Once upon a time, there was a senior student at OU named Jedrek. He was big and strong, and thought he was better than all the other students younger than him.
On the first day of class, he walked into a freshman level class he had put off until his senior year because he thought it would be easy - much to his surprise the professor assigns a group project due the next week and his designated partner was a freshman who, unlike Jedrek was small and petite and a beautiful girl named Helen.
Jedrek, wanting to impress the beautiful Helen, asked when they wanted to get together and work on the project to show his motivation, but Helen answered "I am unable to work on the project tonight because my friends and I are throwing a party, and I was going to invite you both, but if you need to work on the project then never mind".
Now, Jedrek really did not want to work on the project. He thought by showing initiative that Helen would appreciate it, but now knowing that she also wants to blow it off decides the best way to get the project done and go to the party with Helen would be to push the work off on Arnold.
Jedrek assumed that Arnold would do all the work with no problem because he would be intimidated by how large and substantial Jedrek was. Jedrek says to the freshman, Arnold, "I know you can tell that I'm bigger than you, and have much more important things to do than to work on this silly little project so are you going to do all of the work and complete the project on your own so I can go to Helen's party?"
Arnold, not wanting to get stuck with doing all the work, suggested meeting the next day so they could all work on it, and asked "With all of this work, how am I supposed to do all of it by myself?" Jedrek, being cunning said "well this project is much easier than the next we have due, so if you do this one, Helen and I will do the next one on our own." See, Jedrek knew that the next project was going to be the easiest project because his friends who had previously taken the class had told him so.
Reluctantly, Arnold agreed to do this first project on his own if they did the second one. So the group sat through the rest of class and listened as the professor explained the rest of the project that would be due in a week as well as the rest of the assignments the class would have to complete over the semester. Helen and Jedrek talked through the class excited about the party tonight, while Arnold intently listened to the professor and all the details these projects would require. After class was over Jedrek asked one more time just to make sure that Arnold would do the work. Arnold reiterated that yes he would be doing the first project as long as Helen and Jedrek completed the second project all by themselves. So as Helen and Jedrek went on their merry way, but what they didn't know was that Arnold had spent all of class intently listening to the professor and learned some interesting information.
The next week came to when the project was due, and Helen, Jedrek and Arnold all came to class ready to present their project and Arnold agreed to lead the presentation. When it came to their turn to present, Arnold pulled up the powerpoint and started presenting. As Jedrek looks over to see what the project was going to be about he notices that this project is what is supposed to be the second project in the class! The easiest project, which was supposed to be the second project in the class, was changed to the first! He couldn't believe it!
After class, Jedrek goes up to Arnold - "Arnold, how could you not tell us what this project was about? Now we're stuck doing the really hard project on our own, this isn't fair. You will help us with the next one". Arnold just nodded his head, and the professor, who had overheard, came up and said "You didn't help your partner on this project, he did it all himself?". Jedrek sat in disbelief that his professor had overheard him. The professor continued, "Because you didn't help him with the project you will get an F for this project and Arnold is not required to help either of you for the second project."
As the professor walked away, Arnold simply says "You thought you could intimidate me since you're bigger and stronger than I, but I was smart enough to listen to the professor and outwitted you. I heard him say that he switched up the projects, but you were too busy trying to impress Helen to listen yourself. Your body is great, but you have no sense".
So Jedrek sulked as he walked away, knowing he had been bamboozled. He looked toward Helen to see if she would still like him, but she just glared because now she would have to do more work than she needed to.
Author's Note: In the original story, the crocodile's wife decides she wants the heart of the monkey so the crocodile comes up with a plan to deceive the monkey into crossing the Ganges where the fruit is more abundant. The monkey at first agrees to ride the crocodiles back across the river, but then the crocodile tries to drown the monkey. The monkey is confused but escapes, telling the crocodile that if he wasn't trying to get his heart he should know that they keep their heart in the trees and if the crocodile allowed the monkey to live he would retrieve his heart for the crocodile. The crocodile agrees, and takes the monkey to the tree. That is when the monkey tells the crocodile how foolish he had been to believe that monkey's keep their heart in trees and that the reason he doesn't cross the Ganges is because he is content with his fig tree. The crocodile walks back defeated. So I decided to turn this story into a real life situation, where a bigger and older student tries to bully the freshman into doing all the work in order to impress a girl, but instead gets the short end of the stick and has to do more work than he thought and fails an assignment.
Bibliography. "The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart" from Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock. Web Source
On the first day of class, he walked into a freshman level class he had put off until his senior year because he thought it would be easy - much to his surprise the professor assigns a group project due the next week and his designated partner was a freshman who, unlike Jedrek was small and petite and a beautiful girl named Helen.
Jedrek, wanting to impress the beautiful Helen, asked when they wanted to get together and work on the project to show his motivation, but Helen answered "I am unable to work on the project tonight because my friends and I are throwing a party, and I was going to invite you both, but if you need to work on the project then never mind".
Now, Jedrek really did not want to work on the project. He thought by showing initiative that Helen would appreciate it, but now knowing that she also wants to blow it off decides the best way to get the project done and go to the party with Helen would be to push the work off on Arnold.
