Unit 2 Narrative Assignment
Lourena Dent
Kaplan University
HU300 – 10

The Tortoise and the Hare: Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Steadiness, although progress may be slow, will eventually be more beneficial than being rushed or careless just to get something completed. Mythical stories, fairy tales, and fables have been among the collective unconscious told and passed down for generations to teach the listener/reader morals. The link between the stories and person being told help them understand situations that can lead to a victorious outcome. With determination, one can succeed at almost anything.
Our earliest encounters with literature, the stories told or read to us, probably influenced our expectations of later life (Janaro & Altshuler, 2012, p. 56). A well known fable by Aesop, “The Tortoise and the Hare”, is a story that supports the importance of consistency and consequences of arrogance. The fable tells of a hare that boasted about his speed to others. There was a wise tortoise that he repeatedly teased about being very slow. The tortoise became fed up with the hare’s arrogance and challenged the hare to race against him. Both animals agree to a race, and at the start the hare races ahead while the tortoise slowly plows forward. With the tortoise moving so slow the hare was sure a nap wouldn’t jeopardize his chance to beat the tortoise. Waking from a short nap, the hare begins running while leaving the tortoise behind moving at a slow but steady pace. Observing the distance between himself and the tortoise, the hare decides to stop and grab a quick bite to eat. He took his time eating while boasting to himself and other animals about winning the race. Following a stomach filling meal and the rise in warm weather, the hare became sleepy and reminded himself that he was still in an enormously lead over the tortoise and decided to take another nap. The tortoise realized as he slowly got close to where the hare was napping that his second nap was longer than the first one. The hare continued sleeping without a doubt the tortoise had passed him up. As the tortoise approaches the finish line, the hare wakes up and tries with everything in him to run as fast as he could to catch up to the tortoise and win. Unfortunately, the hare could not get to the finish line in time. The race ended and the hare no longer held the bragging rights of never being beaten. The tortoise won the race leaving the hare ashamed to have been beaten by what he referred to as a slow tortoise.
The moral of this particular story is to express how being slow, steady, and determined can get you to your goals. No matter what the probabilities and what seems impossible, if you keep going you will get to your goal. The hero is one of innumerable mythic archetypes or models by which we, individually or collectively, come to organize our understanding of the world, the nature and purpose of human life, and events take place, such as a war between righteous and unrighteous forces (Janaro & Altshuler, 2012, p. 38). The moral of this fable is an effective influence to an individual’s belief to thrive and achieve the unexpected things in life.
Research from Harvard University suggests that sharing experiences through stories builds trust, cultivates norms, transfers tacit knowledge, facilitates unlearning and generates emotional ties (“Use the art,” n.d., para. 4). Stories are important to the way we handle and understand life events and the feelings that surround them. By highlighting the role and situation of the story, the narrator could contribute influential teaching to the reader or listener. Unlike rules, stories contain universal meanings and offer significant understanding. Myths, fables, and folk-tales when combined with themes, allow the narrator and reader/listener to carry on conversation beyond the story to generalize to conversations related to the reality of everyday life lessons or experiences. Setting rules does not teach lessons the way story telling or fables does because in narrative stories, stories are told to explain how things happen, both good and bad.
According to Napoleon Hill, patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. Myths, fables, and folktales can be a very important asset in teaching lessons that can help in positive guidance in one’s life. Mythical stories, oral or written, give a visual insight of a situation and allows the breakthrough of a image that will allow listeners/readers to put themself in the shoes of the character and get a better understand of the meaning of the story being told. Whether we tell fairytales, share stories about our families, historical events, or emotions, stories are a way to capture life's memorable occasions and lifelong lessons.

References:
Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2012). The Art of Being Human: The Humanities as a Technique for Living, Tenth Edition. New York: Pearson Education.
Napoleon Hill quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved May 27, 2013, from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_patience
Use the art of storytelling to resonate. (n.d.). Retrieved May 27, 2013, from http://www.umcom.org