Week 13 Reading Diary: Italian Popular Tales

This week I chose to do my reading on the Italian Popular Tales unit by Thomas Frederick Crane. I decided on this one because it was filled with stories I had never read before! I enjoyed reading Zelinda and the Monster because it reminded me of Beauty and the Beast. I couldn't believe that her father decided to give Zelinda up to the dragon-like creature... it seems as if he should have sacrificed himself! And still Zelinda cared for her father so much that she finally gave in to marrying the creature so she could see her father again before he died. I like the meaning behind this story that looks can be deceiving. It's easy for people to judge someone just based off of their looks! I like that this challenges that belief. Water and Salt was a very simple story but I still enjoyed reading it. I was shocked that the father tried to kill his own daughter for saying that she loved him more than water and salt... it seemed so extreme to me! It was nice to see her sisters save her from death because it seems like a common theme in these fairy tales is that the sisters hate the third one! The ending made me happy because she was able to prove to her father that water and salt really are important to a meal and that he was wrong for wanting to kill her. The Ingrates was an interesting story. It seemed very backwards to me because all of the characters were cruel to each other and could care less if one was killed. I wasn't a fan of the moral of the story that those who do good deeds aren't rewarded and those that are evil are rewarded... I could change this in my storytelling this week!

(Photograph of Red Rose. Source: Pixabay)