Reading Notes: English Fairy tales Unit (1): Reading B- The Ass, the Table, and the Stick

Picture of a Donkey spitting gold by John D. Batten

My ideas: This story was very neat. I liked how there was magic in the story and how two unfortunate people were joined together and had wealth. I like the troubles that the boy goes through to gain his fortune. People keep taking advantage of him, and this is much like how people do now day. However, I did not like how when the son finally regained all his fortunes, his father had died, and he was not able to show him. I wonder, if the boy would share his fortune with his father? Was he riding back home to show off to his father or was he intending to rub it in? What if the father had been alive and the son was able to rub in his new found wealth. I also really liked how in the end of the story, the boy still chose the maiden to be his wife, despite all the others with more wealth. I would like to change this story to the boy's perspective. Doing this would allow the audience to be more connected. This would also allow us to see how the boy reacts when he finds his fortunes gone. Also, simply putting it in his perspective would add a lot of detail to the story. From this, we could find out what attracted him to the maiden. Were they childhood friends? Was she really pretty? Also, how did he feel every time he rode home and he realized what had happened? Was he angry? Why was he riding home to begin with? This story has a lot of different ways I could retell it.


Bibliography: Jacobs, Joseph. English Fairy Tales. English Fairy Tales Unit (1). The Ass, the Table, and the Stick.