What is the theme/purpose of a fable?

The ultimate
purpose of ais to teach the reader a lesson or moral.  Fables often useto get across or point
out flaws in man or human experiences.  Many fables rely on animals to tell their stories, and
those animals usually symbolize a human characteristic or trait the author wants to criticize
for the purposes of teaching a moral.  Famous fables include Aesops Fables and the Uncle
Remus/Brer Rabbit series of stories by Joel Chandler Harris.  For example, in one of the famous
Brer Rabbit stories, Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, Brer Rabbit comes across a doll made by
Brer Fox on the road one day.  When Brer Rabbit talks to it, it doesnt answer.  Brer Rabbit
beats up the doll for its lack of manners and gets stuck to the tar the doll is coated in.  Its
a trap Brer Fox has set to catch Brer Rabbit.  Brer Rabbit pleads to Brer Fox to kill him by
throwing him in the briar patch, and Brer Fox agrees.  Little does Brer Fox know that the briar
patch is the place Brer Rabbit was born and lives.  Brer Rabbit survives being killed by Brer
Fox by trickery because Brer Fox cant chase him through the briar patch full of
thorns.

In Chandlers trickster stories about Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit,
Brer Rabbit represents a weak slave from the South who is able to out trick his master by
playing on the masters ignorance.  It is a story with origins in Africa, and they chronicle
lessons on how to survive in life.  It is also a story about how even the weakest can out
maneuver and manipulate those stronger through trickery. 

Almost all fables
are written to provide a moral lesson to the reader.  Usually written for children, they teach
about life through the use of animals who symbolically represent human traits and
flaws.