THE BLUE JACKAL
There was once a jackal who fell into a vat of blue indigo dye. The other animals were amazed when they saw the blue jackal!
"The gods have sent me to be your ruler," the blue jackal explained. He made the lion his prime minister, the tiger was the royal treasurer, and the elephant was his doorkeeper.
One day, though, the blue jackal heard other jackals howling in the distance. He could not resist; he began howling too.
"He's just an ordinary jackal!" shouted the other animals.
So the lion and the tiger attacked their former king and killed him.
Blue jackals still howl like jackals.
Author's Note. In a previous microfiction, I used an African American Brer Rabbit story for the 100-word version, and then a 6-word version that was like a proverb, something that alluded to the story the way "the boy who cried wolf" alludes to a famous Aesop's fable. You can see that here: The Tug of War.
I really like how that turned out, so I decided to try it with a folktale from India that is one of my favorites: the story of the blue jackal comes from the ancient Indian Panchatantra, and you can read an English version by Arthur Ryder. There are more Panchatantra stories here: India.LauraGibbs.net.
In making the six-word version, I used "jackals" in the plural so that I didn't have to waste a word on the article (the blue jackal), but then, once I put it into the plural form, I liked that because it generalized to the idea that there are all kinds of blue jackals out there, metaphorically speaking: people who pretend to be something they are not.
Fun fact: the indigo dye that turned the jackal blue gets its name from India: indigo etymology.
Image Information: Fake Twitter made with Zeoob.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThat was a fun story. I loved the quickness of the story. It has an underlying meaning that you have to kind of dig for. It doesn't drag on with unnecessary detail. I wonder what would happen if the story line was altered. Would the story still create the folktale message that we can see through this story or would it completely lose it's meaning. When I read the story, I think about how he pretended to be something he wasn't and it came around to bite him in the rear. I wonder if it would hold the same value if changed. Finally, I wish there was more story arch. I do like the quickness but I do not know any of the characters or what they did in their time as government system that they created. For example, why did they have to kill the jackal. There were plenty of ways they could have gotten the message across that he was a fraud. I think it would be interesting to see how it would play out in the longer scheme opposed to the quick ending.
Hello!
ReplyDeleteI am impressed with how well you told such a good story in so few words! I really like the picture you chose to accompany the story, too. I feel like I have read the fable that this was partially based on so I liked to read this story.