Your task is to take the story about how evil comes into the world, the story King tells about the Witches’ convention in Chapter One of The Truth about Stories, and change it any way you want, except the ending. You can change to place, the people, the time – anything you want. But, your story must have the same moral – it must tell us how evil came into the world and how once a story is told, it cannot be taken back.
Once upon a time, on a farm far away, a large brood of hens gathered in the farmer’s hen house at sundown. The hens had been very bored with their pedantic lives on the farm: day in, day out, sitting on their nests and not having any fun. So one of the very smartest hens had suggested, in the most secretive way a hen can, that all the ladies gather and have a hen party! What a brilliant plan!
So they snuck out of their respective coops, after they were sure the farmer had gone to sleep, and into the hen house. It was a marvelous party. They played the egg and spoon race and ‘foxes and chickens’ and then they all snuggled up to watch their favorite film “Chicken Run.”
The movie was nearing the end, and the sky was beginning to lighten from it’s deep midnight blue, when suddenly a voice arose from the back of the house. “This movie is absolutely ridiculous,” it said. All the hens turned their heads to see who had spoken. It was the Rooster. He had, obviously, not been invited to the hen party, but apparently had snuck in the back door.
“What do you mean?” Asked one of the younger hens. “This movie is my favorite. Why on Earth do you think it’s ridiculous?”
“Well the plot is just so basic. Any dolt could come up with that story.” Rooster replied.
“I think you’re just going to have to prove that.” Said a very large, matronly hen from the front, as she paused the television. “Tell us a story that’s better than this movie.” She was extremely skeptical at this possibility, as she had been enjoying the movie very much indeed.
“Fine,” said the Rooster. “But we have to do this in the proper way. Follow me. “ And he proceeded to lead all the hens out of the hen house and out into the yard. “Stay here,” he said. The sky was even lighter now and the hens could see Rooster’s silhouette clearly against the sky as he proceeded to climb up to the very top of the hen house roof.
The hens waited with anticipation until finally the Rooster reached the top of the roof, dusted himself off and began to tell his story. It was an excellent story, but the hens thought, rather dark and scary in comparison to their joyful movie. It had only been a few minutes when suddenly they heard yelling coming from the big farmer’s house. The Rooster stopped talking and they all turned to see the farmer tearing out of the house and down the path with his hands waving up in the air.
“Stop that racket! Stop that racket AT ONCE, you evil little rooster! You’ve woken me from the very best dream!”
All the hens scattered and ran as fast as they could back to their respective coops, as the Rooster tried to get down from the house fast enough to avoid the farmer’s anger. But the farmer scooped him into his arms and began carrying him back to Rooster’s house. “I wish you had never done that,” said the farmer. But, of course, the rooster could not take back what he had done. He could not take back his story.
And from that night on, just before the sun rose each day, all the hens would gather in the yard to hear Rooster tell more of his story. And though the farmer grew to not be surprised at this early morning racket, each day he felt that this rooster had brought evil into his world.
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Commentary: What I found interesting about this assignment was the difference between spoken and written text. I understood the concept that it would be different, but only in the realm of other people’s work. I never imagined that my own words, that I wrote on paper, would take on a whole other life when coming out of my mouth. They had new inflection and personality and subtext that appeared simultaneously as I was speaking.
The other thing that was interesting, that I know happens with all performance art, is the audience reaction and interaction. They always laugh when you don’t expect it, and are probably silent when you are expecting them rolling in the isles. You can never truly know how a story will be received.
In regards to creating the new story, I actually found this rather challenging. I wanted to make the story different, and I didn’t just want to change one simple element, but then, suddenly, I found that coming to the same conclusion as the original story was hard to wrangle. I think maybe this is sort of a testament to how stories evolve over time. It’s not normal for someone to hear a story and turn it completely on it’s head, but still want to get the same outcome. Obviously that happens sometimes successfully, but in my experience, it seems like stories evolve slowly, with just minor changes with each new addition, until you arrive at something that might be totally different.
Works Cited
Pless, Deborah, and DreamWorks Annimation LLC. “Chicken Run” freeze frame. Digital image. Kiss My Wonderwoman. N.p., 06 Oct. 2015. Web. 28 May 2016.
I like that you were able to make the ending of the story cyclical – the evil reoccurs every day. The humour was also much appreciated. The story of Chicken Run is a fabulous addition to this world. But making the evils of the world continue past the story I found was one of the more challenging aspects. If this is supposed to be how evil started then it needs to imply that there is no end and when writing that can be difficult.
I agree that hearing inflection in the story is different than reading it. You should try having someone else read it to you and it will change your impression even further. I mention StoryCorps in my post this week and in that website people are able to tell their stories using their own voice and that individual mark differentiates the story more than words simply could. Just as my voice is different than anyone else’s so is my story. That’s what I used to love as a kid – hearing different people read stories and how they did the voices of the characters and such.
I’m wondering what the audience you told it to was like and if you think demographics of the audience contributes to the general reaction? Does it also change how you tell the story?
I’m glad you liked my silly story. I wanted to see if I could start with a gathering whose initial aim was positive (rather than like the witches who were trying to be evil) and then have an ending that turned negative. That’s an interesting suggestion – having someone else read my words. I feel like that would be really weird to hear aloud. But cool too. I told my story to my boss and some of my coworkers, who are all considerably older than I am and work in a field that has nothing to do with literature, so I bet this did have an effect on my storytelling (because I was kind of embarrassed). I could have had an opportunity to tell my story to a large group of children, but I didn’t. I wonder what their reaction would have been like. They’re around eight years old, so would “Chicken Run” be something they even know? Probably not. But other than that, maybe I would have been able to get into the telling of the story, just because my audience would have been more fun to engage with.
Hi Julia,
Thanks for your story.
It sheds light to the “crossroads” of stories – the rooster’s tale and the farmer’s dream. Neither are right or wrong, and they don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In this case, they are exclusive due to dimensions. The contents of the story or the dreams don’t really matter. The clash takes place due to time and distance. The story was being told when the farmer was dreaming, and that took place close enough to be heard by him.
Your story got me thinking about clashing. The “clash of civilizations” are really the clash of stories. And when people have to prove one story to be more correct than the other, the outcomes are often tragic. In that sense, and as noted by you – stories have lives of their own.
When you told the story, did you make changes “on the fly”?
Pun intended? Yes, I did, but nothing to serious or critical to the advancement of the plot. The changes I made were more like additions really. Like, I think I added some character detail about the hen who really liked Chicken Run to be knitting, and the Rooster was perhaps a little more like the Rooster in the film.