roots "that touched the empire of the dead" made the oak think it was better than the reed in le chêne et le roseau.
roots "that touched the empire of the dead" made the oak think it was better than the reed in le chêne et le roseau.
what makes the oak think it is better than the reed in le chêne et le roseau?
roots "that touched the empire of the dead"
interpretations of the fable began to change after the more nuanced retelling in la fontaine's fables, "le chêne et le roseau" (i.22). here the oak has compassion on the reed's fragility and offers it protection, to which the reed politely replies that it has its own strategy for survival, 'i bend and do not break'. this is then put to the test when a storm breaks and brings the oak's 'head that was neighbour to the sky' on a level with the roots 'that touched the empire of the dead'. written in the autocratic time of louis xiv of france, this was so successfully achieved that it appeared to teach the value of humility at the same time as suggesting that rulers may not be as powerful as they think themselves. so current did that sly interpretation become that achille etna michallon's later painting of "the oak and the reed", now in the fitzwilliam museum (1816, see left), could easily be seen as a reference to the recent fall of the emperor napoleon i.
the oak and the reed
one reference to reeds in european literature is frenchman blaise pascal's saying that man is but a 'thinking reed' — "roseau pensant". in jean de la fontaine's famous fable "the oak and the reed" — "le chêne et le roseau", the reed tells the proud oak: "i bend, and break not" —""je plie, et ne romps pas"", "before the tree's fall."









































section::::see also.









































bullet::::- constructed wetland









































bullet::::- deben estuary









































bullet::::- phytoremediation









































bullet::::- reed bed









































bullet::::- reed boat









































bullet::::- reed fields









































bullet::::- reed mat









































section::::external links.









































bullet::::- the great lakes phragmites collaborative
phragmites