Reading Notes: Aesop for Children (Winter), Part A

Milo Winters The Monkey and the Dolphin
There are two characters in this story: the monkey and the dolphin.
First, let's talk about the dolphin. The dolphin is very friendly to men, especially Athenian men. This character is the good guy in a sense, doing good things in the story. Dolphins are seen as exceptionally intelligent creatures, so it is no surprise that in this story they are helping bring men to shore.
The second character is the monkey. Monkeys are typically depicted as clever creatures in stories, and that is correct for the most part. Monkeys are clever creatures. They use tools to eat and are very creative. Monkeys are also very closely related to humans, which makes the representation of a human more easily seen when reading this story. Humans, like this monkey, often lie to get what they need in very clever ways, but sometimes those lies catch up to them. I think the lie in this story is very amusing because the monkey didn't have to be so specific in his lie. He could have just replied yes to the Dolphin.

Vervet Monkey (Wikimedia)

I think this story is very interesting because the theme is so applicable to everyone's lives. Oftentimes, we lie and get caught in the act. Sometimes, our lies cause us to lie more and we end up with a web of lies that is too difficult to weave through. I think if I were to tell this story, I could transfer the general theme and story archetype over to the characters of Bojack Horseman. Although the characters in Bojack Horseman are mostly animals, they also have human-like qualities, similar to the animals in Aesop's fables. The monkey would most likely be Bojack, since he's almost always the bad guy while being the protagonist at the same time. I'm not sure who the dolphin would be. It could be someone who Bojack takes advantage of (a lot of people), but I'm not sure who exactly I want it to be yet.