A fantastic thesis statement from JG

Assignment: The characters in fables, folktales, and/or fairy tales are “true to life.” Agree or disagree. (SIMPLE ARGUMENT)

Although characters in folktales and fairytales have familiar human traits and settings, they are not true to life in that the characters and settings are fanciful inventions designed by the author to entertain us, something that an ordinary human character or setting cannot do.

A possible X-1-2-3 set:

X	Although characters in folktales and fairytales have familiar human traits and settings, they are not true to life in that the characters and settings are fanciful inventions designed by the author to entertain us, something that an ordinary human character or setting cannot do.
1	Characters in folktales and fairytales have familiar human traits and settings.
2	The characters are not true to life in that the characters and settings are fanciful inventions.
3	The characters are designed by the author to entertain us, something that an ordinary human character or setting cannot do.

Zen Master

[For visitors new to English 109, “The Lost Horse” is a folktale in our class text.]

Philip Seymour Hoffman’s retelling of “The Lost Horse” in Charlie Wilson’s War:

Dialogue from Charlie Wilson’s War – 2007

In this scene Gust Avrakotos, an American case officer and Afghan Task Force Chief for the CIA is talking to Charlie Wilson, a Texas Congressman, about the successful conclusion of the first Afghan War in 1989.

Gust Avrakotos: There’s a little boy and on his 14th birthday he gets a horse… and everybody in the village says, “how wonderful. The boy got a horse” And the Zen master says, “we’ll see.” Two years later, the boy falls off the horse, breaks his leg, and everyone in the village says, “How terrible.” And the Zen master says, “We’ll see.” Then, a war breaks out and all the young men have to go off and fight… except the boy can’t cause his leg’s all messed up. And everybody in the village says, “How wonderful.”

Charlie Wilson: Now the Zen master says, “We’ll see.”

Jack Swann on myth, legend, and folktale

Folklore scholars generally recognize three major forms of folk narrative: myth, legend, and folktale. Myths are etiological narratives that use gods (divine, immortal figures) to explain the operation and purpose of the cosmos. Legends are quasi-historical narratives that use exceptional and extraordinary protagonists and depict remarkable phenomena to illustrate cultural ideals, values, and norms. Finally, folktales [including fairy tales] are entertaining narratives that use common, ordinary people as protagonists to reveal the desires and foibles of human nature. The following outline illustrates the relationship of fairy tales to other folk narratives.

Jones, Steven Swann. The Fairy Tale: The Magic Mirror of the Imagination. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print. (8.)