CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENT LITERATURE

STORY-TELLING REPORT (2-3 PAGES)

Student/s Name/s: Salamante Cecil

Literary Genre/Category: Traditional Literature - Legend/Historical

Title/s of the Story/Stories: The Tale of Ashoka

Reference/s: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ashoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalinga_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka

Oral Script (How you would tell the story orally; 3-5 minutes)

Long ago in the lands to the west/east there lived a great and powerful king called Ashoka.

The king saw the land in ruins, and he wanted to unite it to bring prosperity.

To unite the land, the king began to build an army, one so strong nobody would defeat it.

Then he went to war, taking city after city, province after province for eight years.

However, wherever they went people only took up arms against Ashoka.

Nevertheless his armies kept winning and the enemies kept fighting back, until the king finally reached
the coast.

There the kings' banners fluttered and they darkened the sky, with his fury fire and his chariots
sharpened scythes.

Men ran and they cowered, and they fought and they died. Lands burned, cities bled as the orphaned
cried.

The final battle was won by Ashoka the king, but at what cost? 100 thousand of his men were dead,
many more were wounded and many families became refugees. It was then that Ashoka saw that in his
 attempt to bring prosperity, through war, he had only brought destruction. Ashoka then renounced
war, starting then on, he would only spread his nation through great works and great deeds.

The king turned to making his people's lives better and would build his edicts, his rules, on pillars and
great stones for all to see.

He called his new ways conquest of righteous, right living, not only involved writing his edicts for a good
life on stone but also by preaching personally. He preached of humility, good words and good deeds to
the people, and the people, seeing their king change would follow his example. As news of King Ashoka's
change of heart reached more ears soon even their neighbouring kingdoms would follow suit and King
Ashoka would finally find peace in the land.

To this Day Ashoka is known as Ashoka the Great, not because of his conquest but because of his efforts
for peace.

Truly, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.” -
Proverbs 22:1
 Analysis: (Discuss at least 5 elements and quote specific words in the story/ your script)

Characters:
Ashoka, King Ashoka is a dynamic character, if not fleshed out due to summarizing a historical event
spanning several years. We started with “ The king saw the land in ruins, and he wanted to unite it to
bring prosperity.”

and raising armies and going to war to achieve his goals, becoming the very terror he was supposed to
be against, and then realizing that, he began to repent and change his ways.

“ Ashoka then renounced war, starting then on, he would only spread his nation through great works
and great deeds.”

Plot:
Ashoka is a real life shining example of a redemption story.

Point of view:
Though third person the adapter of this story decided to make parts of the story sound like it would be
written by an “in universe” chronicler.

“There the kings' banners fluttered and they darkened the sky, with his fury fire and his chariots
sharpened scythes.

Men ran and they cowered, and they fought and they died. Lands burned, cities bled as the orphaned
cried. “

Set in India, the adapter omitted this information from the reader to simplify the story’s setting,
especially since ancient India is as detached to the modern world as Ur or Babylon
(now in modern day Iraq) is.

“Long ago in the lands to the west/east “

The east/west part is to be determined by the storytellers location, alternatively “lands far away” could
be used

Style:

Most of the story is told via narrative style with a bit of persuasive at the end

Themes: Violence isn’t the way, is the most simple way to put it
 Materials/Pictures used

this could be told completely orally, but perhaps pictures of the edicts, a battlefield and
a prosperous country would help

Video link: (Optional, of yourself telling the story)