Blog #1 (Aesop's Fables “Aesop, Aristotle, and Animals: The Role of Fables in Human Life” by Edward Clayton)

                The two stories that I found very interesting was the story about the wolf and the lamb and the cobra and the water snake. Both these stores highlighted very important points and lessons for the reader to learn. The story with the wolf and the lamb represents oppression and makes a statement that those with power over other would tend to abuse it and use it for their own personal gains. Those with power will always misuse it because they have a god like complex. As for the little guy, the lambs in this world of wolves, they are helpless to that fact. To quote a saying from on my my favorite book, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, "The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf is the strong." This is another analogy using a wolf to represents the powerful people of the world. It means that the lesser animal (the rabbit) accepts the its role in nature and plays it well, that role being prey for the wolf.  In this world we can either be weak or strong but not both. The Other story featuring the cobra and the water snake gives two life lessons, either which is a valid point. The first one is that everyone needs to be an Altruist and do things from the good of their heart and not accept anything in return.  The other lesson is that everyone likes to use their fellow individuals without any compensation for their help. This enforces the idea that people are not kind and will always try to find not only an easy way to get what they want, but a way in which they are the ones that only benefit. In my opinion, there needs to be wolfs and lambs in the world. If everyone was equal there would never be competition, people will not strive to be better than others. The wolves in the world are the one that gets the lambs going, they are the one that pushes then into becoming more than just a lamb, more than just prey for others to feed on. We have to all become wolves if we are to survived in this cruel world. And altruism is never a bad thing, it is something more people should embrace often.