Folktales are stories passed down to teach a people’s way of life and values. Every culture has them. Folktales
can be fairytales, trickster tales, fables, and allegories. Your job is to find a folktale you’d like to examine.
Choose at least two versions of a tale, either from your own culture or one that interests you, to compare and
find research, using the SUNY New Paltz library database, on the context of the story. This prompt will be
used for Assignment 1: the topic proposal, Assignment 2: the annotated bibliography, and Assignment 3:
the rhetorical analysis essay.
What culture/country is the story from? What is the lesson of the tale? How does the story use ethos,
pathos, and logos to impart its message to the reader? Do you agree or disagree with the moral of the
story and why? How does this story work within our current culture? Find a current event that relates to
the moral of your tale. A counterargument should be addressed for either the moral of the folktale or the
current social issue. An argument should be present discussing the moral or impact of the folktale and
the urgency surrounding the current event.
As is the tradition of folk tales, we will be doing an oral presentation using this assignment.
Lessons to cover for this paper: Visual rhetoric, rhetorical analysis, how to use images with a text, research,
argument, cultural analysis, persuasion, and transitions.