The Arabian Nights
The Arabian Nights: Saving Lives through Stories
Hurriya Hassan
Topic 2, Paper 1
Dr. R. Amatulli
Global Literature I, Winter Session
12th January, 2015
Storytelling is a great teaching tool that has been used since the beginning of time. Oral tradition has been constantly used in many cultures and society in order to tell a story that consists of a moral that helps an individual learn about certain life lessons. These stories are passed down to them so they can be retold to their future generations. Although story telling has declined during this time period, the novel, The Arabian Nights, is a great example of how story telling has saved someone’s life. The Arabian Nights consists of many stories and tales that the main character Shahrazad tells King Shahrayar throughout 1,001 nights in order to survive execution in the morning and to avoid having other woman in the kingdom executed as well. Her stories capture King Shahrayar’s attention every night and leave him burning with curiosity as to how the story will end. In my opinion, being able to capture the King’s attention and connecting his life experiences to the experiences of the character throughout her stories is what helps Shahrazad save innocent lives, including her own life, from being executed. Shahrazad’s stories help save lives because many of her stories are built around the idea of irrational decisions and forgiveness. In the Arabian Nights, we witness that King Shahrayar and his younger brother King Shahzaman are betrayed by their wives and make irrational decisions to kill them. However, King Shahrayar also makes another decision in which he vows to marry a woman every night, take her virginity and have her executed in the morning because he believes all women will betray him at one point if he lets them live. In order to save lives, Shahrazad incorporated King Shahrayar’s own life experience into her story to teach him that irrational decisions lead to many consequences that
Hurriya Hassan
Topic 2, Paper 1
Dr. R. Amatulli
Global Literature I, Winter Session
12th January, 2015
Storytelling is a great teaching tool that has been used since the beginning of time. Oral tradition has been constantly used in many cultures and society in order to tell a story that consists of a moral that helps an individual learn about certain life lessons. These stories are passed down to them so they can be retold to their future generations. Although story telling has declined during this time period, the novel, The Arabian Nights, is a great example of how story telling has saved someone’s life. The Arabian Nights consists of many stories and tales that the main character Shahrazad tells King Shahrayar throughout 1,001 nights in order to survive execution in the morning and to avoid having other woman in the kingdom executed as well. Her stories capture King Shahrayar’s attention every night and leave him burning with curiosity as to how the story will end. In my opinion, being able to capture the King’s attention and connecting his life experiences to the experiences of the character throughout her stories is what helps Shahrazad save innocent lives, including her own life, from being executed. Shahrazad’s stories help save lives because many of her stories are built around the idea of irrational decisions and forgiveness. In the Arabian Nights, we witness that King Shahrayar and his younger brother King Shahzaman are betrayed by their wives and make irrational decisions to kill them. However, King Shahrayar also makes another decision in which he vows to marry a woman every night, take her virginity and have her executed in the morning because he believes all women will betray him at one point if he lets them live. In order to save lives, Shahrazad incorporated King Shahrayar’s own life experience into her story to teach him that irrational decisions lead to many consequences that