Introduction:
I grew up reading fables. Such as, the Tortoise and the Hare, which taught me faster isn’t always better. I enjoyed fables the most because of the valuable lessons that were strung within them. Majority of the fables have life lessons that help you as a person throughout your life. Because fables are short, sweet and to the point, it makes it easier for younger children to grasp. Growing up listening and reading these stories taught me morals that I still live by to this day. Fables have helped me get through multiple life situations. Fables were always my favorite to read because of the important lessons they’ve taught me.
I’m writing this paper on fables because it was the easiest for me to relate too. Given that as a child I read these stories a lot, they taught me lessons that I can still implement in my everyday life. Such as, don’t judge a book by its cover…cliché but important to remember. This has helped me to befriend those who judging by looks I normally wouldn’t. Without reading these stories I don’t think I would have learned all the lessons that I have from reading these fables. They’ve also been the most entertaining and intriguing stories to read. A lot of people,
especially children, can benefit from these stories. Because the lessons are so simply stated, it makes it easier for people to learn and that’s why fables are so important to us.
The Search:
One day, Mr. Boardman announced that he was assigning a research paper that was to be written on our choice of the following: fairy tales, fables, or folk tales. He went on to say that the following week we would be meeting in the library daily to research our topic of choice. So the following week, during third period, class was hel...
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...lone which leads me to believe I’m not alone and that others have learned these morals from reading these tales.
Works Cited
Aesop,.N.p..Web 17 Dec 2013 . (STEP 2)
Boudreau, Tanya. “Aesop’s Fables.” Resource Links. Oct. 2013: 6 Junior Edition. Web, 19 Dec 2014. (STEP 3)
“Fable”. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2009. Encylopaedia Britannica Online School Edition. 12 Nov. 2009 . (STEP 1)
“Fable.” Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 21 Jan 2014. (STEP 4)
Phalean. “Aesop’s Fables Lion and Mouse Kids.” Youtube. Youtube, 21 Feb. 2012. Web. 05 Jan. 2014. . (STEP 5)
Gibson, Kyle R. Personal interview. 05 Jan. 2014. (STEP 6)
Fairy tales connect to our owns lives, dreams, anxieties, and help us to consider what we would do in their shoes. Many cultures have their own spin on common fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty, with their own cultural flavor. We read those versions and know that we share something important and the hope for good to overcome evil.
Folktales are a type of oral prose that is passed from one person to another. Listeners may chose to add or subtract from the main story lines, embellishing with experiences and wisdom from their own lives. It then takes on the collective morals, or conscienceness, of that culture. From those individuals who we normally would not consider cultured, great gems of knowledge and wisdom are passed down through folktales. This is done without the traditional use of written language or use of proper organizational style. Yet these oral traditions are not without power; they reach into the very heart of what it is to be human.
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.
For the first course objective, throughout different lessons in the course, I learned that not all cultures are the same or have the same values. In older European countries when Grimm’s brothers collected and told stories, the society was patriarchal which is reflected in the fairy tales as well. The girls are passive, damsels in distress, who are unable to save themselves but instead they need to wait for the man to help them. Nevertheless, in different tales like Tatterhood which was created at a later time, women have been given more power and they are active. Furthermore, another major difference between different cultures (American vs. Jewish, Mexican, African, Islamic) is the endings. The American stories, along with the other fairy tales always have a happy ending, while the Islamic stories and the Jewish stories differ from that in the sense that they do not have “happy ending.” Native American fairy tales along with Aboriginal fairy tales were unique stories that delineated cultures that not everyone has had exposure to. Each of these cultures was similar in the sense that they focused on nature loving...
Myths play an influential role in all cultures and societies. Back when communication was not easy, stories were told among family and friends to help spread lessons. Values to help children to learn about how to live a blessed life are made into these stories. One may not notice the same thing that happens today. Stories told of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and creatures alike who reward those for being balanced.
At first glance, what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale may seem obvious—some kind of magic, hidden symbols, repetition, and of course it’s evident it’s fiction—but fables are more than that. As Arthur Schelesinger puts it, it’s about “[expanding] imagination” and gaining understanding of mysterious places (618). While doing this, it also helps children to escape this world, yet teach a lesson that the reader may not be conscious of. A wonderful story that achieves all of this is Cinderella, but not the traditional tale many American’s have heard. Oochigeaskw, or The Rough-Faced Girl, and Ashputtle would be fitting for a seven-year-old because they get the gears of the mind turning, allowing for an escape on the surface, with an underlying enlightenment for children of the ways of the world.
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.
During the 19th century, Grimm’s fairytales were strongly disapproved of due to harsh, gruesome details and plots. One American educator from 1885 stated, “The folktales mirror all too loyally the entire medieval worldview and culture with all its stark prejudice, its crudeness and barbarities.” As childre...
Web. The Web. The Web. 20 Dec. 2013. “Aesop's Fables – online collection – 656+ fables.”
For centuries, children stories have been a valuable tool in teaching lessons and morals. Like most stories that one was read as a child, there lies a life lesson that the author is trying to portray. Whether it was told orally like the story Beowulf or written by an author like Chaucer who wrote The Canterbury Tales, there are life lessons that are being taught through the characters and their challenges that they endure.
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.
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...
Aesop’s fables have always been an important part of society because Aesop’s fables take complicated ideas and, using simple characters and plots, explain them in easy to understand ways. Aesop’s fables are very effective tools in teaching children important life lessons. When I was a child, I remember hearing the story of the “Lion and the Mouse.” This story taught me that even though people may be little, they can still be great. Reading and listening to Aesop’s fables can help improve a person’s character. These stories help shape a person’s morals, whether they know it or not.
Why do folk’s tales exist? To preach a moral to people? Or is it to simply entertain? Like the Disney animated classic Sleeping beauty and its predecessors did. This story of the sleeping beauty horrified children throughout the ages yet as time went by it became more sanitized and cleaned up. But ironically the more it became kid friendly the more popular it became. As society changed the morals and ideals that the folk tales were trying to explain changed as well, as a result the story changed. What changed the story but kept true to its lore at the same time can be attributed to combination of social, economic and historical factors.