Characters:
Old wolf, villagers, and a boy.
Setting:
on a hill and in a small garden.
Plot:
A wolf is hungry and meets the boy that cried wolf.
The story “Wolf! Wolf!”, written by John Rocco, talks about a wolf. A hungry wolf wants to eat vegetables but there are a lot of weeds in his small garden. Suddenly, he hears a voice saying “Wolf! Wolf”. The villagers come and see no wolf so they get angry. The villagers don’t trust him anymore. The wolf tells the boy the villagers will only believe him if one goat is really missing. The boy ties the goat around the fence post in the small garden. The wolf notices the goat eating the weeds in his small garden. Soon he sees the vegetables. He is delighted and realizes that the goat can eat the weeds and then he can eat the vegetables. Therefore, the wolf decides to keep the goat instead of eating it.
People should not tell lies to others just because of their own benefits or for fun. When a person tells a lie, he will need to make more and more lies to cover the previous lie which will make the thing even worse. The boy lies to the villagers a lot, so they don’t believe him anymore. To make the villagers believe him again, the boy has to make one goat disappear. Most of the time, a person tells lies for his self-interests or for fun just like the boy. In order to let others believe the lie is “true”, he needs to make another lie or do extra things to cover the previous lie. Once other people find that the “truth” is actually a lie, other people will be mad at him and they will not trust him anymore. Honestly, making more lies will not solve the problem. Instead, it only makes the situation worse. Lying doesn’t work to solve the problem. Being honest is the best policy.
It is best for people to use a win-win strategy so the greater long-term benefits could be created for everyone. A win-win situation is a solution in which both sides negotiate a way they both are happy and they can get what they want. The wolf keeps the goat to help him eat the weeds in the small garden so the wolf can eat the vegetables, while the goat is still alive and eating weeds all day. From the short-term perspective, the wolf can only eat one meal if he eats the goat. After the meal he will not have any food. The goat of course will die. There will be no benefit for both animals. For the long-term perspective, the wolf can use the goat as a little helper to eat the weeds so he can eat vegetables for every meal. For the goat, the goat will be happy because he will not be eaten and eat his favorite weeds. There are benefits for both of them. When encountering a problem, people should try to think if there is any win-win situation where people all get what they want.
Although many common sense or norms exist in reality, people cannot just assume that things will always be the same. There is always a possibility that things might be developed the way people expect them to be. It is common sense that the wolf should eat the goat. But at the end of this story, the wolf does not eat the goat. Instead, the goat acts like a pet to the wolf. It is weird that the wolf has a goat for a pet because normally the wolf will eat the goat for food by nature. But at the end, the goat and the wolf become close and they live peacefully. This suggests that things are not always in the way that they are supposed to be. Sometimes there will be something that is not normal or out of people’s expectations. Most of the time, it seems that things work in the way they are supposed to be, but people should have an open mind that sometimes things might be different than what they think.
“Wolf! Wolf!” is an interesting and special story talking about what happens among the wolf, the goat, and the boy. I am surprised by the twist that the wolf did not eat the goat! The wolf comes up with a win-win solution from a long-term perspective. Instead of eating the goat for only one meal, he makes the goat be his helper to eat the weeds so he can eat vegetables forever while the goat is still alive and eating his favorite weeds. The wolf and the goat become closer and even peacefully live together. At the same time, the boy should not lie to the villagers because he needs to tell more lies to cover his previous lie and this only makes things get worse. I recommend this book to students who like to tell lies to their parents, teachers, or friends. I hope they will learn that lying for their own fun or self-interests is not okay.
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