Plot:
The story begins with a shepherd boy who was sitting on the hill side, watching the villagers’ sheep. He was bored and then an idea popped in his head. He shouted: “Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!” The villagers ran to his help but they found no wolf, the shepherd boy laughed at their angry faces. The villagers were frustrated; they warned the boy not to shout “Wolf!” when there is no wolf before they went downhill.
Later, the boy shouted again. “Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!” The villagers rushed to his help but there is still no sign of wolf. They were angry and they left the boy alone on the hill. All of a sudden, the boy saw a big wolf prowling the sheep and he shouted: “Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is chasing the sheep!” The villagers thought that he was trying to fool them again, so they didn’t come.
At sunset, everyone wondered why the shepherd boy hadn't returned to the village with their sheep. They went up the hill to find the boy. They found him weeping. The boy asked the villagers why they didn’t come and help him when there was a wolf.
An old man tried to comfort the boy as they walked back to the village. "We'll help you look for the lost sheep in the morning," he said, putting his arm around the young shepherd, "Nobody believes a liar...even when he is telling the truth!"
Reasons:
I like this story very much because there are elements or values of honesty, helping each other and forgiveness in it. We can make the children to see the value of honesty by telling them that lying is a very bad habit. Besides that, they villagers always help each other out and they are willing to forgive the young shepherd boy although he has played prank on them twice. By judging at the actions of the villagers, the children will learn that helping each other and willing to forgive are good values and thus they will practice the good values instead of the bad value – lying.
Elements:
The elements that make the story interesting is the author portray the shepherd as a young shepherd which means he is a kid. And by doing so, the children will be able to get into the character of the young shepherd easier. Moreover, repetition is used when the boy shouts WOLF! By using repetition, the children will be able to remember the story line. Besides that, the author also portrays the elder as someone who is forgiveness and so it gives the children to feel save to admit their wrongdoing to their parents. By trusting the adults, the children will not lie in order to "cover" their wrongdoing. This will make the children to be responsible for their own mistakes.
Portrayal of the character:
The young shepherd is portrayed as a mischievous boy who likes to lie to get people’s attention and to amuse himself. This characteristics are so true as some kids also as mischievous as the young shepherd and this story will suits as a teacher for them. The other characters are the villagers and the old man who comfort the boy at the end of the story. The villagers are portrayed as good Samaritan as they always help each other out, just like they help the young shepherd to chase the wolf away. The old man is portrayed as wise, empathy and willing to forgive others. This can be seen that he is willing to forgive the young shepherd who told lies and help him to search for the sheep tomorrow morning. He didn’t scold or beat the young shepherd for his own mistakes.
Suitability:
For this story, I think that it suits the criterion of a children story. It has good moral values in it and I think the children will know the consequences of telling lies. By learning all these good values, the children will be able to be a good man in the future. Last but not least, to my children to be - I am going to tell you the same story over and over again, don't get bored.
2 comments:
Dear Saw,
This is indeed a good story. I was told this story by my mother when I was a small girl. However, it was 'tamil versioned' one. In that story, it was not the wolf but tiger. Children stories are very interesting. It is a good feeling to listen to all these kind of stories; especially when they are told by our mother during our meal time. To think back about it, I had such a beautiful childhood. My mother would be feeding me lunch and she would start off with a story. As she finished the story, my meal would have been finished too. We should tell our children some stories to occupy their childhood with wonderful memories. Besides that, this kind of story has its own moral values that makes our children to start develop their thinking skills at a very young age and learn to behave themselves.
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