Week 5 Essay: Rags to Riches

In the Turkish Fairy Tales reading unit, I thought that the two types of settings contrasted nicely against each other. Almost every story first showed the poor youth in a wilderness setting, and then the story was about the youth's progression into nobility and wealth.


I pictured these stories in a world like the Disney movie Aladdin because I've never been to Turkey.

(Image information: "Stock Aladdin Arabian Palace" uploaded by Greyfaerie4.)

At the beginning of the Fear story, the youth is sitting at home with his mother. I pictured a modest three-room home in an area with wildlife. By the end of the story, the youth has become the shah, the king,  and he has a forty-day long marriage feast. It's a strong contrast between a humble lifestyle and the wealth of a king that so many people dream of. It also reminds me of diversity apparent in Mark Twain's The Pauper and The Prince. 

In the story about the Fish-Peri, the youth begins as an orphan, who is poor and hungry. He becomes a fisherman to put food on his table, and he catches a very special fish, a fairy. The fairy puts his home in order, and he wins her hand in marriage by performing amazing tasks for the king. Once he marries her, there is once again a feast that lasts for forty days and nights. This story shows the disparity between those who have too much food and those who don't know where their next meal will come from.

Finally, in the Patience-Stone and Patience-Knife fairy tale, we open with a poor woman and her daughter. The mother takes in the community's washing and the daughter does embroidery to make a meager living. The girl makes her way to a beautiful palace and finds a prince in need of her help. Once she helps him and he hears the story of the struggles she has endured, he marries her and brings her mother to live with them in the palace.

The contrasting settings in these Turkish fairy tales really helped highlight the recurring theme of rags to riches.