Jean De La Fontaine 's Poetry Of Fables

I have an entire playlist dedicated to Disney music. Their songs and movies can make anyone smile no matter how bitter you are. Everybody has watched Disney movies back when they were a kid, and have always regarded as happily-ever-after stories. But that was not always the case. What if I told you that in the original Cinderella the stepsisters chopped off parts of their feet to try to get the infamous glass shoe to fit. But how did it get from chopping feet to turning a pumpkin into an extravagant carriage? Was it media? All forms of media have a big effect on the general conception; from the printing press and Thomas Jefferson to televised news and Donald Trump. Or did our ever changing society create this facade of happily-ever-after that is sought after so often? In the article Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality by Catherine Orenstein she utilizes historical references and allusions to modern media and challenges the perception of fairy tales and expose them as media-manipulated, romanticized stories.

After Candide is reunited with his no longer beautiful Cunégonde, the old woman, Pangloss, and his former traveling companions, Candide still could not find peace and continued to reflect on his past misfortunes (Voltaire, 157). Martin even went on to say “that man was bound to live either in convulsions of misery or in the lethargy of boredom” (Voltaire, 157). Then, Candide encounters a Turk who claims he has a solution that keeps his family from “three great evils, boredom, vice, and poverty” (Voltaire, 159). The Turk had twenty acres of which his family cultivated, and Candide realized that the hard work and belongingness in the family is what makes the Turk’s fate extremely desirable (Voltaire, 159). This led Candide to conclude that his group must work hard in their garden and when all of the members found a useful job to do, true satisfaction was finally achieved in the “best of all

Even though many people practiced this doctrine Voltaire did not aside with it instead, he implanted doubts on the chances of achieving true happiness and real conformism. Voltaire’s opinion was that one could not achieve true happiness in the real world but only experience it in an utopia. With the many hardships that Candide goes through ultimately leads him to abandon his attitude of optimism. Candide’s misfortunes and adversities often contrasted with his optimistic view on life. Noticeably, Voltaire uses this satirical piece as a way to criticize this exaggerated optimism. This tale as stated by William Bottiglia, “ Has had a great effect on modern writers who confront mankind’s inhumanity to fellow human beings by presenting the human condition absurdly, ironically, and humorously...” (Bottiglia 112).

In the book Gabriel: A Poem by Edward Hirsch, he structure the elegy starting at the funeral home where his son Gabriel lays, he then is remembering all the events form Gabriel’s life leading up to his death. Edward Hirsch uses a three line ten stanza on each page, without punctuation. This is to signify that the starting and stopping of punctuation cannot unpack the hardship of outliving your child. The three line stanzas imply the book’s most painful suggestion that, “The dead are no more than how we remember them”.

From a young age, Candide had been taught by Pangloss to have an optimistic philosophy, and he kept those ideas with him throughout his life. Even when the people around him feared the worst and complained about their misfortunes, Candide kept going back to the idea that “everything is linked in a chain of necessity, and arranged for the best” (9). And by no means was he left untouched by various trials: he was flogged, penniless, driven from his home, shipwrecked, robbed, and doomed to leave his loved ones. Although these misfortunes make him question the necessity of tribulation, he nonetheless hoped for the best. Part of his optimism might stem from the fact that he was young and healthy, but it’s also because he cared about the welfare of those apart from himself. For instance, when he heard that Cunegondé was dead and Pangloss hanged, he cried, “If this is the best of all possible worlds, what must the others be like? …Mademoiselle Cunegonde…was it necessary for you to be disembowelled?” (16) Clearly, the reason he questioned the “rightness” of the world is because it took away the people he loved. His mourning for those who have died shows his tender innocence, but it also shows his selflessness. In fact, the reason he was so optimistic throughout the story was because of his longing for Cunegondé, his beloved, and his only wish was to be with her and keep her safe. In other words, he lived for something outside of himself, and that caused him to have hope.

In the novel Candide, Voltaire satirizes the disillusionment of optimism by depicting a multitude of hardships seen around the world. Candide, the open-minded protagonist, has been exposed to Pangloss’s optimistic philosophy for the majority of his life. However, throughout the course of the novel, it becomes increasingly difficult to see the positive side of all the catastrophe surrounding him. It is only after he starts doubting this philosophy that Candide starts to become influenced by the teachings of Martin. Although Candide resides in security at the conclusion, Voltaire draws on the disastrous events seen throughout the novel and utilizes Martin’s pessimistic point of view to claim that human nature is incomplete without suffering.

