Aesop's Fables

assumption of power taken by Napoleon and his dogs. The other animals, with their limited intelligence, poor memories and inability to read, are easy victims of Napoleon and Squealer who use writing as a means of backing up their power. By using a fable to discuss such ideas Orwell can demonstrate the process without being unduly insulting to ordinary…

prevalent and relatable in today’s young adult and children’s stories. More importantly is the significance of being faithful to one’s own identity, and how at times one may betray that faith leading to deception as well. Yang’s American Born Chinese, Aesop’s Fables, “The Kites and the Swans”, and “The Crow and the Raven”, paint a message that one can easily deceive and betray their true identity, and although the path to redemption is difficult in some cases it is possible. In Yang’s American…

Grasshopper” is an Aesop’s Fable adapted by Jean de la Fountain. It has been adapted throughout the ages. Aesop was a legendary Greek fabulist (620–560 BC). He was a reputed creator of numerous short tales about animals, all of these illustrated human virtues and failings (World Encyclopedia). The french poet and man of letters Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) was one of the great French classical authors. He preferred to work in relatively minor and unexploited genres, such as the fable and the…

One of the early forms of the short story is the folk tale or fairy tale, which derives from an oral tradition. “[…] Fairy tale motifs are […] ancient and appear in many pre-Christian epics, poems, myths, fables, histories and religious narratives.” (Zipes, Why Fairy Tales Stick, P 44) Aesop’s fables, for example, have been most popular in the Greece culture since the fifth century before Christ, though they are mere anecdotes with a moral to follow and less short stories like the fairy tale.…

In Guillermo del Toro’s masterpiece, “Pan’s Labyrinth”, he explores the important connection of a person and their imagination within everyday reality. Based on a fairy tale, Princess Moanna whose father is king of the underworld visits the human world where she is blinded by sunlight, which then erases her memory and becomes mortal. The setting is in Spain 1944, during the country’s Civil War. The film follows Ofelia; a young girl whose father died in the war and her pregnant mother married…

The Brothers Grimm version of the fairy tale “Cinderella” is a perfect example of a person’s journey from dark to light, or, as Tatar says it, “a way out of the woods back to the safety and security of home.” (Behrens and Rosen 254) While there are many versions of the story across different cultures, this variant describes the journey not only for Cinderella, but for the desired path of the stepsisters as well. The idea of Cinderella being a story of a journey comes from Tatar’s idea, which is…

Fablehaven is a fiction book by Brandon Mull. Fablehaven is about two kids, Kendra and her brother Seth who discover that their grandparent’s whom they never seem to visit live on a mysterious sanctuary. This can be seen in this quote “For centuries mystical creatures of all description were gathered into a hidden refuge called Fablehaven to prevent their extinction”(back of the book cover). It was always a mystery why they never seemed to see their grandparents at family reunions and gatherings…

The Martian: grace under pressure. In the book the Martian, we follow the journey of a stranded astronaut in mars after a windstorm, his struggle for survival and subsequently rescue. We are privy to his thought process and problem solving abilities through a series of log entries. We learn how he overcomes trial after trial until help arrives. He manages to do this as a result of grit, by fostering a growth mindset which allows him to maintain his optimistic outlook, despite the fact that he…

As we usher in the festive season, the magnificent University of Illinois at Chicago Theatre rekindles our love and belief in fairy-tale by astonishing us the phenomenal play titled The Secret in the wings by Mary Zimmerman. With the amazing direction by Christine Mary Dunford, the secret in the wings brings stories of love, life and fantasy alive on stage. Everyone at some point in their life have had deep believe in fairy tales, some still hold on to them, I should know because I’m one of…

set of fables. In fact, his work has taken its place as some of the most admired in Ancient Greek History. Similarly, Phaedrus was another Thracian slave after he gaining liberty, he completed five books of fables in verse, written in Latin; which some of these were adapted from the fables attributed to Aesop. In 1956, Frenchman Pierre Pithou published the first edition of these fables. Due to these two people and countless others, Jean de la Fontaine was inspired to write 12 books of fables in…