After you have completed the reading assignments on the Fables & Didactic Stories page. (below), write a post in this forum where you respond to and analyze the stories you’ve read. In your post, you should answer the following questions:
1. What are some of the key similarities and differences between the fables that you read? Make sure you include the names of the fables that you highlight.
2. What are some of the characteristics attributed to certain animals?
In the case of these fables, what themes do you think the author is expressing?
3. What other meanings can you find when you dig into the fables? Choose one fable and write a DIFFERENT moral for it.
4. What are some of the key similarities and differences between the fables and the didactic tales “Goody Two Shoes” and “The Purple Jar”? How can you tell that the didactic tales were written specifically for children?
5. How do you think modern children might respond to the didactic tales? (If you know any children, try telling them one of the stories and see what they think about it.)
Fables are one of the earliest genres of literature we have recorded in writing (myths and some epics are older). They were originally composed and performed orally and, as traditional literature, there was no single author. Folk authorship means that the stories we know have gone through a long process of creation, development through retellings in small communities, retellings and adaptations to other groups for centuries (or millenia). Most world cultures have a tradition of fables: short didactic tales in which the main characters are usually anthropomorphic animals encountering problems in their world. (Didactic means with the purpose of instruction, usually teaching a moral lesson; anthropomorphic means with human characteristics.) Some of the most famous fable traditions come from the Mediterranean world (North Africa, Southern Europe, the Middle East) and from India. In fact, these traditions may have influenced each other. Some of the Aesopic fables (Mediterranean) are related to the Jataka tales (India).
Originally, fables were meant for adult audiences. The legendary Aesop himself (c. 620-560 BCE) was a Greek slave (perhaps freed during his lifetime) who skillfully used fables to help resolve legal disputes and to criticize political injustice and tyrants indirectly. Jack Zipes, a folklore scholar, argues, “The messages and warnings stem from the experiences of the oppressed, and these people…employed animals and inanimate objects in oral tales as ciphers in a symbolic code, probably out of necessity, for they were fearful of speaking the direct truth about particular oppressors and yet desirous of spreading truthful antidotes to counter the poison of oppression. Historically, fables were first and foremost oral antidotes to tyranny and slavery and became established as a literary genre when conditions allowed for more freedom of speech in script.” (Aesop’s Fables, Signet, 277) Fables began to be directed towards younger audiences in the third century BCE when Greek authors added fables to books intended to educate boys and young men in grammar, rhetoric, and philosophical debates. Ancient Rome continued this didactic use of fables (and in teaching some girls as well as boys).
Please go to https://www.tell-a-tale.com/15-bedtime-stories-aesops-fables/ (Links to an external site.) and read “15 Bedtime Stories from Aesop’s Fables.” (Notice that even though these are ancient tales, they’re intended for modern parents to tell their children. I’m a little dubious about telling “The Ass and the Mule” at bedtime, though!)
In the 18th century, writing and publishing books specifically for children really began with the didactic purpose of moral instruction. (Read this article: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-childrens-literature (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) Some fables were chosen to support 18th- and 19th-century values, while other ancient fables were dropped as being unsuitable. Writers and publishers like John Newbery were also interested in making literature appealing to children. (Read this article: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/moral-and-instructive-childrens-literature (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.) Since then, much of children’s literature has attempted to combine the purposes of education and amusement. For more information on this history, please read Chapter 2 in Reading Children’s Literature (you can sign up for a free account to borrow the book online): https://openlibrary.org/books/OL27593690M/Reading_Children%27s_Literature (Links to an external site.)
Two of the most famous didactic stories written in this period are The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (published in 1765 by John Newbery) and “The Purple Jar” (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (written in 1796 by Maria Edgeworth). As you read these two stories, think about what lessons they’re trying to teach and the difference in narrative shape (Goody Two-Shoes summarizes years; “The Purple Jar” covers just a few weeks.) Here are the links to the stories:
The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
“The Purple Jar” (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
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