summary of fox and the grapes
Answers
The short story is about a fox who sees a clump of grapes hanging from a tree and decides to eat them to quench his thirst. He tries to jump and retrieve the grapes, but they are out of reach. Eventually, the fox determines that the grapes must be sour and confidently, yet disappointedly, walks away.
Answer:
one hot summer’s day a fox was strolling through an orchard when he came to a bunch of grapes that were ripening on a vine, hanging over a lofty branch. ‘Those grapes are just the things to quench my thirst,’ said the fox. Drawing back a few paces, the fox took a run and a jump, but just missed the bunch of grapes. Turning round again he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again the fox tried to jump up and reach the juicy grapes, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: ‘Oh well, I am sure they are sour anyway.’
It is easier to despise what you cannot get. This fable gave rise to the common expression ‘sour grapes’, which, although often used to denote any sour or bitter mood, can also more specifically denote the idea of having liked something, which one has gone off (turned sour, if you will) because one is unable to obtain it. Like the chancer in a bar approaching a girl he likes, only to be rebuffed and so to retort that she’s ugly anyway (charmers, always), the fox in the fable really wanted the grapes, but his own failure to reach them leads to him walking off in a huff, consoling himself with a narrative he knows to be false – that the grapes are sour after all.