Characters:
Monks and villagers
Setting:
Where: on the mountain road and in the village.
When: a whole day
Plot:
The villagers are unkind and they don’t know how to be happy so the monks are teaching them by making stone soup.
The story “Stone Soup '' written by Jon J. Muth talks about three monks teaching villagers to make stone soup. Three monks travel on a mountain road and see a village. Because of famine, floods, and wars, the villagers are untrusting of people and they don’t know happiness. The monks start to make stone soup. The villagers come out to see what’s happening. At first, the monks ask for food and ingredients and the villagers give. Later, a magical thing begins to happen: the villagers put food into the soup voluntarily. At last the soup is ready and they have a big feast. After the feast they spend time with the monks and they thank the monks for teaching them how to share and trust.
People can have happiness if they can learn to share and trust others. The more people share with others, the more trust people will build toward each other. Soon, both people and others will have happiness. The villagers don’t provide the monks shelter and food since they are suspicious of the strangers. When the monks are making stone soup, the villagers one after one contribute food and ingredients from their own houses. At the end, the villagers have a big banquet and develop close relationships with each other. Happiness is simple to get as long as people share with other people and not be selfish. When people do sharing, they are actually kind of helping others, which makes both of them happy. Also, such sharing builds the feeling of trust between each other, and then people will become friends with others. Making new friends also makes both of them happy. Sharing leads people to develop the feeling of trust, and such sharing and trust can make happiness.
Sometimes it is best to teach people by engaging them in the learning process instead of lecturing them. When teaching others, people need to come up with a thoughtful way that others can accept and feel interesting. When the three monks are shut out by the villagers, the monks do not blame the villagers for having bad attitudes and behaviors or lecturing them about good manners. Instead, the three monks engage the villagers to make stone soup to learn how to share and build trust with each other. The monks do not like the villagers' untrusting attitude toward strangers. But they did not blame the villagers or lecture them. They use a very interesting way by making stone soup to get the villagers’ attention and teach them how to be kind and generous to other villagers and strangers. The villagers happily accept the monks’ interesting way of teaching and begin to make changes about their attitude. No one likes to be blamed or lectured to learn things, but people will be very happy to learn things by doing it.
People show their appreciation as a way to say “thank you” for what others have done for them. Appreciation is the act of people giving something or someone they could afford, such as giving a big fancy gift, saying simple words “ Thank You”, or providing a shelter to stay. While the monks make stone soup, the villagers begin to understand the idea of sharing and trusting people. They thank the monks for making stone soup, making a feast, and teaching them by “unlocking their doors and taking the monks into their homes and giving them very comfortable places to sleep.” The villagers suffer famine, floods, and wars so they become untrusting and don’t share things with others. But during making the stone soup, the villagers’ attitudes and actions change from being suspicious to generous, even showing their appreciation for what the monks have done for them. It is more than what the monks teach them. People need to express their gratitude to let others know how much they appreciate their help. People shouldn’t take others’ efforts for granted.
I like this book “Stone Soup” because I was amazed by the clever way that the monks use to teach the villagers to be nice to strangers. The monks are surprised that the villagers don’t know how to be happy. Rather than blaming the villagers, the monks engage the villagers to make stone soup to teach them sharing and trusting people. During the process, the villagers recognize their own problems of being selfish and untrusting people. They begin to make the change. They realize that they can be happy and get a lot of things if they are able to share and trust others. More than that, the villagers appreciate what the monks have done for them and they show their gratitude by letting them stay in their houses for a night. I recommend this book for children who are unhappy all the time. From this book, they can understand that being happy is simple if they can share and trust others.
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