The Story Is an Integral Part of Our Lives Essay Example

order to live better the ox needs to refuse the food and workload. The master has the power to understand animals and overhears the donkey giving this advice, so he makes the donkey do the ox’s job. While the ox was now in comfort, the donkey was doing all the dirty work of the ox. The donkey’s act of troublemaking only made it worse for him because now the ox was living in comfort while he was being overworked.

This story that the Vizier tells his daughter is important because he is using it to convince his daughter on why she shouldn’t marry the Shahrayar. He is using the story to give a lesson on minding your own business. It makes no sense on how Shahrazad is willing to risk her life by putting herself into known danger. She knows the consequences and the capabilities of Shahrayar. Through this story, the Vizier is comparing Shahrazad to the donkey and Shahrayar to the ox. The main point of the story is to demonstrate how the donkey inserts himself into someone else’s business, the ox, and the donkey ends up suffering. The main mission of this story is to advise her that she also should not go into something that she is not a part of because it will only result in her suffering; just like the donkey which resulted in him to put his life in discomfort.

This story gives a lesson which proves that you should not get into others business because it will backfire at you. Storytelling to give lessons on why you shouldn’t get involved in others business is still present today in human society.

People often give stories to others by speaking of their own experiences to help other people avoid getting themselves into trouble like they once did, this is to present a lesson. Everyone wants to help other people out in the times of distress, however, you should not push the limit. Sometimes the better option is to stay away from the problem and let the person deal with it on their own because if you get in the middle of it then it will affect your life. When you mind your own business you will not be involved in drama and will have more peace in your life.

However, this lesson does not work for Shahrazad. After successfully marrying Shahrayar, Shahrazad tells a list of stories to keep herself alive. She does this to keep the king interested until she can reach her goal. She starts the story of “The Merchant and the Demon,” which includes an additional three tales which are used to persuade. The Merchant and the Demon is about a prosperous king who takes a break during his journey to eat dates and bread. As the king eats, he throws pits from his saddle bag on the floor which furiates a demon who claims that the merchant’s action killed the demon’s son. As a result, the demon insists to kill the king for the inconvenience he has caused.

Three stories are told by three different men to persuade the demon to not sacrifice the king. Storytelling is powerful because it can change the decisions people are about to make. Sharazad uses an aspect of storytelling within her frame story to further explain the plot. Even

today, movies have segments where characters use storytelling to tell parts of the plot that aren’t shown in detail to the audience. This storytelling aspect is very significant in that regard to the entire plot of the story. Shahrazad does the same thing here. In her larger story, she wants to explain part of the plot where the three old man give backstories of their life in order to persuade the demon to spare the king’s life.

The first story called “First Man’s Tale,” is about a man who marries his cousin that is unable to give him children, so he gets a mistress which gave him a son. He had to go on a journey for one year and left his wife with his mistress and son. The wife learned spells and turned the mistress into a cow, and the son into a bull; then, gave them both to the shepherd. When the man returned, his wife lied saying that the mistress died, and the son ran away. When it was time to sacrifice cows, the wife persuaded the man to sacrifice the mistress who was disguised as a cow. After the mistress was sacrificed, she was mainly skin and bones, so the wife persuaded her husband to sacrifice his son who was disguised as the bull. However, the man decided to spare him. When the shepherd took the bull back to the cattle, his daughter was an expert in the art of spells, so she knew that it was the man's son. The man asked the shepherd’s daughter to uncast the spell, and the daughter said only if she gets to marry the son

and turn his wife into a deer to control her from more evil.

This story is important because it is being used as a resource to persuade the demon to spare the king. This story is able to keep the demon interested enough to hear until the end and benefits in favor of the king. This story is interesting because it gives a lesson about lying. The wife is obviously jealous of the mistress and the son because she has to share her husband with them. She wasn’t able to please her husband with an offspring and must feel insecure that he had to get a mistress to give him what he wanted. The wife’s jealousy built up and she was able to take action when the husband left on his journey. Her jealousy led to her to cast spells on the ones who she despised, which was the mistress and the son. Then she lied to her husband without feeling any remorse. It should’ve been obvious to the husband that the wife wouldn’t take care of the mistress and the son because they are not an actual family.

