Week 3 Story: The Bundle of Sticks

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of Edwards lived an honorable King Edward III and his family. King Edward was known for his patriotism, strength and loyalty to his people. He was the type of leader that wanted to serve the people and wanted the best for his kingdom. As time passed by, King Edward started to age and had eight children of whom six were male. Per tradition, the oldest of his children would inherit the throne and continue his legacy. However, King Edward was known for his righteousness and wanted to grant all eight of his children the right to have a chance to inherit the throne. When the news broke, the eldest son was furious and felt belittled by his father. However, all of King Edward's children were currently working under him either in the kingdom’s castle or leading sectors of the army except the eldest one. The distress among the children worried King Edward and left him in dilemma whether to be righteous or follow the traditions. As the King was debating with the Queen daily about this topic for months, tension started to increase among the children which made the King feel like a decision had to be made. The Queen favored the oldest son to reign since the youngest four of the six were from a different wife.



That being said, the King had to set a family meeting to gather all the children and announce his decision. Before they met, the two eldest children decided to call for a meeting amongst their siblings to discuss this topic and try to come an agreement before they meet the King. The youngest child Jacob was known to be the bravest of men in the army and he had earned many honorable medals due to his vast achievements. Jacob had considered being the successor of his great father the King. When the children met, Jacob entered with an attitude and mentality that he deserved the inheritance as he had accomplished the most for the kingdom and the people.



The eldest child disagreed and wanted the throne to himself although he had not engaged in any military activity before. King Edward’s greatest fear was that his family would break apart due to greediness. That was prone to occurring because of a clash between Jacob and the eldest son.



Later that night, the whole family got together and King Edward was ready to give a speech about his decision. At the table he announced that this decision was not something that he could have decided himself because there were certain traditions that the Kingdom had to follow. That being said, he announced that the eldest son would reign and continue his legacy but could not avoid honoring Jacob for his great achievements for the Kingdom. The King advised his eldest son to take Jacob into his cabinet and keep him close to him as he believes Jacob has a lot of potential. Additionally, he also mentioned how by doing that, they would stay united and unity is strength! Although the king made the emphasis of his speech to be unity, the eldest son was unhappy about the King’s comment on Jacob as he had never seen him honor somebody in that manner before.



The whole family seemed at an agreement and Jacob was accepting of his older half-brother taking the throne and looked forward to serving his Kingdom. Months later, the King died and the whole kingdom mourned his death. The eldest son took the throne but refused to take Jacob into his cabinet. The jealousy in his mind and heart grew as the King’s last days were spent glorifying Jacob and the accomplishments he had made for the Kingdom. It became like a sickness in his mind, where he could not see beyond what he was capable of instead what Jacob has done that he has not achieved. This cancerous mentality kept on growing in his mind and his second brother was driven on the same wave. The elder siblings’ hate was overcoming the love in their heart and mind. They had refused to conduct meetings with Jacob and left him out of most activities. That started creating some tension among the family. The bond of unity that was left by the King was overtaken by the jealousy and hatred.







The thoughts of getting rid of Jacob had been lingering in their mind ever since the King’s last speech. Finally, they had a plot to overcome Jacob and get rid of him once and for all. One night the two eldest sons gathered and decided that this would be the perfect time to kill Jacob. They entered his room, and the younger of the two brothers grabbed Jacob steady as the eldest took out a knife and said, “The only thing the King said before dying was how great you are! Since he isn’t here anymore, you shouldn’t be too!” Jacob was at a loss for words as he got stabbed and died. The morning after, it was announced in the city that Jacob had been murdered but there were no signs of who had committed that murder. The rest of the siblings knew that the two eldest were plotting for the murder and decided to go to the people and overthrow the king. Since Jacob was the people’s champ, everyone stood behind his siblings to overthrow the new King and so they did! The Kingdom imprisoned the eldest son while the rest of the family agreed on the eldest sister to take the throne and become the Queen of the kingdom.

