Textual Analysis of Aesop Fables, Narrative, and Storytelling - Essay Example

?Two examples from Aesop’s fables to analyze the basic narrative structure; the oppositions between entities or principles (weak/strong; small/large etc) which are embodied as animals and the moral illustrated by the tale. Aesop’s Fables are collections of moral tales which are believed to have been told by Aesop, a slave and a story teller. He is believed to have lived in ancient Greece. The tales of Aesop’s are about morals and ethics. It has been a popular choice for imparting moral education to young children. His tales still influence children all over, and are used by parents to teach their kids about what is right and what is wrong in the society. His tales differentiates the right from the wrong, and the wisdom by which one should live his/her life. Aesop’s fables are generally an allegory of short tales which involves fictitious events that occured in the past and generally contain animals who act like humans. From Aesop’s Fables, one learns certain lessons in life that one should abide by, to have a meaningful life. The story of the Ants and the Chrysalis teaches children that appearances are deceptive. The fable The Boy Who Cried Wolf warns children about the dangers and consequences of lying. These tales originate from a time marked by different lives and social rules as compared to that of today, but they are still a very crucial tool for learning about the basic rules of life today for children as well as adults. The entity and the principles are the inbuilt ones in the fairy tale, the fables of the Aesop contains the entity and they are the content which are needed for the fable development and the principles are the underlying morale in the fable, which is the underlying principles in the each of them and they present the moral of the same. The Ant and the Chrysalis tell the tale of an ant and a chrysalis. The moral of the story is that appearance is deceptive and that one should never despise others on the basis of their appearance. The Ant took pity on the chrysalis not knowing that one day it will transform into a beautiful butterfly. He referred to the Chrysalis as a "Poor, pitiable animal!” He thinks how fortunate he is when compared to the Chrysalis. The Chrysalis knows its ability and is also aware of the fact that he will soon be transformed into a beautiful butterfly. But, it did not say anything about it to the ant. One day the ant passes the Chrysalis, to see it only a shell. The ant feels sorry for the Chrysalis. The Chrysalis sees the ant and hovers around him, "Behold in me," said the Butterfly, "your much-pitied friend! Boast now of your powers to run and climb as long as you can get me to listen" (Aesop n.d., p. 1). Here, we can see that the roles of the animals are transformed. The ant can no longer pity the Chrysalis as he is a much better situation than he is. Ignorant of the fact, this stage of the Chrysalis is just a temporary one, the ant feels sorry for what he thinks is a pitiable condition. But, the Chrysalis knows that its situation is just a temporary setback and that it will soon bloom into a beautiful butterfly which the ant cannot compete with. The story teaches us that we should never despise someone’s condition as things can change in a blink of an eye. Nothing is what it seems like in this world and the best we can do is to be kind to everyone and not mock on someone’s setbacks. It serves a valuable lesson to everyone that appearance is deceptive and one should not be ignorant of the fact that things change all of a sudden. The fable of the ant and the Chrysalis is told in a simple narrative. The sentence is easy to understand and the underlying messages can be easily decoded by the reader without any strain. Moral is an indispensable element in Aesop’s fable. “A moral is a preceptorial voice, a statement of evaluative power and of mentorial function. It is usually expressed on the form of a proverb or as a direct advice to be followed” (Jedrzejko 1996). The moral of the story is to serve the society and individuals. At the end of each of his fable, Aesop tells us a lesson we should learn to better ourselves. Here in the fable, the moral is that appearance can be deceptive. About the Photographs: The two photographs gives the two different ideas and the notion in the view. By viewing the first photograph the view at first sight gives the pleasant experience of the blue waters flowing and the holiday mood of the youngsters, which is a pleasure giving experience .The persistence within the fraction of the seconds give the vivid picture of the fire outbreak and the thick smoke coming out from the building. The smoke from the building gives the replica of big danger and the need of people for rescue and the aid .The people in the photographs are utter worthless people and they are not bothered about the severe accidents happening very adjacent to them and they are sitting in there own world and nothing can stop them from the great fun and laughter they are having. The people see the thick black smoke rising from the tall building and they are knowledgeable about the severe consequences, but they are found to be ignorant about the surrounding incidents. The various absence and the ignorance showed by the youngsters is a big menace in the current situation, the certain catastrophic failures are unpredictable and are liable to happen at any time, the sudden occurrence of them should be handled with great care by the youths, the need of them in various aids and rescue activities is very vital and the necessity but the younger generation are ignoring the vitality of being an element in the helping at the time of need sounds much vague. The photographs can be used as an awareness message for building the awareness of teenagers and youths during the hazards happenings all the sudden and the results occurred after the complete ignorance of the same. The picture also conveys the message that the people should be helping and caring for the needy, in future there can be situation similar for them also, so a little care always will be good and helpful and they will have a self satisfaction about the services provided by them. The second picture is the picture of the unity after the holocast is the unity showed by the Germans and the Jewish. The holocast is occurred after the when Nazi Germany killed millions of Jews. It is considered as a memorandum of understanding or the agreement for the peace between the nations. The picture is taken at the fathers of unity, it is considered as an apt place for having the agreement on unity, and the fathers of unity had taken long struggles in the entire life time for bringing up peace and liberty for the people n the nation and to stop war in the fronts.The fathers of unity also had to face a lots of hardships for achieving peace among the nations. The fathers were not at all selfish oriented and they worked for the upliftment of the people. The leaders of the current century are not much hardworking and they had to face the least struggles like the ancient people. The picture shows the signs of unity, the union of the leaders in this picture show how united they stand and the need of the unity in the various ways of the nation’s life. The leaders shake hands together with the understanding of the peace making when the Nazis have killed millions of the people. The leaders also have much patience to take the steps to eradicate the attack and tobring up unity and peace in the minds of the people. The picture of the Israeli leader and the german leader is seen, the germans had killed millions of the people but the leaders have forgotten all the attacks and the bloody revolutions happened in the past and have joined hands together for making the nations united and for the upliftment of the same. The unity is the motto here and unity we stand divide we fall are the guiding principles for them .The nations are depended and they have to depend the other nations for the various reasons and the each of them have to be interdependent to face the various kinds of the transactions within the country. The olden ancestral argue among work and capital has been cure and all their combined problems solve by the far-reaching financial laws of the country.  The New potentialities in work have been aroused and knocked, potentialities of power and of resourcefulness.  The industry below the new understanding has been really increased, and the strong power of the common community has been allowed to keep up with highest unity among the nations.  Reference List Aesop. n.d. 550 BC: Aesop’s Fables: The Ant and the Chrysalis. Available at [Accessed on 03 March 2012] Bragard, V 2004. Opening-Up Aesop’s Fables: Heteroglossia in Slade & Toni Morrison and Pascal Lemaitre’s ‘The Ant or the Grasshopper?’ Image Text. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 29 February 2012] Children’s Classical Literature. n.d. Storyit.com. [Online] Available at [Accessed on 29 February 2012] Jedrzejko, P 1996. The Deep Structure of Narrative Element in Neoclassical Fable. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia. Available at < http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/sap/files/30/12Jedrzejko.pdf> [Accessed on 29 February 2012] Read More