using the giant's point-of-view you have allowed the reader to see that not only are the humans victims but also the giant. It looks like the table has been turned.
I also noticed that your choice in the image perfectly illustrated your story. It showed the giants in midst of avenging their friend. The giants threw rocks and killed all the humans but one raft of humans managed to escape unharmed. The picture depicts this one raft escaping perfectly.
I really only have one suggestion and that is to include more detail about how the giant felt throughout the story. For instance, maybe you could include more metaphors to illustrate how the giant felt when his eyes were stabbed or how angry he felt that he was blind and dependent on his cousins.
Hey Tatyana. I have always been interested in the different points of views of character when I read stories. I think choosing to tell this from a different point of view added a little more depth the story, and on top of that it showcased your creativity. I liked the tone of piece because though it was dealing with somewhat violent subject matter, the tone made it almost comical. One suggestion I would make would be to make a few changes in some of the paragraphs as far as your word choice. Some of the sentences were a bit awkward at times to read, but that may just be and really it did not distract from the story that much. Overall I would say that you have done a good job on this portfolio.
ReplyDeleteHey Tatyana! I enjoyed the character that you turned the giant into quite a bit. I think it would have been easy to tell the story from his point of view and not really develop him into much of a unique character because he's a giant and all, but I thought the idea of him counting calories was both hilarious and creative. It made the giant's point of view more relatable without changing the fact that at the end of the day he really is cooking and eating humans. His internal monologue also helped to distinguish him from what a reader might typically expect. The only thing I think you might have been able to include is a tiny bit more description. I thought you got off to a good start with "humble castle" and "exquisite taste" but I honestly think it would have been funny if the giant actually went a little more in-depth into why humans were his favorite food. It could be a little gross but I think you could word it where it was funny and interesting without being too gross.
ReplyDeleteThis is great Tatyana. I Love when people use the storytelling technique of changing the main character of a story and retelling from their perspective, so great job!
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of the humans being the Giant's cheat meal was hilarious! We think of a cheat meal being a big juicy burger or donuts for breakfast but you would never think what a big Giant's cheat meal would be. I love that piece of the story. Except imaging eating humans was a little gruesome!
I love the vocabulary you used in your story. Words like measly, and exquisite really help paint a picture. I had a vision of what the illustrations to this story would be the whole time I read it. I think this is a great skill to have when telling a story and you definitely did!
Such a fun story and I always like when the character wins in the end! I look forward to reading more stories from your portfolio!
Tatyana, I really like your story and how you wrote the story from the perspective of the giant. You wrote the story in a way that was approachable and very easy for other people to read. I also read the adventures of Sinbad and know the story that you used for inspiration. I think you did a very good job of writing from the other side of the story. You were able to write the story in a way that allowed the reader to sympathize with the giants and have the reader wish that the situation for the giant turned out better. I do like how you added the part about the giant becoming vegetarian in the end. I know that if I had an experience like that with any of the food I was going to eat, I certainly would not want to eat that food ever again.
ReplyDeleteHi Tatyana. This was a great story, thanks for the great read! I thought it flowed very well and I really liked the little bits of humor you added throughout the story. It was funny how the humans are the cheat meals and only eaten on occasion. I have always been a fan of the story of Sinbad, so I really enjoyed reading this story and understanding your inspiration behind your writing.
ReplyDeleteI thought you'd did a good job with your format. By braking up the paragraphs like you did you made it really easy for the reader to read your story. It flowed really well. I agree with Annie that you used some really good vocabulary. I thought it brought a lot to your story and to the reader.
Your picture was a great visual for story. It allows the reader to understand the time era your story is in.
Overall, I think you did a great job with this story and I'm excited to read more of your stories later. Good job!
This story was hilarious. Excuse me if its not meant to be this way. I laughed at how the giant spent his days: taking in his beautiful surroundings and being quite particular about his meals. Local organic is always best of course. Laugh! I also couldn't help but sympathize with him. I was angry with the humans for blinding the giant and escaping. Isn't it strange how hearing a story from the villain's perspective will change the reader's mind about who exactly the villain should be? Weird... The setting was also perfect for this story. I know it's laid out in the original story, but you emphasized it, which is great. Scary things always seem to happen on islands. It made me thing of the show Lost. It's one of my favorites. In it there is this mystery creature who scares all of the people stranded there. It didn't eat them though. Not that I remember anyway...
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