History BrokenAesop / Literature

* In-universe example: In ''Literature/TheBarsoomProject'', a live-action adventure about Myth/InuitMythology is re-staged as a "Fat Ripper", in which players are psychologically conditioned to overcome their eating disorders and other dependencies while completing their mission. This could've been a real coup for the Park's operators, if one of the game's challenges hadn't required them to ''smoke cigarettes'' as part of a magical ritual. So we're training Gamers to trade one unhealthy habit for another.

* In ''[[Literature/LittleWomen Little Men]]'', Nat is caught telling a lie, and this is treated as a very serious issue and resolved with a cruel and unusual punishment. The problem is, a much older boy was threatening to beat the crap out of him if he'd ran through the boy's veggie patch - which he'd done because he was being chased by another older boy - so Nat got scared and denied it. And ''neither of the other boys were punished or even given a talking-to'', leaving us with the message that lying to get out of a dangerous situation is not only wrong, but so much worse than threatening and bullying little kids who aren't able to defend themselves. Whoo, moralizing.
** In the first book, we have Amy burning Jo's book out of anger. She is given a lecture for this, and Jo is understandably very angry at her for it. The problem comes in when Jo doesn't let go of her anger or forgive Amy right away after Amy apologizes, even though a) Jo just had her most cherished creation destroyed and it would be ridiculous to expect her to get over it in a ''day,'' b) Amy doesn't appear to get any punishment beyond a lecture. So the moral is "forgiveness is mandatory, just get over it," or "[[EasilyForgiven just say you're sorry and everyone will forgive you and love you again]]."

* Happens in-universe in one book in the ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'' series. Greg's school puts out a PSA encouraging kids to BeYourself, but a bemused Greg notes that most of the school's bullies took this as an excuse not to change their behavior.
* One of the lessons in Creator/DrSeuss' ''Daisy-Head Mayzie'' is "What good is money without all your friends?" Except Mayzie ''has no friends''--all we see are [[KidsAreCruel bratty children who taunt her]] in school about her daisy. And while the adults don't torment her, they don't exactly stick up for her either. But suddenly they all love her again once she's back to normal.

* There's a children's poem about a little girl whose father brags that men are better drivers and are "built with speed and strength". He ends up driving his car straight into a truck and the poem starts to make a gender equality Aesop... which then gets completely broken by having the little girl remark "men are built with speed and strength but hardly any brains" showing she's just as sexist as her father.

* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}} #28: The Experiment'': slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants are evil, terrifying places. Wow, that burger you're eating looks delicious. Can you get me one while you're up? [[EnforcedTrope Actually deliberate]]: the last chapter, where they get burgers, was written by Applegate, who hated what the ghostwriter had done with the book.

* In-universe example: In ''Literature/TheBarsoomProject'', a live-action adventure about Myth/InuitMythology is re-staged as a "Fat Ripper", in which players are psychologically conditioned to overcome their eating disorders and other dependencies while completing their mission. This could've been a real coup for the Park's operators, if one of the game's challenges hadn't required them to ''smoke cigarettes'' as part of a magical ritual. So we're training Gamers to trade one unhealthy habit for another, are we?

* Tom Godwin's short story ''Literature/TheColdEquations'' attempts to tell AnAesop about the uncaring nature of the universe, and how even an innocent mistake can cost a life, with no fault but that of universal law. Unfortunately, the basic thrust is undercut because of the setup of the situation. The only protection to keep someone from walking onto a spaceship where stowaways meet certain death is a sign saying "UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL. KEEP OUT!" This is especially bad, because it's flat-out stated that stowaways have happened before -- indeed, the pilot of the ship has a ''gun'' and explicit orders to ''shoot them'' -- yet the entire situation is treated as the fault of nothing but the physical laws of the universe. Readers are left to wonder why the craft had absolutely zero margin for error when modern lifeboats and transport craft are capable of handling far more than their generally required loads. (Although, part of the problem is ExecutiveMeddling: the magazine editor wanted a story where science DOESN'T save the day, and Godwin [[WriterRevolt kept finding ways to save the girl]].)

* One of the lessons in Creator/DrSeuss' ''Daisy-Head Mayzie'' is "What good is money without all your friends?". Wait, friends? You mean those [[KidsAreCruel bratty children who taunted her]] in school about her daisy (which was ''every single one of them'', by the way. No one defended her!). And while the adults didn't torment her, they didn't exactly stick up for her either. Oh, but suddenly they all love her again once she's back to normal, so... yay for conformity? I think there's a reason Dr. Seuss didn't get this published initially.

