Reading Notes: Italian Popular Tales, Part B

 Week 14

Finishing up this week of reading notes I focused on  Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Crane, Part B. Since this semester is coming to a close and these are some of the last reading notes, I really am going to miss these fun stories to read from week to week. I wanted to stick with the same section as I usually do every week. I can't wait to finish this up but it is also very bittersweet!! 

(Source: Dove)

The first story I wanted to take notes on was the first one I read. It's called "The Language of Animals." I enjoyed the story right off the bat because of the name and the main character. The son gets made fun of for knowing the language of animals. He is seen as an outcast, but in my opinion I find this so be so cool! The story connects humans with nature and that kind of style of writing is beautiful to me. I felt as if this character went on a journey to discover who he was and why it was important to understand the animals. It's interesting to me because the animals gave the man more in his life than his own father. He even became the Pope which is such a noble honor to have. It felt as if the animals also knew his own language. 

The second story I took notes over was "A Feast Day." I enjoyed this story because you figure it out at the end why the title is "A Feast Day." It was kind of funny to me because it was written kind of like a poem, or riddle form. The pets ate the fowl and knew they were going to get punished. In the end it didn't even really matter that they did because so many other events happened during that time. I really liked the dog character for some reason because he seemed like an actual dog with his ideas. It was funny that they all fell into each others mouths. 

The third story I wanted to talk about is called "Buchettino" because it follows an encounter with an ogre. I thought this was a very odd story. It was kind of strange to me that he was sweeping the stairs and found a penny which then led him to going to buy figs. I also thought the encounter with the ogre felt very casual. I always find it kind of fun when someone gets captured and outsmarts the creature they're captured by. I also just found Buchettino to be a little cocky after he got away from the ogre. I didn't really enjoy his character very much but I did like the premise of the story.