Week 6 Reading: Brer Rabbit

This week I am reading Brer Rabbit by Joel Chandler Harris. This post will cover part A.

Brer Rabbit, from Sogorep

• I can tell that this story is placed in the deep South, the Cajun accent is really clear in the reading. It seems that this is a story designed to be told and not read. 
• Once I move past the language, the story of the Tar Baby had a really clear moral - don't get angry. 
• I understand what the Coon is saying, that fighting and being brave is important. But, the possum has a good point. Living to see tomorrow is important, and pretending to be dead takes some level of bravery to pull off. 
• Although the Brer Rabbit later escapes by tricking the fox, his temper landed him there in the first place. 
• The introduction of Proverbs reminds me a lot of this stories Southern influences. I wonder if this story was inspired at all by Proverbs as a method of story telling, and not only a moral influence. 
• The similarity between the turtle stories across this, Native American, and Buddhist traditions is surprising to me. I think it's fascinating that people view animal "personalities" so consistently across different cultures. 
• I wonder how much stories like this are the influence for more modern cartoons like Bugs Bunny - I can easily see a number of similarities. Like characters and themes. 

Thansk for reading.