Reflection+2


 * Reflection 2 **

Guinea Fowl Child (from Children of Wax)

Write a brief explanation about the THEME of the story and what it means to you PERSONALLY.


 * Tip**: Your reflection should demonstrate both a profound understanding of the story and an ability connect it to your own life.



Guinea Fowl Child Reflection Kevin Cai

When hearing this story being read to me, I thought it was just going to be a story about some animal and how it saved the day. Turns out, I was right. The story of the guinea fowl child began quite similar to other African folk tales. The rich man and his wife were happy, but there was a problem. From this point on, it starts getting quite strange. The wife was then removed from the family, and ridiculed by the new wife. The guinea fowl comes eventually, and gets the new wife and the husband to kill themselves. While reading this story, you would naturally expect the word “karma” to come into mind, seeing as how the new wife made fun and laughed at the old one, but justice came to, at the end. Personally, I can relate to this in many ways. I usually take the spot of the 2nd wife, meaning that I poke fun at people. Usually I get something coming at me, that I don’t expect, but “teaches me a lesson I’ll never forget”. The lesson usually goes out of my mind in a matter of hours, but never the less it helped. To be brutally honest, I didn’t like this story one bit. It’s just the characters, the idea, and the plot doesn’t mix. I mean, whoever heard of talking guinea fowls and talking cooked and eaten ones too, along with people stabbing themselves for almost no reason.

Guinea Fowl Child Reflection Julie Liang The story started out typical enough with the antagonist making the protagonist's life miserable. However when it got to the whole guinea fowl part, I felt that the story took a very unrealistic turn. I could understand the acceptance of outward appearances and most fables do tend to include miraculousy intelligent creatures so I ignored that there was a talking bird being adopted. But as the story went on, and chewed and cooked bird meat began to sing in stomachs causing the owners of said stomachs to stab themselves, I thought that the morals of the story were lost behind the absolute ridiculousness of it all. While it was nice that the good wife got a happy ending with everything she ever wanted and the antagonists were killed for being so cruel, the ending still seems very inappropriate and rushed to me. I suppose the story got across that good things happen to those who earn it, what goes around comes around, don't judge based on outward appearances, etc, etc, etc, but I think a much more reasonable "child" and way of death could have been found. With all the morals that seemed to be packed into the story, the one I could relate to best was what goes around comes around. I don't think it has anything to do with karma, or mystical gods of fairness but rather taking action and experiencing the results. For example, I know I haven't treated everyone as I should've and I think i have lost many opportunities in making friends or deepening friendships. But when you are nice and considerate to someone, even doing something small like remembering a name, they tend to put together all those little things to form a good impression of you. With that good impression, they are much more likely to help or assist you should you ever need it. This can be seen happening in the story with the guinea fowl and Pitipiti. She was kind enough to look past the fact that the guinea fowl was just a bird and allowed it to stay with her during the nights. In turn, the guinea fowl helped to rid his "mother" of a bully.

Guinea Fowl Child - Alex Wu

Guinea Fowl Child's theme was manly the expression of karma. The new wife kept on insulting Pitipiti, and in the end the guinea fowl got his revenge. I’m pretty sure just about everybody can relate to this. There’s a lot of hate in the world, and I’ll be genuinely surprised if there’s a person in the world that has never been mean to another.

There are times that I’m having a bad day, and I just release the frustration on others, even if I don’t mean too. Emotions are a hard thing to control, but as the story showed; if you let it get too out of head you might not only end up hurting others, but yourself as well.

What bothers me most about the story is, how there was no indication about Pitipiti and Mzizi talking about it. I mean, if they had problems than instead of people childish and assuming what one another feels, they should’ve come together and talked. It’s really that simple, everybody has a reason for they’re actions, although they might seem rash and bad at first. If you slowly begin to understand why they’re doing it, you might be able to come to a compromise. I don’t feel that just killing off the two characters was a satisfying and appropriate conclusion.

Guinea Fowl Child – Birunthaa Jeyanandan Overall, to me, the story seemed very smooth. It had a nice flow to it. I felt that the story didn’t have much of a climax; there wasn’t a point in the story that seemed very exciting or mind-blowing. One part I liked in the story was how the guinea fowl had tricked Mzizi and his new wife into killing themselves just because they had singing dinner in their stomachs. The main theme in the story that I understood was that one must have trust, love and compassion for another human being, no matter what struggles life may bring. Having full trust and love on someone can bring a lot of understanding and compromise in situations that may cause problems. I, as a human being, always trust the people around me that I love the most. Some people that I’ve known were not quite trustworthy, but many other people have been very trustworthy and loving. As you’ve known people for many years, your bond with them expands and you get to know more about them; their dislikes, their qualities, their dreams, their desires. And as you get to know them better, you can start to realise a friendship bloom between you because you may share some of the same qualities or some of the same desires or some of the same dreams.

