“Fables”
Introduction:
Now I know a little bit about fables, after doing a little bit of research in my English class. I know that fables are short stories that center upon animals. Fables also all have morals at the end, stated outright, or inferred. These morals are sometimes called Aesops, after the original creator of fables. Aesop was a Greek slave who wrote a lot of fables. “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “The Tortoise and the Hare” are two of the most famous Aesops in America. Aesops are primarily short stories; they can range from a few sentences to a page. No matter how short they are, the moral message still gets conveyed to the reader when he or she reads a fable.
I have chosen to write about Aesops because they interest me and I like animals. The moral at the end gets an extra bonus from me. The morals are fun to learn and can sometimes be funny. It also interests me in how stories that were written as far back as thousands of years ago were written and the themes they had. It is intriguing to know why they still hold relevance in modern day life. Learning about Asop has also lead me to learn more about Greece’s practices and other famous slaves. I picked fables because it has more of a variety of short stories versus the other topics and I like diversity. One of the reasons I think stories such as fables are important to people is because they let people express complex ideas in an easy to understand fashion.
The Search:
To get started with my research on fables I looked up the definition of “fable”. I also asked my mother what she thought a fable was, and she ended up describing a fairy tale. I found out that fables were mostly stories revolving around animals acting out an event with a moral to it. Then I...
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... traits of many animals and continue to do so. Fables have endured throughout the years and will most likely continue to do so.
Works Cited
“Aesop.” Encyclopedia of world biography.
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“Aesop's Fables – online collection – 656+ fables.”
Aesops fables – online collection – 656+ fables.
21 Jan. 2014 internet
Bottigheimer, Ruth “Fairy Tales and Fables.” Boardman’s PDF. January 30 2014.
Chesterton, GK. “Introduction to Aesop's Fables.”
The Chesterton review Feb 6.
May 2001 XXVII. 1&2 (2001):
17-20. Print.
"Fable." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
“Tortoise and The Hare.” 1934. Youtube.web.7 Sept. 2008.
“The Tortoise and the Hare (Disney 1934.)
Youtube. Youtube, 17 june 2010
Web. 21 Jan. 2014. Internet.
Morel, Madonna. Personal interview. Jan 10 2014.
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Simple narrative typically of folk origin dealing with supernatural beings. Fairy tales may be written or told for the amusement of children or may have a more sophisticated narrative containing supernatural or obviously improbable events, scenes, and personages and often having a whimsical, satirical, or moralistic character. The term embraces popular folktales such as “Cinderella” and “Puss in Boots,” as well as art fairy tales of late...
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Throughout history it is known that fairy tales were written to teach children lessons about life in a way they could understand and that is fun and unique. Authors of fairy tales put simple lessons into the stories so the children could understand them easily while reading. Whether this be a lesson to be nice to all people, like in Cinderella, or to not judge someone by their appearance, like in Donkey Skin, both by Charles Perrault. Each fairytale has a moral that can be found throughout reading the stories that teach children right from wrong while letting them use their imaginations to discover that moral. The good and the bad lets them express their thoughts openly, rather it be their negative thoughts through the villian or their
Fairy tales portray wonderful, elaborate, and colorful worlds as well as chilling, frightening, dark worlds in which ugly beasts are transformed into princes and evil persons are turned to stones and good persons back to flesh (Guroian). Fairytales have long been a part of our world and have taken several forms ranging from simple bedtime stories to intricate plays, musicals, and movies. However, these seemingly simple stories are about much more than pixie dust and poisoned apples. One could compare fairytales to the new Chef Boyardee; Chef Boyardee hides vegetables in its ravioli while fairytales hide society’s morals and many life lessons in these outwardly simple children stories. Because of this fairytales have long been instruments used to instruct children on the morals of their culture. They use stories to teach children that the rude and cruel do not succeed in life in the long run. They teach children that they should strive to be kind, caring, and giving like the longsuffering protagonists of the fairytale stories. Also, they teach that good does ultimately defeat evil. Fairy tales are not just simple bedtime stories; they have long been introducing cultural moral values into young children.
The birthplace of Aesop’s Fables originated in ancient Greece and is widely speculated to have been written by a slave named Aesop. Many critics over time have questioned the true original author of this book, however, they seem to agree that Greece is the actual geographical location of its birth. The specific version of Aesop’s Fables discussed in this essay started with a man named George Fyler Townsend, who began the process of recreating the book by translating it into English and publishing it in 1870. Townsend’s Aesop’s Fables represents a collection of translated stories that highlight morals above anything else, and these morals reflect the values that Townsend considered to be the most important to transmit from Aesop’s original version in Greek to the English-speaking people of his time.
“The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.”(Walter Benjamin). For generations fairy tales have brought happiness to hundreds of people. Through childhood to adults, people still enjoy the mysteries of fairytales. In society, fairytales are a great way of connecting
While fairy tales are entertaining stories and can be used to educate children of the normal social manners of reality; however, it can be used to entertain and educate people of all ages. It can be used as a method of escaping the real world or to teach valuable life lessons than just the normal social mannerisms of society.
One day I was walking through the meadow, feeling very sad and lonely. I wanted a friend to spend time with. My mother sent me out to play, but I couldn't find anyone to play with. I looked everywhere until I came to a house made out of straw. I knocked on the straw door, and a little pig answered and told me to go away! I thought that was very rude of him. I told the little pig that I wanted to come inside and play. The little pig said, "Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin!" I was so sad. Just as I was about to walk away my dumb allergies started acting up. I sneezed so hard that I blew the house down. The little pig ran away and I ran after him, trying to tell him I was sorry.
I am writing this paper because I was assigned to write it as a class project. Along the way I realized the importance of sharing the real meanings of all these stories. Stories are important because in the society we live in things are constantly changing. Fairytales change but the base of the story always remain the same no matter how many times it has been retold. It’s important to reveal the true meanings of these stories, even with its dark characteristics, because the world is dark .Children need to know that there are people that have told stories relatable to what they are going through. Fairytales help the development of children; it helps their maturity as they confront someone else’s tough situations, instilling hope of a more positive ou...
A fable is a short story, typically with animals as characters, which conveys a moral. In many countries, they are used to teach lessons. In West Africa, they serve as a means of communication and are passed down from generation to generation. One of the most popular West African fable characters is Kweku Anansi. Ananse stories, as they have come to be known, have been told for thousands of years but became popularized in Ashanti, Ghana. Ananse stories are so well known that they have spread from Ghana to Jamaica and other Caribbean territories, to Haiti, South and Central America, and even to the Sea Islands and South Carolina (Ananse stories are told by the Gullah-descendants of enslaved Africans who live in the low country regions of South Carolina and Georgia-to them, he is known as Aunt Nancy/Miss Nancy). Kweku Anansi was born to Nyame/Nyankupon, Twi for the Great Sky God and Asase Ya, Twi for the Earth and fertility goddess. In Twi, the word Kweku means Wednesday and the word ananse means spider, so his name can be translated to Wednesday spider.
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Normally, when one was a child, our parents would tell us fairy tales as bed time stories, or to simply entertain us. This is a worldwide tradition in which every parent tells their child the stories they were told when they were little, or new stories. There are infinite stories to be told as well as infinite stories that have already been written or told. The stories told by our parents have influenced us and still influence us in our beliefs and values today. Throughout our childhood, we have been told many stories that teach us to be brave and courageous, respect others, love ourselves and others, to obey orders, and even to help and