Chicken little story summary

A Summary and Analysis of the Chicken Little Folk Tale – Interesting Literature

Literature

The tale of Chicken Little, or Chicken Licken as he’s sometimes known, is a famous folk tale. But where did it come from, and what is the meaning of the Chicken Little story?

The term ‘Chicken Little’ has become almost synonymous with alarmism, with the term being used to describe people who needlessly stoke fear among people. Let’s take a closer look at the meaning and origin of this classic folk tale.

Chicken Little tale: plot summary

The basic story of Chicken Little varies in its details from telling to telling, but the essential plot tends to go something like this.

A chicken, often named Chicken Little (though as we’ve seen, she also goes under other names in different versions of the story), is walking in the woods when she is struck by an acorn falling from one of the trees.

Convinced that this is a sign the sky is falling in, Chicken Little rushes from the woods to go and warn the king.

On her way to see the king, she meets a number of her friends, who are also birds, usually with rhyming names: Henny Penny, Goosey Loosey, Ducky Lucky, Turkey Lurkey, and so on … you get the idea. As she meets each of them along her way, Chicken Little tells them that the sky is falling in, and that she has first-hand evidence of this.

All of these other birds join Chicken Little as she makes her way to the king, and soon there is a large group of them convinced that the sky is falling on them. They hasten their way, intent on delivering the news.

On their way, they come across Foxy Loxy (a fox, of course), who asks them why they’re in such a hurry. Chicken Little explains to him that the sky is falling and that they’re on their way to notify the king. Foxy Loxy offers to take them to the castle where they will find the king, and the birds agree to accompany him.

However, the cunning fox leads them not to the castle, but to his den, and the birds are never seen alive again.

Chicken Little tale: analysis

This simple tale with its short and rather straightforward, linear plot hides an impressive number of morals within its brief narrative. But what are those morals, and what is the meaning of the Chicken Little (or Chicken Licken) tale?

We might summarise the moral messages of the story as follows: 1) don’t form incorrect conclusions from insufficient data; 2) don’t stoke fear in others without good cause to do so; and 3) don’t take other people’s word for things, especially when those other people are making extraordinary claims (which should require extraordinary evidence).

Let’s take each of these morals in turn. First, Chicken Little is obviously wrong to draw the conclusion that the whole sky is falling in, simply because she has been hit on the head by an acorn. It’s a human failing to extrapolate our own (bad) experiences into somehow representing objective reality for everyone else, too: I read a book when I’m too busy or stressed to give it the attention it deserves, and confidently proclaim the book to be a load of overrated rubbish.

It works the other way, too: an affluent middle-class person on furlough with a big garden might have had a great 2020 despite what was going on in the world, but it doesn’t mean everyone else did. The fact that it’s something as small as an acorn which wrongfoots our avian (anti)heroine only makes her delusion all the more ridiculous.

The second and third morals are, of course, related, though they pertain to different characters in the tale. And, in many respects, the first point is related to the second. Chicken Little acts irresponsibly by spreading a false rumour, thus inciting fear among her friends. But she does so because she (stupidly) believes in her own scaremongering: she really does believe that the sky is falling in. Whether this mitigates her irresponsible fearmongering or makes it worse (stupidity and misinformation) is hard to say, and open to discussion and interpretation.

But her friends must also take their fair share of the blame for following her so readily. In many ways, they’re worse than Chicken Little herself, because at least she had some physical ‘evidence’ (or what she took for evidence) for her claim. By contrast, Goosey Loosey and the others are content merely to take Chicken Little’s word for it, without questioning her evidence or her extraordinary claim in more detail.

The story obviously has parallels with the fable of the boy who cried wolf, although in the case of that story, the moral is more straightforward. With Chicken Little, several moral teachings coincide neatly into one narrative.

What are the origins of the Chicken Little fable? We can’t say for sure, though the story had found its way into print by the early nineteenth century. Indeed, a Danish folklorist and scholar, following the lead of the Brothers Grimm, published a version in 1823. It wasn’t Hans Christian Andersen (he wouldn’t begin writing his fairy tales until a short while later), but Just Mathias Thiele (1795-1874). Thiele’s story contains many features of the story we mentioned in our plot summary above, although it’s a falling nut rather than an acorn which causes the chaos.