This research mainly focuses on answering the question that "either Aesop's fables are only for children or not"? Is it only for young school going children or for adults too? The main problem creating question is Why Aesop is considered as a childhood story teller only? Does not it have any effect on adults or the writer has targeted children and young people while writing the stories? All these questions will be answered in this research paper.

Voltaire’s use of irony and exaggeration elaborates on the meaning of each scenario and the absurd reality of Candide’s life. Voltaire’s greatest satire is one of optimism. Candide is taught that all is for the best in the world in which he lives, yet there is so much negativity occurring around him. The war, the destruction of natural disasters, and the concept of human wrongdoing contribute to the revelation that his previous philosophy is a fallacy. Candide begins to realize that “work keeps us from three great evils: boredom, vices, and need.” Candide concludes that they must “cultivate their own gardens” in order to find true happiness. The suggestion that the former philosophy that can be seen throughout the novella no longer reigns true contributes to the irony of Candide’s thoughts. By recognizing the humor in what seems like a dreadful environment calls for the reader to dive deeper than the literal meaning of the words. The satire invokes thoughtful laughter by expanding on the absurdity of the

It's not uncommon for middle school and high school students to develop a "personal fable." Such a fable is a common teen and older tween belief that arises from adolescent egocentrism, which develops between the ages of 11 and 13. Some research has shown that belief in the personal fable and one's invulnerability is directly connected to common adolescent risk-taking behaviors such as promiscuous or unprotected sex, use of alcohol or illicit drugs, and physically dangerous acts, such as driving without a license or driving recklessly or while intoxicated. Colloquially, these individuals are known as "special snowflakes." In other words, the adolescent thinks that since others are so obviously fascinated by him (adolescent egocentrism), he

Likewise, individuals who do challenge laws may cause suffering for themselves or for others. In the short story Candide by Voltaire, a joyful child named Candide has noble status and gains his happiness through his pride of having more wealth and treasures than the peasants. In the story, Candide “as innocently kissed the young lady’s hand with particular vivacity, sensibility, and grace[…][The] Baron […] chased Candide away.” Candide believes he could obtain all of the desires he yearns for, but his disobedience to the Baron’s rules causes the Baron to force him to leave the castle and never see his lover again. The passage conveys a tone of innocence and purity until the Baron kicks Candide out of the castle, which then conveys a tone of regret and guilt. The shift of tone symbolizes how Candide loses his innocence because of his prideful nature and disobedience to the Baron. In addition, the young lady “was boxed on the ears by the Baroness… and all was consternation in this…

Candide is a novella where the main character, Candide, lives through situations from two perspectives: optimistic and pessimistic. Candide was living a sheltered life under the Baron’s castle where, Dr. Pangloss, the tutor of Candide believed in Philosophical Optimistic views which Candide picked up on. Martin a character we met along the way was the one who showed Candide that not everything was for the best. “We must cultivate our garden,” is a pessimistic line because it is encouraging us to withdraw from world problems, find something wrong with everything, and focus on oneself in order to be happy (113). Pessimism is shown throughout the book in many forms, but one of the more up sides of it is shown through the resilient characters

1. What is the genre of this story? Are there any other possible genres this story could fall into?

Once upon a time there lived a lanky little rat named Rudy. Rudy’s fur was very dull and felt like needles. She lived in a tiny village where all the animals knew each other. Every afternoon she would meet with her friends at the riverbank to tell stories of their morning. One day Rudy scurried to the riverbank excited to share with her friends a cheesecake she had baked just for them, but when she arrived at the meeting spot, no one was there. Worried and confused, Rudy hurried in to town to look for her friends there. Just as she reached the main road, her body froze as she watched the most beautiful creature strolling through town. Rudy looked around and noticed she was not the only animal in the village mesmerized by this beautiful

"The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor." [It is] "a sign of real genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars." Aristotle in Poetics.

Aesop was a Greek storyteller born in approximately 620 BCE. Tradition says he was born a slave but developed a real talent for fables that were used to teach truths in a simple and understandable way. While Aesop was well-known for his abilities, it is almost certain that many of the fables