GoT

Author’s note: The original story discusses how unity is strength. An old man before his death wanted to teach his children this moral lesson so he used a bundle of sticks to display it. He proved to them that individually they could not break the bundle of sticks. However, if they each took a stick to break, they can break it.

That resembled unity and the strength it can give. I decided to make a twist in the story to where jealousy and greediness overcome unity even if the family or group has a strong bond. Additionally, when it comes to greediness, many characters do unrighteous actions that are driven by unjustifiable motives. Due to their strength they normally can’t be called out for it by the people, but the story portrays how unity of the people can overthrow the strength of the leader. This is because leaders are created by the people and not vice versa.

The picture I chose is taken from Game of Thrones. It is a picture of Ned Stark getting executed. This picture was a shocking moment for most viewers of this show because he was accused for committing treason. The accusation, similar to the story above, was a result of jealousy and greediness by the Lannisters.


Jacobs 72. The bundle of Sticks From the Fables of Aesop by Joseph Jacobs

Reading notes: Aesop's Fables, Part B

The Serpent and the File (Jacobs 26): I found this story particularly interesting because I’ve seen the moral being applied around me. One thing that came to my mind was how people sometimes tend to react in violent ways and always regret it or realize that it was useless. A prime example is losing while playing video games or watching a competitive sport. People tend to react emotionally and punch a wall or break something around them to later come and realize that this had no logical reason to be done. In the story, the snake reacted to the file without even considering the impact the file actually had. Therefore, the snake ended up more damaged just because of an emotional reaction. That is another point of view to the lesson learned from the story.

The Serpent and the File

The Bundle of Sticks (Jacobs 72): This story has great meaning and should be a principle of every society. Union does give strength as the author is trying to portray in the story. A prime example is the work ethic of ants. Ants when separated find difficulty to collect food, build their passages and survive. However, the nature of ants portrays how strong unity can make you. Ants are able to build deep sophisticated passages and gather enough food to feed the whole army. The father in the story was trying to show his children how if they work together after his pass, they will be able to break the strongest bundles that none of them can break by themselves. That is a valuable lesson to learn.

The Oak and the Reed (Crane 23): The author emphasized an important moral to the story which is to bend but not break. He used the Giant Oak as a symbol of strength but showed how even at its highest strength it can suffer through a storm. However, an important point is that the Giant Oak was strong enough to maintain its roots by staying put as opposed to a normal tree that would’ve been broken. This lesson can be applied to people who want to adapt a strong personality. If they are tested, they must not break but bend and stand their ground to be able to recover and grow even taller.

Reading notes: Aesop's Fables, Part A

The Lion and the Statue (Jacobs 35): The moral of a story is that we can easily represent things as we wish them to be. A man and a lion were trying to discuss their strength relative to each other. The man reasoned himself to be stronger than the lion due to his greater intelligence. After the lion saw the statue that portrayed Hercules overcoming a lion, the lion told him it proves nothing since the statue is manmade. I think there is a stronger morale to the story since the man thought that since he perceived himself to be of greater intelligence he would be able to fool the lion by what he is trying to portray.

The Lion and the Statue (Crane 30): This story is short but has a great lesson to be learned. The story depends on the teller is the moral of the story which portrays how subjectivity plays a role in storytelling. The story here was told through a form of art, a statue in specific. This shows how art is subjective from the author and the audiences side. The author can use art to display their own point of view on a specific matter. While the audience can also perceive the art using their own point of view. So the story depends on teller but also depends on what the listener chooses to take from it.

(Lion and the Statue)

The Ass in the Lion’s Skin (Crane 29): This story portrayed the typical clumsiness of the ass. The moral of the story is “Impostors generally forget something” which is true and something that I personally can relate to. In Lebanon, we have a saying that “the rope of lies short” which means that if you lie eventually you will get caught regardless of how sly you are. I feel the author portrayed the same thing in this story but made it more universal to be applicable on impostors also.