In a forest far from
civilization, there was an old owl. The
owl had grown cranky with age. She would
grouch and yell at other forest creatures that annoyed or angered her. This was especially true when her sleep was
disturbed, which was often because owls sleep during the day.
One day in the midst of
her sleep, the owl was awoken by a grasshopper singing a loud, happy song.
Spotted owl peeking out from den. Source: Wikipedia
Infuriated, the owl
yelled “What are you doing? I’m trying to sleep! Go away if you want to sing!”
“No. I want to sing a beautiful song right here. You can’t make me leave,” the young grasshopper
laughed.
Seeing the
grasshopper’s stubbornness, the old owl decided that arguing further would lead
to no peaceful resolution. She decided
the only way to get the grasshopper to stop would be to eat him, but she could
not fly down to him because of her poor eyesight during the day. Due to this, the owl came up with a cunning
plan.
“Well, since you won’t
leave and let me sleep in peace come closer so I can fully enjoy your beautiful
song.”
Upon hearing such
flattery from the old grump, the grasshopper was pleasantly surprised and
immediately started jumping towards the owl’s home in the oak tree. However, about half way there, the
grasshopper thought the owl’s change in attitude was odd because of her sour reputation
known throughout the forest. For this
reason, he stopped and began to sing again.
“Oh, that is not close
enough for me to fully appreciate your musical talents. Please, come closer,” begged the owl sweetly.
Once again, this
flattery struck the grasshopper, who was often shunned by his family and
friends for singing too loud. As a
result, the grasshopper quickly began to hop closer to the owl’s home.
Still suspicious, the
grasshopper just stopped short of being directly in front of the opening in the
tree and once again began to sing.
“Oh no, you must let me
see you as you perform. A skilled
musician such as yourself can only be truly appreciated when seen up
close. A live performance is just ruined
when the performer cannot be seen.”
Instantly, the
grasshopper threw away all of his previous concerns because he was so flattered
and excited to finally be appreciated by others. He immediately jumped in front of the opening
and even hopped inside. Before he could
even begin to sing, the owl gobbled him up.
Content and full, the owl fell fast asleep.
Author’s
Note
The original plot of
“The Owl and the Grasshopper” is similar to my retelling. A grumpy, old owl becomes irritated when a
grasshopper interrupts her sleep by singing.
She asks him to stop, but he will not.
She then decides the only way to get back to sleep is to eat the
grasshopper, but her eyesight is terrible during the day. For this reason, she must trick him into
getting close enough so that she can eat him without moving. The owl decides to do this through
flattery. Once he is complimented, the grasshopper
immediately goes into the owl’s home and is eaten.
I decided to add more
detail to the story such as giving some background information on the owl and
expanding how much flattery the owl gives in order to trick the grasshopper.
Within the original story, the owl only compliments the grasshopper once, but I
decided to create more dialogue and attempts at flattery. For this reason, I added the grasshopper’s
skepticism towards such out of character flattery as well as describing the
grasshopper as someone who is not often appreciated for his musical talent.
Bibliography
“The Owl and the
Grasshopper” by (anonymous), illustrated by Milo Winter from Aesop for Children (1919). Web
Source: The Project Gutenberg
