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| (Photo taken from WikiMedia Commons) |
Long ago, Farmer John owned the strongest ox in all of the land. He was very proud of his ox too. Farmer John took better care of his ox than he did of himself. His ox would get a bath every morning, and it was not just any bath. Farmer John built the ox his very own bathhouse. He took the ox in there every morning at 7:00 a.m. and cleaned him until his coat would shine. After his morning cleaning, Farmer John would then feed his ox the freshest of all feeds. He made sure it was the healthiest, cleanest, and best feed there ever was. He cared so much about his ox that he wanted to make sure that he fed him only the greatest.
Right after breakfast, Farmer John took his ox on a two-mile walk. He did not want to overwork him, but he wanted to make sure his ox was loose and ready for the next part of his day. Immediately after returning from their walk, Farmer John would attach his to various wagons of various weights. The ox would then pull the wagons across the pasture and then return to the farmer. As Farmer John would move the ox from wagon to wagon, the weight load would increase. After completing his pull on the fifth wagon, Farmer John would take his ox back into the bathhouse and give him a post workout bath. Once again, Farmer John would scrub and clean his ox until his coat was shining and cleaner than before.
By this time, it was time for the ox to eat lunch. Farmer John would put out more of the feed for his ox. Farmer John focused so much on his ox that many times he would forget to take care of himself. The ox would get most of the rest of the day to relax inside the barn but at 6:00 p.m. Farmer John would go attach his ox to the wagons once again. He would go through his same rounds of wagons, and then return to the barn for dinner. After the ox was fed his third meal of the night, Farmer John would place fresh hay in the ox’s stable and call it a night.
Farmer John followed this schedule every single day to make sure he always had the happiest and strongest ox of all. Farmer John knew that giving his ox such special treatment and taking great care of him would pay off for him someday, so Farmer John vowed to never veer away from his way of life with his ox.
One day Farmer John entered his ox into a contest. His bull would have to pull five wagon's worth of weight over fifty yards. No one believed that Farmer John’s ox would succeed. Everyone having a lack of confidence in his bull made Farmer John very angry. So after he hooked up his bull to the wagon, he slapped him on the butt and irritably yelled at him to start pulling. The ox did not respond to this treatment.
The farmer took a step back and began to ponder why his ox was not performing as usual. After a few moments of thought, the farmer realized he was treating his ox very poorly. Farmer John walked up to the front of the ox, apologized, and rubbed his nose gently. He then proceeded to walk away and right then the ox started to pull the wagon.
The farmer ran to finish line to congratulate his beloved animal. Farmer John finally realized true respect and compassion will always win over anger and force.
Bibliography:
The Ox Who Won the Forfeit
Jataka Tales
Ellen C. Babbitt, 1912
Author’s Note:
This story is based on The Ox Who Won the Forfeit from the Jataka Tales. In the original story, the farmer enters his ox into a contest, and when it is time to perform, the ox fails because the farmer treats him poorly. The farmer then enters him in the contest again. This time the farmer treats the ox with respect and the ox won the contest.
The original story never explains how the ox was treated to begin with, so that is where my wheels started turning. I wanted to give a story about the day in the life of this incredibly spoiled ox. I felt like there needed to be a reason in which the bull reacted to one treatment but not the other. I also wanted to tie in some kind of loving and kind meaning to it in order to add it to my portfolio. It is not necessarily a romantic love story, but it does have a loving vibe to it. Humans love their pets all the time, and of course this farmer thought of his ox as a pet.
I also took a little bit of the original story, like the ox being entered into a contest, and added it to the end. To save time and word count, I edited the original story line a bit. In the original story, the farmer comes across as a greedy and boastful man. In my story I wanted to show that the farmer had true love and compassion for his ox, and that his treatment of ox at the contest was simply a mistake.
I think that this was a great story! I have not read the original story, but from what I can tell you did a fantastic rendition. I think that it is cool that you changed the tale form having the ox be treated poorly to having him be the most spoiled ox of all time. I especially like that you had the farmer focusing on the ox so much that he forgot to care for himself. It added a great dimension to the story!
