The zebra storyteller

The zebra storyteller (Reaction) The story began with the simple introduction of “Once upon a time..,” a much overused opener I thought to myself. At first I thought that it was rather childish, then absurd and to the point that it didn’t make sense at all. But after a second reading I realized that the story had so many things to tell us, and such things are power, knowledge, and control. Let me start with power and knowledge, throughout the story there is a pattern and display of the power of knowledge. The Siamese cat’s ability to speak another language is a naked display of intelligence thus giving us the moral “knowledge is power”. In the first place it was also the desire for power that caused him to learn Zebraic. On the Zebra storyteller’s part it was his imaginative knowledge that saved his life. If he did not imagine such a silly plot for a story he might have been another victim of the Siamese cat. But perhaps the most baffling part of the story was the last line, “And that is the function of the storyteller”. This line could say and interpret into several meanings. First, it is the function of the storyteller to break or disprove myths, or perhaps it is his function to give warning using his imaginative mind. It could also mean that it is the function of the storyteller to give the story an unexpected twist, but most importantly it is the function of the storyteller to end the story. Now I think it is safe to conclude that this story is not just any simple parable or bedtime story.