Also the husband shouldn’t have believed his wife when she told him about the mistress dying and the son running away without any evidence to support the claims. At the end, the wife wasn’t able to get away with her lies because she got caught, and when she got caught she had to tolerate the outcome. This story teaches a lesson that lying is not good because eventually you will get caught in your lies and end up suffering the consequence. Storytelling is still used to this day

to give lessons on why lying backfires at you. It is in human nature for people to lie because they do not want to disappoint you with the truth and often can’t face the truth themselves because they start to believe their own lies. People tells stories to persuade how lying is bad and to prevent people from lying in the future. The stories related to lying teach a lesson that when you lie you end up hurting yourself because you deal with the punishment. It is also embarrassing to get caught lying and then having to own up to it because now people know that you are a liar and will have a difficult time trusting you.

The second story called “Second Man’s Tale,” is about a man who introduces the two dogs he is with as his brothers. Their father had left them all 1000 dinars each, however the two brothers lost everything after a business trip. The brothers came back to him with nothing and he divided up his profits and shared among them two. The brothers then convinced him to go on a business trip as well, so he sold everything and ended up with 6000 dinars. He took 3000 with him and hid 3000 incase they came back with nothing. The business trip was successful and he met a girl who he fell in love with and got married to. The two brothers could not stand his happiness due to their jealousy and threw him and his wife into the ocean. The wife turned into a demon and carried him out of the sea, pledging to kill his two brothers. However

he did not let her, so his wife made her sister turn the two brothers into dogs.

This story is also important because it is also used as an attempt to save the king. This old man’s story teaches a lesson about gratitude. When both of his brothers came back to him with nothing, he was humble enough to share his own profits. He could have acted with greed and not share any of his hard earned profits with them because they all started with the same amount of money. The brother was not obligated to take care of his other two brothers, but he chose to out of his own desire. It is obvious that the brothers were filled with greed to begin with, they went on business trips to make more money but weren’t able to achieve their goal. They lost their wealth multiple times trying to gain more. Then they took this greed and persuaded the stable brother to go on a business trip. After making successful profits, the older brother found love. He told his brothers that they can have all the prosperity and he just wanted to be with his significant other.

The older brother did not care about money, he was humble and only cared about happiness. However, the two brothers whom he helped were envious of him and his success. They forgot all that he has done for them and betrayed him. They threw him and his love into the sea, but they were not able to get away with it. Even at the end, their brother still remained humble and did not want to punish them for what they

did to him. They should’ve been happy for their brother because he was finally happy, he spent all his life taking care of them and they should’ve been supportive to him. Since they weren’t, they suffered a consequence where they were turned into dogs for their mischievous act. The lesson of this story is to be grateful for the ones who helped you in need and not take advantage of them. When you act in kindness it is rewarded in your favor. However, when you act in jealousy you are punished for your misdemeanor. Storytelling is still used today in human society to present lessons on why you shouldn’t repay kindness with evil.

The third story called, “Third Man’s Tale,” is about a man whose wife is a mule. He went on a journey for a year and when he returned he found his wife sleeping with a black slave. His wife saw him and cast a spell on him which turned him into a dog so she can chase him out. He then ran into a butcher shop and ate bones where a butcher found him and brought him home. The daughter of the butcher noticed that the dog was a man who was put under a spell. She then did a spell to turn him back to normal. He then requested to know how to turn his wife into a mule and then did so when she was asleep.

This story is important because it is the last story that needs be granted in order to save the king. This story that Sharazad presents teaches a lesson about betrayal. The wife was unable to stay

faithful to her husband as he left on a journey. She was caught red handed cheating on him and due to quick reaction, she turned him into a dog. There was no way for her to explain herself because she was caught in the act so her only way to deal with it was to get rid of the situation. She did this by chasing him out until he ran away. If the wife didn’t cheat in the first place and just remained loyal she would not have to alter her lifestyle. Storytelling is still used today to give lessons on why betrayal only fires back at you. If you are not faithful you will be living your life in fear. When you do things you are not supposed to be doing you only hurt yourself at the end.

All three of these stories told by Shahrazad amazed the demon and then he let the king go. These three stories all teach lessons. The first tale teaches a lesson on why lying is bad. The second tale teaches a lesson about gratitude. The third tale teaches a lesson about betrayal. All three of these stories are treated with justice.

Storytelling is still used to this day because of the beneficial factors that it holds. It is a resource that is used to give lessons to all ages of mankind. Storytelling is significant because it has shaped the world we live in by influencing it through lessons, inspirations, ideas, and traditions. Through our experiences, we create our own stories which need to be told in order to educate others. Stories are used to educate as well as entertain,

that why it is still important to mankind to this day.