Week 10 Story Planning: The Monkey and The Crocodile

The Monkey and The Crocodile

My favorite part of the story, when the monkey out wits the crocodile in an unexpected way
Source: The Baldwin Project

• Summary: 
• ****This is the same summary from my reading post, I already take detailed notes, but I did re-read the source story.
• In this story, the setting is a river that is home to a lot of crocodiles and on the banks of the river there are massive trees that are homes to monkeys. One day a mother crocodile and her son were watching the monkeys and she said to her son that she wanted to eat a monkey heart. The son was confused about how he was going to catch the monkey because monkeys did not go into the water and he did not travel on land. He told his mother this and she said that he needed to use his wit and brain. After thinking on ways to catch a monkey, the little crocodile noticed that a particular monkey wanted to go across the river to the island that had ripe fruit. The little crocodile approached the monkey and told him that he would take him across the river to the fruit on his back. The monkey, lusting after the ripe fruit agreed. About half way across, the little crocodile asked the monkey how he liked the ride. The monkey told him it was good. Suddenly, the crocodile dove underwater and the monkey asked what he was doing. The crocodile told him his plan and the monkey told him that he left his heart in the tree. The crocodile demanded that he go back and it. When they arrived back at the monkey's tree, the monkey climbed high and the crocodile could not get him. The monkey then moved to a different tree further down the river.
• The little crocodile, still in search of his mother a monkey heart, eventually found the monkey's new home. For days, he watched the monkey and noticed that everyday he went across rocks in the river to the island with the abundant fruit trees. One day the crocodile decided he wait until night and he would lay on the rock to catch the monkey. Now the monkey was smart and he immediately noticed that the crocodile was on the rock so he decided to trick him. He began talking and acted confused that the rock would not talk back to him. The crocodile then thought that the rock must talk back to him and he responded. The monkey then called the crocodile out. The monkey then acted defeated and told the crocodile to open his mouth and he would jump in, knowing that when crocodiles had their mouths open they closed their eyes. The monkey then jumped over the crocodile and ran up his tree. The crocodile appreciated the monkey's wit and decided to leave him alone.
• Research: 
• Hinduwebsite.com
• When doing stories about animals, I like to first look up their significance within the culture. The first article I read made this statement: " India is probably the only country in the world where life in all forms is honored and revered, and where you will find temples and rituals for animals." I started by searching for the significance of monkeys in Hinduism. This same article said that monkeys are prominent in the public eye due to their association with Rama. It also specifically stated in the Jataka tales, there are many stories of monkeys. Another interesting this the article said was, "that the stories in the Jataka tales point to the monkeys fickleness, mischievous nature, lack of discretion, and foolish behavior." I found this statement interesting. In this story, the monkey was very smart, but he was very selfish. He knew what he wanted and it almost seemed like he would do anything to get it. The article also said that monkeys typically personify, "positive qualities as obedience, loyalty, duty, divinity, righteousness, courage, and selflessness." I did not agree this statement in the terms of this particular story. I thought the monkey was selfish in the fact that he wanted the  fruit. My idea for this story is to make the monkey more like the monkey depicted typically. Maybe I could make him like Hanuman and possess his qualities. Maybe the monkey to eventually sacrifice himself to the crocodile. He could have a divine call to please everyone. I feel like this would be an interesting twist on this story. Of course, I would also put the story in the monkeys perspective. Or I could even make it like a retelling of his story. I could make all the monkeys find what this particular monkey did honorable and they told his story from generation to generation. There are a lot of options with this story.
• ** This site had a lot of information about all the sacred animals of Hinduism. 
• Kashgar
• The next source I found was on Hanuman from the Ramayana. I remembered Hanuman, and I really liked his character, however, I did not relate any of his qualities to the monkey from the story.
• I
• I spent my time on researching the monkey since I want the story to be about him. I thought if I got more insight, I could make the story more traditional and relate it more to the culture.
• Bibliography: "The Monkey and The Crocodile" from the Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit