Hi. I am a car. I am not just any car though. I am a car who just got purchased by the most beautiful woman on the entire planet! She is so incredibly gorgeous that she can’t walk down the street without people stopping in their tracks and staring. In fact, every salesman was basically bowing and kissing her feet as she was shopping for her car. I’m so lucky aren’t I? I get to be seen with such a beauty all around town. All the other cars are going to be so jealous of me too.
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| Beauty's Car Wikipedia |
My owner’s name is Rebecca and she just signed the papers to
be able to take me home. I have never been so thrilled and happy before. After prying off
all the drooling men around her, she hopped into the car and I had never been so in love
with a lady before. We truly are a perfect match. I'm seriously the luckiest car out there.
Rebecca turned on the ignition and I roared with life. My
headlights never beamed so brightly and I sang on the top of my lungs when she
turned on the radio. Where would this beautiful person take me? She probably
only drives on the nicest roads and goes to places with graciously large
parking spots. Oh, and I’ll probably never experience hail damage either because Rebecca will keep me in a garage at all times. Where
would we go first? The beach? The mall?
Rebecca first went to a Starbucks and ordered a cappuccino
from the drive through. She’s very classy isn’t she?
Just five minutes later, she happened to spill the steaming
hot cup of coffee all over my leather seats. I was in so much agony, but I
forgave her quickly because it was most likely an accident. It could have happened with anyone. I still love her.
December 15th, 2015
She drives me around every day, and
every day I become weaker and weaker. She slams on the breaks and throws away
all her trash including banana peels and apple cores into the back seat. She
leaves all her dirty laundry on the floor. It’s becoming harder and harder for
me to breathe.
August 13th, 2015
A year has gone by and now I have no mirror on the right
passenger side and my bumper is hanging off. My tires have already been patched
up five times and my engine feels terrible. I don’t know why she won’t fix me.
Why would she treat me this way? It's complete torture every day. She’s such a terrible person. All day long,
she yells on her phone and when she gets mad, she pounds on the steering wheel amongst other abuses. I’m deteriorating.
I’ve never been in such pain before. It’s so dreadful waking
up every morning and I always pray at night that Rebecca will just stay home
and not have to go anywhere. I simply can’t take it anymore. At this rate, I
will die at such a young age. I can't believe my fate has turned out this way. Before, I couldn't resist her and now I wish she never existed in my life.
Author's Note: This story is inspired by a Nigerian folk tale called "Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King." In the original story, a king marries a very beautiful stranger with an ulterior motive who ends up killing him. The moral at the end is "Never marry a stranger, no matter how pretty she may be." This may seem a little funny and obvious but on a more general scale, many people act like the king. They judge a person by their looks before they get to know their true personality which is more important. I wanted to write a story that illustrates how people are much more than just their outward appearances and no matter how pretty someone may be, that doesn't guarantee anyone happiness. A beautiful person is not a perfect person and they are too very capable of causing pain. Especially in a marriage or long lasting relationship, beauty only goes so far. You want to be with someone for their soul and not their looks.
For this story, I wrote it in the perspective of an inanimate object, a car. I thought it would be fun to tell a story in a completely different point of view. The best looking person is not the best owner.
Bibliography: "Of the Pretty Stranger who Killed the King" by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910) Web Source
This is a great story! I think it is fun to write from the perspective of an inanimate object, because you can really play with their personality like you did above. The picture is great (beautiful car by the way), and your resolution is good. Of course she goes to Starbucks first! Great story, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Hae,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I thought the blurb of your story was really enticing! I had to click on the story about a car falling in love with a woman. It sounded too strange not to!
I thought the line, “after prying off all the drooling men around her,” was really clever imagery. It was a very vivid picture for a situation that’s usually pretty figurative! It also matched the mood and humor of the story really well. “She’s very classy, isn’t she?” after the Starbucks line was pretty funny, too.
I loved how the beautiful, “perfect” woman turned out to be this irresponsible, inconsiderate slob. The juxtaposition of her appearance and her character creates a really interesting story element, and it was a great way to bring a new moral to the story! I thought it was a really great re-telling of the original, and it fits well in our world today!
On suggestion I would make on the portfolio overall would be to make the font a little bigger, just to that it’s easier to read.
Hae,
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of cars and racing, so I was immediately drawn into your story just based on the title and the picture. I was expecting a retelling of The Beauty and the Beast based on the title, but clearly you went a different direction with your story. Similar to The Beauty and the Beast however, usually inanimate objects are characters in your story. I thought the final moral (Never marry a stranger, no matter how pretty she may be) was a delightfully simple proverb, and it is a great basis for a short story like this. I'm sure there are many other similar stories in your class, but I haven't been exposed to them yet because I am not in Myth-Folklore.
Thanks so much for sharing your work so far, I really enjoyed reading it. Good luck with the rest of this class and the remaining semester.
Andrew
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ReplyDeleteHey Hae,
ReplyDeleteThis was a really great story that you wrote here. I was thoroughly impressed by this story. The thing that pulled me up was seeing that it was about cars, which something I like to a degree. The title is deceiving because, at first, it was seeming to be a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast but that was not the case. The moral of the story was quite simple and easy to comprehend, so that was great into being able to understand. I read the story you used as well, so it was easier to see the connections. Overall, You did a really great job with this story, so I applaud your creativity and work!
Keep it up and good luck the rest of the semester!
This is a very deep story. I also read the tale you based this off of and I thought it had a great message as well. I am glad to see you took that message and showed it in your story. Also this story made me really rethink how I treat my car. As I was reading it I was thinking Oh no I do that! I think she is going to get a good bath tomorrow haha! The imagery throughout was really great as well. Thank you for writing such wonderful stories!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, how creative of you to decide to change the character from a king and pretty woman to a sports car and its beautiful owner. It was so unique to read the story from the cars perspective, especially in this kind of "dear diary" format you used. I thought it was so sad that in the beginning the car was so in love with her that he was willing to overlook her flaws and how badly she treated the car. All of the details you put into this story were really well thought out. I especially liked how the car was dreaming about large parking spots and trip to the mall of beach... I could really see the cars personality coming through. In the end you gave us a life lesson that we should all hear every now and again. Like you said, it is important not to live our lives like this, we should get to know someone beyond the basis of their physical beauty. Great job; I'm looking forward to coming back and reading more of your portfolio work!
ReplyDeleteHi Hae! This was a very interesting take on the story! I chose your story because the blurb was just so intriguing. I honestly never thought of cars having feelings until the movie Cars by Pixar, and then now your story. I like how he (the car/king) was so enthusiastic about her since she is so beautiful, but turns out that she is not the best person, what with her being dirty and abusive and all that. It was very creative for you to change from the original story into a modern setting, making it a little more relatable to us when reading your story. You did a very good job of writing it, and kept it interesting throughout. On the last journal entry though, I think you meant 2016 rather than 2015, but that's a minor mistake!
ReplyDeleteI will definitely be treating my car better after reading your story!