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mainul05
mainul05
Student
Graduate School

Comment on the use of the fable of the ant and the grasshoper in the story "The Ant and the Grasshopper".

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Posted by mainul05 on Wednesday July 8, 2009 at 9:49 PM and tagged with literature, somerset maugham.

Answers:

  1. parkerlee
    parkerlee Teacher

    eNotes Editor

    The main element of a fable is that in it the characters are animals possessing human traits. This anthropomorphic twist is for effect - to display in a humoristic way the virtues and vices of mankind. These animal characters are therefore stock characters or stereotypes and often opposites. In the fable you have mentioned, the ant represents the trait of industry and foresight; and the grasshopper, sloth (in other words, laziness) and a feast-famine "sans souci" mind-frame which leads to want - in both senses of the word!

    Which leads to the second trait of a fable - the moral at the end, either stated outright or implied.

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    Posted by parkerlee on Thursday July 9, 2009 at 9:33 AM