Guinea Fowl Child - MichaelZhang309 :) ^^^^^ awww birundi you did it b4 me D: I think this story was generally depicting that good things would happen to those who are kind, not cocky and rude. To me, it also shows that just because something or someone may be very different compared to you, you should still give them a chance because they may surprise you. I think that sometimes I relate to Pitipiti because there are times in life when I get picked on and I feel like I cannot do anything about it. At other times, I may relate to the guinea fowl because I generally care about my friends and I like helping them. Though some may disagree and some may not, I also think I am a pretty kind person. What I really liked about this story is that in the end, the woman who was kind and tried her best, got what she truly deserved, although I never expected that the rude woman would be killed along with the husband. I also liked how it kind of gave a message detailing the importance of acceptance and basically just saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Overall, I think this story was pretty interesting and it just goes to show you that how you choose to act towards people could ultimately get returned to you tenfold.

Guinea Fowl Child - Kevin Lee ==== This story has many of what I believe to be as inaccuracies, or things that generally would not happen in real life. The first of these inaccuracies is that she adopted the guinea fowl as her child, because if people are accustom to eating guinea fowls it would be very unlikely for her to adopt him as a child. Another inaccuracy is that her husband and his new wife stabbed themselves to stop the noise of the guinea fowls, because they would have to be pretty stupid to be stabbing themselves in the stomach in ways of trying to save themselves. Other than these inaccuracies I believe that this story has basically no moral values whatsoever because the only value that I can think of it having is that one should not just dump their spouse just because they are unable to have children or something that has no proper significance if the husband is extremely worried about having a child he can have a concubine or have polygamy (but these are frowned upon in today’s world).Overall I think this story is kind of crazy and very unrealistic (but this is my opinion). ====

The Guinea Fowl Child Reflection - Frank Personally, I felt that this story had very little moral value since the deeper moral implication and lessons are simply overwhelmed by the comedic gruesomeness of how this story ended. I guess that the story’s moral was that people should accept others and not look down on others. For example, Pitipiti adopted a guinea fowl despite the fact that it would seem ridiculous and others would mock her for it. On the other hand, the new wife jeered at Pitipiti even though she was hard at work in the fields and even brought a gift for the newborn child. I felt a personal connection in the way that sometimes there are very nice people who are still teased and made fun of. In many ways, this reflects the darkness of humanity and this story gave an interesting consequence to those who tease others. Many times in life, people are picked on and they may just ignore it but they are actually hurt inside. If Pitipiti did not meet that fowl, then her life would still be very miserable. This is why I think that people should stand up for themselves because of two reasons. First, you don’t see a guinea fowl every day. Second, if you stand up for yourself, the problem would be much smaller and there would be no need for anyone to die. Overall, I think this story had a good moral, but the strange ending made it much more average.

Guinea Fowl Child. Reflections ~ (Alan Li) Altogether, Guinea Fowl Child appears to be nothing more than a regurgitation of age-old universal themes in which a disadvantaged protagonist struggles and overcomes her misfortune through the use of deus ex machina. Yet, it's hard to ignore the illusion of subtler, grander interpretations hidden within off-handed phrases.

I feel that one such controversial notion is the out-of-character nature of the ending, in which a morbid climax is swiftly followed by a hasty resolution. While we assume that Pitipiti was satisfied with the death of her husband, the narrator spares but one line on the protagonist's reaction ("Pitipiti was pleased that she no longer had to suffer the taunts of the new wife"), and fails to acknowledge the consequential effects brought by the absence of her former love altogether. I mean, if you put the relatively large percentage of text used to portray Pitipiti's distress beforehand into perspective, one begins to suspect that the author purposely excluded these elements from the resolution.

Personally, I think that this has to do with the line-

"'But I cannot have a Guinea Fowl for my child!' She exclaimed. 'Everyone would laugh at me!'"

