Reading Notes: Jataka Tales Part C

Jataka Tales Part C

A Golden Goose
Source: Google Image

Common Themes

As I was reading Part C of the Jataka Tales, I noticed some common themes begin to emerge. The most common was the demonstration of humans as greedy, dumb, and inferior (with the exception of The Girl Monkey and the String of Pearls). I wonder if this illustrates a belief in Indian cultures that animals are superior to humans and are far more advanced than our species. Humans are constantly being tricked, deceived, or portrayed as evil. The animals are almost always portrayed as the protagonist who only had pure intentions and motives. For instance, in my favorite tale from Part C, The Golden Goose, a goose with feathers made of gold noticed a poor woman and her daughters and decided to selflessly help them by giving them a feather. The mother, however, got greedy and plucked the goose of all of her feathers ruining the value of the goose. This story portrayed the goose as loving, thoughtful, and caring, and portrayed the mother (the human) as heartless, greedy, and dumb. I especially liked this story because I think it reflects humans' ability to consumer natural resources at an alarming rate and destroying the planet. I am not sure if that is what the author intended, but I liked the lesson and may use this story as the one I recreate for Thursday. I like the idea of taking a bigger issue, such as climate change, and putting it into a Jataka tale that teaches the reader a lesson without actually explicitly saying the problem. Using animals as the main characters really helps gain sympathy from the reader because they are viewed as inferior to humans. If a reader sees a human being mean or evil to an animal, they are more likely to side with the defenseless creature. With that being said, I have also noticed animals considered dangerous tend to be portrayed as such while animals considered helpless tend to be portrayed as cunning. For instance, in the Tricky Wolf and the Rats, the chief of the rats discovers the wolf is eating the rats one-by-one and decides to trick the wolf and eventually kill it. This portrays the rats as not necessarily being physically stronger, but being mentally stronger. 

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt's More Jataka Tales