Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Storytelling for Week 2: Great Bear watches over the Earth

For many years, I have lost count myself, I have watched over the Earth and its people with my son near my side. From the night sky, I see everything that happens during the dark hours of the night and have learned much from my years up here. During the day, the Sun and its chariot blaze past me blinding me and leaving my sight blind for hours; but as soon as the sun has made its journey and it is the moons turn, it is also my turn to observe the people and all I can see. A lifetime ago, Jupiter raped me and he left me to bear his child in shame. I was shunned for what happened, the actions that I fought so hard against left me alone with a child growing inside me. I was denied to bathe with the one I loved the most, Diana, and shunned from her. I had never felt more shame than in that moment; as I walked away my eyes stayed on the ground and tears threatened to fall over at any moment.

Diana Bathing with her Nymphs by Rembrandt van Rijn
Source: Wikipedia

It wasn't until I bore my child that I knew the full extent that my suffering would be. I felt so ashamed for what happened and I was lost and I was alone. But my child would get me through this hard time, I loved him or her no matter what and we could get through whatever as long as we were together. But Juno had other ideas how my son, Arcas, and I would spend our time and it definitely not together. In her fury that I had bore a son, something that she could not do herself, she lashed out at me and transformed my body into a bear; but my mind stayed as human as it ever was. The feeling was horrible and indescribable and painful. Hair began to grow everywhere, every bone in my body began to change shape. Let's just say that I don't exactly like to go back and relive that moment. Well obviously my son was taken from me and raised elsewhere; that was probably the hardest part, knowing that I could not see him grow and become the great man I knew he was going to grow into. We didn't meet for fifteen years, and the day that we finally did was the day that we were thrown into the sky to live as stars for eternity. As my son saw my face and I saw his, I knew he would not recognize me but I knew him.

Even now, after he pointed his bow at me and Jupiter showed his "mercy" to makes us constellations instead of having a son kill his own mother, we cannot talk to each other. He does not know why he is up here with me and I am unable to tell him. It is hard as a mother to know that he probably despises me for what I have done to him. To grow up without his mother and then to be hurled into the sky without so much as a explanation; it must be hard and for that, I wish I could tell him how truly sorry I am.

Ursa Major and Minor or the "Big Bear" and "Little Bear"
Source: Wikipedia


Author's Note
I developed this story off of the story of Castillo from Ovid's Metamorphoses translated by Tony Kline (2000). I decided to go with a different type of storytelling technique this time; I told this story as if I was Castillo and I was telling you my story. I wanted to tell you the story as if she were looking back on it and how she felt at the time. I came up with this idea when I was reading the story and wanted to know how Castillo was feeling and what she was thinking. I thought I could give you a glimpse of how I thought she felt when all of this was happening. I used the original story, but told it in the past tense and add a thought narrative as the story progressed, I made sure to include her thoughts and feelings about what happened. At the end I explained that Castillo was unable to tell her son who she was and what had happened; I got this idea from the story when as a Bear she was unable to communicate with him, I thought about how horrible it would be to not be able to talk to your son for thousands of years when he was right next to you.

Bibliography
"Castillo" from Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000). Web Source: University of Virginia Library


2 comments:

  1. This story was so sad, but it is very beautifully written! I really liked the way that you gave us insight to her thoughts. I love the way that you included that they never got to speak even though they were right next to each other. It is a very sad detail, but one that gives the story more depth. Great job!

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  2. Hi Ann-Marie,
    I was a little surprised by your story (not in a bad way!). When I first started reading it, I thought it was a Native American story that you were redoing. It wasn’t until I got to the word “Jupiter” that it donned on me that you were writing about Castillo. I had a little bit of an “oh, duh” moment.
    The way you portrayed the character was interesting. I did this reading too, and this was one of the stories that really stuck out to me. I had thought about writing about it as well, though I didn’t, so it was really interesting to see how someone else thought about the same story.
    Your writing at the beginning painted a very vivid picture in my head, that’s for sure. I also liked that you broke the story up into decent sized paragraphs. It really helped aesthetically and it helped to move the story along. In general, the layout of the post made for very easy viewing. The pictures you chose were also really entertaining. I had to stop and look at them for a bit. They worked really well!

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