“The Hundredth Dove” written by Jane Yolen raises an important question: when faced choices, do you follow your head or your heart? It is a tale of the misuse of power and the triumph of love, which are dominating themes in human life.
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The Hundredth Dove [
The story starts with the fowler
who was called by the king in the palace to catch 100 doves for his wedding
ceremony. At that time, there was a woman (Columba) who was neat, slim, and
fair like a bird. She had worn a gold ring on her finger. He dared to kiss the
glittering gold ring of Columba. Then, he moved out to catch a hundred doves
within seven days. He would kill larger birds with arrows and catch small birds
with a net.
On the first day, he trapped
twenty-one doves. All of them were similar besides one. One was thin and as
white as milk. As he was watching the strange dove, she slipped out and taking
only 20 doves returned to his cottage which was in the forest.
On the following day, he again
caught twenty-one doves and one of them was the same slim dove. Today too same
case happened and had to return with twenty doves at home. On the fourth day,
he collected 80 doves. On the fifth day, he only collected nineteen doves, and,
for 100, he had to catch a dove. Now on the sixth day, he only thought to catch
the slim and white dove who had escaped every time from his net.
On that day, he succeeded to trap
her in the net. She has also black eyes like the queen. The female dove had a
glittered (shining) gold ring around her leg. She requested him to free her and
if he did so, he would get gold, a ring, and the queen. Foolish fowler only
thought about serving was his motto. He thought that she might again escape
from the net, so he killed her. As he went to the palace with 99 alive and one
dead dove, there was no wedding.
After this incident, he gave up
hunting and lived on eating berries and fruit for his entire life. Similarly,
he never saw another dove.
The Hundredth Dove [Question answer]
Why is the fowler summoned to the
palace?
Ans: The fowler is summoned to
the place to collect 100 doves for the king's wedding ceremony.
Lady Columba is slim and fair
with dark eyes. Who else in the story is described in the same way?
Ans: White dove is described as
Lady Columba in the story. The follower serves his king ninety-nine alive doves
and the one dead. He fails to serve the king because he unknowingly killed
his bride.
Why doesn't the wedding between the king and Lady Columba take place in the story The Hundredth Dove?
Ans: The weeding does not take
place between the king and Lady Columba because a fowler, named Hugh killed her
who had visited him disguising herself in the forest as the white dove.
In a "simile," two,
unlike things, are compared, using the words like or as. These sentences from
the story contain similes.
Ans: But for the smaller birds
that flocked like gray clouds over the forest, he used only a silken net he
wove himself. The net was as strong as his own stout heart. The last was a dove
that was slim, elegant, and white as milk.
What is the simile in each
sentence? What two things are compared? Find three more similes in the story
and explain the comparisons in each.
Ans: Simile is a comparison
between two dissimilar things using 'like' or 'as'. For example," my
girlfriend is like a rose ". Here two dissimilar things girl and rose are
compared using ' like '.
In the story, smaller birds are
compared with gray clouds. To rain, gray and black clouds are essential.
Similarly, the net is compared with his strong and determinant heart. His heart
is so strong to collect the 100 doves. His net is also built strongly.
Likewise, the color of the dove is compared with milk. It indicates that the
dove is pure, clean, and innocent like white milk.
The three more similes in the
story are as follow:
She was neat as a bird, slim. Here he compares the lady
with the slim bird. She is so slim like a thin bird.
At dusk the dove came, setting
over the clearing like a gray mist. Here dusk is compared with cleared gray mist because
dusk is a good time to travel as cleared gray mist also allows us to move ahead
easily.
He is a man who lives as solitary
as a monk. Here fowler is compared with a monk because fowler loves
to stay beyond the human world, i.e. in a cottage near the jungle.
The fowler's motto is Servo
("I serve"). The motto expresses the main principle by which he
lives. Make up a motto that fits your life. In one paragraph, name the motto
and explain why you chose it. Then, in a group discussion if it is good to
choose a motto and stick to it.
Ans: Like fowler's motto is a
servo, I had also taken a motto to serve my sick mother. She was ill as I had
known. She suffered from asthma. So, I had a motto to cure her at any cost. I
often thought that as I would get my first salary checked from my office, I
would start to cure her. Now my motto has come into reality. Now I work in
finance as an accountant. She is now with me. To cure her, I have taken to her
many hospitals and also used herbs and drugs. So, she is a being fine. I hope
that she will recover very soon.
The Hundredth Dove is a folktale. Find out a few elements of the folktale in this story.
Ans: Use of supernatural elements
is one of the elements of a folktale. In the story, the dove speaks human
language. Like other folk tales, it has also been written in the simple past
using a third-person point of view. Similarly, folktales start with
"once", "once upon a time", or "long ago". The
story also starts with "once". Last but not the least, it is written
in short, simple diction.
What do you think is the moral of the story The Hundredth Dove?
Ans: The story is trying to say
that we should not misuse power and should follow our head (mind). In the
story, Fowler and the king misuse the power because one wants to serve by
collecting 100 doves and another wants to have fun with them in his wedding
ceremony.
Another moral lesson is about the head (mind). While serving others, we should use logic, reason, and the mind. It is the queen who came in the form of a dove and said to fowler that the queen would be his if he freed her. The dove was like a queen because she was slim with dark eyes. Not only this, the dove's feet had the same gold ring that the queen had worn on her finger. But foolish fowler, in the name of the servo, was his motto; he killed her who had lovingly come to meet him in the disguising form of a dove.