Five years ago, sitting in the passenger seat of the car, all I could hear was a mixture of engine noise, wind, and my dad’s mumbling. I could stare out the window in peace. When we drove by the river at dusk, apartment towers on the waterfront created beautiful reflections in the dark waters, much like Van Gogh’s Starry Night. In Seoul’s urbanized version of the pastoral scene, windows mimicked stars and the waves resembled the artist’s undulating brushstrokes.

Three months ago, as we were driving by the same river, I could not enjoy the scenery with the usual muffled sounds, since my new younger brother was reading books out loud while my mom, sitting next to him, fed him ice cream. Annoyed by his whining and kids’ music playing in the car speakers, I zoned out. With my eyes closed, I unwittingly started to imagine the story my brother was reading out loud. I read it too when I was younger. It was “The Unmannerly Tiger.”

South Korea too, has its own tales and folklore passed on orally from generation to generation. This one involves a very agile, strong, and clever tiger, famous for avoiding arrows and traps. But one day, he was caught off-guard and fell into a deep hole – a trap that the villagers had set for him. Unable to escape, he wept until one day, a Buddhist monk who was passing by heard his cries. The monk agreed to release the tiger under the assurance that he would not be eaten. However, as soon as the tiger escaped the hole, he reneged on his promise, arguing that since humans were responsible for digging the hole, it was justifiable for him to eat the monk. The duped monk told the tiger that he was breaking his promise and proposed that they ask surrounding living beings for their opinion on the matter.

First, they asked the tree, but remembering how humans cut him down and burned him, he observed that the tiger was entitled to eat the monk. Second, they went to the cows, who also sided with the tiger, resenting that humans turned them into livestock and slaughtered them. The monk, in panic, finally asked a rabbit passing by to judge their situation. The rabbit stated that he couldn’t decide unless he saw the pit, so they walked to the pit. But the rabbit, still indecisive, asked the tiger if he could replicate his predicament in order to give him a better understanding of the situation. Thinking that it would help him win the case, the tiger jumped back into the hole. The rabbit immediately told the monk to run away without saving the tiger, because the ungrateful feline did not understand the significance of grace and favor.

As with any other tale, there is a moral to this story: you should always be thankful, keep a promise, and remember to repay a favor. This story is told to children in order to maintain an environment in which honest work and effort is recognized and encouraged. But why did the rabbit side with humans? On the surface, it seems as though the tiger is acting unfairly because the monk is his savior, and threatening to kill him is immoral. While most humans cut down trees and slaughter cows, the monk probably never did such things in his life, nor did he dig a hole to trap the tiger. My interpretation is that the rabbit knew that the tiger would eat both him and the monk. Thus, he simply chose the side that would benefit him the most.

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