Text types: Stories: Different types of stories

Fables

What are fables and moral tales?

A fable is a moral tale in which the characters are usually animals who talk and behave like humans. The animals have characteristics typical of the animal but which also occur in humans. In Europe the most famous fables were told by Aesop, a slave who lived in ancient Greece thousands of years ago. People have continued to write fables to this day.

Fables and other moral tales, including religious stories teach a clear lesson about what is right and what is wrong. In other words these stories always have a moral. The moral is what the story teaches us.

The structure and language of fables and moral tales

This is how fables and moral tales use the basic story pattern:

In the ORIENTATION stage the storyteller sometimes begins by telling the audience what the story is going to teach them. Then the characters are introduced very briefly. Since fables are not about individual people or places but about human nature in general, there is usually very little description of the characters or the setting, just enough to reveal to us what general type of person each character represents, for example in The hare and the tortoise, the characters are simply introduced with their names. Sometimes the ORIENTATION gives us clues about the problem to come. In the PROBLEM stage something unexpected happens. During this stage the storyteller tells us how the characters think and react. In the SOLUTION stage there are no thoughts, feelings or reactions to slow down the action. Events unfold so that the outcome for each character is what he or she deserves. And finally in the CODA, the storyteller tells us explicitly the lesson, or moral, of the story.

There are four stages to the sample fable, The Hare and the Tortoise.

In the ORIENTATION stage the storyteller introduces the animal characters of the fable, the Hare and the Tortoise and we learn the characteristics of the animals. The Hare is fast, just like the real animal, but he is also loud and boastful, just like some humans. The Tortoise is slow, just like the real animal, but she is also modest and good-natured, just like some humans.

In the first sentence there is an event which is going on when the story starts. This event is in the past continuous (was boasting). In this sentence the character's ability is described using the modal can in the past (could run): 

One day the Hare was boasting to the other animals that he could run very fast. 

Then the storyteller tells the rest of the story using the past simple (eg laughed, was, asked, started, sprinted).

In the PROBLEM stage there is an unexpected event. The Tortoise challenges the Hare to a race. The race begins as we expect. The Hare starts very fast, running a long way ahead of the Tortoise. At this point the storyteller slows down the action to tell us the Hare's reactions and thoughts. This builds the suspense because the Hare's thoughts show us he is over-confident. This means the Tortoise now has a chance.

When the storyteller quotes the exact words used a character says or thinks, the tense usually changes:

"I think I'll have a rest", he said. "The Tortoise is so far behind she'll never catch up. Even if she does, I'll still beat her." 

In the CODA the storyteller tells us explicitly the lesson, or moral, of the story. The moral of the story is in the present simple because it tells us the way things always are. the moral of this story is:

Slow and steady wins the race. 

For an example of a fable from Ancient Greece, see The Hare and the Tortoise 

To see an analysis of the text structure of the fable The Hare and the Tortoise, click here: