Indian Fairy Tales · Chapter
Sun, Moon, and Wind explained
A traditional tale from the Deccan about Sun, Moon, and Wind being sent by their mother, the Star, to dinner.
What happens
A traditional tale from the Deccan about Sun, Moon, and Wind being sent by their mother, the Star, to dinner. The Sun and Wind are greedy and forget to bring food back for their mother, while the Moon remembers and shares her portion. The story serves as a moral lesson about gratitude and selflessness.
Themes in this chapter
Gratitude and Ingratitude
The Moon's gratitude toward her mother contrasts sharply with the Sun and Wind's ingratitude, highlighting the moral lesson of remembering and honoring one's parents.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Miss Frere observes that she has not altered the traditional mode of the Moon’s conveyance of dinner to her mother the Star, though it must, she fears, impair the value of the story as a moral lesson in the eyes of all instructors of youth.”
Miss Frere kept the original way the Moon brought dinner to her mother, even though she worried it might weaken the story's moral impact for teachers of children.
Reflects the tension between preserving cultural authenticity and adapting stories for contemporary moral instruction.