Rhetoric One Essays

"Amplify one of Aesope's fables"

Lauren Barton

Fable: The Eagle and the Fox

Technique: different point of view and altering the chronological presentation

Mine:

I looked down at the base of the tree, where my former friend's dead children were lying. I
strolled over to their bodies and sniffed them, my tail swishing slightly. I noticed the cinder when
she carried part of the sacrificial goat flesh to her nest. I had smelled the smoke, and seen the
fire blaze. I had also seen how each of the eaglets pitifully fell one by one from their nest. I
looked up from their distorted bodies and over at their mother, who was perched in a nearby
tree. An ounce of remorse fell over me, but that was quickly dispelled when I remembered how
she had so mercilessly swooped down and seized one of my cubs to feast upon while I was
away. I looked back at the eaglets and began feasting on their remains, making sure to stay
within the Eagle's sight.

The original:

An Eagle and a Fox formed an intimate friendship and decided to live near each other. The
Eagle built her nest in the branches of a tall tree, while the Fox crept into the underwood and
there produced her young. Not long after they had agreed upon this plan, the Eagle, being in
want of provision for her young ones, swooped down while the Fox was out, seized upon one of
the little cubs, and feasted herself and her brood. The Fox on her return, discovered what had
happened, but was less grieved for the death of her young than for her inability to avenge them.
A just retribution, however, quickly fell upon the Eagle. While hovering near an altar, on which
some villagers were sacrificing a goat, she suddenly seized a piece of the flesh, and carried it,
along with a burning cinder, to her nest. A strong breeze soon fanned the spark into a flame,
and the eaglets, as yet unfledged and helpless, were roasted in their nest and dropped down
dead at the bottom of the tree. There, in the sight of the Eagle, the Fox gobbled them up.