Which I felt was a major turning point in the story. If Pitipiti had not allowed her self-consciousness to shake her resolve, the entire outcome would most likely have been different. Most of the moral implications I can interpret from the story (Never impose upon yourself to appeal societal standards) revolve around that particular line.

Of course, that this has multiple personal applications goes without saying. I mean, I personally feel hesitant to voice myself under the spotlight, preferring to stick with smaller congregations of people. To live by freeing yourself from the hindrance of others is what I interpret as the moral of Guinea Fowl Child.

Guinea Fowl Child – Reflection Vivian Liu Although there wasn’t a definite and clear theme in this story, I think the main one (that I could pick out) was that what goes around comes around. The new wife of Mzizi was very mean and taunted Pitipiti every time she saw her, but by the end of the story, both the new wife and her husband were dead. Although the story could be seen as slightly morbid and unfortunate, I guess it is a way of exaggerating things and emphasizing the theme. Pitipiti was the opposite of the new wife, as she was kind and caring towards the guinea fowl. She ended up being “popular” with the men of the village, and living a peaceful life. Since the new wife was portrayed as a mean character, it resulted in unfortunate results. With this theme in mind, I think this story reminded me to be aware of all my actions, and not to take life for granted. However, it was fairly hard to make personal connections to this story because its plot was definitely out of the ordinary. Although this story was relatively short and to the point, there wasn’t much plot and character development, making the story almost boring at one point in time. The ending was also fairly rushed. With all that aside, the story was able to convey this particular theme to me.

Guinea Fowl Child Reflection –Austin O’Boyle ==== I think this story is a great example of karma or the “what goes around comes around” idea. Mzizi basically dumped his wife Pitipiti because she was unable to have children. He got re-married to some random other woman because as it seemed from the story, all Mzizi cared about was having children to work on his farm. The new wife would insult and taunt Pitipiti whenever she met up with her. Mzizi was so shallow had an immoral sense of priorities and it just seemed like he forgot about Pitipiti’s existence. Justice came through when the guinea fowl attacked Mzizi’s farm and eventually ended up making the two kill themselves. I felt the way Mzizi and his wife killed themselves when they heard the singing of the birds in their stomachs was a little unrealistic but it was acceptable in the circumstance. It was a great example that good things happen for people who are kind and caring and not those who are mean and arrogant. A good analogy would be the life of a person who just robbed a bank of a couple hundred thousand dollars. They might be rich for a couple of hours and that’s great, but when the police come knocking on their door it might not seem quite so great. ==== ==== I can relate to Pitipiti because I’ve been in situations where people make fun of me and are mean to me for no apparent reason but in the end they are the people who probably won’t get anywhere in life. So I can take their insults and comments with a grain of salt because I know their opinions don't really have any value or meaning. ====

Guinea Fowl Child Timothy

I think that there is a pretty obvious theme in this story, and it is that what goes around comes around; bad things come to bad people, and good things to good people. I think that the relationship between Pitipiti and the new wife shows this. When the new wife was mocking her, Pitipiti kept a cool head and didn’t try to take revenge. I have a feeling that the only reason that she didn’t do it was because she didn’t want to get in trouble or anything. In the end, Pitipiti was the one who lived happily ever after while the new wife was the one who was dead. I think I could relate to this story because there were times in my life in which I was made fun of. But in the end, I think that revenge is just a shallow way of relieving your own pain, and I was always pretty bad at planning it anyways. I think another theme is that you shouldn’t judge someone by what they are, but by who they are. Basically, I’m just saying that it’s what’s inside that matters. Mzizi was pretty shallow to not love Pitipiti just because she couldn’t have children. Basically, according to Mzizi, women were just objects used for having children. Many people still believe that. I personally have trouble doing that sometimes, because say if people have a disability or something it’s not my first reaction to talk to them or hold the door for them. Basically, I’m thinking of these people as some weirdo in a wheelchair instead of seeing a soul and a personality. Overall, this story had a bunch of themes, and it managed to convey them to me fairly effectively.

Guinea Fowl Child - Reflection -Sing Yu Lam

To be honest, I found the story to be hilarious. At the point where the deux ex machina came into play, I found it so bad it was funny. It reminds me of an Inuit fable I heard at the Science Centre, where an Inuit hunter saves a mermaid from being beached on land, and in turn he was give some buttons, soapstone, and a musket. The very concept of it was laughable because of how obviously the myth had changed when the Europeans came to the scene. I think the Guinea Fowl Child tried to justify Pitipiti's predicament by killing off Mzizi and his new wife. In the form of a guinea fowl. Your so called suspension of disbelief is ruined. The story tries to take a situation where it can show a moral, in this case, I think, something very similar to karma, but I simply think there are better ways to show this.

