Extra Credit Reading Notes: Reading D: Aesop's Fables

Themes of Justice and Injustice: Some stories have a very satisfying ending, with deserving characters earning rewards and wicked ones being punished. Others end injustice, with the moral usually being something along the lines of "be careful." In short stories of only 100 words, I tend to prefer the quick and easy-to-swallow tales that end in a just ending, if not a happy one. "The Farmer's Revenge" and "The Wolf Who Herded His Sheep" are two stories that serve justice especially strongly. In the first tale, a jealous farmer attempts to have a prosperous neighbor's farm burned down, but instead his own is destroyed. Fate and luck punishes jealousy and malice. Even though either farm could have been destroyed in real life, it's satisfying in fiction for less virtuous characters to be punished. In "The Wolf Who Herded His Sheep," a wolf deceives everyone into believing he is a shepherd eventually gets exposed and killed. On the other hand, the plots of "The Man's Loyal Dog" and "The Boy and His Teacher" do not serve justice, only bad luck. In the first story, a man kills his dog, thinking it had killed his baby, when in fact it had saved it from a poisonous snake. In the second story, a bad teacher causes a child to drown instead of helping him. In both stories, an innocent or virtuous character died, and in the second story a bad character went unpunished.

Favorite Stories:

1. The Milkmaid's Bucket of Milk: I liked this story because one line at the end changed the whole trajectory of the plot. I liked the repetition throughout the story, broken by the last sentence, emphasizing its departure from the rest of the story.
2. The Farmer and the Apple Trees: This story stood out to me because of the moral ("be careful when you imitate an expect"). If I rewrote this story, I would rewrite it to say something like "be wary of believing you know more than you do."
3. The Shepherd and the Wolf Cubs: I picked out this story because it gives a clear stance on the "nature vs. nurture" debate, with nature winning. Another fable from Aesop depicts a lion learning becoming tame when someone removes a thorn from his paw, giving a different take. The lion is grateful for removal of a thorn, and theoretically the wolves could be grateful and tamed from the shepherd raising them.
4. The Three Travelers: I liked this story because I have never heard of using "who has the best dream" to determine who gets the best deal, and I thought it was interesting.
5. The Two Friends and the Bear: I enjoyed the way the moral was delivered in this story. One friend spoke it to the other, claiming that it originally came from the mouth of a bear.
6. Three Generations: I like this story because of the message it clearly delivers. Children learn much more from parents than other areas of life and education, and that is often forgotten. In this story, being a good or bad parent will come back to affect the parent.
7. The Priest and the Weeping Woman: I found this story funny. Throughout the tales, donkeys are portrayed as foolish, and I liked how donkey-like traits were effectively transferred to a human priest. 
8. The Sailor and the Merchant: I like this story because of how the message is subtly conveyed. The overall moral is to not get caught up in fear and anxiety while making life decisions or following dreams, which I agree with. The sailor and merchant are both good character types to illustrate this moral.
9. The Star-Gazing Astrologer: I like this story, although I may rewrite it to show how "keeping your eyes on the stars" can be a good thing.
10. The Man in the Tree: This story stood out simply because of the amount of deadly characters—a unicorn, four snakes, a dragon, and two nibbling mice. The overwhelming number of characters helps emphasize the moral—to not lose focus of the sweet parts of life in all the bad parts.

Image of wolf cubs from John-Mark Smith on Unsplash.

Story Source: Gibbs, Laura. Tiny Tales From Aesop.