Aesop was an ancient Greek writer who lived in the 6th century BC, in Athens, Greece. It is thought by many that he was a slave, and he was also a storyteller. The collection of short stories he created are referred to as Aesop’s Fables. These fables are often very short in length, but they carry lessons that are applicable to everyday life.
The Tortoise and The Hare is an example of one of his stories, and it is commonly known because of its significant moral. The phrase; “slow and steady wins the race,” is the message of the fable, and this is seen when the slow tortoise is able to beat the fast hare. The tortoise persevered, even when the odds were not in his favour, and managed to come out on top. The hare was over-confident, which allowed him to feel that he was safe to take a nap during the race, and this made him lose to the tortoise. The moral that can be taken from this fable is that success takes perseverance, and it also often takes time. The tortoise maintained a slow and steady pace the whole time, and he never gave up on the race. Another lesson is that the hare was not able to gain success by acting over-confidently and carelessly.
Another well known fable by Aesop is The Goose and The Golden Egg. In this fable, a Countryman owns a Goose that lays a golden egg once a day. This provides him with a small amount of wealth each day, but one day he decides to kill the goose and cut it open in order to get all of its golden eggs so that he can get rich faster. When he kills the goose, the Countryman realizes that there are no golden eggs inside, and the goose is now dead. Here is the link to read the fable: http://www.read.gov/aesop/091.html
This is another example of a strong moral, this time about greed. The Countryman became very impatient to get rich and he was ungrateful for the goose that was providing him wealth. By killing the goose, and therefore his source of wealth, he ended up with nothing.
Another fable by Aesop is The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The link to read it is here: http://read.gov/aesop/043.html. This story conveys the message that people who lie are not trusted, even when they do tell the truth.
Creative Writing Assignment #1:
Similar to the style and length of Aesop’s fables, write your own short story that contains a strong moral. Choose a moral (lesson) that you would like to convey in your story, and write your story using using one to two main characters, a simple setting, plot, conflict and resolution.
If you need help forming ideas, feel free to contact me and we can brainstorm together!
NYDP Communication Enrichment Class 