Study Guide to Bidpai's "The Camel and His Friends"

Study Guide to

Bidpai's "The Camel and His Friends"

(1) Where would you say the exposition section in the plot terminates? (Hint: locate the precipitating incident: where does something happens that presents the characters with a new situation to deal with -- i.e., that de-stabilizes the status quo with which the story begins, so that the characters have to figure out how to cope with something new?) Where would you locate the climax of this little story -- the moment of greatest tension? What then constitutes the story's resolution, or falling action (or dénouement)? What, in retrospect, seem to be the distinct stages in the rising action of this little story's plot -- i.e., between the precipitating incident and the climax?

What possibly important issues do you find brought to the fore in the moment you have identified as climactic?

How do the other elements of the story's plot help to frame those issues, or to suggest this or that position upon them?

(2) How complicated would you say the characters who participate in this drama are? What traits are associated with each? Do any exhibit several distinct traits? internal conflict? Do any of the characters change, in fundamental traits, in the course of the story?

(3) Does the moral provided with the text strike you as adequate to the full facts of the story it has been attached to?

(4) The story implicitly introduces a concept of "nobility." How does it do this? What different dimensions are there to nobility, to judge from this story? (That is: what specific describable traits of character contribute to the evaluative trait "nobility"?) Where do we find examples of hypocritical appeals to nobility, or of false pretenses to nobility? Does any character have title to being described as genuinely noble? Are there different kinds of ignobility on display here?

(5) Does the story value some other character trait or traits more highly than those that contribute to nobility? Explain.

(6) Might the story be just as well used to support a different moral -- a maxim that covers different logical ground from that covered by the one we have here? How about if we cut the term "foolish" out of the next-to-last paragraph?

(7) In the editors' headnote to the story we learn that the Panchatantra, from which this tale is taken, consists of five chapters. Which of the chapters do you figure this story got put into?

The text of this story may be found here, but is accessible only at the course website on K-State Online.

Suggestions are welcome. Please send your comments to lyman@ksu.edu .

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This page last updated 15 January 2003 .