History Literature / TheGrasshopperAndTheAnts

* AnAesop: Naturally, there's a moral taught at the end, but remarkably, this story's Aesop changes quite dramatically depending on who's telling it.
** In the original ending, the message is that lazy people deserve to starve. The ants repeatedly warned the grasshopper that he'd run out of food in winter if he wasted his time on song and dance, and end up laughing at his plight when he begs them for food.
** Nowadays, most schools usually go for a less morbid ending where the grasshopper is spared, which adds an extra moral about showing compassion to those who need it.
** The Disney version's ending, where the ants demand the grasshopper earn his keep through song, implies the aesop "Art is work too."
** Villefranche's version stresses the importance of mercy; the ants had an obligation to take the grasshopper in if he deserved it or not. Because they skirted that obligation, they nearly shared his fate.

* WinterOfStarvation: In the winter, the Ants are drying their corn and the Grasshopper asks them for a few grains because he is very hungry. They ask why he didn't put away food during the summer, and he answers that she was so busy singing that he didn't have time. To that, they say, "[[NoSympathy If you spent the summer singing, you better spend the winter dancing.]]"

** The Disney version's ending implies the aesop "Art is work too."

* AnAesop: Naturally. But remarkably, this story's Aesop changes quite dramatically depending on the ending. Most schools usually go for an ending where the grasshopper is spared due to wanting to teach a lesson about compassion. Plus you know, the original is pretty morbid.

** The ants suffer this in the Villefranche version where they suffer a role reversal due to a snowstorm taking their own supplies from them. They are made to beg to the bees the same way the grasshopper had them, and are only let in after they repent their selfishness from before.

* The often utilised ending has the ants, satisfied the Grasshopper is repentant, take pity on him and bring him into the hill. He plays for them, and while the Grasshopper learns a lesson about hard work and responsibility, the Ants learn to have fun and loosen up, because neither extreme is healthy.

* A notable third ending, written by Jacques-Melchior Villefranche, has the ants turning the Grasshopper away, but shortly after his departure the anthill is wiped out in a freak snowstorm. Now homeless and desperate, the ants beg shelter of their neighbors, the Honeybees. The queen of the honeybees at first [[IronicEcho repeats to them their own heartless words to the Grasshopper,]] and then lets them into the hive, where the Grasshopper is already providing music and being sheltered. The lesson here is the same as the first ending, with the added twist that the best laid plans can be wrecked by chance, so have compassion on others - you'd want the same for yourself.

* AnAesop: Naturally. But remarkably, this story's Aesop changes quite dramatically depending on the ending. Most schools usually go for the first or third ending due to wanting to teach a lesson about compassion. Plus you know, the second is pretty morbid.

* NoSympathy: The Ants in the ending they offer no help for the Grasshopper. These days it is often seen as apathetic to leave some schmuck to die on principle he was lazy and unprepared.

** Villefranche's ending has the bees repeat the ants' harsh words to grasshopper after they ask for charity. After the ants show remorse however, the bees are satisfied and let them in.

The tale was the inspiration for the film ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'', and also inspired a ''WesternAnimation/SillySymphonies'' from Disney.

"The Grasshopper and the Ants" is a famous [[Literature/AesopsFables Aesop's Fable]], whose allegorical stars are the high-living, fancy-free Grasshopper (sometimes called the Cicada) and the solid, industrious Ants of the anthill.

* {{Disneyfication}}: Many modern adaptations prefer the outcome of the ants taking pity on the Grasshopper and offering him shelter for the one winter, but with the stern warning to work for his living from now on. In some others, the Grasshopper suffers the winter, but lives to learn from his mistakes and prepares for next winter.

* AdaptationalSpeciesChange: Depending on the country the story is told, it's either a Grasshopper or a Cicada.

* DubInducedPlotHole: In the Ivan Krylov Russian version mentioned above, instead of a grasshopper or a cicada, a dragonfly is used - an insect that not only is [[DreadfulDragonfly a ferocious predator]] that could hardly be accused of any laziness (unlike its more commonly used counterparts, which are placid herbivores), but also does not "sing".

** Creator/StewartLee tells a version called ''The Ant and The Man''. Here, the ant works hard all summer and then dies in the winter anyway because [[RealityEnsues it's an ant]]. Ants have very short lifespans.

* LaserGuidedKarma: The ending involving the bees has the ants have their home destroyed and get rejected of living with the bees because of their prior rejection of the grasshopper. Adding even further karma, the grasshopper they had kicked out? He's chilling just fine with the bees.
* MeaningfulEcho: In the ''Silly Symphonies'' short, the Grasshopper sings the song "The World Owes Us A Living" (a theme later used for WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}}), which reflects his laidback lifestyle. Once he's allowed to stay with the ants in exchange for entertaining them, he changes his tune (most of his lyrics, actually) to "I Owe The World A Living", which now reflects his resolution to work hard.

** ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' had a darker deconstruction. The film's Grasshoppers just mug the ants for their food every winter. The story revolves around the ants mustering an army to stand up to them. However at the end, one of the Grasshoppers, Molt, leaves his former life of decadence to work in the circus as a strongman, because anybody is capable of change.