Essay: The Setting's Influence on Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)

     The setting plays a major role in Aesop's Fables (Jacobs). Each story within the unit contains an element of nature, whether this is nature interacting with society or nature interacting with itself. The setting and landscape make the stories appear realistic, but the characters and narrative give it an almost fantasy feeling. The environment within Aesop’s Fables (Jacobs) is the key to understanding the stories.

     The common woodland setting promotes the fable with a sense of realism, which appears in everyday life. In addition, the characters are actual animals that have no fictitious meaning behind them. This allows the narrative for each story to seem simplistic and gives countless readers the opportunity to relate well with the stories. However, even with the narrative appearing simplistic there is amazing depth within each story. Many of the excerpts are relatively short, but deliver a great outcome. Each story contains a moral that reflects on everyday life. This moral gives readers a common life lesson that was told using the essence of setting.

     In most stories, there are great confrontations between two contrasting animal characters. The setting allows readers to understand how each animal interacts within their natural environment. With this natural woodland landscape, there is no need to attempt to comprehend a fantasy world when the setting is realistic and already knowledgeable to readers. This way, the readers can enjoy the narrative and meaning each character brings to the story.
     Several stories within Aesop’s Fables (Jacobs) show the interactions between man and nature. Some of these stories express the destruction of man, but also the coexistence of man and nature. The setting within these stories displays how man and nature will always depend upon one another to survive. Within these stories, man and nature share a connection that is symbolically expressed through the meanings behind each story.

Aesop's Fables (Jacobs)