In the early 1900's, there were two brothers, one named Leo and the other named Jack.
Leo was the big brother and was the strong and handsome one of the two. Jack, on the other hand, was the younger brother who was lacking in the looks department, but was smart and could think his way out of most situations.
When Leo became of age, his parents allowed him to take over the family construction business. Leo had a hard time learning the ins and outs of the business, but he made up for it in his ability to impress his clients with his charming personality.
A couple years later, Jack became of age and joined in the family business as well.
However, Leo felt that Jack was inferior to him and thought that it was only right that Jack work his way up like everyone else.
But being the smart man that he was, Jack assumed that his brother would act this way. So, Jack set up a meeting between a wealthy Japanese client and Leo.
As soon as the meeting was set up, Jack went to Leo and told him about the potential deal. Surprised and excited, Leo jumped at the chance to go international with the family company.
In his excitement, Leo overlooked the facts that he couldn't speak Japanese and didn't know anything about Japanese buildings either.
In a panic, Leo went to his little brother and asked for help and promised the position of manager if he did help. Anticipating this, Jack set his big brother up with a Japanese interpreter who knew very little about Japanese construction.
Needless to say, the meeting went terrible, but Jack convinced the Japanese client to stay with their company and give Jack another chance to win him over.
Again, Leo went to Jack and plead to him for his help to secure the Japanese client. This time he promised the position of supervisor for his help.
Jack set his brother up with an interpreter who knew Japanese construction well, but lacked the knowledge of Japanese business customs. And just like last time, the meeting went terrible.
Feeling devastated that he was about to lose the Japanese client for good, Leo went to Jack one final time and begged for his help. Only this time Leo promised to give Jack whatever he wanted in exchange for his help, including half the business.
Jack agreed and accompanied Leo to the business meeting.
When they arrived, Jack did all the talking, since he knew the Japanese language and customs. Leo simply sat beside his brother and smiled the whole time, not knowing what was going on.
Every once in a while Jack would inform Leo about what their potential client wanted and Leo would nod in agreement. Knowing full well that Leo had no idea what was going on, Jack convinced their client to give them the deal of a lifetime.
However, when it came to signing the papers, Jack couldn't bring himself to double cross his big brother. In the end, Jack had compassion and let Leo have all the glory.
Author's Note: I got my inspiration from the two stories, African Folk-Tales and Japanese Mythology. In the African Folk-Tales reading, the two main characters are usually Lion and Jackal and they're uncle and nephew, respectively. Jackal always ends up double crossing Lion and getting away with all the spoils and sometimes fatally wounds Lion. As you can probably tell, I used these two characters for the inspiration of my main story and the names of the characters as well. A small bit of my inspiration came from the Japanese Mythology reading. In that reading, the Japanese gods have children who are deities who, as the generations go on, become more and more human-like. I didn't integrate as much as I wanted to into this story from that reading, but as you can see, I had Leo and Jack come into contact with a Japanese client. That's kind of the extent of where I went with that.
Bibliography: South African Folktales by James Honey &a Japanese Mythology by E. W. Champney and F. Champney.
Image 1: Leo
Image 2: Jack
John,
ReplyDeleteI like how your story tied in very well with the reading choices that you chose. It was very cool how you were able to create a more modernized and human-like story from the myths that you read this past week. I also liked how their names came from the stories that you read as well. I sometimes find it hard to be creative with names. Your story reminds me of the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" for some reason with a twist. Great work!
Hey John!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you included pictures that represented each brother! Kind of made me laugh at poor Jack! I too, love that you used the stories to give them "American names" as I have also done that in some of my stories! Keep up the good work!
Great story! You did a good job on setting up in modern times! It’s nice that it is sort of modern but still set a few years back. It's nice how well you kept the story close to the original. I've tried a few times with set stories in modern times but have had little to no success. Can't wait to read some more of your stories!
ReplyDeleteI thought that you did a good job with your story this week. I like how you named your characters to represent the animals that you were basing them off of. I thought that that was a clever touch! I really enjoyed the plot line and thought that it was sneaky of Jack to mess with his brothers business deal. I do like in the end how he had a change of heart and helped his brother.
ReplyDeleteThis story certainly was an interesting one and I am glad I was able to return to your page and finally have the opportunity to read this narrative. Transitioning this story to the modern times was well executed and a good selection for the narrative. Using the original story's animals for the basis of the characters' names was well done.
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