* The children's picture book ''The Elephant and the Bad Baby'' has an Aesop about the importance of being polite. The Elephant has taken the Bad Baby for a ride down the High Street, and asks him if he wants something from each of the shops they pass. The Bad Baby always says "Yes", and the a Elephant then steals it for him. They end up chased by a group of angry shopkeepers until the Elephant suddenly stops and complains that the Bad Baby never said "Please". The shopkeepers are appalled and side with the Elephant against the Bad Baby, even though he was the one stealing from them! So, not saying "Please" is a worse offence than stealing? And babies don't deserve to cut any slack when they forget their manners?

* Kevin J. Anderson arguably did this ''well'' in ''Literature/{{Hopscotch}}''. One of the parallel story threads follows a girl who joins an increasingly abusive cult whose founder is obsessed with the idea of sharing everything--this being a soft sci-fi story, this includes [[FreakyFridayFlip sharing bodies]]. [[spoiler:The group is quickly set up to be "bad," and the girl is forced out of it and forced to leave her original body behind. She finds another leader-type to follow, a fellow who claims that body-swapping is bad and should never be practiced, and he gets a lengthy CharacterFilibuster on the subject. The astute reader might notice that this moral is actively contradicted in the other story threads, so it seems like a broken aesop. Later on, however, she discovers that her original body is dead, and gets to decide whether or not to trade for a body similar, but not identical, to the one she had. For a few seconds, she considers which choice would be more in line with the precepts she's adopted--then she realizes that she's still blindly doing whatever she's told, and for the first time in the book, she makes her decision based on her own instincts rather than someone else's advice.]]

* Racial prejudice is a recurring theme in ''Literature/TheIcewindDaleTrilogy'', ''Literature/TheDarkElfTrilogy'', and the ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDrowSeries'' by R.A. Salvatore. Drizzt Do'Urden is a ChaoticGood dark elf who rejects the ways of his otherwise AlwaysChaoticEvil people and goes to live among the "good" races. He is subjected to FantasticRacism, which would work better as an analogue to RealLife racism if every other dark elf in the series bar literally just one or two weren't evil and if drow society as a whole weren't basically even worse than others assume it to be. The racists are still right 99% of the time.
** Compounding this moral is the fact that Drizzt is a dark elf -- a member of a race with a powerful and advanced (if dysfunctional) society, [[EvilIsSexy physically attractive]] and looking no different from a regular elf bar PaletteSwap, and possessing agelessness, enhanced skill and reflexes, and low-level magic powers. Races like orcs, goblins, and kobolds, which possess none of these things, are shown exactly the same way they are in every other ''D&D'' book ever -- i.e. ugly, murderous, stupid, barbaric cannon fodder, and the few times he does try to extend mercy to them, it's treated as naïveté. It's rather disingenuous to complain about being judged by your appearance and your genes when you're basically a black-painted ubermensch slaughtering the degenerates.

** And in the first book, we have Amy burning Jo's book out of anger... cue Jo getting angry at her and being admonished for it.
*** In total fairness, Amy ''is'' given a lecture and Jo's anger is shown as understandable. The problem comes in when Jo doesn't let go of her anger or forgive Amy right away after Amy apologizes, even though a) Jo just had her most cherished creation destroyed and it would be ridiculous to expect her to get over it in a ''day,'' b) Amy doesn't appear to get any punishment beyond a lecture. So basically "forgiveness is mandatory, just get over it," or "[[EasilyForgiven just say you're sorry and everyone will forgive you and love you again]]."

** The series has numerous borderline {{Author Filibuster}}s about the importance of the 2nd Amendment and owning guns. Of course, the reason that the main characters own guns is because they hunt zombies and werewolves for a living, which is obviously not an argument that applies well to the real world.

** According to WordOfGod, the Bella/Edward/Jacob love triangle was intended to show Bella's choice in the matter of love, namely that she had the option of Jacob but chose Edward. The "love through choice" moral is shot to hell through most of the other couples though, particularly in the case of imprinted couples (the guy can't ''help'' but feel attracted to the girl and while the girl technically is able to refuse him, there is a ton of pressure not to. To given an idea of just how much pressure, in the very first imprinted couple the books show the girl ''did'' try to refuse the guy which caused him to fly into a rage and more or less literally rip her face off.). Especially egregious is the case of Jacob, who made a number of speeches about how imprinting is essentially the loss of free will and he hopes to never have it [[spoiler:and then finds himself happily imprinted on Renesmee, even though he absolutely hated her not five minutes prior.]] Which kind of contradicts everything the author said about Jacob being an option since it's implied if not outright stated that Jacob's interest in Bella was apparently [[spoiler: only due to him being subconsciously drawn to her because he was meant to imprint on Renesmee in the first place.]]
** One Aesop seems to be that a girl as plain and unassuming as Bella can find true love, but Bella's flaws fall mostly into the category of InformedFlaw, [[spoiler:and are almost entirely removed at the end of the series.]] Not to mention, though Bella is intended to be plain and unassuming, nearly every man she runs into falls for her and Edward himself states that most of the boys in the school find her attractive. Clearly, not so plain. However, maybe the intended Aesop here was that if you hold off on sex until you get married and then [[spoiler:die in childbirth,]] you will become a saint and absolutely perfect in every way.

