Brothers Grimm (Crane) - Reading Diary A

For my final reading diary posts, I chose to read the Crane version of the Brothers Grimm Household Stories. The first story, The Fisherman and His Wife, tells of a fisherman who catches an enchanted flounder that can grant wishes. He lets the fish go and does not make any wishes at first, but when he tells his wife about it she tells him to go back to the pond to ask the flounder for a bigger house. The flounder grants that wish and the fisherman and his wife are happy for a week or two, but then the wife decides she wants a bigger house and she orders her husband to go ask the flounder for a castle. The man does not want to ask for a bigger house, but the wife insists and he eventually gives in and goes to ask the flounder. But when they are given a castle, the wife decides she wants to be the king. She tells her husband to go back to the fish to make her king, which he does not at all want to do. She keeps complaining and asking him to do so until he finally does. Once she is king, though, she uses her power to order her husband to ask the fish to make her emperor. Then she wants even more than that and tells him to ask the fish to make her the pope. Once she is pope, the man tells her that there is nothing more that she can become, but she is still not satisfied. Then she decides she wants to have the power to control when the sun rises and sets. She screams at her husband, ordering him to go back to the flounder to ask that. When the man does ask the flounder, he tells the man to go back home and he will find his wife in their original home. I enjoyed this story because it was very entertaining and it also has a good message- don’t be greedy. When you keep asking for more, you may end up with less.

(Image of the fisherman talking to the enchanted flounder. Source: Wikipedia)