Reflective Essay - The Deer & the Kudzu

I will be describing my trial and error process while translating my academic article about

the invasive vine species, kudzu, into the literary genre of a children’s fable. At the beginning of

my endeavors, I realized I set myself up for a challenge attempting to convert my academic piece

into a concise, creative story. I had a hard time deciding how I wanted to include the research of

my original article, as much of it included academic jargon unsuitable for a creative genre and

unintelligible for my primary audience. Writing a fable, I had to constantly view my story from a

child’s comprehension level. To write a compelling story within this genre, I quickly abandoned

many academic conventions that would not appeal to a fable, such as its structure, formal tone,

and all research statistics. Although this genre limited my depth of analysis of my original

article, I could convey the invasive nature of the kudzu through my writing. Straying from

common academic conventions, I adopted the conventions of my new literary genre. A fable is

generally a simple creative story that features a conflict between personified talking animal

characters to leave the reader with a timeless moral. Timeless, meaning, the knowledge gained

from the moral is applicable and understood by many people despite differences in age, gender,

bias, background, and, of course, time period.

Analyzing Navigating Genres, I carefully read Kelly Dirk’s insight into the functions that

certain genres fulfill. After offering different examples of writing within the specific limits of

genres, I had a clearer sense of how to frame my work. My genre’s overarching function is to use

a story to pre-face, symbolize, or allude to a simple, assertive life lesson. With total creative

reign over my own story and moral, I decided to use my topic of research as a talking character,

highlighting the kudzu’s extreme growth rate, dense leaf coverage, and climbing vine

characteristics. In my brainstorming process, my first instinct was to use the kudzu to personify
greed, using relevant research from my original article to inform my description. Based on this

one idea, I was able to develop my life lesson. With such an invasive plant, I thought it would be

interesting to contrast greed with generosity, specifically greed exploiting generosity. I struggled

with formulating this convention, getting in my head about how to properly transfer my original

article’s message into this translation. Once again, I decided to abandon the writing conventions

of an academic paper and had to conform to the fable genre. I concluded that the kudzu would

symbolize greed, gluttony, and selfishness, contrasted to the gentle, kind, and generous

personality I would give my second character to add depth to the plot and create the structure.

Another key convention of the fable genre is a conversation, cooperating with the

descriptors to emphasize the chosen traits of my characters. The structure of a fable is a

conflict-resolution plot line that utilizes conversation to de-escalate or solve the problem. My

next steps were to come up with a second character to accompany the kudzu and a storyline

premise. Fables usually take on quite a simple setting, most notably in the countryside, sparing

detail for when it matters most. I strayed away from the limits of this convention because I

wanted to emphasize the insatiable nature of the kudzu plant. I chose to describe a serene

meadow, buzzing with life, and home to my second character, the Deer. I thought the Deer would

be the best forest creature to symbolize my character traits, building upon its preexisting sweet,

docile association with humans.

Every rhetorical choice I made built upon each other to accomplish my goal of creating

an allegory. The function of my story is to convey the final message using memorable, creative

imagery, in my writing and pictures, to solidify understanding among the broad, yet usually

younger, audience. A fable’s message is alluded to within the text or stated clearly after the

resolution. I chose the latter. “Set boundaries. Do not let others take advantage of your
generosity.” I presented this moral through my fairytale-like setting, describing the turn of events

after a young mother deer welcomes an inconspicuous kudzu pod into her home. The conflict

they encounter works to bring out the worst in the kudzu’s personification, further enhanced by

the contrast of the deer’s kind nature. These characters engage in conversation that brings out

their personalities, attempting to set the stage and give meaning to the moral. As mentioned

before, imagery is another important convention of the fable genre. Even in my own experience,

when I was a child I did not want to read a book if it didn’t have pictures in it. Although I have

moved past this phase, thinking from the audience’s perspective gave me insight into how to best

attend to my audience’s needs. Aside from my thoughts, I learned more about writing for my

audience when reading Laura Carroll’s Backpacks vs. Briefcases article. She discussed the

constraints of rhetorical situations, stating, “Audience can determine the type of language used,

the formality of the discourse, the medium or delivery of rhetoric, and even the types of reasons

used that make the rhetor’s argument” (Carroll 49). This resonated with my work because my

audience was swaying most of these rhetorical decisions. I had to constrain my language,

constrain my tone, constraint my description, and constrain the length, among others, to entice

my audience.

Continuing to consider my audience in the visual aspect of my genre, I first chose a

picture of a mother deer and her young fawn drinking from a waterhole, utilizing this breathing

moment’s beauty to set the scene and spark imagination among young viewers. This picture

inspired me when writing this story. I found clipart plants and vines to set the scene. I stumbled

upon an image of a baby deer sitting down. I thought it was perfect for a simple cover picture,

surrounded by plants on all borders. I made my best attempt at creating an inviting design to

appeal to my audience. The translation of my research paper was a challenge as I had complete
control of what my story could be, and where it was going. I abandoned most academic

conventions, instead, conforming to the fable genre and accepting the constraints of my

audience. I worked to hold my audience’s attention with a fascinating story that leaves them with

a memorable piece of advice. The function of my creative writing was to serve the purpose of the

literary genre. The allegory I created conveyed the essence of my genre, conformed to its

conventions, and incorporated aspects of my original article.

Work Cited

● “A List of the Fables.” Library of Congress Aesop Fables, read.gov/aesop/001.html.

Accessed 16 Mar. 2024.

● Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis - Laura Bolin Carroll

● “A List of the Fables.” Library of Congress Aesop Fables, read.gov/aesop/001.html.

Accessed 4 Feb. 2024.

● CANVA: Visual Suite for Everyone, www.canva.com/. Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.

● Charlton, Colin. Writing Spaces. Volume 1 : Readings on Writing. Edited by Charles

Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, Parlor Press, 2010.

● “The Story behind Kudzu, the Vine That’s Still Eating the South: Vines, Nature, Invasive

Plants.” Pinterest, 4 Oct. 2015, www.pinterest.com/pin/7177680634031377/.

● “Water Reflections Two Baby Deer Stock Photo 230316796.” Shutterstock,

www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/water-reflections-two-baby-deer-230316796.

Accessed 5 Feb. 2024.