After reading the selection of stories in The Norton Anthropology of World Literature, from “The Thousand and One Nights”, I came to a conclusion that all the selections were similar to one another. Of course each story was different, but all the stories followed the same style. One common similarity which I noticed was that each story portrayed a sense of hope for the hopeless. Even if something seemed impossible, there was still hope and in the end the impossible became probable. Such as was depicted in the selection of the merchant and the demon. According to the demon, the merchant was going to be killed by him. It seemed that the merchant was going to die and excruciating death. However, three tales told by three different strangers were able to save the merchants life thus depicting hope.
Also, a sense of hope was portrayed in the fisherman and the demon. In this selection, the demon was going to kill whoever opened the seal to the jar and freed him. Thus, it seemed that the fisherman had no chance of escaping death. However, with a little hope, the fisherman was able to out wit the demon and seal the jar with him inside again. The reason that the Norton editors choose these particular selections were to show that there is always hope even though something seems impossible. As human beings, we should always strive for the impossible because in the end it may be achievable.