*** And worse still, some of the deaths the Cullens cause are ''glorified'', the most obvious example being Rosalie murdering her fiance and his friends. This would otherwise be a pretty badass moment, if it weren't for the fact that Carlisle is supposed to be an absolute pillar of morality; if he's so moral, why did he stand by and allow his new adoptive daughter to murder humans, something he's so strongly against?

*** Also building on Carlisle's supposed status as a pillar of morality, the reason he saved Rosalie's life was he saw her lying raped and dying in the street and thought it would be a shame to let beauty such as hers go to waste. And then he tried to give her to Edward as a girlfriend.

* Kaala, protagonist of ''Literature/TheWolfChronicles'', spends the entire series being bullied and manipulated by its various [[TheChessmaster chessmasters]]. There is much talk about how she can't trust anybody--[[GreyAndGreyMorality even her allies]]--to tell her the whole truth, and must fight for her independence. Then in the finale she...[[EasilyForgiven suddenly]] trusts one of these chessmasters ([[spoiler:Gaanan]]) to safeguard the future of humanity? Even though he's lied to her before? Even though she has no reason to believe he's being honest now? ''Really?''

** The aesop of "The Tortoise and the Hare" is "slow and steady wins the race". But the hare was winning the vast majority of the race and only lost because he was so far ahead [[IdiotBall he thought he could stop to rest]], not noticing the tortoise caught up until too late. Thus the tortoise only won due to their opponent's overconfidence as opposed to the intended reason of going slow and steady.

** The aesop of ''Literature/TheTortoiseAndTheHare'' is "slow and steady wins the race". But the hare was winning the vast majority of the race and only lost because he was so far ahead [[IdiotBall he thought he could stop to rest]], not noticing the tortoise caught up until too late. Thus the tortoise only won due to their opponent's overconfidence as opposed to the intended reason of going slow and steady.

** The aesop of ''Literature/TheTortoiseAndTheHare'' is "slow and steady wins the race". But the hare was winning the vast majority of the race and only lost because he was so far ahead he thought he could stop to rest, not noticing the tortoise caught up until too late. Thus the tortoise only won due to their opponent's overconfidence as opposed to the intended reason of going slow and steady.

* In the [[Literature/TheRiftwarCycle Riftwar saga]] we get hammered about how the end doesn't justify the means, and that evil actions are irrational, by the heroes. Then they start torturing enemies, in full knowledge of this being evil, in the name of the greater good.

** The Aesop of "The Fox and the Crow" is not to be vain-- the crow sings, so the fox steals the cheese that was in her beak. However, the breakage comes from the fact that the crow was singing on the fox's request and not out of vanity.

* The Dr. Seuss story ''The Bippolo Seed'' has a moral against being greedy. However, the cat and the duck only lost because the duck dropped his seed while doing a HappyDance. If he hadn't danced, they would have gotten away with being greedy ''and'' gotten all the things they wanted to sell.

* According to ''Literature/TheHost'' free will is more important than a utopia, and living parasitically in a host body is immoral. [[spoiler:Which is why Wanderer gets moved against her express wishes into a different host body, ruining another alien's happy life in the process.]]

* The ''Careful What You Wish For'' falls into the trap of Ruth (the main character) not actually ''getting'' what she wished for. First, she has a supposedly perfect life only her parents have [[UncannyValley dead eyes]] and her brothers are in stasis (which she never wished for, and she could clearly make her second wish "The same, but without the dead eyes and keep the brothers") and then she gets sent to a Catholic BoardingSchoolOfHorrors in the fifties... which, again, she didn't wish for.

* The first ''Literature/{{Arthur}}'' book, titled "Arthur's Nose" was about the titular aardvark not liking his nose and wanting to get plastic surgery to change it, before deciding he's proud of his appearance. This didn't stop author Marc Brown from eventually [[ArtEvolution redesigning him]] so that his nose shrinks to the point where he no [[InformedSpecies longer resembles an aardvark]].

