Week 2 Story: The Tale of the Unlucky Tomato
There was once a tomato patch that fed everyone within the city. Every year the village people would send their children to go water and fertilize the tomatoes before harvest.
One Year while the children were going out to care for the tomatoes, one child, little Timmy ran into what appeared to be a golden rock. Timmy went on to inspect the rock. Once he came upon the rock he realized it was gold. He ran back into to town to show the adults. Once he got there he exclaimed: "Look, Look, I have found a large piece of gold. We are rich!!" They then inspected the rock and realized it was simply fools gold. They explained to him that the rock is worthless. They then told Timmy he needed to go help the others with the tomatoes.
As Timmy approaches the other children they begin to leave for they have already finished fertilizing and watering their part of the patch. Timmy, not wanting to be too late to get home, hurries while caring for his part of the patch. He finishes his part of the patch with incredible pace and makes it back home before dinner. That night Timmy, around the dinner table ,was bragging about how quick he was able to care for his tomatoes: "I found this really cool rock, and then I cared for all my tomatoes and still made it back in time for dinner." His parents congratulated him on how impressive his day had been. In the morning Timmy went off to harvest his tomatoes. Once he got there they all looked ripe and ready for picking. After picking all the tomatoes he noticed one that was hiding under a leaf and had not been properly watered due to his fast pace. Timmy grabbed the tomato and threw it on the ground as it was brown and ugly.
as Timmy walked away the tomato shouted: "Why oh why do you leave me here to die?" Little Timmy turned and said: "Oh tomato you are ugly and of no use to me." The tomato then sadly says: "But this was because you neglected to care for me when I was young." The boy then realized due to his neglect the tomato was unable to properly grow causing him to be ugly. Timmy then decided he would take the tomato home and eat him with the rest of his tomatoes.
Authors Note: The original story had a rooster who would crow for a Brahmin family. The rooster died and the children got a new rooster who was raised in a cemetery. This rooster did not know when to crow and would be loud in the middle of the night and afternoon disrupting the children's studies. They decided to kill the loud rooster. Their teacher told them it was not the rooster's fault, but his upbringing that caused him to be untrained. I took this story and tried to make it less deadly and a little more uplifting, while still maintaining the same moral within it. Although the moral remains the same, that one is not responsible for their upbringing and should not be judged solely on it, there is also a lesson as to not rush anything in life, but to care for the important components. I ended with the tomato living, more or less, instead of killing it, as in the original story. This was to make my story less despondent, but instead be optimistic in nature.
Bibliography
Noisy out of Season: Robert Chalmers
One Year while the children were going out to care for the tomatoes, one child, little Timmy ran into what appeared to be a golden rock. Timmy went on to inspect the rock. Once he came upon the rock he realized it was gold. He ran back into to town to show the adults. Once he got there he exclaimed: "Look, Look, I have found a large piece of gold. We are rich!!" They then inspected the rock and realized it was simply fools gold. They explained to him that the rock is worthless. They then told Timmy he needed to go help the others with the tomatoes.
as Timmy walked away the tomato shouted: "Why oh why do you leave me here to die?" Little Timmy turned and said: "Oh tomato you are ugly and of no use to me." The tomato then sadly says: "But this was because you neglected to care for me when I was young." The boy then realized due to his neglect the tomato was unable to properly grow causing him to be ugly. Timmy then decided he would take the tomato home and eat him with the rest of his tomatoes.
Authors Note: The original story had a rooster who would crow for a Brahmin family. The rooster died and the children got a new rooster who was raised in a cemetery. This rooster did not know when to crow and would be loud in the middle of the night and afternoon disrupting the children's studies. They decided to kill the loud rooster. Their teacher told them it was not the rooster's fault, but his upbringing that caused him to be untrained. I took this story and tried to make it less deadly and a little more uplifting, while still maintaining the same moral within it. Although the moral remains the same, that one is not responsible for their upbringing and should not be judged solely on it, there is also a lesson as to not rush anything in life, but to care for the important components. I ended with the tomato living, more or less, instead of killing it, as in the original story. This was to make my story less despondent, but instead be optimistic in nature.
Bibliography
Noisy out of Season: Robert Chalmers
I love your adaption of the original story! I like how you made a more friendly version. I really like how you chose this moral to depict in your writing. Your story was very well thought out and full of life! I especially like the dialogue between little Timmy and the tomato. Although the tomato did not die in the garden, he did eventually die in someone's stomach, but the most honorable death for a tomato.
ReplyDeleteI like how you replaced the rooster with the tomato. Its like a PG version of the original story. Good job on keeping the lesson of the story while toning the violence down. I love how you ended the story on a optimistic view. I realized that you put a lot of effort and thought in your story. Keep it up and you'll do fine in later writing assignments.
ReplyDeleteHey Zach! One of the problems I had with the story was that the moral of it seemed so out of touch with the rest of the story. I liked that you were able to address this and make the moral fit better with the story. I also like that you were able to end the story on a bit of an optimistic note with the main character learning from his experience.
ReplyDeleteHey Zach. I like your adaptation of this story a lot more than the original, which I felt was lacking. It reads a lot better, and the point is more apparent. You highlighted pretty well how everyone gets distracted and neglects some aspects of their life, but you also showed how we can all learn from this, and I think that's a great lesson in addition to the original moral of the story.
ReplyDelete