Retelling of the story, Tales of a Parrot: Four Rich Persons who Became Poor. The Story source was The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot, by Ziya'al-Die Nakhshabi (1801).
(Group of Girl Friends; Photo from Pexels)
Here is how it all started: A group of young ladies was walking around town one night when they realized they did not have enough money to buy all of the new clothes, shoes, and bags that had just been released. They all sat and sulked about how they couldn't buy the new best thing (something we are all guilty of doing at some point in our lives). Well, after sitting in their sorrows, they decided to go see a fortune-teller, who would hopefully tell them they were about to get rich!!
Upon meeting the fortune-teller, the girls were asked to remain silent. The teller said she had seen them coming for some time now, and knew they were going to ask for help.
The teller then instructed the girls to each take one of the four diamonds she had laying out on the table and place it on each of their heads. She instructed them that wherever their respective diamonds fell off their heads, they were to stop there and start singing. Once they started singing, they would see their destiny that lies ahead.
The group of four girls started off on their journey. About 15 minutes in, the diamond fell off the first girl's head. At once the girl started to sing, just like the teller had instructed her to do. Immediately a pair of shoes made of copper popped up in front of her. She asked her friends if they were satisfied with this, and they responded no and continued on their way. Next, the second diamond fell off a girl's head. The girl started singing and immediately shoes made of silver popped up. The two remaining friends decided not to stay there either, and continued on their way. Finally, the third diamond fell off. After singing, a pair of gold shoes popped up, some of the most fabulous shoes anyone could ever dream of! The girl begged her friend to stay, for she believed this was the greatest treasure they could have come upon. But, unfortunately, the remaining girl refused to stay and continued on her way by herself.
Once the last girl had the diamond fall off her head, she reached a dead in. At this dead in was a pile of old, thrown-out shoes from people in the city. The teller popped up on top of the shoe pile and told her this is what she deserved for not sticking with/listening to her friends. Immediately, all the other friends popped up right next to the girl who strayed off by herself. The fortune-teller then explained that since she wandered off alone, and did not appreciate the true friendships she had around her, she has now caused all her friends to suffer and lose their riches.
The teller explained how she hopes the girls can go back to the city and work on the quality of their friendship before asking for material possessions they do not need.
Wow!! What a story. The minute I got this gossip tip, I couldn't help but share with you guys! Remember to keep your friends close; besides, without your friends, who would help give me the gossip intel each day??
See you next time!!
XOXO,
Gossip Gal
Author's Note: In the original story, the parrot tells a tale about four poor men who are given the chance to find their destiny, but one friend doesn't listen to the other friends, and ends up making his life even worse. I thought it would be fun to continue with my Gossip Gal theme, and make the characters four women, since typically women suffer from more friendship issues anyways. Another thing I did in this story as add in more dialogue between the friends, asking why they had not trusted each other in the end. The original story ends with the friend who didn't listen all on his own; I changed this to being the friend who was on her own winding back up with her other friends back where they started. This idea helps portray the lesson that sometimes if we are selfish in our ways, we can ruin the good things going for other people as well as the good things going for ourselves. I also changed the philosopher to a fortune-teller to make some more modern changes to the story. Some other slight changes I made to fit the girls as main characters was diamonds instead of balls, and singing instead of digging.
Hey Madeleine!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this story. As soon as I read Gossip gal here, I was like this has got to be like gossip girl and I was excited to see I was almost right. This story is definitely a good analogy for how we should be happy with what we have and never bee to greedy. It also shows that we should value friendships over material items such as clothing. I thought the ending of the story was the best moment for me. It actually made me laugh that the last girl just lost everything that she was looking for because I think that is all too common these days. We get so focused on material items that we don’t realize what we have in friends until we lose everything. I am curious as to why the fortune teller just didn’t let the girls know what was going to happen, granted, she is not supposed to tell them but maybe give them like a parable or something so they can figure it out themselves. Another question I had is why were these girls desperate to have such nice things? Why could they not be satisfied with what they had? My what if question is, what if the last girl had stop and stayed with her friends? Do you think that they still will be craving material items instead of friendships and would they even had learned a lesson at all?
Keep up the great work!
Hello Madeleine!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story and the creativity you used by making it into a "gossip session" about the girls. Your retelling teaches a good lesson about friendships and how if one person unfortunately does not trust the group, it brings the rest down as well. I noticed in your author's note that you added in dialogue to explain why the last girl did not trust the others and continued on her own, but I was confused on whether it was because she did not appreciate the friendships or if it was something else. You could possibly add in some talking between the friends towards the end where they end up together with the fortune teller so they can explain how they perceive the situation as well! Overall I enjoyed reading your story and how you made it seem like someone was telling you the story as gossip!
Hey Madeleine! I really liked your story, and I liked how you included Gossip Gal as well! I haven't read this story before, so the concepts were new to me, but once I got to your author's note I could tell what was going on. I liked how you gender-flipped the story, and made the story about material possessions. It really fit in with the Gossip Gal part of the story, too, because we all know the Upper East Siders are very fancy and have all the best and most expensive things. It was nice for your characters to learn in the end that friendship is more important than the things you have. Money can't buy you love, and all that. Great job!
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