* The first few books the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series have Richard being told that most people who end up doing great evil [[WellIntentionedExtremist honestly believed that they were doing the right thing]], and that unquestioning belief in the rightness of one's cause is the most dangerous thing in the world. Later on in the series, the author takes the opposite position: some things really are [[BlackAndWhiteMorality as simple as black and white]], and if you really are Right, taking [[KnightTemplar extreme measures]] when fighting against those who really are Evil is not only justifiable, but ''necessary''. However, the protagonists end up doing some, well, morally questionable things in the process, to the point where the protagonists can end up looking like [[AccidentalAesop textbook examples of what the first few books warned against becoming]].

** The aesop of "The North Wind and Sun". The true lesson is ''not'' that benevolence (sunshine) is a better way to get along with people than outright hostility (north wind), but that indirect and subtle attacks work usually better than all-out assaults. This is because the sunshine doesn't really work as "benevolence" as it still made the man with the coat uncomfortable, it just did it in a more subtle way than the wind by using gentle manipulation over brute force.

* The children's picture book ''The Elephant and the Bad Baby'' has an Aesop about the importance of being polite. The Elehant has taken the Bad Baby for a ride down the High Street, and asks him if he wants something from each of the shops they pass. The Bad Baby always says "Yes", and the a Elephant then steals it for him. They end up chased by a group of angry shopkeepers until the Elephant suddenly stops and complains that the Bad Baby never said "Please". The shopkeepers are appalled and side with the Elephant against the Bad Baby, even though he was the one stealing from them! So, not saying "Please" is a worse offence than stealing? And babies don't deserve to cut any slack when they forget their manners?

** The aesop of ''Literature/TheTortoiseAndTheHare'' is "slow and steady wins the race". But the hare was winning the vast majority of the race and only lost because he was so far ahead he thought he could stop to rest, not noticing the tortoise caught up until too late. Thus the tortoise only won due to their opponents overconfidence as opposed to the intended reason of going slow and steady.

* ''Literature/ImInLoveWithTheVillainess'': One of the ideas espoused in the light novel is that LGBT people aren't going to [[DepravedHomosexual immediately sexually assault anyone who fits their orientation]]. It's a good, sensible, and important lesson considering Japan's general stance on the LGBT community. But it is slightly undermined by the fact that Rei, the lesbian main character, had just spent the story up to that point acting within that stereotype towards Claire; stalking her, openly lusting after her, aggressively seeking physical contact, etc. While much of this was Rei [[TheGadfly deliberately messing with her]], this doesn't change the fact that Claire is a bit justified in worrying about such behavior, completely irrespective of any prejudice on her part. Rei herself even muses in a previous chapter that her staring at an uncomfortably nude Claire, after blackmailing the latter's father so she could become Claire's personal maid no less, was unmistakably an example of sexual harassment.

* ''Literature/IFavorTheVillainess'': One of the ideas espoused in the light novel is that LGBT people aren't going to [[DepravedHomosexual immediately sexually assault anyone who fits their orientation]]. It's a good, sensible, and important lesson considering Japan's general stance on the LGBT community. But it is slightly undermined by the fact that Rei, the lesbian main character, had just spent the story up to that point acting within that stereotype towards Claire; stalking her, openly lusting after her, aggressively seeking physical contact, etc. While much of this was Rei [[TheGadfly deliberately messing with her]], this doesn't change the fact that Claire is a bit justified in worrying about such behavior, completely irrespective of any prejudice on her part. Rei herself even muses in a previous chapter that her staring at an uncomfortably nude Claire, after blackmailing the latter's father so she could become Claire's personal maid no less, was unmistakably an example of sexual harassment.

** The other Aesop of the book is supposed to be about a woman discovering her sexuality and enjoying it. Completely broken by the fact that Anastasia can only properly admit to herself that she is feeling horny by referring to her Inner Goddess, a mental person of hers who is the epitome of [[SlutShaming a perpetually horny woman]] and she considers sex dirty and disgusting, unless one is absolutely in love with the partner. She often shames people, who have casual sex mentally, including her best friend Kate. Anastasia's discovery of BDSM is not properly done, she is not taught anything, does not understand safe words, and she is actively scared of majority of what BDSM entails. The Aesop is less 'a woman discovers her sexuality and enjoys it' and more 'a woman submits to the old {{lie back and think of England}} trope'.

