These are my reading notes for the Jataka tale "The Golden Feathers," which comes from the book Twenty Jataka Tales.
Plot:
- A man, woman, and their three daughters lived in a small hut in the forest. One day the father said to his wife and daughters that he would be leaving for a while, but when he came back he would have many riches for them.
-He set out on a long journey through the forest, where he met a fairy. She asked him, "where are you going at this time of night?" He responded, saying he was on his way to seek riches.
- At his response, she waved her magic wand and turned him into a goose with golden feathers.
-The man was confused and upset about this change. He did not know how he could seek riches as a goose, and his wife and daughters would surely suffer.
-In his moment of sadness, he looked out into the water, saw his reflection, and realized that his feathers were made of gold!
-He flew back to his family's home, plucked a feather, and told his family to sell it.
- The wife sold the feather and got a good sum of money for it. Each time the money was spent, the goose returned plucking more feathers for his family to sell.
-The mother said to her girls, "The goose may decide one day not to return, next time he comes, we must pluck all of his feathers."
-The girls wept at this idea, but the mother took all of his feathers anyway.
-Without his feathers, the goose was unable to fly. So the mother kept him in a barrel with almost nothing to eat.
-The feathers that grew back, grew back as normal white fathers. The fairy had enchanted them to do so if they were to be taken from them.
-Eventually all of his feathers grew back white and he flew away to the forest to be happy with the other birds.
Writing Ideas:
-This story is a very good moral tale that teaches readers not to be selfish or take advantage of one another. I think this message may not be directly clear for very young readers, so it would be good fro my writing to clear this up a little bit more.
- I also think it would be interesting to write this story from the perspective of one of the daughters, though that might get a little too dark and emotional for my storytelling portfolio, so I am unsure exactly which route I will take for writing this.
Plot:
- A man, woman, and their three daughters lived in a small hut in the forest. One day the father said to his wife and daughters that he would be leaving for a while, but when he came back he would have many riches for them.
-He set out on a long journey through the forest, where he met a fairy. She asked him, "where are you going at this time of night?" He responded, saying he was on his way to seek riches.
- At his response, she waved her magic wand and turned him into a goose with golden feathers.
-The man was confused and upset about this change. He did not know how he could seek riches as a goose, and his wife and daughters would surely suffer.
-In his moment of sadness, he looked out into the water, saw his reflection, and realized that his feathers were made of gold!
-He flew back to his family's home, plucked a feather, and told his family to sell it.
- The wife sold the feather and got a good sum of money for it. Each time the money was spent, the goose returned plucking more feathers for his family to sell.
-The mother said to her girls, "The goose may decide one day not to return, next time he comes, we must pluck all of his feathers."
-The girls wept at this idea, but the mother took all of his feathers anyway.
-Without his feathers, the goose was unable to fly. So the mother kept him in a barrel with almost nothing to eat.
-The feathers that grew back, grew back as normal white fathers. The fairy had enchanted them to do so if they were to be taken from them.
-Eventually all of his feathers grew back white and he flew away to the forest to be happy with the other birds.
Writing Ideas:
-This story is a very good moral tale that teaches readers not to be selfish or take advantage of one another. I think this message may not be directly clear for very young readers, so it would be good fro my writing to clear this up a little bit more.
- I also think it would be interesting to write this story from the perspective of one of the daughters, though that might get a little too dark and emotional for my storytelling portfolio, so I am unsure exactly which route I will take for writing this.
This image, titled "Goose," comes from PetrOlly on Flickr
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