I found the way Pitipiti got her "revenge", "payback", "justification", etc., was completely unfounded. In truth, I think she didn't get angry or anything is because what Mzizi did was completely logical. She couldn't bear any children, and therefore, he couldn't have any heirs to his fortune, or anybody to continue his bloodline. However, although the husband had somehow forgotten about her existence completely (which I don't think is even possible, but now the reader has something to hold against him), it was the new wife that was the main villain of the story. She was the on who turned away Pitipiti's gifts and taunted her. Both of them could be held at fault here, but I don't believe they deserved to die. In fact, the story says when Pitipiti found out that the husband and wife were dead, she was happy and gladly took over everything he owned; the land and all the cattle. And don't forget the narrator doesn't say anything that happened to the children that the new wife bore to Mzizi. What happened to them? Did they die as well? Or did Pitipiti take them too, probably before they were too young to remember their own parents? The story leaves too many things unresolved, but I guess it's best to simplify it and stick to the main theme.

In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if this story was made while sitting around a camp fire with some potent mood-altering substances, or if they simply ran out ideas to end the story. In fact, it could have been both. I personally don't believe in karma itself, although that doesn't mean I don't treat others with respect. I simply treat others not out of fear of consequences, but because I have belief in my own morals. Sure I've been put down before, or found myself bullied, but I don't necessarily want to inflict revenge on the perpetrators.

I guess I'm straying from the theme a bit. This story is perhaps a classic example of karma; doing bad things to other people will result in bad things happening to you. It is complete with a cast if shallow characters, and a deux ex machina that's barely believable. Pitipiti is shown to care deeply for Mzizi, but in the end, in a sudden change of heart, does not even waste a second to mourn for his death. Mzizi is just a figure in the background in this story, shown to be shallow and indifferent, and the new wife is there as an egotistical person who loves to gloat and taunt. This fable does it;s job, barely, and nothing more.

Guinea Fowl Child Reflection Johnson Qian I thought this was already up.

To be honest I thought the story was kind of foolish. I knew it kind of seemed to get a message across, but the way they did it was kind of silly. What really affected me was how cool the rejected wife was ok with it. She didn’t seem to upset about it. This really shows calmness in a person and it also shows that sometimes you can just let it go. This made me really think about not trying to get revenge, or not being too mean and to think about the situation. She is a good role model in this way.

For being good and taking in those guinea fowls, only good came to her. Although good doesn’t always come to those who do well, I liked how they portrayed her as generous to the animals, and the animals returning the favor. I really like a good ending with some good morals. In real life I think the rejected wife could be portrayed as a victim of bullying, and the husband as the bully. The new wife could also represent the bully. The guinea fowls could be the victim’s friends aiding him/her through this tough situation. By thinking of this, I think I could more easily relate to this situation.

Overall, I do think this was a good story, and it could teach new lessons and morals.

Guinea Fowl Child Reflection - Allan This story was really weird the first time I heard it. It was kind of funny, but it felt like it didn't wanted to be taken too seriously. I finally got the basic message it was trying to say; don't do bad things to others or it will come right back around to you. It may also be respect others. I am thinking that this story is similar to other (African) folk tales, it is told with animals, but in this case, not completly animals. I'm not sure how african folk tales work, but I'd think it would have something supernatural. When I think about a guinea fowl, I think of it as an ugly chicken. I would think that when Pitipiti adopted the guinea fowl, that she was very desperate after getting rejected by her husband. Why not just adopt? Perhaps there were a lack of orphanages in Africa, or just go without children and try to marry again. This is probably a typical folk tale: something bad happens, the protaganist tries to resolve the problem, and then something happens. This could teach many other lessons besides the ones I just mentioned, but I couldn't pick them up. Overall, this was an amusing story that taught something.

