Christian O’Connor 

Fino-Murtaugh 

ENG170 

2-6-24 

Dangers of Misinformation 

The folktale Henny Penny is a story of a chicken who thinks the sky is falling when an acorn falls from a tree and hits her on the head. The chicken tells her other bird friends the news and they all believe what they hear. The bird group tries to tell the king the sky is falling but fails. They tell a fox the news and it ends up tricking all of them and killing them. Henny Penny hears the rooster crow, forgets what she was doing, and goes to lay an egg, unknowingly saving herself from being eaten. (Steel) This folktale was originally from England and is centuries old. The lesson from this story is, do not believe everything everyone tells you. People can come to conclusions on things with little evidence so when you hear something, you should think about what you heard and do some research before you believe it. It also emphasizes that you should not panic when hearing unsettling information. 

The story of Henny Penny is a great tale with an important message. Something so extreme as the sky falling would be frightening to hear. The funny part of this story is that the news, even though it was not true, caused such a panic that the people who heard it did not even look up at the sky to see if it was falling. This part of the story demonstrates that you should think for yourself, rather than believing anything you hear. When Henny Penny escapes the fox by needing to go lay an egg while all her friends got killed by the fox, it further shows that believing everything you hear may not just be dumb, but dangerous.  

During the research of this folktale, I will be looking into a few things. Firstly, I will be asking how dangerous misinformation is. Most false information I come across is just people making things up on Instagram, but there are many more dangers than just internet trolls. Secondly, I will be exploring how the lesson of the story changes over time. With most folktales, they are made less violent as time goes on, but the lessons stay the same. I would like to see if new messages are added, or if some of the older ones are changed. Lastly, how well does the message of the story come across to its audience? Folktales have deeper meanings than just the story. It is important that a folktales point comes across and can be understood by people. 

This topic is important because in the digital age, misinformation is everywhere. There are scams, hackers, and even people who will put false information because they are either messing with people or have been given misinformation themselves. It is important for people to know that they need to think about what they hear or read, and make sure it is true. Even though it is much easier to check if the sky is falling than making sure the things you see online are real, the point of the folktale Henny Penny is still an important one. 

I chose this folktale because I was familiar with the movie Chicken Little that came out when I was a kid. The movie is drastically different from the original folktale, so I am interested in seeing the changes the story takes over the many centuries it has been told. I am also interested in further exploring the messages of this folktale because even though it is simple, there is a lot to understand. 

I plan to research the original story, finding some other versions that get told later, then finally ending with the movie I watched growing up. Now that I am older, I will be able to further understand the meaning of the movie, even if it is just a kid’s movie.  

The idea that you should not believe everything you hear has been important for centuries, evident in this folktale. The fact that this folktale survived until today and is still popular further proves this. As information spreads faster and faster, it is important to second guess information that you hear or read. Henny Penny does an excellent job of sending that message.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited 

https://americanliterature.com/childrens-stories/henny-penny-the-sky-is-falling