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The Dog and Its Reflection (or Shadow in later translations) is one of Aesop's Fables and is numbered 133 in the Perry Index. [1] The Greek language original was retold in Latin and in this way was spread across Europe, teaching the lesson to be contented with what one has and not to relinquish substance for shadow.
Because SparkNotes provides study guides for literature that include chapter summaries, many teachers see the website as a cheating tool. [7] These teachers argue that students can use SparkNotes as a replacement for actually completing reading assignments with the original material, [8] [9] [10] or to cheat during tests using cell phones with Internet access.
There were later a stack of Latin retellings, but when La Fontaine related the story he preferred to underline the moral by calling it "The dog that left its prey for the shadow". Caxton (1484) keeps to the meaning of the Greek title - Of the dogge and of the pyece of flessh - while later English authors seem to have been influenced by La Fontaine.
The story was also made the subject of one of La Fontaine's Fables (Le loup et le chien, I.5), in which Master Wolf, on learning the forfeit necessary, "took to its heels and is running yet". [6] In modern times the text has been set for piano and high voice by the French composer Isabelle Aboulker .
A dog owner lets his shepherd dog starve from hunger, causing it to leave home. The dog meets a sparrow and accompanies it to the city. The bird captures meat and bread for the dog as a sign of gratitude. When they leave town, night falls, and they decide to go to sleep. During the night, a man in a horse carriage approaches the dog and sparrow.
However, the Latin description tells a very different story of the laden donkey being asked by a dog why it prefers the roadside thistles. His reply is that to his taste "the thistles which I am eating are more pleasing to me and suit my palate better than all the meat in the butchers' and all the confections in the bakers' shops".
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The book is told from the standpoint of a poor household pet, a dog self-described by the first sentence of the story: "My father was a St. Bernard, my mother was a collie, but I am a Presbyterian." The story begins with a description of the dog's life as a puppy and her separation from her mother, which to her was inexplicable.