1001 Nights

I would recommend this piece for someone to read. It is a wonderful and very interesting story. Many stories we hear today have stemmed from “1001 Nights” that we may not even realize. It is a very uniquely and wonderfully written material.

There is an obvious difference in the cultural context of this story along with its held views and that of today. At that time woman come across as being treated the same as materials or goods. Something that is owned and can even be thrown away at any time as we see even here with the King willing to simply kill the woman each day in order to fulfill his own fears of infidelity. There are some similarities that can run parallel even with current day treatment. Many times you see men who in order to hide insecurities or failure take it out on the woman belittling her as what he refers to as the “weaker-sex” in order to appease himself and his insecurities. Obviously we do not hear of events happening like we see them in this story (a king sleeping with the women in the evening only to kill them the next morning) however the underlying principles are obvious whether it be in media or within homes and marriages.

The relevance that this story pulls is its touching of our current day culture. As mentioned above many of the stories we read in “1001 Nights” such as Aladdin are the same stories we see in say a Disney movie or children’s book. Although there may not be many practical lessons to pull from the story we can see the way the stories have transferred down to our current day.