ReplyDeleteI liked that you added a little prequel to the original. It makes it flow better for those who read this and the original. I did feel like you said “Farmer John” a little too much and would have been a little less redundant if you added more “he” or “his” since we know who he is. Other than that, you did a great job and I hope to read more of your stories.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job explaining the relationship between the two main characters. I really understood the effort that the man put into caring for the ox. I did not realize that there was prequel to demonstrate how the man cared for the ox, but it was awesome. It added a lot of depth to your story.
ReplyDeleteHey Molly,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story! I liked that you gave much more detail than the original story, which really helped the reader, fully understand how well the farmer treated the ox and that you should always treat people well. A few things that I think would have made your story that much better would be if you had maybe given the story a twist or spin like changing the animal to another or maybe it not be a farmer but a store owner and the ox in the story would be the employee, something to give it a change up from the original story. Another thing is that I like your graphic because it made me feel like I was on a farm but perhaps adding a picture of an actual ox would have given the readers something to visualize while they were reading the story! Hope this comment helps you, and good job!
Hi Molly,
ReplyDeleteI think your portfolio is going pretty well. I remember reading your first story rendition of Jack and Jill during one of the first few weeks of class and really liked it. You made some excellent edits to it for I think the first time you read it, there were some punctuation and grammar issues. However, my favorite of your two stories is The Spoiled Ox, for sure. I agree with Kha that you said “Farmer John” a little too much. It was also kind of confusing when you switched up using ox to bull. I thought they were different animals? I don’t know, I’m probably wrong about that. Either way, I like how you described the dedication Farmer John had for his ox. I am glad the farmer realized that treating his animals like that was not a good way to earn his victory. The morale went well with your rendition of the story.
This was a great story to read. Nice job on telling how the relationship between the farmer and the ox began. It really was better than the original story in my opinion. That is one strong ox to have. I was getting worried about how the farmer was not taking care of himself very much and thought that something would happen to the farmer and the ox would come to his aid or something of the sort. The relationship was very well explained and quite detailed. The love that the farmer showed to his prized ox was really relatable for me since I have pets and take care of them quite well. Reading your story took me back to my country days when my family and I used to live on a farm with cattle and other livestock. This ox has a very good life and is quite spoiled. I wish I had a good life like he does haha. Overall, I loved the story and the moral that love and compassion should be shown to those we love.
ReplyDeleteHey Molly! I read another one of your stories, Jack and Jill, and loved it; so I was super excited to read this one too! I loved how you changed the characters in this story a bit, like the farmer, in order to portray the back story how you saw it! I love the idea of taking a story from the untextbook and giving it a backstory, because most often the stories don't have one, which always frustrates me! The ending of your story is really cool and I liked that the ox didn't respond to the bad treatment because people often don't realize that their own pets won't react to bad treatment, especially if they are used to being treated well!
ReplyDeleteHey Molly! I enjoyed reading your story. I like that it had a moral to it. Your description of the farmer and ox's routine was very detailed. That detail helped to not only enhance the quality of the story, but it also helped build suspense. I was wondering if something was going to go wrong, especially when you mentioned Farmer John not taking care of himself. By adding the backstory of the original tale, you've increased and added to the legend. I've never read the original, but I like your version because the backstory makes the moral more powerful. By showing the farmer's true intentions, I have more sympathy for him. Although, if I was going to be anyone in the story it would definitely be the ox. He gets bathed multiples times a day! The only thing I could think to add that would make the story more interesting would be how the farmer came in possession of the ox. Then maybe we could understand why he cared for it so much. Overall, I think you did a great job!
ReplyDeleteHello Molly!
ReplyDeleteOh I loved this story when I first read it but I love your version even more! I used this story to write a little something about Christmas. I kind of prefer when stories work that way, you know? That you completely write something new based on the same idea. But, I actually really like yours even though it stuck close to the original idea! I really like the lesson you taught with this story. Wonderful!
Hi, Molly. I enjoyed reading your story. You did well in explaining how the ox was treated by the farmer. You went into really good detail with the story which gave a good feel for just how well the ox was being treated. Even compares to the farmer, the ox was treated very well shows how much the farmer cared. The story seemed to be written out and spaced well to keep the readers attention the whole time so that the story didn't seem so long. The only thing I found wrong with the story was that it had a few typos that I found. Other than that the story was written well and was pretty enjoyable.
ReplyDelete