Fable Writing
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Professor: Fred Schmaltz
1st Semester 1st year 2014
FABLE
The fable is a short narrative text used for a long time to oppose
oppression, to criticize uses and customs and even people. To escape the repression that
there could be on the part of those being criticized, the authors often used,
animals as characters in their stories. The fable presents a moral background and
it is usually used for educational purposes. The moral of the fables has gained a life of its own
transforming into proverbs - ready-made phrases, stemming from popular knowledge,
passed from mouth to mouth and that contain a certain teaching under some
aspect of life.
As it is a genre transmitted orally, fables tend to have many
versions. The same story takes on different forms in different times and regions.
different.
These stories allow humanity to build explanations about the world:
the manifestations of nature, the relationships between people (their flaws, passions and
virtues), the relationships between humanity and nature... Anyway, they are stories that tell us
allows us to know ourselves.
EXAMPLE 1:
The grasshopper and the ants
On a beautiful winter day, the ants were having a hard time drying.
your wheat reserves. After a downpour, the grains had been
completely wet. Suddenly a cicada appears:
Please, little ants, give me some wheat! I am very hungry.
Damn it, I think I'm going to die.
The ants stopped working, which was against their principles, and
they asked:
But why? What did you do during the summer? Did you perhaps not remember to
store food for the winter?
To tell the truth, I didn't have time,
singing!
Well... If you spent the summer singing, how about spending the winter dancing?
The ants said, and went back to work laughing.
Moral: The lazy reap what they deserve
Aesop's Fables - São Paulo: Companhia das Letrinhas, 2004
The good ant
There was a young cricket who had the habit of chirping by an ant hill. Only
she would stop when she was a little tired; and her entertainment then was watching the ants on the
eternal flour to supply the granaries.
But the good weather finally passed and the rains came. All the animals were shivering,
they spent the day napping in their burrows. The poor cicada, without shelter on her small branch
dry and in big trouble, she decided to seek help from someone.
Stumbling, with a dragging wing, he headed towards the anthill. He knocked:
tick, tick, tick...
A cold little ant appears, wrapped in a wool shawl.
"What do you want?" he asked, examining the sad beggar dirty with mud and coughing.
I come in search of warmth. The bad weather does not cease and I...
The ant looked her up and down.
And what did he do during the good weather, that he didn't build his house?
The poor grasshopper, all trembling, replied after a bout of coughing.
I used to sing, you know well...
"Ah!" exclaimed the ant, recalling. "It was you then who sang in that
tree while we worked to fill the granaries?
That's right, it was me...
So come in, little friend! We can never forget the good times your singing
provided us. That crackling distracted us and eased the work. We always said:
What happiness it is to have such a kind singer as a neighbor! Among friends, here, you will have a bed and
table during all the bad weather." The cicada entered, healed from the cough and returned to being the
cheerful singer of sunny days.
(Monteiro Lobato - Fables, São Paulo, Editora Brasiliense, 1966)
EXAMPLE 2: The Eagle and the Crow
An Eagle, leaving its nest high on a cliff, in a lightning-fast flight
swift and precise, it captured a sheep and took it captive to its strong and sharp ones
claws.
A Magpie, who had witnessed everything, filled with jealousy, decided that she could do something.
the same thing.
She then flew high and gained momentum. Then, with great speed, she launched herself.
about a sheep with the intention of also carrying it caught in its claws.
It happens that its small and weak claws ended up getting tangled in
thick woolen coat of the animal, and this even prevented it from escaping, although the
tried with all your might.
The shepherd of the sheep, seeing what was happening, captured her. Having done that,
cut his feathers, so that he could no longer fly.
That night he took her home and gave her as a toy to his children.
What a funny bird is this?
He is a Gralha my children. But if you ask him, he will say that he is a
Eagle.
Moral of the Story:
We should not allow ambition to lead us beyond our limits.
EXAMPLE 3: The wolf and the lamb
A WOLF, upon finding a Lamb separated from the flock, decided, instead of
to lay violent hands upon him, to find some reason to justify to the Lamb his
the right to eat it. Then he said to you:
You scoundrel, you insulted me rudely last year.
- How? - retorted the Lamb in a tearful tone - I hadn't even been born yet.
The Wolf then said:
You grazed in my fields.
No, good sir, - replied the Lamb - I have not yet tasted grass.
Again the Wolf said:
You drank water from my well.
- No, - exclaimed the Lamb - I have never drunk water, for my mother's milk is for
I love both food and drink.
After that, the Wolf grabbed and ate the Lamb, saying:
2
Well! I won't go without my dinner, even though you refute each one of my
accusations.
Moral: The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.