Why I Hate "The Rainbow Fish" Story

  
 The Rainbow Fish is a popular children's picture book published in 1992. In it, the titular fish finds himself alone after he refuses to give out his special rainbow scales to the other fishes. He learns from a wise octopus that he must give away his rainbow scales to have friends. He gives out all of them but one. The moral of the story: you will be happier after giving something to others. 

 Now, this story's moral is BOTCHED as hell. The other fish only like rainbow fish because they gave him some of his scales. But if your friends only like you because you give them things, then chances are they aren't very good friends. 

 Also, the analogy of the rainbow fish's scales being like people's possessions falls apart when you realize that the rainbow fish's scales are a part of their body, and cannot grow back. The other fish asking him for his scales, is like if you had beautiful flowing hair, and some stranger walked up to you and asked if they could tear a clump of it off your scalp so they could attach to their own hair. If that happened to you, you would probably tell them to get lost too (and maybe file a restraining order against them just in case).

 My father ditched the possession analogy, and instead compared the story to a rich person giving out their wealth to the poor. The "poor people" want money so that they can survive, and are thus mad at the "rich person" refusing to give them money. The thing is, the rainbow fishes scales don't serve any of the key applications that money does, which leads to the analogy falling apart.

 So, if this story failed to promote it's moral of sharing, then how would I make a story which teaches children to share? Well find that out on my next blog, which will probably be in 2023 considering how inconsistent this blog's upload schedule is.