Myth Folklore

The first story was like most of the stories I have read in the Native American section of this class. It talks about two animals and shows a lesson both of them learned in it. It also shows why they are the way they are today. I found that a lot of these stories give reasonings for why things are the way they are. There was another story that talked about why a rock has a hole around it. It said that a man was running away from a bear after he made the bear angry and they ran around the rock for sometime. After running around for a while there was a hole created around which helped the man survive. Later on in the story he also wanted to get some berries which required him to go underwater and almost caused him to drown. When he came back out of the water he was mad and hit the bush which cause the berries to come out. He then declared that this is how berries should come out of the bush and that is why people used to hit bushes so that the berries would come out. There was also sto...

I have added a countdown to finals week in my sidebar just so I can know how far it is.

At the beginning of time there was one tribe of Native Americans that lived in the Mississippi Valley. They had no contact with other tribes but knew they were out there. The only way they were able to survive was because the animals in the forest would come and help them. Some would bring vegetables so that the tribe could eat while others would bring other dead animals so that the Native Americans could use them. Whenever the tribe received an animal they would respect it by praying first and then use the entire animal. They wouldn't disrespect the animal by not using all the parts. They believed that since the other animals were bringing them the dead animals the least they could do was to respect the animals that brought them. One day an animal brought a plant to the tribe and placed it near the fire pit. One of the Native Americans thought this was a sign and then threw the plant in the fire. After throwing it in the fire he inhaled the smoke from the flames and understood...

For this reading notes I decided to read a different part of the stories besides from the California tribe. I felt like I learned a lot from the California stories and wanted to learn more about different tribes which I did. They are really different when you think about it because the California stories were mostly about how the world started but the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes was about that a little too but more about the struggle between man and animals and also getting enough food for everyone. One story stuck out to me particularly which was about a boy who wanted food and decided to do a fast so that he may have a revelation. He had his revelation in the form of another boy and they wrestled for a couple of days around the same time. The boy that was the revelation was trying to help and basically died so that the boy doing the fast could get food. He said that the boy with the revelation must bury him and come clean his grave everyday. The next day when the boy wit...

Reading all of these stories was really interesting. It shows how the California tribes came up with their own idea of how the world was started and how little things came to be. The first stories were mostly about how the Sun and the Moon started along with the creation of man. Most of them had different stories but it was mostly the same. It wasn't surprising to me that for the Native American stories they started out with animals in most of them. I have a little bit of prior knowledge and know that animals mean a great deal to the Native Americans. They treat animals with much respect and only kill when they need to. I realized while reading the stories that in the California Native American tribes they talk a lot about coyotes. They hold them in such high esteem and even in some stories they talk about how life started because of the coyotes. It doesn't surprise me because it is the West Coast and there is a lot of coyotes to this very day so I imagine that back then they...

When I started reading this I really had no idea what to expect out of it. I knew that it was made a long time ago and I could tell that by the language and vocabulary used. You can tell that these stories were made to explain some of the natural stuff that happens in the world. The very first story was a story about someone tricking a powerful person so that they could be the powerful person instead. The main character had to use a lot of trickery to find ways to accomplish all the tasks that were given to them. In the end he did accomplish them all and tricked the powerful man. Most of the stories also talk about how Anansi was a really greedy person and because of that he would thrive in the beginning but by the end of the story he would end up losing everything. The story Thunder and Anansi was the perfect example for this. It started by Anansi trying to get food for his family but then is given a pot that will make meals for him. He starts to use the pot for himself and then t...

The thing I am most proud of is creating stories. I never thought that I would be able to write stories ever but after this class it seems pretty easy. Since I am using my reading notes it makes it a bit easier but I still feel like I am doing it myself. As of now my weekly routine hasn't been going that well but I feel like I can still turn it around if I start to do more of the extra credit assignments. I do think that my website is turning out good but my blog could use some work. Things I want to avoid is putting things off until the end of the week. At the beginning of the semester I was doing really well because I was finishing everything on time but now I have slowly fallen behind. "In the dark I see the light," Source

The feedback I have received from other classmates helped me a lot. Most are encouraging which makes me feel like I am doing a good job but others make me realize my mistake. I got comments about my lack of commas in my stories and also the fact that I should use dialogue. Reading those are making me think that I should at least add a little dialogue because it will help the reader understand and make it a bit more interesting. Usually the comments I leave on other's posts are positive because writing a story can be hard so I don't want to be too mean. However, there has been some instances of me giving constructive criticism. I do feel like reading some people's post makes me have a better understanding of where they are coming from. I am happy with my blog because I feel like it gives a good sense of background about me. I don't think I want to make any changes to my feedback except just being a little bit more critical so that I can help the writer. I don't...

Overall I feel like I need to start catching up on my missed reading assignments. If I had done most of my reading then I would be more proud of my blog but I am hoping by the end of the class I will have a good amount of readings and stories done. As far as my website goes I am really proud the way that is turning out. I didn't think I would be able to do it but I like to focus on it a lot more now. At first it intimidated me but now I like the challenge of creating a story. My favorite part of this class is the portfolio because I know when I finish I will have all these stories I created myself all together. When I first started this class I was afraid that I would not be able to make stories because it's something I had never done before but I like writing them now. My favorite reading so far has to be Homer's Odyssey because I had never read it before but I knew it was famous. As soon as I read it I realized why it was so famous. The reading notes that I have don...