The Fox, the Owl & the Rabbit.

For our second unit in our humanities class Stories, we learned all about fables and moral lessons. We read and analyzed Aesop's Fables. We also did character analysis discussing personification on different animals. I really liked this activity. We were given a list of animals and had to think of keywords that describe their personality. We studied genre as well. We though up of what made different iconic books and movies their genre. We also were asked to make a list of characters that stood out to us in books, movies, and TV shows, and why they did stand out. For me, this was just the whole cast of Grey's Anatomy. The last thing we studied was symbolism in stories.I thought it was interesting to find hidden symbols in books and movies. For the Action Project, we were asked to write out own fable. I was excited because this kind of writing came a lot easier than the creation myth, which I really struggled on. We had to think of animals and give them their correct personification, as well as a lesson to teach and a symbol to represent a deeper meaning in a story.

CM. The Fox & The Owl. Drawing, (2017)

The Fox, the Owl, and the Rabbit.

One day, there was a Fox who lived in a forest in a den below a tree on the far side of the forest. There were 2 rivers on the other side of the forest that the Fox had to walk to every day to get water. The Fox always felt very confident about crossing the 2 rivers. Even though many of the forest animals would not cross the river, the Fox always had confidence that he would never fall even though the other animals told him to be careful. The Fox was lonely. He didn’t have any family or friends. The other forest animals wanted to be the Fox’s friend, but he would always deny them. The Fox’s favorite food is rabbits. The Fox would set out every day and go hunting for rabbits. He would cross the small creek and the big river and get a drink of water along the way.

The Fox would always see the other forest animals. They would always say hello, and the Fox would always ignore them. The other animals all know that the Fox was rude, but they still tried to be friendly to the lonely fox. One of the most persistent animals in the forest was the Owl. Every day, the Owl would hoot, “Hello!” to the lonely Fox. The Fox would merely look up at the Owl and ignore him. The Fox and the Owl had had troubles in the past. They both liked to eat rabbits. Even though the Owl knew there were enough rabbits to go around, the Fox was always greedy and would shout at the Owl if he got too close to him while he was hunting.

One day, the Fox woke up in his dark den. Sleepily, the Fox walked out of his den and set off to get himself some breakfast. The Fox walked along his usual path. Up the hill, over the ravine, and through the first river. The first river was smaller and was always easier to cross. The Fox just had to step on some rocks and jump to the other side. The second river was much bigger and had a much faster current. The Fox knew the shallowest part to cross.

Before the Fox got to the second river, he heard the familiar hoot of the Owl.
“Good morning!” said the Owl cheerfully.
“Morning.” said the Fox.
“Out to get some breakfast I see.” said the Owl.
“Yes I am.” replied the Fox “And I don’t want you to take it from me!”
“Why would you think I would do that?” asked the Owl
“Because! You're always following me!”
“Very well.” said the Owl. “But I think we can become friends.”
The Fox felt upset. He was just trying to get some breakfast on his own. He didn’t need a silly Owl following him around.

After a while of not seeing any rabbits, the Fox wondered if the Owl was going to give up and turn back. All of a sudden just as they were approaching the big river, with their bellies grumbling, and both wanting a rabbit, they saw it. A rabbit just across the river. The Fox and the Owl both looked at each other. They took off. The Owl was flying as fast as he could and the Fox was running as fast as he could. The only problem was that the Owl could fly, and the Fox had to cross the river.

As the Fox scrambled across the river he slipped. The Fox felt his heart drop as he was submerged under the rushing water. The Owl then noticed what was happening to the Fox. As much as he wanted to catch the rabbit, he felt it was more important to save the Fox. The Owl swooped down and grabbed the struggling Fox from under the rushing water. He pulled the Fox to shore.

“You saved me!” exclaimed the Fox. He then remembered the Rabbit. “I didn’t get the rabbit!” He shouted.
“But I saved you!” said the Owl. “Are you not grateful?” The Fox thought about what the Owl said. He was more focused on the rabbit than he was at the Owl saving his life.
“You know,” the Owl said. “I could have had that rabbit but I chose to save you! Even after how you have treated me, I chose to save you.”
“I have treated you very poorly” said the Fox. “I am sorry. If you had treated me like that I would have not felt for you as you had for me.
“I am glad you are ok.” said the Owl. “Just remember, treat others how you want to be treated.”

I enjoyed this project. I thought it was fun to come up with animals for characters and make their own personifications for them. I liked how we could really get creative with the story. I thought the most challenging part was figuring out a lesson, and working backward to tie the lesson into the theme of the story with the animals. In the end, I am most proud of how the story itself came out because I really like the plot and I am proud of it.