BIOGRAPHY

Bernard Evslin (1922-1993) A graduate of Rutgers University was an award-winning screenwriter and producer of documentary films before turning to writing in the mid-1960s. He was an American author best known for his adaptations of Greek mythology. With over seventy titles, which include both novel-length retellings and short stories, Evslin is one of the most widely published authors of classical mythology in the world. His best-known work is Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths, which has sold more than ten million copies worldwide and has been translated into ten different languages. An estimated 30 million students have come into contact with Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths due to its repeated use in high school and college classrooms over the years. This bestselling anthology includes such well-known stories as Theseus and the Minotaur and Perseus and Medusa. He also published non-Hellenic titles such as The Green Hero, based on the Irish mythological character Finn McCool. He also was involved in an audio book called: Children of the Corn. It included Whistling Boy a Native American tale; Panchos Puppets, a story about a boy in Mexico, and other stories.

Evslin won many awards for his writing, including the National Education Association Award in 1961, National Education Award nomination in 1975, best television documentary on an Educational Theme Award, Washington Irving Childrens Book Choice Award, and Westchester Library Association Award. Bernard Evslin was married to author and teacher Dorothy Evslin.

King Midas Story

Plot Analysis

The plot analysis for this Greek narration is a little bit demanding since the author develops two different stories into one. The first one has to do with the greediness of the main character, while the other one is portrayed by the main character and one of his servants (his barber.) It is easy to infer then, that the story contains a subplot. Other than that, the story follows a normal literary path establishing a point of major action that is diminished little by little. Exposition: 1, Line 1 The introduction of the story is set on the first sentences, a briefly background is provided on the first paragraph as well.

There was a king named Midas, and what he loved best in the world was gold. He had plenty of his own, but he could not bear the thought of anyone else having any. Each morning he awoke very early to watch the sunrise and said, "Of all the gods, if gods there be, I like you least, Apollo. How dare you ride so unthrifty in your sun-chariot scatter in golden sheaves 1 of light on rich and poor alike-on king and peasant, on merchant, shepherd, warrior? This is an evil thing, oh wastre god, for only kings should have gold; only the rich know what to do with it." Rising Action: 2, Line 1 After a while these words of complaint, uttered each dawn, came to Apollo, and he was angry. He appeared to Midas in a dream and said, "Other gods would punish you, Midas, but I am famous for my even temper. Instead of doing you violence, I will show you how gracious I can be by granting you a wish. What is it to be?" Midas cried, "Let everything I touch turn to gold! Climax: beginning 18, Line 8 This is the beginning of the climax because it shows the first feelings of regret and remorse coming from the greedy king.

King Midas Story

The little blue vein in her neck stopped pulsing. She was a statue, a figure of pale gold standing in the garden path with lifted face. Her tears were tiny golden beads on her golden cheeks. He looked at her and said, "This is unfortunate. I'm sorry it happened 21, Line 1 & 2

Climax

As he thought that he could not drink, thirst began to burn in his belly. He felt himself full of hot dry sand; felt that the lining of his head was on fire.

"What good is all my gold?" he cried, "if I cannot eat and cannot drink?"

He shrieked with rage, pounded on the table, and flung the plates about . Falling Action: 22, Lines 9-13 There in the garden, in the blaze of the sun, he raised his arms heavenward, and cried, "You, Apollo, false god, traitor! You pretended to forgive me, but you punished me with a gift!" Then it seemed to him that the sun grew brighter, that the light thickened, that the sun-god stood before him in the path, tall, stern, clad in burning gold. A voice said, "On your knees, wretch!" He fell to his knees. "Do you repent?" "I repent. I will never desire gold again. I will never accuse the gods. Pray, revoke the fatal wish." Conclusion: 26, Lines 1-3

"I repent. I will never desire gold again. I will never accuse the gods. Pray, revoke the fatal wish." Apollo reached his hand and touched the roses. The tinkling stopped, they softened, swayed, blushed. Fragrance grew on the air. The bees returned, and the butterflies

King Midas Story

Characters

PROTAGONIST Midas. Midas is a selfish, greedy man. He just cares about his desire to become more powerful and richer. He has no respect for the gods; especially for Apollo whom he disrespected the most. According to the illustration on the book, he is an average size man with curly hair and full beard. He is the protagonist since all the tale is based on his life.

