Week 2 Reading Anthology

Out of all the stories that I just read, I quite liked Aesop's Fables stories. I've always had a soft spot for animal-related stories, but when you throw in bits of wisdom that are still relevant today, the short stories take on a life of their own. By this I mean that the stories have their own "flavor", that by how they each choose their words, how the story progresses, and what the final theme is, they can be distinct from one another, even when using the same type of animal character. 

Each of the stories revolves around a lion - one where he is an arrogant master, one where he repays kindness with kindness, one where he is the wiser, and finally one where he is tricked. Each of these stories are told in a "matter-of-fact" way, with the final lines saying directly what the purpose of the story was. Was it to elucidate some human factor? Was it to show the folly of man? The stories move at a fast pace, no words are wasted on the page - it all pushes the theme forward. The anthropomorphic lion represents human qualities which are sometimes bad, sometimes good, or more often in the middle of the two. By writing these stories with diction such as, “enrage” or “tearing his mouth in two”, the author gives a sense of how powerful/dangerous the lion can be. This writing makes the second story, “Androcles and the Lion” that have much more of an impact – since people are so used to the lion being some terrifying, powerful animal, Androcles had to “flee to the forest”. Then Aesop takes our views and changes them, by having the lion repay an act of kindness by, “bring him meat from which to live” driving home the point of the short story, that acts of helpfulness can lead to a greater reward in the long run. These stories are less about writing for the sake of writing, but more to impact those who read them, passing along helpful, wise mantras.

Joseph Jacobs, "The Fables of Aesop"

Androcles and the Lion

From the Esopus moralisatus