Help me find a fable about selfishness?

August 9, 2007 5:54 PM

[Literary archetype filter] I'm looking for short moral tales / folk stories / fables with themes of selfishness and pig-headedness. Specifically, I need stories about somebody who focuses so intently on X that they don't realize they're alone and screwed until too late.

I'm finishing the edit of a young adult manuscript that is significantly improved by little epigrammatic chapter headings that symbolically crystallize the action of each chapter. Sort of a story-in-the-story.

Unfortunately, the work that I've until now used for the epigrams is not in the public domain, and the (potential) publisher has asked me to find a substitution. The suggestion of Aesop's "Ant and the Grasshopper" has been made, but it is too common and simplistic.

What I need is a story about some character behaving bullishly in pursuit of a private goal, in spite of well-intended advice from others. Determined to go-it-alone. Until ... s/he realizes they are alone and it's too late, and there's a big bad punishment or consequence. The most important part of the story is the 'oh shit' moment.

Folk stories - from any tradition - get bonus points. And, for reasons I'm not gonna bother with here, stories with amphibians in them get double-extra points. Links? Thoughts?

posted by mr. remy to writing & language (14 comments total)

The Boy Who Cried Wolf - what a little shit he was, huh?
Goldilocks and the 3 Snakes Bears - selfish, selfish girl...
posted by iconomy at 6:09 PM on August 9, 2007

It isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it reminds me of the poem "First they came...".
posted by B-squared at 7:05 PM on August 9, 2007

How about dinosaurs?

Sorry, here's a real one:The King of the Golden River
posted by Paragon at 7:23 PM on August 9, 2007

The tale of Midas, who turns his own beloved daughter to gold.
posted by saffry at 7:59 PM on August 9, 2007

not quite selfishness, but saki's the storyteller is one of my faves.
posted by bruce at 8:08 PM on August 9, 2007

tortoise and the hare?
posted by PinkButterfly at 8:55 PM on August 9, 2007

I remember this one called Me First - about a boy who always has to be first to do everything, and a sand witch.
posted by cholly at 9:19 PM on August 9, 2007

Some variations of this story have a frog, although the frog isn't really selfish as much as unthinking.
posted by lemuria at 9:27 PM on August 9, 2007

The opposite is The Little Red Hen.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:42 PM on August 9, 2007

One of Belloc's Cautionary Verses perhaps? I can't find a useful link, I'm afraid.
posted by paduasoy at 11:33 PM on August 9, 2007

Noah?
posted by seanyboy at 11:42 PM on August 9, 2007

Probably not quite it, but I thought of this song...

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy blue and the man in the moon.
"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when,
But we'll get together then.
You know we'll have a good time then."
posted by tastycracker at 5:44 AM on August 10, 2007

Ladies First from Free to Be...You and Me features a "tender sweet young thing" who insists on being first to do everything because she's a girl and ladies get to go first. She eventually ends up being first to be eaten by a gang of hungry tigers.
posted by Daily Alice at 5:56 AM on August 10, 2007

Daily Alice: That'r remarkably similar to this poem by shel Silverstein.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:16 AM on August 10, 2007