The Fox and the Gator

My name is J.N., and I study at GCE Lab School. In it, I have been taking a Humanities class known as stories. What we do is we study about literature and subjects such as symbolism, metaphors, and much more. For an assignment, we had to write a fable that had a symbol, anthropormophic or non- human characters, and moral for the story. I just want to say that I'm proud this project with the illustration created by myself. I am also proud of the story itself, and how it gets straight to the point. What I had struggle however is the symbolism in the story, which is consistant but is hard to find. Still, I hope you like it and that you can be able to find the moral.

There was once a group of young alligators and their father who went into a lake and ate most of the fish. The woodland creatures wanted to tell the large alligator to stop, but they were all too scared to do so. So, for the first time ever, both prey and predator went to the center of the forest to talk about what they were going to do. An owl, on the highest branch, became the leader of the group. Before the meeting began, she told everyone that no one was to be eaten nor killed. All the animals agreed and started with the meeting.

At first, nobody knew how to deal with the alligator. It wasn’t until a bear came up from the group. “I can certainly beat the scoundrel” said the bear. “But in order to do so, I wish to have another cave of my own, as well as all the honey I can eat”. Now, some the animals though the bear could do it. He was known to win, sometimes with just one swipe of his claw. The owl and other animals agreed that the bear was the right choice.

Before the fight, the sun had set, and it was so dark that most of the animals couldn’t see the event. When the fight was over, the bear had wounds from his shoulder to his belly. He was in agony, and said, “ I came up to him, trying to resolve this conflict peacefully, and he attacked me with full force. I came running back for safety.” All the animals shivered in panic for the upcoming future. The owl screeched and told everybody they would all have to adapt to the situation. They all agreed until a mouse came running in and stated that the alligator scared him off when he was taking a drink from the lake. Realizing that their largest water supply was taken hostage, the owl decided that whoever could beat the alligator could get the promised cave.

The stag tried, but he couldn’t run on water. The wolves tried, but the water was unclear at night. Over and over, challengers tried to fight the alligator, but they were always in the dark whenever it happened.

As the animals were ready to accept their fate, a small fox came around the corner and took the center of the group. “ Maybe I could help.” said the fox in a calm voice. “but only if you give me the cave for myself. ”

Now, the forest residents hated the fox almost as much as the feared the alligator. When he was young, he was a trickster. He would trick critters all day and would leave at night. But seeing how they didn’t have a choice, the animals all voted and gave the fox a chance.

At the sunrise, the fox proceeded toward the gator. The alligator looked fiercely towards the fox, ready to attack. The fox only smiled and said, “Gee, you seem tense. What, fox got your tongue?” .Now ,to most, this would seem terrible. But alligator laughed so hard that he almost forgot to breathe .

JN "Storybook" 2018, blogspot

As the sun rose, the fox laid down on the shore of the pond, speaking one joke to the next. Gradually, the gator trusted the fox and felt calm near him. After a long period of jokes, the fox tried to suggest something. “ You know… There’s a really nice pond a couple miles away. It has all the fish in the world, and if you go there, no creature would ever bother you again.”

The gator looked sternly at the fox and spoke. “So that’s why you'se here. You'se tellin me to git out like all the rest of them critters. Well, Ah would, but one of my kin died ‘cause of a ruthless bear. We was just mindin our own beeswax, when dis big old bear came runnin toward us, and tried kill me. I fought back, of course, but right before he was tuh leave, his claw swipes at my son and took his dear life. I won’t stop til I get justice.”

When the fox got back, he told the animals everything. At first, they all didn’t believe him, until he brought the alligator himself and explain his side of the story. They told the bear to leave the forest. As the sun rose, the bear was able to gain justice from the crime, while the fox got his cave. The sun had rose high into the sky, and the forest was able to see a lot clearer.