Week 11 Story: The Creation of Ken

(Vintage Ken from Flickr)

Author's Note: For this story I chose to take the story "Creation of Man" from Catherine Berry Judson's book. In the story, all the animals come together to decide how to best create man, but they all want man in their own image. They start to create their own renditions of man, but all fall asleep before they finish. While they sleep, the wise Coyote destroys their renditions and finishes his own, creating the image of man. For my story, I chose to retell it in the form of a toy company arguing how to create the next best-selling male doll. I shortened the story a bit to avoid too much repetition, but may extend later on.

"We need a new male-styled doll, one that's gonna rock kids all over the world," President Coy said. 

His advisers and designers gathered around and all in turn started to put forth their ideas.

One of the advisers named Lionel stepped forward first. Not knowing much about dolls, he simply stated, "I think it should be able to talk really loudly, and have awesome hair like mine!" It was true Lionel boasted a great head of hair. 

Next up, one of the advisers who was rather large named Baltazar Ear came forth with his idea. "Voices aren't what matter! Kids love people with big muscles, just take a look at these pictures of my girlfriend's kids and I!" Sure enough, he held up a picture of two young kids hanging from his biceps, a few feet above the ground. 

Then one of the designers came forth. His name with Bucky, and he firmly stated, "He must have a hat like mine, this is the pinnacle of fashion. He must also have bright, sparkly eyes!"

The designer who always competed with Bucky was named  Mark Steven Heep. He stepped forward with his own hat ready to go and said, "Silly Bucky, if that's the pinnacle of fashion, I'd rather die than be fashionable. This type of hat is far better, and  more comfortable to wear!"

President Coy scolded his employees, as they only wanted the doll to be made in their image. He set each of them down with paper and pencils and told them all to give their designs. Some time went by and they all worked, but then lunch break came. All of the employees went out for lunch, but President Coy stayed behind and continued to work. He shredded the other employees' ideas and was left with only his own. When everyone came back from lunch, they frantically tried to recreate their ideas. It was too late, President Coy had already finished his and sent it off to be designed. Thus, Ken was made by the president.

Bibliography

• Creation of Man by Katharine Berry Judson, from UnTextbook