The man, the Snake and the Fox

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

“Bad things happen to good people”.  Isn’t that what they all say? Or as one story says, “All good things must be repaid with evil”. The Man, the Snake, and the Fox tells of a story about unfortunates, gratuity, cleverness, and evil all in its short content. Never the less its story depicts a truth that to this day holds true. Our story begins with a man who along his way comes across a snack who is trapped beneath a rock. Out of the kindness of his heart he rescues the snack from his death only to learn that the snake is out for his life. They make a pack and thus they journey on their way to find the truth in that “All good things must be repaid with evil.” If the man finds the snake’s words are wrong, he can go free, if not, his fate is set and the snake takes his life.

            On their journey they come across a donkey that states that yes the quote be held truthful. He shares about his life spent serving a master who beats him afterwards and after much pleading to get one second opinion, the come across a fox on the road that is willing to help in the debate. When asked about the quote, the fox asks to be taken to exactly the same spot on which this story took place, to get a full glimpse of the situation. After positioning the snake back beneath the rock and securing he is immobile, they flee the scene. The man thanks him rescuer with the promise of a chicken every so often when the fox may pass by and relieve his hunger.

            The fox, in return to the man’s very generous gift, comes to the farm every night, and abuses his gift. The man has no other choice but to send a pack of dogs on the fox in order to be freed from the excessive chicken killing. So what did we learn? Yes all good is repaid with evil, and people can be cruel and unjust in welcoming a good deed. It is basic human qualities to want to help, but when others have a darker side to them, your good deed is untimely paid for with evil intentions. This might not be the case for everyone, but it does shine some light on the situation that the story is trying to convey.

            Think about this is your own life. You like a girl, and she has a best friend who your friend finds attractive. After you help him out with her best friend he decides to go after the girl that you like. Is that right? Of course not, but it is no surprise that this can happen. You should repay another good deed with kindness, not foulness, yet it is true that not everyone follows this motive.  

            One last thing I want to mention is that I found it rather interesting that they depicted the fox as a clever being. I was always under the impression that cleverness portrayed in foxes was an Americanized concept and in fact I was wrong.  It makes you wonder that if this concept was captured in literature so long ago, what else of our culture is from the African American folklore. Makes you think about our culture and how much of it we have taken from other people.