Week 4 Reading: The Voyages of Sindbad

This week I am reading The Voyages of Sindbad, by Andrew Lang. This post will cover Part A.

Sinbad, from Wikipedia

• It's interesting that Sindbad signed onto a ship with no previous experience, it seems impulsive. He may have trouble with this, as evidenced by him blowing his fortune. 
• Since Sindbad was ultimately met with success at the end of his first voyage, I wonder if they will all have happy endings, or if they will alternate between good and bad endings. Clearly something has to happen to set him on his next voyage, perhaps the bad things only happen at the beginning. 
• The presence of all these giant animals confuses me, I don't see the purpose they serve in the story except to make things entertaining for children. 
• It's interesting that the story takes the time to visually describe the rhinoceros, I suppose that many people in the Middle East had probably not ventured to Africa to see one, and they also didn't have the internet. 
• The Giant is a throwback to Odysseus for me, it's one of the most clear influences in this story. 
• I understand that Sindbad is supposed to be a hero, but he seems more lucky than skillful. It makes him hard to aspire to be like. 
• The fact that he gets all his possessions back a second time the same way seems pretty cheesy to me. Why don't people recognize him, and why doesn't he introduce himself with his name? 
• When Sindbad kills the woman, the story really takes a dark turn. Despite the other people dying, the story has been light hearted to this point. At least he uses the stolen burial possessions to help poor people. I'm kind of surprised he didn't start eating the bodies of the people he killed. 

Thanks for reading.