Assignment 1:5 Telling the story of Evil

One day a rabbit meets an owl. The rabbit first notices how different the owl looked from itself. Out of curiosity and loneliness, the rabbit went to seek out the owl’s attention. “What are you?” the rabbit asked. The owl stared at the little being.The owl replied to the rabbit, “I am a common creature, but I prefer to hide in the forest.” “What’s your name?” asked the rabbit next. “I have no name. I have never been named,” says the owl. “Well, my name is Bonum. We can be friends from now on!” On that day, the two began to see each other as comrades.

A cougar crawled in through a night. It made known its presence with its ferocious growl. In a swift swoop, it clasped it’s jaw on a sleeping rabbit nearby. The owl was awake to see the incident. The owl fly towards the cougar and its prey to see if it’s the rabbit friend. Luckily, it wasn’t.

“Why did you kill the rabbit?”

“Hello, my friend. I act out of hunger. I was born a predator, I have to feed on flesh to survive. You too, are a predator. You just have not discovered it as so,” then off went the cougar.

As sunrise came, the rabbit crawls out of his hole, off to see its friends. The owl spots the rabbit from afar, high in the trees. Out of a desire of wanting, the owl could not help its appetite any longer. The hawk had set the idea in its head. The owl swooped in with its talons nearly grasping the rabbit’s neck.

The rabbit jumps into a narrow crack between fallen logs. “What are you doing? Why are you trying to kill me?”

“My name is now Malum to mirror your good,” says the owl.

The cougar has set the predatory form of the owl. The owl can no longer remember his origins. The owl can not go back to his past, then from here on there can not be just good in the world. For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.

…

It was tough for me to completely get rid of any type of inspiration for this creative writing piece. Given the context for the book with the First Nations background, I was reminded that I’ve once heard of the significance of the cougar symbolism (Link down below for more information).

Part of the difficulty I had with retelling this story orally is that it was more questioned by my listener. I feel as the writer, there were certain elements that I couldn’t help but want to explain. I think that the explanation sort of took away the initial appeal of the story, which is about the listener interpreting their ideas on the story.

I did change one thing about my story, initially I had gendered the rabbit as a “she” and the owl as a “she” and the cougar as a “he”. I didn’t think much of it at first, but I received questions from my listener on the matter of the gendering. I couldn’t give a good answer. I sought out the emptymology of the word “evil” for name inspirations, but I mostly got many biblical references. http://word-detective.com/2010/09/good-god-evil-and-devil/I thought about the woman in relation to evil (the witch, Eve) and how the origin of evil is commonly associated with the female form. I thought that the better story would be to dismiss gender altogether, as I wanted my story to not feel resemblance of any particular origin. I retold the story to someone else, and I received no questions on the matter.

Perhaps my biggest lesson that I’ve learned was to not over-explain the story; that half of the appeal of the story is letting the listener think and interpret for themselves.

Works cited

Annette. “The Native Meanings of…Symbology, Myths and Legends”. My Mondo Trading.  https://www.mymondotrading.com/native-meanings-symbology-myths-legends

King, Thomas. “The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative”. Peterbough Anansi Press. 2003. Print.

Morris, Evan. “Good, God, Evil and Devil”. Word-detective.com.  Sept.10, 2010. http://word-detective.com/2010/09/good-god-evil-and-devil/