Last month I was captivated by Aesop's fables short stories mixed with life lessons. Because of how much I enjoyed the reading I decided to finish the book this month and I wanted to share with you some of the fables that stuck out to me.
THE FOX IN THE WELL
An unlucky Fox having fallen into a well was able, by dint of great effort, to keep his head barely above water. While he was there struggling, and sticking his claws into the side of the well, a wolf came by and looked in. "What my dear brother," said he, with concerned concern, " can it really be you that I see down there? How cold you must feel! How long have you been in? How did you fall in? I am so pained to see you. Do tell me about it!" " The end of the rope would be of more use to me than all your pity," answered the fox. "Just help me to set my foot once more on solid ground, and you shall have the whole story."
saying well is good, but doing well is better -PG. 91
This is one of my favorite fables that I read this month because I can personally relate to the moral of the story. I think that a lot of the time in life people are so adamant about succeeding past the standard set for ourselves; we stress ourselves out until finally something changes we become all bark and no bite. But because we are still so stuck on success we tell ourselves that we are going to do better, or that we will change one day but in reality these are lies that we tell ourselves. Like in the moral, we say optimistic things which is good but doing what we say we want to do or what we want to happen would be better than continually telling lies that make us sleep better at night.
THE FLEA AND THE MAN
A man very much annoyed by a flea caught him at last and said, " Who are you who dare feed on my limbs, and to catch me so much trouble in catching you?" The flea replied, " O my dear sir, pray spare my life, and destroy me not, for I cannot possibly do you much harm." The man laughing replied, " Now you shall certainly die by mine own hands, for no evil, whether it be small or large, ought to be tolerated.
Small evils are as bad as large ones. PG. 184
This second fable was also one of my favorites because I think that this lesson can be interpreted in many different ways but I personally interpreted it like this: There are two types of people in this world, the type that will sit around and allow people to walk over them and the type that doesn’t care who they hurt as long as they get what they want. The first type of person will constantly take small microaggressions from others thinking that it's not a big deal but the problem with this is that people like this tend to never understand where to draw the line. The second type of person will constantly say what's on their mind blissfully ignorant about others emotions. The two things they have in common is that both of them will struggle to find where they have either taken too or given too much away. This shows how small "evils'' can be just as detrimental as large ones because like in everyday life we can ignore the small things until they inevitably will snowball into one big problem.
- Nyla Kyles
I don't read fables that often but I like the different morals that you came away with for each one! Great post!
ReplyDeleteI"ve read a lot of these fables and I've found them really interesting. Your points and morals seem accurate too. Nice job.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked reading stories like these because they are short and the moral is always interesting to read about. Usually stories like these have clear morals even though they aren't explicitly stated, and I find it interesting to read and think about them. You did a nice job explaining some of them in your post!
ReplyDeleteInteresting post! I think it's great you gave a little summary of the story, the moral you think it shows, and a related personal belief. It offers a full narrative/complete idea. I'm not sure I agree with some of the stuff you said, including the idea that optimism without action is self deception rooted in denial or pride or something. I almost believe the opposite; when people are in denial or have big egos about not failing their goals, they almost try to soften the blow. I think they would be more likely to say "I didn't really want it anyway" or even have negative self talk instead of the false/lazy optimism you describe.
ReplyDeleteI've only read of few of Aesop's fables, but I really enjoy how effective a few very simple stories are at portraying some pretty important concepts.
ReplyDeleteCool post! I really appreciate fables when the moral isn't something as simple as "don't talk to strangers" or "don't get lost in the wilderness".
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