There was once an ambitious turtle who dreamed of flying, however being a turtle she was stuck with a life on land. All of her turtle friends were content with moseying lazily around, however this turtle was different than the rest. While the rest of her friends feared leaving the ground, she feared an unfulfilled life. She tried to make the best of it and decided that she would build things, and maybe there would come a day when she would be able to make something that would allow her to achieve her dream of flying. One day, she met a kind, but melancholy eagle and they talked for a long while. The turtle shared her story and the eagle sympathized with the turtle because this particular eagle had recently injured his wing badly and was now unable to fly. He couldn’t imagine a life without flying and told the turtle that if his wing wasn’t injured, he would have happily given the turtle a ride.The turtle thought hard about the predicament that the eagle was in and decided that she would find a way to help the eagle fly again. She realized that her hobby of building could come in handy to help the eagle. Together, they constructed a wing-like contraption. The eagle found the items that the turtle needed, while the turtle labored away. Along the way, the turtle and eagle became great friends. Once the eagle was able to fly again, he told the turtle that he needed her to make one more thing. The turtle curiously ventured to ask what else he needed and he told her that he needed a seat made to put on his back so that he could have a special passenger fly with him. The turtle went straight to work, willing herself to hope that the special passenger was her. When she finished, the eagle thanked her for her generosity and together they flew.
No dream is too big when you have friends to help you achieve it.
Image of one animal friend helping another
Source: Give Forward
Author’s note: My characters were much different than those of Aesop’s fable and the moral of the story was drastically changed. In the original fable, the turtle was also a big dreamer, but he was not a hard-worker. Both the eagle and turtle expected things from each other, but neither did anything to earn these things from each other. In my story, the eagle and turtle helped each other to get what they wanted. The eagle developed a great respect for the turtle of my story, and therefore, rather than letting the turtle fall to her death, helped her achieve her dream. While the original fable taught that some wishes should not come true for a reason, my fable had a much more optimistic spin.
"The Tortoise and the Eagle" translated by George Fyler Townsend from Aesop's Fables
Web Source: About.com
I enjoyed how your story was created with the optimistic spin instead of simply retelling the fable that you had read. There is a valid message to both the fable and your story. I liked how you were able to think of this alteration on your own instead of just going off the original fable, this shows me that you have a lot of creativity! I am excited to read how this creativity plays out in more of your storytelling posts as well. I was also impressed by your writing style. I thought it was very thoughtful when you said, "While the rest of her friends feared leaving the ground, she feared an unfulfilled life."
ReplyDeleteGreat story and powerful message as well! I think that I will remember to try to put a message with some of my stories because I found this to be effective through your story as something that leaves the reader thinking.
Much like Brittany stated, I found it interesting how you turned this fable around. I've always thought that many of Aesop's tales were very negative, taking everyone at their worst; you, however, took an interaction between two characters and explored how it would go if both were genuine. Besides, it's always nice to see someone who is so optimistic!
ReplyDeleteThis twist on the classic does make me wonder what Aesop's contemporaries would think of the more optimistic tale. Would they see it as a welcome change, as we do, or as an unrealistic expectation? And the answer to that question lies--I believe--in what you believe is the inherent nature of mankind.
Regardless, I really enjoyed your story. Great job!
Hi Taylor,
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy how you remixed the moral of the story into something much more optimistic. I think something that was missing from your post was an excerpt from the original fable. I forgot to include an excerpt in mine, which made it much harder to compare the two.
I also can appreciate your message in your story, as something with an underlying purpose and voice is much more powerful.