Week 13 Reading A: English Tales Part B

A lot of stories from the past talk a lot about trickery. Like the story Johnny-Cake was a version of the gingerbread man. I have never read the gingerbread story myself but I feel like this wasn't like the original at all. In this story a family was making a cake and while the cake was baking the mother and father left the house and told their son to watch over the cake. They said to make sure not to open the oven until it was done. The son couldn't wait and opened it up a little bit then the cake escaped while mocking the sun. He ran out the house and taunted the parents saying they could not catch him. He then ran by two well diggers and mocked them too saying they could not catch him either. Then he ran by a wolf and said the same thing. He then went to a bear and said he could not catch him and eventually the bear became too tired then just rested the night. The last thing he taunted was a fox and said that he could not catch him but the fox said he could not hear him so the cake stopped and yelled back at him. The fox said again that he could not hear him and the cake came even closer. The fox did it one more time and as soon as the cake came near enough he ate him right away. I think these old stories are mostly about teaching lessons. The cake was very confident in himself and thought he would never get caught until he spotted the fox. The fox used his head to trick the cake into stopping and coming back because he knew the cake was too cocky not to come back. I think this story is basically saying do not be too sure of yourself and use your brain.

Gingerbread Man, Source


English Fairy Tales

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