In America, however, the story had already been popularised by John Green Chandler, with the help of Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879), who is best-remembered for writing the rhyme ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ and for campaigning to have Thanksgiving recognised as a national holiday in the United States. Together, Chandler and Hale ensured that millions of children were familiar with the Chicken Little story and with its moral warnings.

The Chicken Little story continued to enjoy popularity in the twentieth century, with Disney producing a short film in 1943 warning about mass hysteria, with specific reference to the Nazis. The 2005 Disney adaptation completely changes the plot (by adding aliens, whose spaceship, or parts of it, really do fall from the sky), and, in doing so, misses the moral message (or messages) of the fable: in this version, Chicken Little is right to spread mass fear among the townsfolk and is thus vindicated.

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Chicken Little Story - Bedtimeshortstories

This is Chicken Little Story. Chicken Little is a little chicken who always had a solution for everything. One day, Chicken Little was playing in the yard under the maple tree when a squirrel rushed by with his arm full of acorns and one of these acorns fell and hit Chicken Little right WHACK! at the middle of the head. Then, the acorn bounced back into the hole in the tree leaving no evidence that it was ever there. Read more about Chicken Little!

Then, the acorn bounced back into the hole in the tree leaving no evidence that it was ever there in the first place. Chicken Little looked around; she looked up, she looked down, and she looked all around. But she couldn’t put her finger on what hit on her head. Chicken Little always had an answer for everything and so she thought for a while and came to a conclusion that the sky must be falling down. This made Chicken Little very afraid. And so she thought to inform the King. Also, read The Old Man And His Sons.

chicken little story Image Souce–> @www.youtube. com

She packed up some of the things that she needed into the bandana and tied it to the end of the stick, threw it onto the shoulder, and hit the road. On her way, she met Cocky Locky who stopped her and asked what was the issue. She told him, “I was sitting under the tree when the piece of the sky fell and hit me right on the head!” Cocky Locky also got worried. He joined Chicken Little and they both headed to the King’s castle.

Soon, they met Ducky Daddles on their way. Ducky Daddles asked, “Why are you both in so much hurry?” They both told the incident that had happened with Chicken Little. They said, “You haven’t heard the sky is falling! A big piece fell on Chicken Little and almost squashed her.” Ducky Daddles was very scared and so he, too, joined them to tell the King the very important news. You may also like, The Bear And The Bees.

They only made it halfway when they met Goosey Loosey. Goosey Loosey asked, “Hey, what’s the matter? You look stressed!” Ducky Daddles explained the whole incident to the Goosey Loosey. Goosey Loosey thought that they would be needing some protection as the King’s castle was quite far, And so, the four friends traveled to the castle. They spread the news where they traveled. They traveled over the river, through the woods, passed grandmother’s house, and all the way to the King’s castle.

When they got there, the King was very surprised to see them. “What are all of you doing here?” the King asked. They told the King, “The world is ending!” They revised the complete incident in front of the King as proof. But, the King wanted to see the piece of the sky they were talking about. But Chicken Little didn’t have it. “How can you say that it was a piece of sky?” Also read, The Magic Porridge Pot Story.

“How can you say that it was a piece of sky? It could be anything!” concluded the King. Chicken Little replied, “There was nothing above me except for the tree, and there was nothing on the ground when I got hit and I always have answers for everything. So, the only thing above me was the sky. ” The King was not ready to agree with them. And so, the King traveled back with Chicken Little to take a look at the tree under which she was sitting that day.

They waited around for a while when a squirrel came running by and yelled down to them, “Hey guys, did you see my acorn I dropped yesterday?” All of them started to investigate. And finally, when Chicken Little checked the hole inside the tree, she saw a missing acorn. The squirrel was happy. Chicken Little was happy.

Chicken Little learned that the sky was not falling and that sometimes it’s okay to not know all of the answers.

Here is a visual depiction of, “Chicken Little Story”. See the video story below,

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"Black Chicken" in 5 minutes. Brief summary of Pogorelsky's fairy tale

Forty years ago, in St. Petersburg on Vasilevsky Island, there lived the owner of a men's boarding school. Among the thirty or forty children who studied at that boarding school, there was one boy named Alyosha, who was then no more than 9 or 10 years old. His parents, who lived far, far away from Petersburg, brought him to the capital two years before, sent him to a boarding school and returned home, paying the teacher the agreed fee for several years in advance. Alyosha was a smart, sweet boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him.

