Winter's+Tales

//**Winter's Tales**//
Please respond to **one** of the following questions. Afterwards, write your name and grade. Thanks, Mr. Moore.

1. Like a good record album, a good short story collection should possess unity - whether in theme or symbols. Besides their settings, what do these short stories have in common? What holds the collection together?

2. What do the stories tell us about South Africa?

August 12, 2011 The stories in the book Winter's Tales, all relate to each other and have a common theme of finding self-identity. My favorite story, the Young Man With The Carnation, has a plot that shows this theme when the young man leaves his lover in the middle of the night to go find himself. He finds some sailors and they all share anecdotes among themselves and the young man engages himself in this conversation eagerly and learns more about himself from the storied that he tells and also some of the stories he hears. He then reflects on all of the stories and realizes who he is and returns to his lover in the morning. In another short story, titled The Fish, There is a king whose childhood was apparently better than how his life is now. He is left with the memories from his childhood, but he says he has no friends and has a miserable life. One day, he is visited by another named Sune, and they go on a journey into the woods. The king begins to realize the beauty in nature and begins to appreciate the little things more and more. They go to a little shack and he sees how some people live without the glory and material items that he does. The man that lives in the shack is very humble and is a great host. The king learns a lot about himself from the man and says that he has found himself and is finally happy. In both of these stories, people venture out into unknown territory for them and end up getting a positive result in return and learn more Bout themselves than they ever thought they would. Elizabeth Hill 10

Throughout Winter's Tales, the stories share a certain melancholia. Each reflect a sort of bitter coldness, that of Winter. As each story progresses, one can see how the story could end, happily, and yet, that is rarely the case in these stories. For instance, in Sorrow-Acre, the mother clears an entire field in a single day, saving her son from persecution. However, there is no triumph. Having expended all of strength and energy, the mother dies on the spot. Here, Dinesen also includes the theme of sacrifice. The bitter coldness of Winter's Tales reoccurs again in The Dreaming Child and The Sailor Boy's Tale. In The Dreaming Child, Dinesen writes, concerning Jens, "There are some young trees, which when they are planted, have thin, twisted roots and will never take hold in the soil. They may shoot out a profusion of leaves and flowers, but the must soon die. Such was the way with Jens."(177) It is this feeling that pervades Winter's Tales. A sudden realization of happiness or success, which is very suddenly and quickly extinguished. In the Sailor Boy's Tale, Simon realizes his first and only love, but is then suddenly forced to flee and never return. It is throughout Winter's Tales that the melancholia of Winter is truly understood. Stories of bittersweet accomplishments, tainted by one shortcoming. Riley Daen 12


 * August 17, 2011**

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The short stories throughout Winter's Tales all share a common subject matter of growing up and facing the real world which encompasses problems within it. Isak Dinesen fulfills his stories with emotion and feelings, each indivual story dramatically changes from bitterness to happiness. The character always finds a solution to their problem or diffuculty and is content at the end. In The Sailor~Boy's Tale, the boy Simon is a young sailor that is very caring, and climbs to the top of the mast to just to save a bird. He says "That bird is like me. Then she was there, and now she is there."(91) This bird just wasn't a bird to him it reminded him of himself and how he is home and gone. He says "Through his experience of life he had come to the conviction that in this world everyone must look after himself."(91)He is a grown boy and has to look after himself,throughout this story he reaches manhood and maturity. He saves his first bird,and kills one of his mates while finding his first love. My other favorite story was The Pearls, I perceived this story to be very magical and lesson learning about life and trust. The overall theme in this story was fear and love.Jensine and her husband Alexander went off to Norway to have a perfect honeymoon, thinking she was madly in love with him and they were perfect for each other. Not only did she know he wasn't like her, they were completely different."For very soon after her marriage Jensine realized-- as she had perhaps dimly known from their first meeting -- that he was a human being entirely devoid, and incapable, of fear."(110) When the stringed 52 pearl necklace broke that had been passed down from Alexander's grandmother and generations throughout her family things went downhill. Not only was their marriage affected, but the valuable necklace was in fragments.The story behind the necklace when they got it fixed was peculiar but ended in happiness. ===== Catherine Worthy 10

A personal review that I can give to Winter's tales would be simply a love hate relationship. There were times in the book where I couldn't put the thing down, and then other times when my mind was racing with many thoughts unfortunately none of them being Winter's Tales. I believe Dinesen's biggest mistake was beginning the book with "The Young man with the carnation." Not only did this opening story not capture my immediate interest, but I found it quite dull and somewhat depressing. Fortunately with the short story format found in this book, my temporary depression after reading chapter one didn't continue, but was quite immediately turned around after experiencing "Sorrow-Acre", my personal favorite story. Though also a little depressing, "Sorrow-Acre" seemed to be able to tame my attention span. I can not be too harsh on the depression aspect of the book, for it appears to be a common theme within all the short stories. Dinesen was able to accomplish various the levels of depression in the stories; in some areas create a very enjoyable read and in others as in "Young man with the carnation" far to severe levels of depression. Either way, if I was reviewing the book to someone considering reading, I would quite simply say, "Skip around a bit." With this book you're best bet would be to find stories you like and read them, and pass over the ones that don't seem to capture you're attention in the first five pages. Conner Dodenhoff 12

Although the many short stories found in Dinesen's //Winter's Tales// initially appear to be very different from one another, as each introduces new characters and a new conflict, the stories are alike in that at least one character seems to be searching for something. They are unhappy or incomplete, and they are looking for a solution. In the very first tale, "The Young Man with the Carnation," Charlie Despard, a famous and successful writer, is suffering inside because he feels he isn't what others believe him to be, and he cannot find anything to write about for his next book. However, all of the stories don't begin with searching; in some, it happens after they find something, lose it, and search for it once again. In "The Heroine," Frederick Lamond meets a mysterious, beautiful woman as a refugee who saves his life and those of others, and they don't find one another again for many years. By the end of each story, the character or characters who were searching have found what they are looking for, or they have become complete; Despard finds a topic for his book after speaking with the Lord and Lamond meets the woman he lost once again. However, none of the stories are completely happy or satisfying; all of them leave questions and many end in sadness, or even death, in the case of "Peter and Rosa", even though they ultimately achieve the freedom they were seeking. Each story shows the bleak realities and shortcomings of life, although each ends in a solution to the main character's immediate problem. Suzanne Trivette 12