What’s the difference between a fable, a parable, and a fairy tale? More importantly, why fables, parables, and fairy tales?
If you google these terms, you’ll find strict, technical definitions and a menagerie of scholarly articles supporting them. But I don’t care about those, and neither do you. If you did, you would’ve just searched them in the first place and wouldn’t be spending your time reading a blog. What I want is to provide practical understanding, a layman’s tool, if you will, something simple you can use to direct your own study.
Let’s start with a few working definitions:
Fable—short, often humorous story involving animals intended to convey a moral
Parable—short, often humorous story involving humans intended to convey a moral
Fairy Tale—short, often humorous story involving fantastical elements which may or may not convey a moral
You may notice similarities between these definitions—that’s because the terms are similar. All three are short, often humorous, and teach a lesson or illustrate a principle. Examples of each exist all over the world in every culture.
The key differences are in content and intended use. Fables tend to utilize animals to act out a short drama ending in a concise moral. Think “The Tortoise and the Hare” in which two anthropomorphized animals interact as humans would, and one learns an important lesson: “Slow and steady wins the race.” The moral of a fable can teach anyone and does so in a colloquial manner.
Parables tend to feature humans acting out realistic, every-day scenarios. A parable places more emphasis on illustrating an already established principle and less on the story itself. Because parables often appear in religious settings and lack obvious maxims, they usually appeal more to adults rather than children. Perhaps the most famous teller of parables was Jesus Christ, who used stories such as “The Good Samaritan” to illustrate the truths of his teachings.
In contrast, fairy tales are known more for their entertainment qualities, not for their use as didactic tools. They don’t end with morals, and often feature magic, fantastical creatures, silly antics, and other components that appeal to children. However, many still provide worthwhile life lessons or model admirable behavior, such as the note of caution in “Little Red Riding Hood,” or the praise of cleverness in “Hansel and Gretel.”
Though all three terms have their own definitions, they have become synonymous in common usage. This makes some sense—few stories fit neatly into pre-contrived categories. Take “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” It features animals, but also humans in an every-day scenario, and has an obvious moral. Is it fable or parable? What about The Arabian Nights? With its fantastic tales of genies and sorcerers, it certainly qualifies as fairy tale material, yet many of its stories end with morals, too. In future posts, I’ll try to use each word in its proper context. But I’m sure they’ll get used interchangeably, too.
On to the next question: why? Why worry about fables, parables and fairy tales?
The what discussion should have already answered the why. These stories teach. They conceal great wisdom that shows us how to live, love, and behave in this world. Like all good stories, they reveal something about reality, yet do so in such a distilled manner that even children can memorize them in minutes. But just because they are short doesn’t mean they aren’t deep.
Take the story of Cinderella, for example. Glass slippers, fairy godmothers, and the occasional talking mouse may not seem so sophisticated on their own. But what about when they weave a tale about a young woman trapped in adverse circumstances who doesn’t become bitter or resentful and gets rewarded in the end? There must be a good reason why variations of this tale exist across the globe from Greece to China. Why does this story resonate with so many people? Because it reflects something about life that we recognize as true.
I’m highlighting fables, parables, and fairy tales today because they don’t get the respect they deserve. Often, they’re dismissed as dusty, frivolous, or dogmatic. How many parents have told a less-than-truthful child, “Don’t give me those fairy tales”? We’ve changed their meaning to refer to something simple or untrue. As we grow into adults, we too often look back in scorn upon the stories of our childhood and label the tellers of such tales as charlatans or simpletons. Yet, all the most famous teachers, from Jesus to Plato to the Buddha, used simple stories to convey their most sacred teachings. Why? Because it seems that some truths can only be revealed through story.
Good stories are like the elephant in the parable “The Elephant and the Blind Men.” At first touch, each man learns something different about the creature, proclaiming that it is like a rope, a snake, a spear, or a wall. But only once they add their knowledge together do they discover the full truth: the elephant is all those things and more. In the same way, most fables, parables, and fairy tales seem simple and can often say different things to different people. But, with each successive retelling, they reveal a depth of meaning as sophisticated today as when they were first written.
No matter how old you are, you can get something from fables, parables, and fairy tales. Revisit the simple stories of the world and learn. I promise it will be worth your time.
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