Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales, Part B
For this week I chose to read Native American marriage tales from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).
My favorite story for the second half of this week's readings was The Girl and the Turkeys. In this story, which is very similar to the story of Cinderella, a poor girl tends a flock of turkeys and the birds grow to love her as she is very good at caring for them. The poor girl is scorned by others in her community and makes her living by caring for their turkeys. One day, she is told about a dance that will be held and wishes she were able to attend. The turkeys promise her that they will help her attend and transform her raggedy clothing into a fine and beautiful outfit and make the girl incredibly beautiful. The turkeys tell the girl that she must not forget about them, otherwise she will risk losing her good fortune. The girl promises to never forget them and goes to the dance where she is incredibly popular. Every man wants to dance with her and no one recognizes who she is. She decides to wait to leave as she is having a good time, thereby neglecting the turkeys who are waiting for her to care for them. The girl finally decides to leave and runs towards the turkeys, hoping no one will be able to follow her and see that she is merely a caretaker of turkeys. However, the girl is too late and the turkeys have given up hope that she will return and have ascended up a cliff, never to be seen again, despite the girl's efforts to get their attention and show them that she is ready to care for them again. The girl reverts back to her old clothing and appearance and now has no turkeys to tend to, so she is worse off than before.
This story made me laugh quite a lot as turkeys are really hilarious animals. They look quite odd and the noises they make crack me up, so I found it particularly amusing that this girl is both aided by and spurned by the turkeys. In this story, the turkeys hold all of the power. Other than the turkeys, this story is almost exactly like Cinderella, except of course there is no stepmother nor are there any step sisters and the girl does not fall in love with a prince. The turkeys act like the fairy godmother but, unlike the fairy godmother, spurn the girl when she fails to get back to them in a timely manner to care for them. I did find it a bit odd that the turkeys leave the girl, even though she makes so much effort to track them down and tries to show that she hasn't forgotten them, that she is ready to care for them. The turkeys get all upset and fly away, leaving the girl in the same position she was in before they worked their turkey magic. If I retell this story, I think it would be hilarious to retell this story in modern times with a farm boy and chickens. The boy wants a girl to fall in love with him and the chickens make it happen but then the boy gets hungry, kills a chicken and eats it, making the chickens furious so they pack up and leave and the boy becomes poor and unattractive again and the girl falls out of love with him. Turns out, she is a vegetarian (he lies to her about being one, too) and finds out about his killing of the chicken--she states that she would have still loved him if he had not done such an ungrateful thing. The boy also gets in trouble with the farmer for losing all of his chickens and for eating one.
My favorite story for the second half of this week's readings was The Girl and the Turkeys. In this story, which is very similar to the story of Cinderella, a poor girl tends a flock of turkeys and the birds grow to love her as she is very good at caring for them. The poor girl is scorned by others in her community and makes her living by caring for their turkeys. One day, she is told about a dance that will be held and wishes she were able to attend. The turkeys promise her that they will help her attend and transform her raggedy clothing into a fine and beautiful outfit and make the girl incredibly beautiful. The turkeys tell the girl that she must not forget about them, otherwise she will risk losing her good fortune. The girl promises to never forget them and goes to the dance where she is incredibly popular. Every man wants to dance with her and no one recognizes who she is. She decides to wait to leave as she is having a good time, thereby neglecting the turkeys who are waiting for her to care for them. The girl finally decides to leave and runs towards the turkeys, hoping no one will be able to follow her and see that she is merely a caretaker of turkeys. However, the girl is too late and the turkeys have given up hope that she will return and have ascended up a cliff, never to be seen again, despite the girl's efforts to get their attention and show them that she is ready to care for them again. The girl reverts back to her old clothing and appearance and now has no turkeys to tend to, so she is worse off than before.
This story made me laugh quite a lot as turkeys are really hilarious animals. They look quite odd and the noises they make crack me up, so I found it particularly amusing that this girl is both aided by and spurned by the turkeys. In this story, the turkeys hold all of the power. Other than the turkeys, this story is almost exactly like Cinderella, except of course there is no stepmother nor are there any step sisters and the girl does not fall in love with a prince. The turkeys act like the fairy godmother but, unlike the fairy godmother, spurn the girl when she fails to get back to them in a timely manner to care for them. I did find it a bit odd that the turkeys leave the girl, even though she makes so much effort to track them down and tries to show that she hasn't forgotten them, that she is ready to care for them. The turkeys get all upset and fly away, leaving the girl in the same position she was in before they worked their turkey magic. If I retell this story, I think it would be hilarious to retell this story in modern times with a farm boy and chickens. The boy wants a girl to fall in love with him and the chickens make it happen but then the boy gets hungry, kills a chicken and eats it, making the chickens furious so they pack up and leave and the boy becomes poor and unattractive again and the girl falls out of love with him. Turns out, she is a vegetarian (he lies to her about being one, too) and finds out about his killing of the chicken--she states that she would have still loved him if he had not done such an ungrateful thing. The boy also gets in trouble with the farmer for losing all of his chickens and for eating one.
Photo of a turkey, taken by Will Kimeria. Source: Flickr
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