Lessons in Greed
The Magic Pear Tree, The Wine Well, and The Silver Swindle are specific fairy tales that show the theme of greed being the main flaw of the characters in these stories. Throughout each one of the stories the main character's selfishness comes back to haunt them while teaching a valuable lesson in the end. Greed is the excessive desire for getting or having material possessions. Wars are fought because of it and lives are lost as a result of it. Greed is known as one of the seven deadly sins. It is a very dangerous and evil tool that men are influenced by to gain wealth, women, or anything else they desire. Some might say that obtaining everything from nothing is fate. However, these fairytales show it is not. Eventually greed corrupts peoples judgments and it comes back to haunt them. In the fairy tale, The Magic Pear Tree, the main character is a farmer who sells very juicy and delicious pears, a fruit that everyone seems to crave. Yet the farmer is disinclined to share with others. An example of the farmers greed is demonstrated when a priest comes to the man asking for just one. The farmer refuses and asks the man to stay away. At first, the priest is hesitant to leave, but the farmer soon becomes even more a
Blinded by his greed, he did not see the many outcomes that could arise from his scheme. The farmer's greed for not sharing the pears ends up leaving him with none in the end. When the old man left the money exchanger learns that he was cheated because the silver was fake. People may soon lose sight of their real goals and become unaware that they are condemning themselves to living in a world of hate and anger in which they create. The main character of this story is an old lady who makes her fortune by brewing wine. The farmer's attitude influences his customers to implore him to give up one pear, suggesting a bruised one to rid the crowd of the shabby priest. The woman in all her generosity never asks for him for payment. The second lesson that is learned is that there is always going to be someone else who is faster, smarter, or more cunning than another. The farmer was completely blinded by his greed. Since the old man can't weigh the silver himself he decides to keep the difference for himself and gives the old man the equivalent in copper for 10 taels of silver. Meanwhile the farmer returns to where his cart had sat and notices that it is gone. Think about society today and how desire and lust leads people to cheat, steal, fight, and kill. However, before the priest leaves, he decides to do the woman a great service and dig a well containing flawless undying wine. In this story, a Taoist priest comes to stay with the woman and she allows him to drink the wine freely.
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