The Boy Who Cried Wolf
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| - | A '''lie''' is an [[untruth]]ful statement made to someone else with the intention to deceive. To lie is to say something one believes to be [[falsehood|false]] with the intention that it be taken for the [[truth]] by someone else. A [[liar]] is a person who is known to have a tendency to tell lies. | ||
| - | A lie involves the use of [[Convention (norm)|conventional]] [[truthbearer]]s, (''i.e.'', statements in words or [[symbol]]s) and not natural signs. Intentional deceit involving natural signs, such as wearing a wig, shamming a limp, or wearing a fake arm cast, is not usually classed as "lying", but as "deception". | + | '''The Boy Who Cried Wolf''', also known as ''The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf'', is a [[fable]] attributed to [[Aesop]] (210 in Perry's numbering system). The [[protagonist]] of the fable is a bored [[shepherd]] boy who entertained himself by calling out "[[Wolf]]!". Nearby villagers who came to his rescue found that the alarms were false and that they had wasted their time. When the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers did not believe his cries for help and the wolf ate the flock (and in some versions the boy). The [[moral]] is stated at the end of the fable as: |
| - | A true statement may be a lie. If the person who makes the true statement genuinely believes it to be false, and makes the statement with the intention that his audience believe it to be true, then this is a lie. When a person lies he or she is intentionally untruthful, but he or she is ''not'' necessarily making an untrue statement. | + | <blockquote>Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.</blockquote> |
| - | ==Representations of lying in fiction== | + | |
| + | In reference to this tale, the phrase to "cry wolf" has long been a common idiom in English, described in [[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]], and modern English dictionaries. The phrase "boy who cried wolf" has also become somewhat of a [[figure of speech]], meaning that one is calling for help when he or she does not really need it. Also in common English there goes the saying: "Never cry wolf" to say that you never should lie, as in the above phrases. | ||
| - | * ''[[The Adventures of Baron Munchausen]]'' tell the story about an 18th century baron who tells outrageous, unbelievable stories which he claims are all true. | ||
| - | * A famous anecdote by [[Parson Weems]] claims that [[George Washington]] once cut a tree over when he was a small child. His father asked him who cut the tree and Washington confessed his crime with the words: "I'm sorry, father, I cannot tell a lie." The anecdote has been proven to be a completely fictional story. | ||
| - | * [[Carlo Collodi]]'s [[Pinocchio]] was a wooden puppet often led into trouble by his propensity to lie. His nose grew with every lie; hence, long noses have become a [[caricature]] of liars. | ||
| - | * ''[[The Boy Who Cried Wolf]]'', a [[fable]] attributed to [[Aesop]] about a boy who continually lies a [[wolf]] is coming. When a wolf does appear nobody believes him anymore. | ||
| - | * ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode "[[The Whole Truth (The Twilight Zone)|The Whole Truth]]". | ||
| - | * In the film ''[[Liar Liar]]'', the lawyer Fletcher Reed ([[Jim Carrey]]) cannot lie for 24 hours, due to a wish of his son which magically came true. | ||
| - | * In the 1985 ''[[Max Headroom]]'', the title character comments that one can always tell when a politician lies because "their lips move". The joke has been widely repeated and rephrased. | ||
| - | * In the film ''[[Big Fat Liar]]'', the story which producer Marty Wolf (a notorious and proud liar himself) steals from student Jason Shepard, tells of a character whose lies become out of control to the point where each lie he tells causes him to grow in size. | ||
| - | * ''[[Great Lies To Tell Small Kids]]'', a humorous book series. | ||
| - | * ''[[Lie to Me]]'', a TV series based on people who read lies by facial expressions. | ||
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Revision as of 13:33, 27 June 2009
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The Boy Who Cried Wolf, also known as The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf, is a fable attributed to Aesop (210 in Perry's numbering system). The protagonist of the fable is a bored shepherd boy who entertained himself by calling out "Wolf!". Nearby villagers who came to his rescue found that the alarms were false and that they had wasted their time. When the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers did not believe his cries for help and the wolf ate the flock (and in some versions the boy). The moral is stated at the end of the fable as:
Even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. The liar will lie once, twice, and then perish when he tells the truth.
In reference to this tale, the phrase to "cry wolf" has long been a common idiom in English, described in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, and modern English dictionaries. The phrase "boy who cried wolf" has also become somewhat of a figure of speech, meaning that one is calling for help when he or she does not really need it. Also in common English there goes the saying: "Never cry wolf" to say that you never should lie, as in the above phrases.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
