Fables and short stories have concise plots and character development, but fables have a moral lesson while fairy tales use allegory. The Fox and the Crow is an example of a fable. Short stories may or may not have a moral lesson or allegory. Fairy tales are usually short and for children, while opinions vary on the length of short stories. Both can inform and entertain, but fairy tales have a stronger moral edge.
Both a fable and a short story have plots with concise development of characters and themes, but the goal of the fable is to present the reader with a moral lesson. A fairy tale always uses an allegory to express its point of view. Short stories are typically longer than fables and may express a moral lesson or use an allegory, although these are not necessary components of this form of writing.
A big difference between a fable and a short story lies in the moral lesson that a fable offers its readers. For example, in Aesop’s The Fox and the Crow, a fox tricks a crow into opening its beak and dropping a piece of cheese on the ground. The fox achieves this by telling the raven that she is noble, kind, and beautiful. When the crow opens its beak to answer, the cheese falls to the ground and the fox eats it. The moral of this tale is to be wary of flattery.
Allegory, or the use of symbols to impart lessons or make a point, is another important device that is always found in fairy tales. Anyone could easily say, “Don’t trust people who flatter you because they might be trying to get something out of you.” Instead, Aesop chose to use the cunning fox and the conceited crow to illustrate this point and make the moral lesson memorable to his readers.
Both a fairy tale and short story get to the point quickly, with succinct character development and focused theme. Fairy tales, however, are often very short, which is why they are usually considered children’s reading. An English translation of The Fox and the Crow is only 121 words long, though some fairy tales are much longer.
Opinions vary on the length of a short story. Some say the short stories contain between 2,000 and 10,000 words, while others believe that anything over 5,000 words is a novella. Many argue that readers should be able to read a short story in one sitting, even though some people obviously have longer attention spans than others.
Both a fairy tale and a short story can be written to inform and entertain readers, and both can be life-affirming. A short story, however, doesn’t necessarily take the moral edge the way a fairy tale does. The short stories invite readers to participate in a short interlude from the characters’ lives and draw conclusions about the outcome of a conflict.
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