Week 11 Story: The Greedy Giver
One day, a man was walking along a path when he saw a homeless man shivering in the cold. He offered the homeless man his cloak and told him to keep it so he could stay warm. The homeless man thanked him and wrapped himself in the soft fabric. As the man continued to walk down the path, it started to rain. He found a fox along the way and asked it to go retrieve the cloak from the homeless man. The man refused to give the cloak back, and sent the fox away. This angered the giving man, and so he went to retrieve the cloak for himself.
"It is raining. Give me my cloak back" said the giver.
"You gave it to me and told me to keep it always. It is mine now" stated the homeless man.
"Fine. If you will not give it back to me, then I will take it from you. You have suffered out here for a long time, you can suffer longer. How dare you be mean to me when I have been nothing but nice to you" yelled the giver, who had taken the cloak off of the homeless man and wrapped himself in it.
This angered the homeless man, but instead of yelling back, he waited for the giver to walk away. When he could no longer see the giver, he used his powers to summon the biggest lightning storm there had ever been. The giver saw the storm heading towards him and tried to find shelter along the path. The only place he could find was a little cave that he could barely fit in. Once the lightning storm had passed, the homeless man felt as though his revenge was not finished. He summoned a tornado to chase the giver for as long as he could run.
The giver left the cave only to be met by a green sky and a tornado heading right for him. He began to run and weave between the trees only to notice that the tornado followed his every move.
"Stop following me! I just want to live!" yelled the giver as he ran.
The homeless man heard his cry, and debated on wether or not his revenge was completely finished. He decided to let the man run for a little while longer before making the tornado disappear. As soon as the tornado was gone, the giver collapsed to the ground. He looked up to notice the homeless man standing in front of him.
"Maybe now you will learn to be kind to others and to keep your word" said the homeless man.
The giver lay there in disbelief, not believing that the homeless man was the one who conjured those storms as revenge. He apologized to the homeless man, stood to his feet, and began to walk home, but not before handing the homeless man his cloak and sticking to his word.
Authors note: The story I chose for this week is titled "The Rolling Rock" (link above) written by George Bird Grinnell. This story is about a man who gets tired on his walk, sits down on a rock, and gives the rock his cloak to protect it from the hot sun. The rock then does not want to give the cloak back when the man asks for it. The man then snatches the cloak back yells at the rock. Later on the rock starts rolling towards the man in an attempt to crush him. The man removes his cloak to try to run faster, but the rock is closing in. He asked many animals to help save him, and finally a bird broke the rock into two pieces and saved the man. For my story, a man gives a homeless man his cloak to keep him warm, but then becomes greedy and demands it back. He steals it back from the homeless man only to discover the man has powers and now wants revenge.
Ashlyn,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the way you rewrote the story to be just a tad more realistic. It is hard to talk about realism with a story that has a person conjuring storms and tornadoes, but I did like the touch of replacing the rock with the homeless man. Even replacing a typically non-sentient being with a sentient one does let it make just a bit more sense. Good story!
This was a really great story! I like how you changed the story slightly but still stayed with the original theme. It is very creative! I like the part when the homeless man didn’t yell back, but waited for the giver to walk away. Anticipating for him to make a move is making me want to read more and more of the story. I like how you incorporated weather as parts of his powers. Great job!
ReplyDeleteHi Ashlyn! I really liked your story and how it seemed to have a karma aspect to it. I found it interesting that the homeless man had those types of powers. It might be good to maybe describe why he had those capabilities. I do like how you decided to change the character of the rock into a person! That made it more relatable to our day to day lives as humans.
ReplyDeleteHi there Ashlyn! I read your story and it was so crazy. I didn't read the base work so I wasn't sure what the overall plot was supposed to be, but I could tell it was a sort of moral understanding tale from the beginning. I like that your version is understood from a modern perspective, especially with how the world currently responds to the homeless. I think when he gained powers out of now where, I was a bit confused but still entertained! Interesting story, thanks for the read!
ReplyDeleteHey, Ashlyn!
ReplyDeleteThe Greedy Giver is a wonderful story. I really like the changes that you made. I thought that it fit better to have the giver give to a homeless man instead of a rock. As others have mentioned, it makes it more relatable. Your descriptions of the storms really put the reader in the giver's shoes. I can picture the green sky, which is such an eerie phenomena that occurs right before/during a tornado. I cannot imagine how terrified I would be. I would have to say that I don't mind the homeless man's powers coming out of nowhere, I thought it gave it an, "Oh, snap!" moment.
Best,
Madi R.