A fable is a fictitious story made up or told to
illustrate or teach a moral. Though many popular and famous fables do feature animals,
that behave in some respects like humans, - for example, they may talk like humans -
this is not an essential characteristic of a fable. For example, all characters in the
famous fable titled Kings New Clothes, by Hans Christian
Anderson, are humans. Fables may also feature forces of nature as characters in the
story. For example, in a popular fable, that highlights the superiority of power of love
and understanding over that of physical force, there a contest between the Sun and Wind
which involves taking off the coat of a traveller. The wind tries to blow the coat off
the traveller but fails to do so. But when the sun makes the weather warm, the traveller
takes of the coat on his own.
Generally, we associate
fables with the stories that have been told for many centuries. Morals of many such
fables, summed up in short phrases, have become well known proverbs. For example, when
we speak of 'sour grapes', we are referring to the moral of the famous fable titled
The Fox and the Grapes.
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