Khodumodomo

Summary:
Once upon a time, there was a monster named “Khoduomoduomo” who ate everything he can see. One day, he came through a narrow valley and entered a small village. He ate everything he saw: people, animals, plants and houses, except for a woman, who hid away from the monster. After his feast, Khodumodumo wanted to leave this place but he found himself too big to pass the narrow valley. Meanwhile, the woman had given birth to a child, and she went out to look for blankets and food for the baby. Surprisingly, when she came back, she found that the baby was gone, and instead there stood a grown man with spears in his hand and divining bones around his neck. This man is her son, and he went to kill Khodumomo. Eventually he saved everyone, and become the chief of the village.

Setting:
TIME: Once upon a time
Place: In a southern Africa village

Character:
1.The boy: The boy was the “chosen one,” after his birth he immediately became an grown man, and fought against the beast to save everyone. He is brave, skilled and intelligent. He has a few spears in his hands and a divining bone around his neck which symbolize two things: strength and determination.

2. The mother: The mother is a traditional figure of a brave but weak mom. She is wise because she knows that she is incapable of defeating the beast, so instead of confronting the monster, she chose to hide. This wise choice preserves her energy and eventually brings her the savior to the village.

3.The villagers: The villagers are the weak in the story, they weren’t able to protect themselves and they don’t event know how to escape.

4.Khodumodumo: Khodumodumo is the monster that would eat everything, he is extremely powerful. But his arrogance and greed led to his final defeat.

Themes:
1. We need to be prepared when we face challenges, we need to have both strength and determination.
2. If we don’t have enough strength to overcome our current difficulties, we need to know how to preserve our energy wisely.
3. Arrogance is our enemy, so we shouldn’t be arrogant or greedy even if we’re powerful.

Motif:
1 The “chosen one”, or the hero, the boy possesses great power and has the faith to beat the monster, he is a typical hero in an adventure story. For example, Harry Potter in Harry Potter.

2. The Devil, or Khodumodumo in this story, usually an extremely evil and powerful figure. For example, Voldemort in Harry Potter.

3. The divining bones, or the magical objects. For examples, “Elder Wand” in Harry Potter.

I think the theme and the character part are really good ,but i got a little question for the monter, what the monter possibly symbolize for ?What i think she is symbolize for poourtunity.When we meet the oppurtunity,we need both determination and theh power to catch it.In the story, the motehr knew that it was impossible for her to defeat alone, but she had the determination and knew how much power she got.So she waited for the time came ,when she came back, his son suddenly grow up and got the power to defeat the monster.She was the women knew when was the time and how to catch opportunity.

The themes are really good, but i think the mother would better symbolize a wise person that uses his/her wits instead of symbolizing a typical mother. I think this because the mother realizes that she cant defeat the monster and hides to protect herself and her child and ensure her survival. She takes a wiser approach to the issue of survival than the rest of the village, who all try to solve the problem head on. I think the boy the mother both show us that it is important to prepare yourself before you face problems. The other villagers didn’t prepare and they got eaten. The boy was magically prepared and he managed to defeat the monster and didn’t get eaten. The mother shows us that it is important because she realizes that she isn’t prepared and she doesn’t go and face the monster like an idiot.

I totally agree with the analysis of the story. Especially the analysis of the theme of being prepared before fighting the monster. Although it is quite clear that the main character would be the hero, it also lead me to think more about the mother and the villagers. When the monsters came to attack the village, all the villagers stay put and was finally defeated by the monster. On the other hand, the mother wisely looked out for her chance to escape the monster's attack. Does this story also address the problem of going with the flow of the majority? Does it also serve as a reminder for people to stay calm and be alert for own opportunity while facing obstacles? Does the story use the contrast of the different endings for the mother and the villagers to alert people to be aware of just going with the flow  and also encourage people to try to give things a hard try?