Week 5 Story: A Letter Home


Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp 1 by Andrew Lang 

Sitting alone in the darkness of the once magical cave, Aladdin is defeated. He knows that he has no chance of getting free from the cave and knows that the magician was surely long gone. In the silence, he pulls out a piece of paper and begins writing a letter...

Dearest mother,

I have been trapped in a large, magical, underground cave by the magician who claimed to be father’s brother. It has been two days since he left me here to rot.

We were walking through the gardens but when we upon some mountains, he stopped and said that we would go no further. This seemed strange to me, but he insisted that we build a fire. She started humming strange words in a different language and it almost sounded like he was casting a spell. All of a sudden, the ground started to shake and this cave emerged. I tried to run but it was useless. He caught me and brought me back to the mouth of the cave.

He gave me very specific instructions on what to do next. He said that I would descend the steps into the mysterious cave, follow the trail while stopping along the way to pick up fruit and I would come across a lamp. The magician told me to empty the lamp of all the oil inside and bring it back to him. After this, there would be treasure in my possession. Before I entered the cave however, he gave me a gold ring.

I did just as he said which was clearly a mistake seeing were I am now. When I entered the cave, everything was as he described. But when I began to ascend the stairs he began to yell at me to hand him the lamp and I refused until I could reach the top of the stairs. As before, the Earth beneath me suddenly began to shake and a stone rolled over the entrance to the cave leaving me trapped as I am now.

I know that I have no way of getting this letter to you, but I needed to be able to tell my story if anyone ever found me.

All my love,

Aladdin


Just as Aladdin folded his letter and wrote his mother’s name on the front, he began to weep. With his head in his hands, he felt the ring the magician gave him. Suddenly, the ring began to glow and with a gust of wind he felt someone near him. A voice bellowed in the space between them.

“You summoned me!”




Author’s note:

The original story told that of how Aladdin came across the lamp that contains the genie we are all familiar with. I thought a fun way to tell the story from Aladdin’s perspective would be in letter form to his mother telling of the desperation he was experiencing

 
Aladdin's Lamp: PublicDomainPictures



Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 23, 2018 at 11:07 AM

    Hi Maria!
    I really liked reading about this story from Aladdin’s point of view in a letter to his mother. The end of the letter where he writes about how he doesn’t know if the letter will ever get to her is so sad, you can really feel how hopeless he is in that moment. Also, the ending was great to me. I liked how it ended on a cliff hanger.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jacob TrentSeptember 23, 2018 at 7:41 PM

    Hey Maria!
    I really enjoy the story of Aladdin and knew I would have to read this rendition once I saw the title. I like that you give us more insight into Aladdin's character, such as what sorts of things he treasured in what he would believe to be his final hours. I think it would benefit the story to add some sort of background or additional information about the ring since it appears to play a pretty big role near the end. If you ever decide to write a follow up story I'd be excited to read it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownSeptember 28, 2018 at 9:23 PM

    Hey Maria!
    i really enjoy how you delineates the character, Aladdin, through the letter to his mom. It is a good way to convey the emotional feelings of Aladdin, who being trapped in the cave. The ending of the story is so satisfy, since it is a good sign showing that Aladdin soon will be escape from the cave and receive the power from the lamp.
    I can't not wait to see the development of the story.

    ReplyDelete

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