Even though creepy, this piece speaks to me due to its paint style and its classic facial expression. I

11.8.11

ELA 11

TMZ:Fairly Tale Edition

     From Jack and Jill to Mother Goose: from Little Red Riding Hood to The Three Little Pigs, fairy tales have played an important role in our life since our childhood. And since we grow old and start to mature, so does our understanding on the story’s meanings. As I’ve learned in English class for the past three weeks, every story has a hidden meaning due to constant changes and child proofers. Tonight I’ll be unraveling one of the most famous fairy tales in the world: Jack and the Beanstalk.

     The story is about a widowed mother and her son, Jack living on their wits end, so as a final choice they decided to sell their only cow. Along the way, Jack meets a lowly old man on the side of the road and says he’s got something special for the boy:  puny “magic” beans that’ll make all his dreams come true. Jack unwittingly sells the cow and returns with the beans to present to his mother. She scolds him and sends him to his room without supper, but the next day a giant beanstalk grows in the garden right where the beans where tossed. Surprised and frightened, he climbs the beanstalk from his house and into the high clouds in which lays a giant castle filled with unlimited gold and jewels. The catch is a mean old angry giant lurks inside with his golden goose and magic harp. In the end, Jack grabs them both and hits the gas out of there with the giant right on his tail. He gets down and chops down the beanstalk killing the giant, living happily ever after.

To root back to ancient writings, the beanstalk in biblical times is known as Jacob’s ladder reaching into heaven. The same goes for South American tribes, Celts and norse legends, putting their own twist on the “mystical tree” and other religious stories. http://john-k-davis.suite101.com/origins-of-the-jack-and-the-beanstalk-story-a125120.

The Original Beanstalk: Jacob’s Ladder

Second of all, the moral of this story is if you sell your cow you’ll get a bagful of beans, esacpe with riches that’ll serve you for life. In the future they’re known as pop-ups, junk mail and the fine prints you don’t see on a credit card. In other words, you just got screwed big time. But the childish moral is don’t get sidetracked from your goal or aim to high ,or you’ll be stepped by giants.

In the old stories, Jack has a huge transformation from our understanding of the new version, or should I say pedicure? Yes, it’s a known fact that the same character was a whole lot feminine due to his weaker male side if you get dig deeper in the story. And the original title for the story was “Jack the Giant Killer”. I can see how he used his feminine charms to lure giants to their doom.

Before you read your child a bedtime story in the near future, expect a rude awakening when your kid says, “did that really happen or was it just a cover up?” Oh snap, looks like you have some explaining to do!!!

Works Cited

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/jackbeanstalk/history.html