Fables are meant to entertain and teach some kind of lesson. The Cicada and the Ant is one of the best known and most widely spread throughout the world. The narrative brings elements of the human condition and its relativity.

Table of Contents

• Storyline
• Analyzing The Cicada and the Ant
  • The ant's diligence
  • The carelessness of the cicada
• Conclusion
  • Psychoanalysis Course

Storyline

The Cicada and the Ant is a fable that narrates the interaction between two animals: ant and cicada, as deducible from the title. Living in a forest, both give their lives the proper follow up of their animal orientation. While the ant diligently works all day long, the cicada sings amusingly.

So, during the summer, the cicada questions the ant why he doesn't stop working to have fun. Then the ant warns him that it is necessary to accumulate provisions for the coming winter. However, the cicada is not convinced of this necessity and continues to enjoy the warm season.

Behold, winter arrives and the cicada, as expected, suffers from cold and hunger. He then remembers to ask the ant for help, for the ant had built shelter and accumulated food. However, the ant, in mockery, gives her a guideline: Those who had sung in summer should dance in winter.

Analyzing The Cicada and the Ant

Fables condense in themselves a multitude of behavioral symbologies that fit the human context. They deal with virtues, vices, and explore lessons that the animal kingdom, predominantly, can pass on to us So it is analogies that most of them use to make an instructive impression on us.

With this, the cicada and the ant could not be different. The two characters represent two completely opposite behavioral profiles defined by equally opposite values. Extrapolating this context to the social human places us as spectators of our own patterns.

The ant's diligence

The ant is the symbol of work and organization Small, but endowed with a strength many times greater than its own weight she leads the ranking of industrious animals. There would be no more appropriate example to fit the narrative than this one.

In the fable, the ant is gathering provisions for the winter period. He spends much of the plot carrying leaves and other natural items that will be used to fortify his shelter. In addition, it also carries with it food to be stored and to serve as sustenance during the cold season.

Thinking about tomorrow is important

Thus, the cicada and the ant points to the need not to opt for immediacy. It makes us want to think about tomorrow, popularly speaking. It keeps us from chance and from waiting for whatever is in store.

It's a matter of planning: measuring future needs and allowing yourself the peace of mind to meet them without sacrifice. So the ant will often pass by the cicada humming and enjoying the summer, but will go on its way to work.

We are known for our habit of leaving everything to the last minute, It is common to feel the desire to not think in the long term and to remain fixed to today in a careless way. However, the lesson is not to live for the future while forgetting the present, But be wise in your dedication to both.

If I am expected to have need x in the future, I need to move efforts now so that I can fulfill it Counting on luck or on the help of others in the face of need is not smart. After all, these are conditions outside your universe of action.

This is the lesson of the ant: to be prepared, to be ready. The opportunities we long for sometimes knock on our door and we waste them because we are not ready. The ant is cautious Keep what you need so that you will not lack it.

The carelessness of the cicada

At The Cicada and the Ant It is to the representation of the former that the learning of the narrative is destined. disregard for reality Imprudent and unwise she enjoys the whole summer singing and ignoring the approach of winter.

Moreover, it does not lend itself to listening to the ant's advice on the matter. It thinks that the ant is wasting time on hard work while it could be having fun. She does not even allow herself to measure the consequences of her refusal to provide cold weather supplies.

The typical singing bug is here the figure of the wanderer. Even with the example and ant's advice she believes that life should be taken lightly, she will prove with the certain arrival of winter that it is necessary to think about the time to come.

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With no way to keep warm or to feed herself, she will ask the ant for help. However, in the original version, the ant debauchedly denies him shelter. " You didn't sing during the whole summer, now you dance during the winter ", is what she says.

In other words, the value of work is explicit here. Its fruit should be reaped by those who deserve it. In the same way, he who has sown nothing should not expect to profit from the work of others. Every action generates a reaction And we have to be ready to assume the consequences of our choices.

Conclusion

Fables are lessons as to character and morals embedded in typical children's stories Through them, the teaching of healthy behavioral models is transfused among its readers Thus, the example of the story The Cicada and the Ant is another such story to explore.

The ant is expected to be the example to follow. After all, during the summer it worked tirelessly to keep up during the winter. Even though she is invited to enjoy the warm season, she denies herself the right to have fun thinking about the future.

On the other hand, the ant's plot can be seen as a life without pleasure, in which one only works. A life dictated by accumulating and having So the ant just works and never has any fun, always worried about collecting.

Meanwhile, the carefree cicada lives her quiet summer. He sings and enjoys life in a happy and festive way, representing the profile not to be followed, as he represents fun as opposed to the responsibility of work. She doesn't worry about accumulating anything for the coming winter, she just lives.

But to what extent can the lessons shown here be assimilated by children the way they are? Is life just work and mechanization? Is it condemnable to experience the freedom and pleasure of life? And what about the ant's unsolicited and cruel attitude ?

All these approaches need to be thought through when exploring the story. They are very strong values and Electing an ideal profile within storytelling for children, for example, may distance reasonableness. Good and evil, the old duality, needs to be explored in its entirety.

Psychoanalysis Course

Learn how to make relationships like this in our online Clinical Psychoanalysis course. Knowing how to apply cultural concepts to the life stories of children and adults is highly recommended for any profession.

Be sure to learn how to do this, as it is a great indication of versatility and general knowledge. Who knew that knowing more about the cicada and the ant would be so important, wouldn't it?