Guinea Fowl Child Reflection The story was kind of strange when Mr Forsyth was reading it to us. I didn't really get the main point of the story at first, but when I read through it again, I though the main idea of the story was useless; Don't do harm to others, or others will do harm to you. I don't think real life is the same as the moral, even though there are some good people in this world, but most would rather do harm to people even if those haven't done anything to deserve it. Also the story was nothing more than a fable used only for entertainment but based on African people beliefs. I also thought the way they portrayed vengeance is crazy. Why would people swallow "guinea fowls"? Wouldn't it just be easier to chop the birds into smaller "easier-to-eat" parts, and if the birds were killed, how would they have revive themselves in real life? This story is just pure fiction based on African myths so I don't think it would have taught us anything except people makes up stories for entertainment. -Edward-

To be honest, I think the story was a little silly. I suppose it was creative, and I didn't really mind the guinea-fowls-reforming-from-blood, but it was all just strange and unreasonable. The wife deserved the 'punishment' but I don't think the husband did - at least, not something so harsh as stabbing your own stomach to get rid of voices coming from it. The reason being was that even though the husband ignored and abandoned his old wife, having a sterile spouse is a serious, tragic thing that still breaks the hearts of many today. The author of the story treated it a bit lightly, and it could be considered offensive. If I put myself in the old wife's shoes, I suppose I would adopt the guinea fowl child (since I would be quite lonely at the time) but after finding out that it killed the person I used to (and still might) love and a young woman, even one that my ex(?)-husband left me for, I'd be pretty angry and disturbed. I mean, it's really typical stalker behaviour - killing or removing those the stalker deems 'bad' for the stalked, so the stalked remains.. Untainted, and the stalker can spend more time with the stalked. In fact, it would be so disturbing I think that someone could get scared enough to take their own life. Though it may sound silly, think about it - undead guinea fowl following you around, killing those who do you wrong? Err.. Same goes for the men who supposedly wanted to marry her. I wouldn't wanna marry a person who's son/daughter killed someone - or at the very least, it'd be very off-putting. All in all, typical folk story, except a lot creepier. With chickens.

- Katherine

This story is quite typical of a folk story or a fable in that it usually incorporates a lesson inside of a story. It is meant to teach the person who is listening to the story a lesson. The lesson in this story could be many things. One lesson could be that you should treat others how you want to be treated. When the husband left her for someone else and the new wife was very mean to her, it made it so that the guinea fowl would get revenge on the husband and the wife (mostly the wife). This means that in real life, I should try to treat others how I want to be treated and to accept the consequences of your actions. This doesn’t mean that you should always be nice, just that you should be prepared whenever you’re negative to someone else.

Another lesson from this story could be that help comes in many forms, as long as you are deserving of it. In this case the guinea fowl helped the woman because of her trust and kindness. Basically, you can interpret this story in many ways depending on which themes you see and how it may relate to your life (for me that was the lesson in the top paragraph). This story was very entertaining to read, while still providing a life lesson. It also appears that it only takes a small problem for something as complicated as a marriage to fall apart, which I may want to pay attention to in the future…

This also reminds me of another story which seemed similar to this, except it involved a crow. Some person who I forgot also ate the crow, which eventually came out of the person’s stomach. The story came from the same area as this story, so it would seem that there may be variations of this story. I wouldn’t mind reading more stories which are related to this, because they generally provide good lessons and develop morals for people.

-Michael Zhang 310

**Guinea Fowl Child Reflection - Adam Winick**

The themes of the story are karma, and as my grandfather used to say; do unto others as you would have them do to you. These themes apply as essentially the husband and his new wife treat his first wife poorly and not the way they’d like to be treated. This becomes his downfall and eventual death.

In the story the husband Miziz leaves his wife Pitipiti as she is not able to produce children with him. He then marries another woman who eventually conceives children for him. The new wife also treated Pitipiti with great disrespect suppressing her into depression. A guinea fowl comes to Pitipiti and asks to be her child, and the wife accepts. Later in the story the husband and new wife end up cooking the guinea fowl and its friends, and eating them. The birds then begin singing in the stomach and drive the wife and husband mad, so mad that they stab themselves in an attempt to be rid of the birds. However the guinea fowl and its friends survive and the new wife and husband die, leaving all their wealths to Pitipiti.

I can relate to this for several ways. In the past I have treated people poorly and it eventually causes me to be treated poorly in return. Another example of karma can be shown through a ruggedly handsome and attractive boy I know. This boy, I believe his name may be Adam. He put off work in an attempt to do other things which he thought were more important. But the work pilled up and he received an unsatisfactory on his mid-term, resulting in a large amount of work over the course of a few days. The relation of karma to this is that it would have been easier to do the work when requested but instead now he has to suffer the consequences, with his mother breathing down his neck.