Reading Notes, Jewish Fairy Tales: The Magic Palace

 Week 3

For the reading assignment I found a story that kept me extremely engaged and entertained all the way until the end. The Magic Palace a fairy tale by Gertrude Landa (1919) built up suspense to show how a man turned rags literally into riches. I liked how the story started off by really giving insight into how the main character Ibrahim really saw the world. From the start he cared about other people. He wanted to see a life where other people didn't experience the pain of being poor and not having enough food or good enough clothes. He then was introduced as one who was affected by this and wanted to try and support his family. I enjoyed reading about this because it's a lot of the same problems we have today. Many people can't afford to get nice clothes and that even has the chance of hindering them from finding good jobs. The story went on to introduce a mysterious man who asked to be his "slave" and Ibrahim at first was completely transparent with the Arab saying he was in no position to pay him to be his "slave." That just goes on to show how Ibrahim wasn't thinking of himself. They used each other to find a way to share the wealth of someone who had more than enough. Ibrahim was able to take care of his family with the help of the Arab. I did think it was strange that Ibrahim didn't actually try hard to find out who the Arab was but rather just used his idea to make them some money. I do think the Arab was trying to be mysterious and knew if he was helping someone selfless and one who was deep in their faith, he would figure out who the Arab was. I could tell the Arab was made assure of this when Ibrahim went home and prayed. When he comes to realize the man that helped him was Elijah the Prophet he was able to pay back the honor of being blessed by him to other people. This ties back to the main idea that Ibrahim wanted to see a world where no one couldn't afford food or clothes, which is what he was able to give the people. I thought the story came full circle and I really enjoyed finding out who the mysterious man was at the very end of the story. 

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