ANTAGONIST Apollo and Midas. Besides being a protagonist, Midas himself, is one the antagonist of the story because he represents the enemy to defeat due to his parsimony and meanness. Apollo is a God who proclaims himself as not violent, thats why instead of hurting Midas, he taught him a lesson for life. Also, he has a big heart since he forgave Midas when he realized his mistake. He is described as cruel an evil in the Greek Mythology, though.

ROUND CHARACTERS Midas and Apollo. Both of them are round characters because their behavior changed throughout the tale. At the beginning of the tale Midas was selfish and greedy. He didnt care about anybody but himself, not even his own daughter. Then, he saw that he was wrong and realized that in life there are many things way more important than gold. He became a reasonable and humbler man. On the other hand, Apollo started as an angry and heated character who just wanted to teach a lesson to Midas. As the story went by, we could see that Apollo was considerate and sympathetic when Midas realized about his mistake so their roles changed during the tale.

King Midas Story

FLAT CHARACTERS Midas daughter and the servants Neither of these characters presented any change in the story. Their actions and personalities were the same from the beginning to the end of the story.

MAJOR CHARACTERS Midas daughter She was the opposite of her father. She was really sweet and she did care about the importance of things and people. Materialistic stuffs were certainly not important to her. Her major role in the story was to show how careless Midas was of people because when he turned her into a gold statue, he just didnt care. He just went away to try his new gift and he didnt worry about her sake.

MINOR CHARACTERS The servants They didnt have a relevant role in the story. They were just witnessing Midas behavior.

SETTING

The story is developed in a natural setting where everybody woks as every day in the Midas's castle or in the town, Midass servants worked so hard and were pending on what he wanted while he was wishing having all the gold from the world. There are 3 different parts of Midass castle where the story takes place:

His bedroom, where he always dreamed about converting all that he touches in gold. The garden, in this place his big dream came true and every rose that he touched was converting in gold including his daughter. Dining room, the place where Midas wanted to eat but he couldnt because every little piece of food that he put in his mouth was converted in gold.

King Midas Story

We can see that that story has different kinds of mood it depends on the situation that is lived in the story for instance:

Another feeling that we can notice is avarice, this is very obviously because of his goal about having all the gold from the world. There is happiness when Midas had all the gold that he wanted by only his touch, he could get back his daughter and when he could eat after a long period of time.

A feeling about regret especially when Midas wanted his normal life without the gift that Apollo had given to him. A gossip environment due to his servant who couldnt keep save Midass secret about his big ears. An apologized feeling of Midas when he decided to not kill his servant because he had revealed his secret about his ears.

Point of View

The tale of Midas has a limited omniscient point of view because dialogue is presented. Also, because in this point of view the narrator focuses on a certain character in this case Midas.

THEME

In the story of Midas the theme is the ambition and forgiveness. Most of the time it depends on the different personalities because people who have this characteristic do not care about the consequences it can cause. The theme is explicit because the narrator gives details in paragraph 1 line 2: what he loved best in the world was gold and the story expresses a moral to apply in real life.

King Midas Story

LANGUAGE AND STYLE

The language used by the narrator is adequate according with the story. Also, it has some vocabulary out of the context in the story such as, tatters (shreds), taint (something evil) and so on. The language is formal and the writer uses denotation.

MESSAGE

Most of the time, people get obsessed with different things that they think are important for their lives and they do not care about the consequences or the risks that they involve. Sometimes getting what you want may be a bigger tragedy than not getting what you want.

As a group we learned that we do not have to be greedy because sometimes can be obsessive. For example; something that you just want it, you keep thinking and thinking about it and that can become obsessive like in this real example of Midas, he was so greedy about the gold.

Also, we learned about forgiveness. Sometimes in our lives we receive a kind of forgiven and maybe could be difficult for human beings to be humble. In the story of Midas he reflects that The god forgave me, perhaps I had better forgive this blabber mouth. So he showed us the importance of forgiveness. And we finish with those words by Oprah Winfrey; True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience.

King Midas Story