Governor Wolf
Following the election of a new leader, the wolves listen with approval to his plans for a fairer pack but there is something they don’t know.
Following the election of a new leader, the wolves listen with approval to his plans for a fairer pack but there is something they don’t know.
“It’s all these ‘gatherers’ and ‘sharers’, I reckon” Hob Hayward told Merry Brandybuck at the end of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King, when Merry asked why the Shire seemed to be short of food. “They do more gathering than sharing.” Not all collections of Aesop’s Fables include this little tale, but Hob Hayward would have appreciated it.
THE Wolves once selected one of their number to be their ruler. The Wolf that was chosen was a plausible, smooth-spoken rascal, and on a very early day he addressed an assembly of the Wolves as follows:
“One thing,” he said, “is of such vital importance, and will tend so much to our general welfare, that I cannot impress it too strongly upon your attention. Nothing cherishes true brotherly feeling and promotes the general good so much as the suppression of all selfishness. Let each one of you, then, share with any hungry brother who may be near whatever in hunting may fall to your lot.”
“Hear, hear!” cried an Ass, who listened to the speech; “and of course you yourself will begin with the fat Sheep that you hid yesterday in a corner of your lair.”*
* In the edition of de Furia (1809) the following moral is offered: ‘The myth shows that those who take it on themselves to pass laws, do not observe the laws that they pass or judge.’
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
The wolves chose a new leader. He told them his plans for the wolf-pack. They listened.
See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.
IAttention. IIElect. IIIManifesto.