From Imagination to Reality: A. L. Kennedy's 'The Little Snake' as a Fable

Even though the fable, an early memory of every childhood, has long been regarded as a source of moral training, it has not been confirmed as an official didactic tool yet, since there is still much experimentation to be done before its use as a teaching aid. Because of its ability in teaching what is right and wrong, the fable is considered a valid help in character education which can be defined as “a school-based process to promote personal growth, through the development of virtue, moral values, and moral agency.” In this regard, the fable illustrates the results of good and bad conduct in a way that life does not. Generally speaking, the fable has been globally used in primary schools for generations as a helpful means of inculcating moral values through a graphic presentation. For what concerns structure, it is perfectly suitable for the children’s mind: the story illustrates a moral which is made memorable by the story; the style is short, precise, and simple, telling the story vividly in the fewest possible words; the characters are animals so that it is easier to give them complete characterisation in a word; they are attractive because of their colorfulness and liveliness. It is hence brief and simple enough to hold youthful interest and designed to make a definite point. But whether the fable stands or fails as a factor in character education, its interest, and rich cultural background will continue to play an important part in literature for children and in the early memories of adults.
Speaking of its didactic role, fantastic fiction, but especially fairy tales and fables, with their metaphors and richness of their symbols, offers educators and teachers a valuable tool to promote cognitive development. It allows not only enrichment but also a process of revision, of reinterpretation necessary for a pupil who presents himself as an 'open' text, in the sense that he or she is being defined in the very process of his ‘reading’. Gianni Rodari, as a teacher and pedagogue, supported strongly the idea that fable is a combination of fun and learning. According to Rodari, imagination is the condition that determines learning, whatever it may be:

Io credo che le fiabe, quelle vecchie e quelle nuove, possano contribuire ad educare la mente. La fiaba è il luogo di tutte le ipotesi: essa ci può dare delle chiavi per entrare nella realtà per strade nuove, può aiutare il bambino a conoscere il mondo.

In common with all fantastic literature, the fable has the aim of stimulating reflection and the close relationship between imagination and reality itself, since every construction of our mind is possible only from our past experience and the more this has been rich in stimuli, the more fruitful our present capacity to imagine will be. The possibility to meet two different worlds, the real and the fantastic ones, provides the child, already from an early age, with different kinds of stimuli, to enrich his or her experience and thus offer him or her greater possibilities for growth. Moreover, imagination is not an "idle amusement" of our mind but has its own "vital and irreplaceable" function, as Vygotsky says in “Imagination and Creativity in childhood”:

The false interpretation of fantasy consists in the fact that it is considered from one aspect alone, as a function connected with emotional life, with life of drives and attitudes; its other aspect, related to intellectual life, remains in the shadow. Moreover, according to the valid observation of A.S. Pushkin, imagination is as necessary as in geometry as it is in poetry. Everything that requires creative recreation of reality, everything that is connected with the interpretation and construction of something new, needs the indispensable participation of fantasy.

According to Vygotsky, “absolutely everything around us that was created by the hand of man, the entire world of human culture, as distinct from the world of nature, all this is the product of human imagination and of creation based on this imagination.” In fact, inherent in the human being is that capacity to produce more alternative worlds to the existing one thanks to the process of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction, based on the human’s syntactical capacity, i.e. to act even in the absence of objects and purposes, to invent, to abstract. Designing, inventing, creating is, in fact, a prerogative of the human mind, able to always tend towards possible alterations, always intent on elaborating them. According to Charles Peirce, an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, sometimes known as ‘the father of pragmatism’, an important role is played by the imagination: the universal tendency of the human mind to dream allows men to build abstract models employing hypothesis and abductions. In this sense, the fantastic narrative presents itself as an abductive process, since it suggests that something is not yet, but that can be.

In addition, reading fables develops and improves creative and critical language: the identification with fictional characters gives the reader the opportunity to live experiences and situations that will help especially children to acquire greater self-confidence, to integrate and form part of the world around them. "The child is available, multiform, open to all possibilities", writes Held. For this reason, it is important to have a pedagogy that safeguards and develops in him this original availability, this attitude of creative freedom in front of images, ideas, words. Precisely because children have interests, values, a culture of their own and rich potential of resources, it is necessary to educate them to the multiplicity of expressive codes, the variety of the use of words and phrases, starting from word games, proverbs, the invention of a verse, to explore the complex world of language, the infinite ways through which is possible to communicate. The child does not approach reading to escape from reality or even to become culturally enriched, s/he is rather moved by the "desire to grow", by "the search for a life experience through the written page.”

In an era increasingly dominated by technology, practicing imagination and perceiving one’s own emotions is becoming more and more necessary not only to counterbalance this trend but also to provide invaluable support to the psychological development of children as well as of adults. Unfortunately, too little time is devoted to reading fantastic stories, because it is considered more important to ensure that people learn to write, read or count as quickly as possible, to be "included", "functional" and "productive" in the current capitalist social system.
However, reading should not be considered a competitive activity. Instead, the child must see the book as something enjoyable, a source of aesthetic satisfaction, reflection, and personal creation. Furthermore, it is important to ask ourselves – for what and how will the child learn to read and write? – or rather – will the child learn to read and write only to be able to reproduce fixed, rigid and classical models or will s/he learn to embrace the diversity of human beings and to be able to develop a critical, dynamic and creative attitude towards the world, society, and other people? – If the latter is the purpose of education, then fantastic literature would play a very important role.
In conclusion, the fable has been and is currently regarded not only as a tool to please and entertain but most of all to instruct and stimulate cognitive development.