Reading Notes: First Voyage, Reading A
For Reading A, I chose to read "First Voyage."
This short story is about a character named Sindbad. Sindbad grew up in a well-off home, with considerable wealth compared to the average person. Sindbad had wisdom; he knew his riches, if spent improperly, would not make him happy in the long run. Therefore, he decided to sell all that he had and become a sailor.
Sindbad sailed the East Indies and traded/exchanged his merchandise. In the midst of bad weather, Sindbad and his fellow crew members came across an island. The island owner welcomed them onto his land, in which they agreed. However, the island was not actually an island as it appeared to be.
A picture of the sailors after realizing the island was not grounded. Photo from the original story.
The island began to be turbulent, and the sailors quickly realized what they had begun to come upon was the back of a large whale! They evacuated the mission quickly before the whale plunged back into the ocean. Some jumped to ship, some into the sea. Sindbad found himself in a sticky situation. He clenched onto a piece of wood that they had taken onto the "island," and was holding on for dear life. No one noticed he was gone among the chaos, so he just had to hope for the best while getting tossed around in the sea.
Sindbad spent the night battling with the waves, but when the sun came up, he found great joy because he had come upon a real island. He was exhausted, so he quickly searched for food on the island that he came across. This is when he heard a voice, and was so excited to find that other people were on the same island.
Sindbad told one of the men about his crazy adventures, and it turned out he was talking to a king of the island. The king introduced him to his friends. The story continues, which I plan to read for reading B.
With my current knowledge, I think it'd be most fun to tell the story of the First Voyage from someone else's point of view than Sindbad's. Perhaps telling it from one of his sailor friends' views would be interesting, since they disappear and we don't know what happens to them!
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