Review of a Korean Folktale: The Tiger's Whisker.

Hello Friends,

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I'm a lover of stories both real life and fictional stories For the few days to come, I'm going to be reviewing some stories so that we can learn from life.
These stories would be more of metaphorical in nature - using them to explain some relationship concepts. "The Tiger's whisker" is a "Korean folktale" which tells of a woman who so much yearn for her husband's love. My concern of this story is to pinpoint the power of love and what love can do in the real sense. The below story tells us an extent to which she went just to see her husband back to how he used to.

Long time ago, a young woman - "Yun Ok" was at her wit's end. Her
husband had always been a tender and loving soul mate before he had left for
the wars, but ever since he returned home he was cross, angry, and
unpredictable. She was almost afraid to live with her own husband. Only in
glancing moments did she catch a shadow of the husband she used to know
and love.

When one ailment or another bothered people in her village, they
would often rush for a cure to a hermit who lived deep in the mountains. Not
Yun Ok. She always prided herself that she could heal her own troubles. But this
time was different. She was desperate. As Yun Ok approached the hermit's hut, she saw the door was
open. The old man said without turning around, "I hear you. What's your
problem?"
She explained the situation. His back still to her, he said, "Ah yes,
it's often that way when soldiers return from the war. What do you expect me to
do about it?"
"Make me a potion!" cried the young wife. "Or an amulet, a drink,
whatever it takes to get my husband back the way he used to be.
The old man turned around. "Young woman, your request doesn't
exactly fall into the same category as a broken bone or ear infection." "I know," said she.
"It will take three days before I can even look into it. Come back then."

Three days later, Yun Ok returned to the hermit's hut. "Yun Ok," he greeted her with a smile, "I have good news. There is a potion that will restore your husband to the way he used to be, but you should know that it requires an
unusual ingredient. You must bring me a whisker from a live tiger."
"What?" she gasped. "Such a thing is impossible!"
"I cannot make the potion without it!" he shouted, startling her. He
turned his back. "There is nothing more to say. As you can see, I'm very busy."
That night Yun Ok tossed and turned. How could she get a whisker
from a live tiger?

The next day before dawn, she crept out of the house with a bowl
of rice covered with meat sauce. She went to a cave on the mountainside where
a tiger was known to live. She clicked her tongue very softly as she crept up,
her heart pounding, and carefully set the bowl on the grass. Then, trying to
make as little noise as she could, she backed away. The next day before dawn, she took another bowl of rice covered
with meat sauce to the cave. She approached the same spot, clicking softly with
her tongue. She saw that the bowl was empty, replaced the empty one with a
fresh one, and again left, clicking softly and trying not to break twigs or rustle
leaves, or do anything else to startle and unsettle the wild beast.
So it went, day after day, for several months. She never saw the
tiger (thank goodness for that! she thought) though she knew from footprints
on the ground that the tiger - and not a smaller mountain creature - had been
eating her food. Then one day as she approached, she noticed the tiger's head
poking out of its cave. Glancing downward, she stepped very carefully to the
same spot and with as little noise as she could, set down the fresh bowl and,
her heart pounding, picked up the one that was empty.

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After a few weeks, she noticed the tiger would come out of its cave
as it heard her footsteps, though it stayed a distance away (again, thank
goodness! she thought, though she knew that someday, in order to get the
whisker, she'd have to come closer to it).
Another month went by. Then the tiger would wait by the empty
food bowl as it heard her approaching. As she picked up the old bowl and
replaced it with a fresh one, she could smell its scent, as it could surely smell
hers.
"Actually," she thought, remembering its almost kittenish look as
she set down a fresh bowl, "it is a rather friendly creature, when you get to
know it." The next time she visited, she glanced up at the tiger briefly and
noticed what a lovely downturn of reddish fur it had from over one of its
eyebrows to the next. Not a week later, the tiger allowed her to gently rub its
head, and it purred and stretched like a house cat.

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Then she knew the time had come. The next morning, very early,
she brought with her a small knife. After she set down the fresh bowl and the
tiger allowed her to pet its head she said in a low voice, "Oh, my tiger, may I
please have just one of your whiskers?" While petting the tiger with one hand,
she held one whisker at its base, and with the other hand, in one quick stroke,
she carved the whisker of. She stood up, speaking softly her thanks, and left,
for the last time.

The next morning seemed endless. At last her husband left for the
rice fields. She ran to the hermit's hut, clutching the precious whisker in her
fist. Bursting in, she cried to the hermit, "I have it! I have the tiger's whisker!"
"You don't say?" he said, turning around. "From a live tiger?"
"Yes!" she said.
"Tell me," said the hermit, interested. "How did you do it?"
Yun Ok told the hermit how, for the last six months, she had
earned the trust of the creature and it had finally permitted her to cut of one of
its whiskers. With pride she handed him the whisker. The hermit examined it,
satisfied himself that it was indeed a whisker from a live tiger, and then flicked
it into the fire where it sizzled and burned in an instant.
"What have you done?" Yun Ok cried, horrified.

"Yun Ok," the hermit said softly, "you no longer need the whisker.
Tell me, is a man more vicious than a tiger? If a dangerous wild beast will
respond to your gradual and patient care, do you think a man will respond any
less willingly?"

Yun Ok stood speechless. Then she turned and stepped down the
trail, turning over in her mind images of the tiger and of her husband, back and
forth. She knew what she could do.

I would like to read your view about this story. What do you think the woman could possibly do to gain her husband attention and love, rather what you think could be her next line of action? Paste your opinion in the comment section below.

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