Reading Notes, Part B: Aesop for Children

The Wolf and the Shepherd: The title of the story seemed appealing to me because the Wolf is always portrayed as a cunning character. The moral of the story is “Once a wolf, Always a wolf” which I agree with completely. Some habits that people adapt become embedded into their character. In the case of the wolf, he masked this characteristic trait because he knew that he was getting closer to his goal. Another perspective of the story is how the wolf wanted to eat the flock so bad but had patience to play friendly with the shepherd to get closer to them. If I were to change this story I would make the wolf as not portrayed as the stereotypical cunning character but instead a character that became loyal to the shepherd and learned how to fit in with the flock.

 

(The Wolf and the Shepherd

The Peacock and the Crane: I enjoyed reading this story because I was able to take more than one moral from it. The peacock had to compare himself to the crane in order to feel beautiful which is a universal problem. People gain pleasure and confidence off of others misery. This is apparent from middle school, all the way to workforce. The author pointed out a great point which is “The useful is of much more importance and value, than the ornamental. That is true since the usefulness of qualities are what make people unique. The difference between a million-dollar idea and a million-dollar business, is that the million-dollar business was executed and portrayed importance and value to consumers.

The Fighting Bulls and the Frog: The moral of the story is amazing, the weak bare the consequences of the failure of their superior. That is unfortunate but true, let’s take our economy as an example. When a company is making less money, they mainly resort to laying off people that are unwanted or unneeded. Another example is when inflation happens due to different economic reasons. The upper classes aren’t effected by the loaf of bread becoming 3$ extra since it is a smaller part of their pie. On the other hand, the weak suffer because they are relatively investing more of their money for a loaf of bread.