* ''Literature/IFavorTheVillainess'': One of the ideas espoused in the light novel is that LGBT people aren't going to immediately sexually assault anyone who fits their orientation]]. It's a good, sensible, and important lesson considering Japan's general stance on the LGBT community. But it is slightly undermined by the fact that Rei, the lesbian main character, had just spent the story up to that point acting within that stereotype towards the latter; stalking her, openly lusting after her, aggressively seeking psychical contact, etc. While much of this was Rei [[TheGadfly deliberately messing with her]], this doesn't change the fact that Claire is a bit justified in worrying about such behavior, completely irrespective of any prejudice on her part. Rei herself even muses in a previous chapter that her staring at an uncomfortably nude Claire, after blackmailing the latter's father so she could become Claire's personal maid no less, was unmistakably an example of sexual harassment.

** Compounding this moral is the fact that Drizzt is a dark elf -- a member of a race with a powerful and advanced (if dysfunctional) society, [[EvilIsSexy physically-attractive]] and looking no different from a regular elf bar PaletteSwap, and possessing agelessness, enhanced skill and reflexes, and low-level magic powers. Races like orcs, goblins, and kobolds, which possess none of these things, are shown exactly the same way they are in every other ''D&D'' book ever -- i.e. ugly, murderous, stupid, barbaric cannon fodder, and the few times he does try to extend mercy to them, it's treated as naïveté. It's rather disingenuous to complain about being judged by your appearance and your genes when you're basically a black-painted ubermensch slaughtering the degenerates.

* ''Literature/IFavorTheVillainess'': One of the ideas espoused in the light novel is that LGBT people aren't [[DepravedHomosexual going to immediately]] [[PsychoLesbian sexually assault anyone]] [[DepravedBisexual who fits their orientation]]. It's a good, sensible, and important lesson considering Japan's general stance on the LGBT community. But it is slightly undermined by the fact that Rei, the lesbian main character, had just spent the story up to that point acting within that stereotype towards the latter; stalking her, openly lusting after her, aggressively seeking psychical contact, etc. While much of this was Rei [[TheGadfly deliberately messing with her]], this doesn't change the fact that Claire is a bit justified in worrying about such behavior, completely irrespective of any prejudice on her part. Rei herself even muses in a previous chapter that her staring at an uncomfortably nude Claire, after blackmailing the latter's father so she could become Claire's personal maid no less, was unmistakably an example of sexual harassment.

* ''Literature/IFavorTheVillainess'': One of the ideas espoused in the light novel is that LGBT people aren't [[DepravedHomosexual going to immediately]] [[PsychoLesbian sexually assault anyone]] [[DepravedBisexual who fits their orientation]]. It's a good, sensible, and important lesson considering Japan's general stance on the LGBT community. But it is slightly undermined by the fact that Rei had just spent the story up to that point acting within that stereotype towards the latter; stalking her, openly lusting after her, aggressively seeking psychical contact, etc. While much of this was Rei [[TheGadfly deliberately messing with her]], this doesn't change the fact that Claire is a bit justified in worrying about such behavior, completely irrespective of any prejudice on her part. Rei herself even muses in a previous chapter that her staring at an uncomfortably nude Claire, after blackmailing the latter's father so she could become Claire's personal maid no less, was unmistakably an example of sexual harassment.

* ''Literature/IFavorTheVillainess'': One of the ideas espoused in the light novel is that LGBT people aren't [[DepravedHomosexual going to immediately]] [[PsychoLesbian sexually assault anyone]] [[DepravedBisexual who fits their orientation]]. It's a good, sensible, and important lesson considering Japan's general stance on the LGBT community. But it is slightly undermined by the fact that Rei had just spent the story up to that point acting within that stereotype towards the latter; stalking her, openly lusting after her, aggressively seeking psychical contact, etc. While much of this was Rei [[TheGadfly deliberately messing with her]], this doesn't change the fact that Claire is a bit justified in worrying about such behavior, completely irrespective of any prejudice on her part. Rei herself even muses in a previous chapter that her staring at an uncomfortably nude Claire, after blackmailing the latter's father so she could become Claire's personal maid no less, was unmistakably an example of sexual harassment.

* ''Literature/IFavorTheVillainess'': One of the ideas espoused in the light novel is that LGBT people aren't [[DepravedHomosexual going to immediately]] [[PsychoLesbian sexually assault anyone]] [[DepravedBisexual who fits their orientation]]. Yeah, it's a good, sensible, and important lesson considering Japan's general stance on the LGBT community. But it is undermined by the fact that Rei had just spent the story up to that point acting within that stereotype towards the latter; stalking her, openly lusting after her, aggressively seeking psychical contact, etc. While much of this was Rei [[TheGadfly deliberately messing with her]], this doesn't change the fact that Claire is a bit justified in worrying about such behavior, completely irrespective of any prejudice on her part.