What message does the story about the fox and the grapes teach?

Answer 1

The author of the fable The Fox and the Grapes could've chosen any creature, including man.

Fables rely on fast recognition of their point to achieve their impact. Most fabulists don't use mankind as protagonists because their audience would too easily identify with the reactions of other people and thus be less quick to absorb the intended meaning of the tale.

Fabulists demonstrate truths about human nature using non-human illustrations to highlight motives we mightn't immediately comprehend if observing the same behaviour in other humans.

Perhaps the author chose a fox in this instance because foxes are traditionally considered extremely smart (cunning is the popular description of a fox, or cute in the sense of acute) and perceived to be adept at living well at the expense of others.

As great observers of human nature, fabulists are concerned with using images which bring the greatest impact to their tales; the storyteller here might well have intended the listener or reader to feel quietly pleased at the fox's irritation and embarrassment, and so to believe in its readiness and need to excuse its inability to reach the grapes by in effect blaming them, suggesting they're probably not worthy of eating in any case.

I expect we could think of many ways to retell this particular fable using human examples, choosing people we don't especially like. No doubt many, on first hearing a fable, wondered whether the author was thinking of them personally, or of someone they knew...

Answer 2

The moral of Aesop's famous Fox and Grapes story is that it is often the habit of people to criticize that which they can't have. The fox can't reach the grapes, so he surmises that they are probably sour anyway.

Answer 3

Although Aesop is widely recognized as the original composer of the many fables in the Aesopica, in truth, there is no record that these fables were written by Aesop himself. It is believed that he orally narrated his stories, and thus they traveled to Greece, several centuries after his death.

Answer 4

A proud and hypocritical person. Having tried in vain to reach a vine to eat some grapes, he says: "Blah! They were not ripe, anyway!", in order to conceal his failure and embarrassment.

Answer 5

It's easy to despise what you cannot have.