The days of training passed quickly and pleasantly for him, but when Saturday came and all his comrades hurried home to their relatives, then Alyosha bitterly felt his loneliness. Alyosha fed the hens, who lived near the fence in a house specially built for them and played and ran around in the yard all day. He especially liked the black crested one, called Chernushka. Nigella was more affectionate towards him than others.

Once, for a holiday, the cook was catching a chicken, and Alyosha, throwing himself on her neck, did not let Chernushka be killed. I gave the cook an imperial for this - a gold coin, a gift from my grandmother.

After the holiday, he went to bed, almost fell asleep, but heard someone calling him. A blackie came to him and said in a human voice: follow me, I'll show you something pretty. Get dressed soon! And he boldly followed her. It seemed as if rays came out of her eyes, which illuminated everything around them, although not as brightly as small candles. They went through the front.

"The door is locked with a key," said Alyosha; but the hen did not answer him: she flapped her wings, and the door opened of its own accord.

Then, passing through the hallway, they turned to the rooms where the hundred-year old Dutch women lived. Alyosha never visited them. The hen flapped her wings again, and the door to the old woman's chambers opened. We went into the second room, and Alyosha saw a gray parrot in a golden cage. Blackie said not to touch anything.

Passing by a cat, Alyosha asked her for paws. .. Suddenly she meowed loudly, the parrot puckered up and started shouting loudly: “Stupid! fool!" Chernushka hurried away, and Alyosha ran after her, the door behind them slammed hard...

Suddenly they entered the hall. Knights in shining armor hung on the walls on both sides. Blackie walked in front on tiptoe and Alyosha ordered to follow her quietly, quietly... There was a large door at the end of the hall. As soon as they approached her, two knights jumped off the walls and rushed at the black hen. Blackie raised her crest, spread her wings and suddenly became big, big, taller than the knights, and began to fight with them! The knights attacked her strongly, and she defended herself with her wings and nose. Alyosha became frightened, his heart fluttered violently, and he fainted.

The next night Chernushka came again. They went again, but this time Alyosha did not touch anything.

They entered another room. Blackie is gone. Then a lot of little people entered, no more than half a yard tall, in smart multi-colored dresses. They did not notice Alyosha. Then the king entered. Because Alyosha saved his minister, Alyosha now knew the lesson without learning. The king gave him a hemp seed. And they asked not to tell anyone about them.

Classes began, and Alyosha knew every lesson. Blackie didn't come. Alyosha was ashamed at first, but then he got used to it.

Besides, Alyosha has become a terrible scoundrel. One day the teacher, not knowing what to do with him, asked him to memorize twenty pages by another morning and hoped that at least that day he would be quieter. But Alyosha on that day was deliberately more naughty than usual. The next day I could not utter a word, because there was no seed. He was taken to the bedroom and told to learn a lesson. But by dinner time Alyosha had not yet learned his lesson. They left him there again. By nightfall, Chernushka appeared and returned the grain to him, but asked him to correct himself.

The lesson answered the next day. The teacher asked when Alyosha had learned the lesson. Alyosha was taken aback, they ordered to bring the rods. The teacher said that he would not flog if Alyosha said when he had learned the lesson. And Alyosha told everything, forgetting about the promise given to the underground king and his minister. The teacher did not believe, and Alyosha was whipped.

Chernushka came to say goodbye. She was chained up. She said that people now have to move far away. She asked Alyosha to correct herself again.

The minister shook hands with Alyosha and hid under the next bed. The next day, in the morning, Alyosha had a fever. Six weeks later Alyosha recovered and tried to be obedient, kind, modest and diligent. Everyone loved him again and began to caress him, and he became an example for his comrades, although he could no longer memorize twenty printed pages suddenly, which, however, he was not asked.

Summary Black chicken or underground inhabitants Pogorelsky for the reader's diary, read a brief retelling online

Year: 1829 Genre : fairy tale

Main characters: boy Alyosha, a chicken nicknamed Chernushka

A wonderful fairy tale about a black chicken was written by Antony Pogorelsky, a ten-year-old fat man. This boy later became a famous writer and poet.

Plot

The main character of the tale is also ten years old and his name is also Alyosha. He lives at a boarding house in St. Petersburg, far from his parents. Alyosha is a diligent student, a good friend and just a kind boy. One day he saves a chicken that was assigned to the kitchen, and from that moment his life changes completely. He gains an amazing ability, but instead of using it for the benefit of himself and others, he imagines that he is now better than his comrades, becoming proud, arrogant and lazy. Alyosha commits an act, in which he later deeply regrets, and this becomes the beginning of his return to his former life as a diligent student.

