Week 9 Reading A: The Stonecutter
The Stone-Cutter
This is a Japanese folk tale that sounded very familiar to me when I first read it. I'm not sure if I've heard it before, or just heard a similar version, but I really enjoy the cyclical nature of the story and it's message about contentment and power.
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| Print of a Japanese landscape |
The story starts off with a discontent Japanese stone-cutter who catches the attention of a helpful woodland spirit who starts granting his wishes.
- First, the stone-cutter sees a rich man and wishes that he could be him instead. The spirit makes the man wealthy.
- The now-wealthy stone-cutter sees a prince and wishes to be him instead. The spirit makes him a prince.
- As a prince, the man grows discontent with the fact that no matter how powerful he is, the sun still scorches him, and wishes to be the sun. The spirit makes the man the sun.
-The man enjoys being the sun for a time, but eventually grows jealous of the clouds who can stop his rays and shadow the earth, and he wishes to be the clouds. The spirit makes him a cloud, and he enjoys it for a time, because he gets to make big storms.
- Eventually he notices that the mountain is unmoved no matter how much he storms, and he wishes to be the mountain. The spirit makes him the mountain.
- For a while, he is content and feels very powerful, but then one day he notices a stone-cutter chipping away at him, and he wishes to be a stone-cutter. The spirit makes him a stone-cutter again, and the man is content.
I think this story is very clever and I really like how he returns to the same spot where he began. I think it would be fun to retell the story in a modern setting, I just need to think of what jobs would be equivalent since there aren't many "stone cutters" these days. I think the message that even lowly jobs are powerful, and that jealousy is a repetitive cycle, like the "grass is always greener on the other side" idea.
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