Essay Week 5: Magicians and Genies

This week I read the Arabian Nights unit, which definitely had a magical theme to it. Most of the magic in these stories came from various genies, with the exception of the magician in the Aladdin story. The way the genies originated differed throughout the stories though. Some came from lamps, one came from a ring, and one just appeared out of nowhere in the desert.

In the first half of the reading, the genie was given mostly human-like characteristics. He talked to the travelers and listened to their stories. He even had an aspect of human emotion, as he spared the life of the old man who supposedly killed his son. Further on in the stories, another genie is encountered who grants his master a wish, but the wish is only to choose how he dies. This genie also displayed human emotion. He listened to stories and displayed anger, but in the end made his master rich.

The genies in the Aladdin story used magic for the same reason, to grant wishes. When the genies appeared to Aladdin, they were immediately his masters and subject to whatever he desired. Alternately, the human magician in the Aladdin story used his powers to manipulate people for his own advantage. These genies displayed much less emotion and acted as how most people think of genies, with them just being there to grant wishes.

There were no supernatural beings in the readings. Furthermore, there was not even a mention of the belief of a supernatural being (or beings) even existing. I do believe that the magic in these stories was the dominant element. Most of the characters outcome was dependent on the action of genies, as well as most of the stories being based solely on a character discovering a magical item that contains a genie.  

The genie everyone thinks of!

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