Reader's Journal # 6, Genies, Meanies, and Magic Rings

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

I’ve started reading the book Genies, Meanies, and Magic Rings.  The covers says, “retold by,” Stephen Mitchell.  It’s a book of folk tales.  One of the stories is, “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.”  This story is almost nothing like the movie.  Here is a great passage I found in the story:

                “Lend me a hand, Uncle.  I don’t think I can make it up by myself.”

                “First give me the lamp, my boy,” the sorcerer said.  “Then I’ll help you up.”

                “No, no, Uncle,” Aladdin said.  “It’s not the lamp that’s weighing me down.  Just lend me a hand.  I’ll give you the lamp as soon as I’m out of here.”

                “Don’t be stubborn, boy.  Give me the lamp!”

                “But, Uncle, it’s buried under – “

                “I don’t care where it is, you little scoundrel.  Give the lamp right now!  Do you hear me?  Right now!”

                “But, Uncle – “

                “Don’t you ‘But, Uncle’ me!  Hand over that lamp you filthy little beggar!  Hand it over right now if you know what’s good for you!”

                I picked this passage because this is where all of the action in the story begins.  The significance of this passage in the story is that without this passage there never would have been any action.

                The two before reading strategies I used was One, to look at the front cover of the book and figure out what it is about.  When I looked at the front cover, I noticed that the book was going to be about a genie.  Two, I read the synopsis and I figured out that it was going to be a bunch of stories of Arabian folk tales.  My two during reading strategies was One, to see what was different in the story from the movies, “Aladdin,” and Two, figure out what was different from what was in the movie.  My two after reading strategies, were One, to understand the story, and Two, to understand what could happen in real life and what was folk tale-ish.

                The characteristic of folk tales is that they are very unrealistic.  The characters in the story were round and flat – they never changed from the beginning to the end of the story.  The sorcerer, who doesn’t have a name, wants the magic lamp, and Aladdin wants to marry Princess Laila.    The protagonist is Aladdin and the antagonist is the sorcerer.  There is no foil in the story, Aladdin tells what he’s thinking to a few characters.  The setting is “a very long time ago in a city in China.”  The weather conditions in the story were always dry.  The social conditions were the people were always happy to start a new day.

                The exposition is that Aladdin is poor boy and he meets a rich sorcerer who pretends to be his uncle.  The rising action is when the sorcerer sees how much Aladdin has gained with the lamp and ring.  The sorcerer tricks Princess Laila to give in her old lamp and trade it in for a new lamp and that’s how the sorcerer gets back the lamp and steals everything that Aladdin owns, including Princess Laila.  The climax is when Aladdin finds Princess Laila and all of his items in Morocco and saves her and the lamp by getting a strong drug and giving to Princess Laila.  She invites the sorcerer for dinner and gets him drunk.  When he isn’t looking, she pours the powdered drug in his wine and mixes it.  The sorcerer drinks it and klunks out.  The falling action is when they take the lamp back and return everything back to normal.  The resolution is that the king was so impressed and happy for Aladdin that he fired his old prime minister and hired Aladdin as his new prime minister and everyone lived happily ever after. 

The conflict is character vs. character.  The tone of the story is serious.  The mood is happy.  The theme of the story is don’t take for granted what you have.  The moral of the story is the same thing.  The point of view is with Aladdin.  The pattern of organization is short story.  The author’s purpose is to retell what he thinks is a true story.  The author’s perspective is that he is for the book.  The figurative language I found was “Dear God, where did all this luxury come from?  Is it real?  Am I dreaming?”

I would rate this story a four out of five stars because it sounds like a story that all folk tales would use but it’s still good.

Sincerely,

Michael