File:Allegory and The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf.doc

English 9 assignment from Sept 15, 2005. I took the story The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf and wrote how it is sort of like an allegory. I don't think I did too good of a job with this.

Allegory and The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf (often called The Boy who Cried Wolf) is one of Aesop’s more famous Fables. The story is about a shepherd boy who calls “Wolf!” Only there is a problem, there is no wolf. The shepherd boy only wanted to cause embarrassment to the townspeople who come to scare the wolf away. After a few false alarms, the townspeople are getting angry at the shepherd boy. No one believes him anymore because he has lied so many times. One day as the shepherd boy sits on the hill, guarding the sheep, he sees a wolf for real. He cries “Wolf!” and the townspeople laugh at him. They say “We are not falling for your tricks again.” “No,” the boy cries, “there really is a wolf!” “Ha” say the townspeople. The wolf is now hard at work eating and killing the sheep. The boy can’t drive the wolf away himself and the townspeople don’t listen to his cries for help. At the end of the day, the wolf just ate a big meal and the shepherd boy is in big trouble.

This story is an allegory because it conveys a meaning other then literal. It contains a moral basically saying “Don’t lie because it takes away your creditability.” Some say the moral is “Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed.” or “There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.” This story and other fables Aesop wrote contain a moral or parallel story called allegory because they have another meaning.

Works Cited

"The Boy Who Cried Wolf." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 6 Sept 2005, 04:45 UTC. 17 Sept 2005 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf&oldid=22685073>. “Allegory." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 12 Sept 2005, 04:31 UTC. 17 Sept 2005 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Allegory&oldid=23091128>. Aesop. “The Shepherd's Boy and the Wolf.” Trans. George Fyler Townsend. Wikisource. “Aesop's Fables-2.” 17 Sept 2005 <http://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Aesop%27s_Fables-2&oldid=7439>.