The tortoise and the monkey once found a banana tree floating on the waves of a river. It was a very fine tree, with large green leaves and with roots. They took it ashore. “Let us divide it,” said the tortoise,” and plant each of portion. They cut it in the middle, and the monkey, as the stronger one, took for himself the upper part of the tree, thinking that it would grow quicker, for it had leaves. The tortoise, as the weaker, had the lower part that looked ugly although it had roots.
After some days, they met. “Hello, Mr. Monkey,” said the tortoise, “how are you getting on with your banana tree? ” “Alas,” said the monkey, “it has been dead a long time! And yours, Miss Tortoise? ” “Very nice indeed, with leaves and fruits, but I cannot climb up to gather them. ” “Never mind,” said the malicious monkey, “I will climb up and pick them for you. ” “Do, Mr. Monkey,” replied the tortoise gratefully. And so they walked toward the tortoise’s house.
As soon as the monkey saw the bright yellow fruits hanging between the large green leaves, he climbed up and began plundering, munching and gobbling as quick as he could. “But give me some, too,” said the tortoise, seeing that the monkey did not take the slightest notice of her. “Not even a bit of the skin, if it is eatable,” replied the moneky, both his cheeks crammed with banana. The tortoise planned revenge. She went to the river, picked up some pointed shells, planted them around the banana tree, and hid herself under a coconut shell.
When the monkey came down, he hurt himself and began to bleed. After a long search he found the tortoise. “Now you must pay for your wickedness. You must die. But as I am very generous, I will let you choose your death. Shall I pound you in a mortar, or shall I throw you into the water? Which do you prefer? ” “The mortar, the mortar! ” answered the tortoise. “I am so afraid of getting drowned. ” “O, ho! ” laughed the monkey, “Indeed! You are afraid of getting drowned! Now I will drown you! And going to the shore, he threw the tortoise in the water.
But soon the tortoise reappeared, swimming and laughing at the deceitful monkey.
Characters
Monkey-as the antagonist. The monkey represents the opportunist, self-serving people of the society, ready to get more for them and be always on the top.
Turtle-as the protagonist. The turtle enables equality to be practiced by cutting the banana tree on the center, having the less-looking. Hence, being left with the less productive looking half of the tree, the turtle did her best to make the most out of it by patience and perseverance.
Having no choice and out of humility, the turtle in the story accepted the offer of the greedy monkey to gather the fruit from the tree even if the fooled her from the past. With unfair results, the turtle showed vengeance as result of pain and disappointments. Nevertheless, she learned her lesson and never trusted the monkey and deceived it for survival.
Point of View
In my point of view, the story is about being unfair to the people around us, especially our friends. We should always know how to share things that we have and we may have. For our Father God will give it back so much more than what we need.
