The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Tortoise and the Hare

The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Tortoise and the Hare

"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 ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...A fable is a short story about talking animals with a moral at the end ("Fable," par.1). Fables were developed over centuries, absorbing tales from many different sources. Although fables are commonly attributed to the Greek writer Aesop, he didn't write most of them (Bottigheimer, par. 2). Fables go back a very long time with some fables being traced back to 250 C.E (Bottigheimer, par. 4). One of the most well know fables "The Tortoise and the Hare" has one of the best known life lessons, that being, perseverance will let you get through difficult times. Another fable that is less well known but still has a good message is, "The Peacock and Juno." In this fable, a peacock asked the Goddess Juno, Queen of the Gods, for a wonderful singing voice in addition to his beauty. The Goddess refused, and when the peacock persisted she told him "one cannot be the best at everything" ("The Peacock and Juno," par. 1). Fables have been a staple for children over many centuries and will continue to be so because of their moral messages and because their brevity makes them an easy read.

Fables are known for their brevity and typically contain only two to three animal characters. "Fables are always short in length in order to clearly convey the lesson of the story to the reader" ("The Components of a Fable," par. 3). The length of the fable and the lack of many characters is one of the biggest

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