What is the moral of The North Wind and the Sun?

Persuasion is better than force. The wind's cold blasts only make the traveler hold his cloak tighter, while the Sun's gentle warmth makes him take it off by choice.

Who wrote The North Wind and the Sun?

It is one of Aesop's Fables, traditionally credited to Aesop, a storyteller said to have lived in ancient Greece around the sixth century BCE. Jean de La Fontaine later retold it in French; this version is a VoiceSmiths retelling.

What age is The North Wind and the Sun for?

It suits children from about 4 to 9. Younger children enjoy the huffing wind and the hat blowing away, and older children can discuss why kindness worked when force did not.

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Fable · 声匠改编 · 3:33

The North Wind and the Sun

The boastful North Wind and the gentle Sun bet on who can make a traveler take off his cloak. Aesop's fable of why warmth wins where force fails, retold.

Narrator

The North Wind

The Sun

Little Cloud

The Traveler

0:000:00

Other languages · 2 languages

🇨🇳 中文 🇺🇸 English

About this story

The North Wind and the Sun is one of Aesop's Fables, the short moral tales handed down from ancient Greece, and it is so familiar that phoneticians use it as a standard passage for recording the sounds of the world's languages. This VoiceSmiths retelling adds a chatty little cloud as the referee and a grumbling traveler on the road below, so the contest plays out as a full-cast audio story.

What it teaches

Gentleness and persuasion often succeed where force and bullying fail. You cannot make someone do something by pushing harder, but you can make them want to.

Suits

Ages 4–9

Tips for telling it

Let children be the wind and the sun: blow hard, then glow warmly, and see which one makes a grown-up take off a scarf.
Ask why the traveler held on tighter the harder the wind blew.
Talk about a time when asking kindly worked better than shouting or grabbing.

Questions people ask

What is the moral of The North Wind and the Sun?: Persuasion is better than force. The wind's cold blasts only make the traveler hold his cloak tighter, while the Sun's gentle warmth makes him take it off by choice.
Who wrote The North Wind and the Sun?: It is one of Aesop's Fables, traditionally credited to Aesop, a storyteller said to have lived in ancient Greece around the sixth century BCE. Jean de La Fontaine later retold it in French; this version is a VoiceSmiths retelling.
What age is The North Wind and the Sun for?: It suits children from about 4 to 9. Younger children enjoy the huffing wind and the hat blowing away, and older children can discuss why kindness worked when force did not.

Theater

🇺🇸🇨🇳🇯🇵🇰🇷🇪🇸🇧🇷🇮🇩7 languagesShort drama3:36

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