Reading Notes: Aesop's Fables, Part A

Mr. Darcy meme by quickmeme

One of my favorite things about Aesop's fables is that the main characters of each story are true to themselves throughout the entirety of the text. For example, during the Wolves tales, he is constantly the villain. The wolf does not seem to be guilty about this, because that is who he is, and who he always would be. The story ends with the idea that he was always true to himself. I like characters who are morally ambiguous, and, not only that, I love characters who do not have a positive character development. It is not realistic, and gives readers a different perspective of literary characters.

Another thing I liked about the stories is the messages at the end of each tale. The stories are meant to teach the readers a lesson with each one, and I think making it obvious at the end of the tale helps the reader to look back at the text and see where in the story they might have overlooked each tale, if they did so. Like in many of the stories, the advice comes from the main protagonist (or antagonist) of each tale. It packs a punch when the most important character in the story tells you the reason why the story was written.

The stories were simple, which was probably because of the writing at the time that these tales were written, but I would like to make each of the characters in my stories more in depth, because that's who I am as a writer. I like good descriptions that let the readers know where they are, setting wise, or who the characters are, both in personality and the way that they look. When I continue reading, I hope to look closer at the texts to try and see if I can find ways in which I would like to change more of the writing, or if I would like to copy something in the way that the tale is told.

Bibliography: Aesop's Fables by Joseph Jacobs, link to reading online.