Extra Credit Reading Notes, Babbitt Jataka Tales: The Sandy Road

Bibliography: Babbitt Jataka Tales. Story: The Sandy Road

Notes: I am really intrigued by this story. A number of the Jataka tales that I have read have been somewhat untraditional moralistic tales in that they have not really presented a moral. I don't really know if it is fair for me to be comparing the stories to "moralistic tales" since that may not actually be the point of the stories, but most stories tend to have a deeper meaning, which I have struggled to find in some of the stories (though that may be more of a personal failing than one of the story). This story, however, is unconventional in a different way. Most moralistic tales (I will just continue to use this classification because I think it is the closest one I know to use) have "good" and "bad: characters or "wise" and "foolish" characters (think "The Wise and the Foolish Merchant", though I had thoughts on that that can be seen in my reading notes on the story). This story combines both of those tropes into one character. The merchant is both the foolish one and the wise one. He is the one who makes the questionable decision to throw away the water and firewood before they are out of the desert, but he is also the one who does not give up and finds the place for the well. I really like this actually, since it presents a much more realistic view of how the world works. There are not completely "good" or "evil" people, neither are there completely "wise" or "foolish" ones. People make mistakes. Yet, as my grandfather used to say, "It is only a mistake if you don't learn from it." Perhaps in a re-telling of this story I could have the merchant, now old, telling his grandchildren this story and incorporate my own grandfathers wise words in there as the "moral". 

(A sight that would make most people want to give up. Source: pxhere)