Tales of Juha Part 2

Well, not surprisingly chapters 2 and 3 went along much like the first. I was left admiring Juha’s quick witted comebacks even though in these sections they were increasingly harsh and critical. Once again, all of the stories were extremely relatable, giving them a much more personal feel. As expected, I generally loved all of the short 3-4 liners such as the one on page 45 about his wife’s lack of brains. Next, came probably the two most relatable pieces in the novel so far. The first is on page 46 and is the one about relationship baggage and how at night there’s 4 people in the couple’s bed, the husband, the wife, the husband’s late wife, and the wife’s late husband. Now, the deceased part is hopefully well beyond our years, but who can’t relate to past relationship baggage ruining a current relationship? Everyone has experienced it in one way or another. While thinking about this story, I came to realization that I think this is what makes Juha such a relatable and enjoyable character at least in my perspective. Juha has been in virtually every situation you can think of, the good, the bad, the awkward, and the terrible. I think that this is his most endearing characteristic because it allows everyone, regardless of their background, to find something about Juha that they can relate to.

On to the next story which is on page 48. This is probably the piece that I have most agreed with and been able to relate to so far. It is the one about the father and the son and their donkey. When the father is riding the donkey and the son is walking people think the father is being rude to the son. When the son is on the donkey and the father is walking people think the son is being rude to the father. When they both ride the donkey people think they are treating the donkey poorly. When they both walk, people think they are stupid for not riding the donkey. And finally, when the two decide to carry the donkey, people think they are being imbeciles. Obviously, the moral of the story is that you can never please anyone which is very applicable to everyday life and an internal conflict that many of us face daily.

Another story that I really enjoyed was the one where Juha sold his entire house besides one nail. I felt that this story was a particularly good example of Juha embodying the trickster figure. Also, it gave me a good belly-laugh.

Next, came chapter 4, which for me, provided quite the cognitive shift. Admittedly, I skipped the title page for the chapter so I was not expecting for the stories to shift from Juha being all knowing and full of wit to naïve and stupid. Even though it’s a completely different kind of humor, self-depreciating on the part of Juha if you will, I still thoroughly enjoyed this section. My favorites were the ones about the pigeons flying out of his hands, his wife asking for the matches on his left, the miscounting of the donkeys, and the proclamation that his daughter was six months pregnant. I feel like it is due to the precedent set in previous chapters that these stories include cognitive shifts. Throughout the first three chapters, Juha is the wittiest character I have ever read about and seems to 99% of the time get the upper hand. Obviously, that trend does not continue in chapter four but for some reason, time after time I expected that it would hence the continual cognitive shifts.  I can't think of the word, but in this section, he clearly encompasses the  naive and lacking-in-common-sense character who is generally the brunt of most comedies. No offense to Juha, but in chapter 4 he slowly but surely began to remind me of current figures in pop culture who have made a living off of being mind-numbingly stupid (Snooki to be specific).