Week 7 story: The Spider's Web
There once was a spider whose web was one of many in a very large tree in the center of a dense forest. This spider was not very good at building his web; each day, perhaps only one or two flies got caught, and they always managed to escape before the spider could eat them.
The spider knew he should ask one of the older, wiser spiders to teach him to build a better web, but he was too proud to ask anyone for help. Instead, he waited until the other spiders in the tree fell asleep, and he crawled to a neighboring web to take a bug that got stuck. After feasting, he sneakily returned to his own web before the others woke up.
The next day, the spider's web was without trapped insects yet again, so he waited until nightfall to steal a fly from another's web. He decided to travel farther to a new spider's web in order to avoid suspicion.
For two weeks the spider continued to steal food from his neighbors. Each night he ventured a little bit farther to take from a new web. But in addition to his pride and poor web-building, the spider had another flaw: laziness. After two weeks of stealing and eating bugs without being detected, the spider felt confident he could take food from anyone, anywhere without getting caught. So, he thought, why not just take from the closest spider web every time?
That night and the night after, the spider again successfully poached his closest neighbor's food without being caught. But after the third day of waking up without any bugs caught in her web, the spider's neighbor became suspicious.
When the spider snuck out again to steal from his neighbor's web, she was waiting for him. He crawled up into the fibers, too confident to bother checking whether or not anyone was lying in wait for him. As he wandered unawares, his neighbor wrapped him up in her web and said, "This is how you build a web." Then she ate him.
Author's note: This story was inspired by stories of tricksters in the African fairy tales from the Lang book. Spiders are a common animal portrayed as tricksters in African folk tales, but they are not featured in those particular stories, so I decided to make a spider my main character.
The spider knew he should ask one of the older, wiser spiders to teach him to build a better web, but he was too proud to ask anyone for help. Instead, he waited until the other spiders in the tree fell asleep, and he crawled to a neighboring web to take a bug that got stuck. After feasting, he sneakily returned to his own web before the others woke up.
The next day, the spider's web was without trapped insects yet again, so he waited until nightfall to steal a fly from another's web. He decided to travel farther to a new spider's web in order to avoid suspicion.
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| Illustration of a spider. Source: iStock |
That night and the night after, the spider again successfully poached his closest neighbor's food without being caught. But after the third day of waking up without any bugs caught in her web, the spider's neighbor became suspicious.
When the spider snuck out again to steal from his neighbor's web, she was waiting for him. He crawled up into the fibers, too confident to bother checking whether or not anyone was lying in wait for him. As he wandered unawares, his neighbor wrapped him up in her web and said, "This is how you build a web." Then she ate him.
Author's note: This story was inspired by stories of tricksters in the African fairy tales from the Lang book. Spiders are a common animal portrayed as tricksters in African folk tales, but they are not featured in those particular stories, so I decided to make a spider my main character.
Hey Emily! This is a wonderful little story. I've always loved tales that involve spiders; I remember reading many of Anansi's adventures when I was younger. You did a great job with the character arc of the main spider, whose flaws are revealed in turn and culminate in his eventual demise. What a tragic fate to be eaten by a fellow eight-legged friend, but the world of webs is a wild place.
ReplyDeleteHello Emily! Great job incorporating the spider into a trickster story that originally did not have one in it. I can definitely relate to it at the beginning when it refused to ask for help from the others since it was not building an efficient web. However, it did get what it deserved for stealing its neighbors' meals for so long, so the plot twist at the end was great! I especially like what you had the neighbor spider say before eating the main character, it shows how angry it was about its meal being taken.
ReplyDeleteHello Emily,
ReplyDeleteThis was a great little story with a great life lesson embedded at the end. Stories like this are very enjoyable due to the style they are written in. Because of the short story style readers are able to get invested early and have a quick payoff at the end without losing attention. You told this story in that way very well. There wasn't a moment where I wasn't interested. Good job!
Hello again, Emily! This reminds me of the story of Anansi, a famous trickster in African folklore. I’m interested in how you wrote an actual spider into the story—it works, though! You would think that the spider should ask for help in building a stronger web, rather than stealing from his neighbors, or at least ask for permission to eat someone else’s food. It’s like the old saying, “give a man a fish, he eats for a day—teach him to fish, he eats for life.” Another animal analogy, I know, but it’s true. Overall, good job!
ReplyDeleteSpiders just in time for halloween! This was a great story. I really liked how the other spider ate the thief spider in the end. That was a good ending. I look forward to reading more stories! Stories with ending and twists really get me excited and I haven't read that much with twists!
ReplyDeleteHi Emily!
ReplyDeleteThis was such a fun take on the trickster trope, and I like the little bit of the spider getting its just desserts at the end (pun intended). I think you do a great job of simultaneously following the theme and structure of the source stories, while also really making it your own. Great job, and fun read!