Jedrek assumed that Arnold would do all the work with no problem because he would be intimidated by how large and substantial Jedrek was. Jedrek says to the freshman, Arnold, "I know you can tell that I'm bigger than you, and have much more important things to do than to work on this silly little project so are you going to do all of the work and complete the project on your own so I can go to Helen's party?"
Arnold, not wanting to get stuck with doing all the work, suggested meeting the next day so they could all work on it, and asked "With all of this work, how am I supposed to do all of it by myself?" Jedrek, being cunning said "well this project is much easier than the next we have due, so if you do this one, Helen and I will do the next one on our own." See, Jedrek knew that the next project was going to be the easiest project because his friends who had previously taken the class had told him so.
Reluctantly, Arnold agreed to do this first project on his own if they did the second one. So the group sat through the rest of class and listened as the professor explained the rest of the project that would be due in a week as well as the rest of the assignments the class would have to complete over the semester. Helen and Jedrek talked through the class excited about the party tonight, while Arnold intently listened to the professor and all the details these projects would require. After class was over Jedrek asked one more time just to make sure that Arnold would do the work. Arnold reiterated that yes he would be doing the first project as long as Helen and Jedrek completed the second project all by themselves. So as Helen and Jedrek went on their merry way, but what they didn't know was that Arnold had spent all of class intently listening to the professor and learned some interesting information.
The next week came to when the project was due, and Helen, Jedrek and Arnold all came to class ready to present their project and Arnold agreed to lead the presentation. When it came to their turn to present, Arnold pulled up the powerpoint and started presenting. As Jedrek looks over to see what the project was going to be about he notices that this project is what is supposed to be the second project in the class! The easiest project, which was supposed to be the second project in the class, was changed to the first! He couldn't believe it!
After class, Jedrek goes up to Arnold - "Arnold, how could you not tell us what this project was about? Now we're stuck doing the really hard project on our own, this isn't fair. You will help us with the next one". Arnold just nodded his head, and the professor, who had overheard, came up and said "You didn't help your partner on this project, he did it all himself?". Jedrek sat in disbelief that his professor had overheard him. The professor continued, "Because you didn't help him with the project you will get an F for this project and Arnold is not required to help either of you for the second project."
As the professor walked away, Arnold simply says "You thought you could intimidate me since you're bigger and stronger than I, but I was smart enough to listen to the professor and outwitted you. I heard him say that he switched up the projects, but you were too busy trying to impress Helen to listen yourself. Your body is great, but you have no sense".
So Jedrek sulked as he walked away, knowing he had been bamboozled. He looked toward Helen to see if she would still like him, but she just glared because now she would have to do more work than she needed to.
Image of Student with Piles of Work to Do. Web Source.
Author's Note: In the original story, the crocodile's wife decides she wants the heart of the monkey so the crocodile comes up with a plan to deceive the monkey into crossing the Ganges where the fruit is more abundant. The monkey at first agrees to ride the crocodiles back across the river, but then the crocodile tries to drown the monkey. The monkey is confused but escapes, telling the crocodile that if he wasn't trying to get his heart he should know that they keep their heart in the trees and if the crocodile allowed the monkey to live he would retrieve his heart for the crocodile. The crocodile agrees, and takes the monkey to the tree. That is when the monkey tells the crocodile how foolish he had been to believe that monkey's keep their heart in trees and that the reason he doesn't cross the Ganges is because he is content with his fig tree. The crocodile walks back defeated. So I decided to turn this story into a real life situation, where a bigger and older student tries to bully the freshman into doing all the work in order to impress a girl, but instead gets the short end of the stick and has to do more work than he thought and fails an assignment.
Bibliography. "The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart" from Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock. Web Source
Chelsee, I like that you decided to base this story off of a real life scenario using real people.
ReplyDeleteAt first, I was a little bit confused about Arnold at the beginning, but I quickly realized he was also part of the group.
Helen's character was very similar to that of the crocodile's wife. She really just planned to get everything handed to her without working for it. I liked that you used the size of Jedrek and Arnold to represent the difference between the crocodile and the monkey.
I enjoyed reading your story and hope to read more throughout the semester.
I really enjoyed your story versus the original! I haven't read the original story yet, but how you incorporated it into a real life scenario was great and clever. I could really imagine the story come to life and it was fun to see how it would pan out, which I didn't expect the projects to be switched, just that maybe something else would happen. I also really liked how you created each character's personality, though it was a short story, it was really well-conveyed from the original to the new, especially.
ReplyDeleteAhh, I love it! I also rewrote this story back in week 2, but it was completely different than your version here. I love that you made it into a real life scenario. Honestly, it made me cringe just thinking about this in a real life situation. I knew that it would turn back and bite Jedrek in the butt for bullying a smaller dude in his group just because he wanted to impress a girl. It's also sad that many group projects actually do turn out this way (one person doing all of the work), whether for that reason or not. Unfortunately though, the problem usually never gets resolved, and the professor has no idea that all participants didn't contribute for the sake of everyone's grade. What if Arnold had already talked to the professor about their negligence, and the professor made Jedrek and Helen present? They would've been so lost, and it would've been obvious they did absolutely nothing.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I really enjoyed reading your story, you did a great job!