Antony Pogorelsky's wonderful tale has been teaching boys and girls for almost 200 years to be responsible for their words and deeds, to value friendship and not to look for workarounds where diligence is needed. And for adults, this work is an opportunity to remember childhood, plunging into the atmosphere of one of the favorite fairy tales of their childhood.

Read the summary of the story Black Hen or Underground Inhabitants Pogorelsky

So, our Alyosha is a lonely quiet boy who lives very far from his home and his family. He was brought to Petersburg to receive a good education. Alyosha constantly lives in a boarding house and does not even have the opportunity to go home for the holidays. He misses his loved ones very much, invents stories for himself about a kind sorceress who someday will come to the fence of the boarding house and give him a present from his parents.

The days of study are filled with various activities, and time passes quickly for Alyosha, on holidays, weekends and vacations, his study mates leave for their families, and he is left all alone. The boy has very little entertainment during such periods, he reads chivalric novels, since the teacher allows you to take books from his library, walks in the yard and makes friends with chickens, plays with them, and feeds them bread crumbs. Of all, the boy singles out one, the most, in his opinion, beautiful. He calls her Chernushka for the color of her feathers, and considers her his friend.

One day, walking in the yard, Alyosha sees in the yard how the cook is trying to catch his beloved Chernushka. The further fate of the chicken is clear for the boy, and he, rushing to the cook, begs her to let the black chicken go, giving in exchange for her life, his only, carefully kept, treasure - a gold coin. From that moment on, real magic begins in Alyosha's life.

The same night Blackie comes to his bedroom and invites him to go to that part of the house where the boy has never been before. On the way, a black hen asks him to be quiet. But the environment surprises Alyosha so much that he cannot restrain himself and the noise happens through his fault. The knights guarding the magical passage wake up, and Chernushka enters into battle with them. From the unreality of what is happening and strong feelings, Alyosha loses consciousness and ... wakes up in the morning in his bed. He is annoyed with himself for his incontinence and waits for the night in the hope that the hen will come to him again. And so it happens.

This time Alyosha tries his best to be quiet and they end up in a magical kingdom. Suddenly it turns out that Chernushka is not a chicken at all, but a prime minister, who is appreciated by all the inhabitants of the underworld. The king himself goes to Alyosha to thank him and promises to fulfill any wish. Alyosha, not ready for such a turn, asks for the first thing that came to mind - the ability to always know a given lesson without making any effort. He is given a magical seed with such power as long as it is in the pocket of his clothes. Then the underground inhabitants show Alyosha the wonders of their kingdom, invite him to hunt and treat him to delicious misfortune. Blackie tells the story of the kingdom and asks the boy never to tell anyone about their existence, because otherwise they will have to go far, far away from here.

School starts. On the very first day, Alyosha did not learn anything, brilliantly answers all the lessons. At first, he is embarrassed by praise, he understands that there is no merit in his excellent results. But time goes by, he gets used to his gift and begins to look down on his comrades, for whom study is not so easy. From a modest, diligent and kind boy, he turns into an arrogant, proud, arrogant one. He becomes a notorious naughty and the more he plays pranks, the more he is given lessons in the form of punishment. And then one day he failed to answer the teacher of a given lesson.

Putting his hand in his pocket, he discovered that the miraculous seed had disappeared. He spent the whole day upset, and at night Chernushka brought him the loss. The Minister of the Underworld was very upset by the change that had taken place in his friend. Alyosha decides to improve. The next day, he answers the lesson to the teacher, lying that he learned everything in the morning, but his comrades catch him in a lie, and out of fear of punishment, Alyosha tells the whole truth about his gift and Chernushka and the underground inhabitants. Of course, they do not believe him, the boy is being punished. At night, it turns out that all the underground inhabitants leave their habitable place, Chernushka is now forced to wear chains on his hands as a sign of punishment. From experiences Alyosha the next morning becomes seriously ill. While recovering, he realizes that the changes that have taken place with him have spoiled his character. Alyosha greatly repents of his attitude towards his comrades, and most of all that he spoke about the underground kingdom, forcing its inhabitants to leave for new places. The boy is corrected, once again becoming kind, diligent, hardworking and modest.

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Read summary Black chicken or underground dwellers. Brief summary. Take 5-6 sentences for the reader's diary