To Turn a Blind Eye

 “There she stood, the One-Eyed Doe,” murmured the crusty sailor, “grazing serenely on the steps to the sea. With her one eye, she watchfully gazed toward the forest, wary of the teeth that rend and tear. With her other eye she turned to the sea, the treacherous sea, the traitorous sea, expecting nothing but safety.”

The crusty sailor paused. He sat back in his chair, the low lamplight casting a dreary glow on the misty night, the other sailors milling about with one ear to the old man. He continued:

“And that’s how I came upon her, sailing on toward that great rock face, and seeing my chance. And in coming upon her, I realized that the usually flighty doe was blind in her eye, the eye turned toward the sea, the reckless sea, the deceiving sea. For had she seen me, she would have dashed. And then I shot. That graceful doe fell, and on the air I could have sworn I heard her cry, ‘Fool! Fool! I came out of the woods and to the sea expecting safety, and found the end instead.’

“Lads, be vigilant, for to turn a blind eye on what is always safe is to accept that it may kill you when it is not. Else, you are just a One-Eyed Doe.”

There and back again: A doe's tale

A doe fell dead, her sightless eyes staring out to the calm, peaceful sea.

This doe had been blind in one eye; she had a difficult time maintaining awareness of her situation from all sides. Her parents warned her about the dangers that come from the forest.  So, she decided to graze close to the edge of a cliff. At the bottom of the cliff was the ocean. With her good eye, she could watch the land for hunters and dogs and other dangers. She thought the sea safe.

One day, some hunting-sailors spotted the doe while sailing along the base of the cliff. They had been fishing fruitlessly, and they needed something to bring to the market at the end of the day. 

With her blind eye to them, the doe saw no danger. The sailors aimed and shot and hit and killed her. It was only as she fell off the cliff to the ocean that she saw that it was perceived safety that ended up being dangerous. But it was too late to see much of anything anymore.

The Safety of the Sea

Group 8

Possible/Impossible, Antimetabole/Chiasmus, Litotes

“I am so foolish!” cried the doe, blind in one eye, who was near the edge of a cliff for the sake of safety. “How could I take such precaution against the land, only to discover that this seashore, to which I had come for safety, was more perilous.” The one-eyed doe had previously only seen hunters on land, so she did not find encountering hunters from the sea possible, but she is disappointed when the sailors capitalize on her disadvantage. The sailors who took careful aim to the doe, and fatally wounded her are not considered hunters, but these hunters are considered sailors.

Assignment: Revising Our Personal Stories (2)

Previously, I asked my students to make a catalog of ten personal stories. Now, based on responses to these that they received from others, each student is to select one of their listed stories (one which received at least one vote), and tell this story -- twice. (Use the label "retelling a personal story")

First Version - "How I Normally Tell It"

1. Name your story (have this be the title of your blog post, too)
2. Give the kairos / audience (typical setting in which you tell this story, either why or to whom)
3. Tell the story in 200-400 words, being sure to use
1. descriptive words or scene-setting to make it vivid and interesting
2. dialogue / direct speech

Second Version - In a Contrasting Style

Tell the same story again, but this time vary its style and include the rhetorical elements (and labels) listed below.

1. (Re)name your story
2. Give a different setting or audience for this version of the story
3. Retell the story in 200-400 words, and in doing so
1. Use and label at least three topics of invention [use bold and brackets]
2. Use and label at least two schemes [use underline and brackets]
3. Use and label at least two tropes [use italics and brackets]

See the example that follows

The Cotton-Eyed Doe

A doe, having the sharp vision of an eagle in one eye and yet being blind as a bat in the other, grazed near the edge of a cliff—as near as she could while still maintaining the barest of safety. With her good eye, she cautiously observed the surrounding land. Her poor eye, which appeared to be covered with a skein of cotton, she assigned to face the sea; for what creatures could harm her from there? From land, you see, she faced all sorts of predators, such as hunters and dogs. These could race across the ground to reach her. The sea, however, could only grasp as far as the tide reached, and here she was safe--too high on the cliff for the greedy ocean to reach her.

Yet one day, as the doe grazed and pondered the intricacies of life, some sailors out at sea saw her silhouette. Taking careful aim, one of them fired and fatally wounded her.  Sharp pain spiraled through her body, pain as relentless as the pull of a riptide. The doe cried out in horror, “How blind I’ve been! I took such precaution against the land, believing it to be perilous—and yet it's the seashore that was”.

The Doe's Downfall

The doe stood facing northward, as it always did. On its right side, it was a doe as strong as any other, but as to its left side, it was weak. With even a quick glance at the doe, the stark difference between her sharp dark brown eye and her dull gray one was evident. From its early childhood onward, the creature had suffered blindness in its left eye. Even so, it was no helpless prisoner of fate. Having half her vision maimed did not prevent this young deer from pluckily feeding in the open plains. By keeping its blind eye toward the sea, the deer found that all danger was within its view. But came the day shot down she would be, not from the land, but from the sea.

The doe did not view that particular morning as unusual. She took her normal stance, feeding by the shore, separating the tender blades of grass from the sand that surrounded them. Although the crew of the incoming ship made a raucous amount of noise, she dismissed it. She had become blind in more than just her eye.

Suddenly, a pain sprinted through her body. Her friend, the sea, had sent a Brutus to ensure her death. As she fell, her good eye now faced the seashore. She could see clearly now, if only for a second. The trust she had placed in the sea drained faster than her blood, and the vision in her right eye blurred to match her left.

Group 1 Doe Fable - The Siege of the Sea

A fleet of sailors, a thousand arrows in flight, was journeying from the coast of Barbados, a large island resting in the heart of the Caribbean Sea. After traveling for many days, they began to run out of their food supply and became very hungry. On the cliffs of Dover, waging endless war against the sea, a doe, blinded in one eye, grazed near the edge hoping for safety. With her good eye she looked to the land for any hunters or dogs, lurking among the forest. Her bad eye, a clouded crystal ball, could not see her future fate as the sailors drawing nearer to the shore, spotted her on top of the cliff.

“Ahoy, matey! I spot a doe atop the cliff!” The captain responded, “Take aim! We can use her for food to finish out our lengthy journey.” The sailor locked his sight, with one good eye, on the deer, and pulled the trigger – releasing a thundering bullet, shattering the silence of the sea, and piercing the doe’s heart. As the doe fell to the ground, she thought to herself, “I spent so much time keeping eye on the land, when the sea has conquered me.”