This is the blog -- the electronic home -- for Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition for the class of two-thousand eleven at Gloucester (MA) High School.
The Little Peasant http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm061.html
The above is the story/background/context for Ann Sexton’s poem about The Little Peasant. To my fellow brothers (teammates) beware reading this story because by they end you will be pissed beyond beyond frustrated mostly if not all at the little peasant. First of all the story makes no sense at all not because its confusing and you can’t follow it, it is because the reasoning behind the story and the actions of the characters is at first seems completely absent. The ending I just have to say is frustrating to say the least, “Then the entire village was dead, and the little peasant, as the only heir, became a rich man.” I mean come on! Everyone dies and he becomes rich. Now there is reasoning but at first read the first impulse comes from emotion an emotion that disagrees with what happens. But you can find that the little peasant could have led the villagers to their death for revenge, a revenge from when the villagers tried to trick him and kill him. This revenge possibly leading to a greed/power that led to becoming rich which I found unjust and most unsatisfying. Revenge shouldn’t be rewarded with money and mass murder but thats just me. Did you guys feel this unsatisfying feeling as well referring to the conclusion of this fairy tale? Any ways as far as things not making reasonable sense, I actually liked this, I found that creative although very weird. It feels not to make sense because a lot of this story is not normal and has weird things in it, but I like it, its creative, artsy, but did I mention weird. For example, “the cabinetmaker should make us a calf out of wood and paint it brown so that it looks like any other calf” now why are they painting a wooden calf? your understanding of that is as good as mine but in the story it fits. With out that the story can not begin so it does not matter that its ridiculously weird and out of the norm, what really represents is the peasants ambition and his wants and needs. Now I think this all falls under the category of fairy tale requirements such as their being very abnormal occurrences in the story such as the prophecy of “cake under the bed." This story ends up telling a clear story but not necessarily a realistic one. But because of the story I felt I had to respond as if it was true, it happened, and it existed in reality just as I do. That all being said how did you guys respond to The Little Peasant story and his actions? Did you sense an unrealistic feeling and abnormal occurrences? And did you find yourself reacting with emotion as if the story should be more like the perfect world that you have created in your mind that has been formed from the reality from our world? Or more importantly and less confusingly, did you agree or disagree with the story?
The Little Peasant filled me with mixed emotions. Firstly, the way the story is written and the manner in which connections are made within it are genious. No words are wasted, and one ridiculous scenario feeds another. I was anxious to read the actual story after reading Mac’s post, because it sounded like an interesting and rather unknown tale. A B-side fairy tale if you will. The scheme by the peasant in the beginning with the calf is hilarious, but sets up the rest of the story by introducing the little peasant as a smart and inventive mastermind who ALWAYS is lucky enough to get his way. Literally, everything that could have gone wrong for the him seemed to work itself out for the best. The fact of the matter is, the Brothers Grimm invented a character I cannot help but like and hate at the same time. None of the events are plausible, and it brings to mind all of the times when I got in trouble as a kid, all the times I got screwed over and wasn’t able to find a way out of it. The Little Peasant life is every child’s dream. Hmmm, well I was just sentenced to death by barrel…but wait! The priest I saved earlier in the miller’s home is conveniently right here to help me get away. Hmmm, well who am I going to put in the barrel instead of me so that I can fool the oblivious villagers?...oh hey! Here’s the shepherd who always wanted to be mayor; if I tell him that he will become mayor if he climbs into the barrel, I will escape! Because that happens to all of us right? Always in the right place at the right time? Wrong. It never happens to anybody. Still, this is where my hate for him starts to emerge. The man is, quite simply, a snitch. The word is thrown around our school like the plague and I hate it with a passion, but in this case it fits perfectly. To put it in Gloucester High School terms, he snitches for cows, sheep, cake, and his life. For this, I despise the character. But what I cannot seem to get over is his cunning and clever approach to every situation. The Raven, for instance, was a crazy idea, but so crazy and inventive that it worked perfectly. Who would come up with that? What kind of crazy German hallucinogens were the Grimm brothers on to come up with some of this? I hope I provided helpful insight for you fellas, I look forward to your next posts!
You guys are talking about the ludicrousness of “The Little Peasant”. I agree that it’s a weird tale; they decide to construct a wooden calf, then completely drop the idea when they lose it... random? The story begins with the peasant portrayed as a victim, and I feel for him, but by the end I hate him! The agonizing thing is that the tale seems to want the reader to admire the peasant, as the smart, sly underdog that goes from rags to riches while all who were unkind to him experience tragedy. This is all okay until you analyze how he achieved this transformation: he conned, stole, and murdered. Is that the good guy? Well, at the end of the day, he wins; he kills an innocent man to escape his own death, and then kills off the rest of the town and hoards their money. Most of the other Grimm’s tales have a similar structure. They are all crazy, but that’s what a fairy tale is meant to be. Sexton addresses this in her version of “The Golden Key” (a particularly weird but cool fairy tale), saying that fairy tales are necessary to adults, providing an abstract way of thinking, contradictory to our “linear thought process”. Secondly, all of the tales seem to get repetitive at times and reward the wronged and mercilessly tear apart any who has ever wronged them. The only tale that I’ve come across that gives the “villains” a second chance is “One-Eye Two-Eyes Three-Eyes”. For most of these tales, with the exception of “The Little Peasant” and “The Wonderful Musician”, I agree with the portrayal of the good guy and the bad guy. It’s funny. In Sexton’s version of each of these stories, she portrays as the Grimms did, with the peasant and the hunter being “good”, but I do detect some sarcasm in these particular poems. I guess we’ll talk more about that later. I guess I’ll digress back to “The Little Peasant”, except, since you guys have pretty much covered the story, I’ll talk about the poem. As you know, the poem focuses just on the peasant’s experience at the miller’s house. Obviously much of the poem is sexual, the scene is, after all, focused on a wife cheating on her husband. Something that I noticed right away was how many sexual references and food references Sexton used. She combined the two; food is basically synonymous with sex in this poem. Before reading the poem, you know that the wife and parson are having a fabulous dinner. It’s also important to note the peasant’s cheese and bread and compare it to their food, their dinner has much higher quality than his. This is where the themes of greed and possession begin to play a role. He owns the raven. “Come little fellow, your a part of my booty”, and at the end, “gold pieces knocking like marbles in his deep pants pocket. Krr. Krr.” as we know “krr” is the raven’s noise. It represents the raven and we get a sense that it is within his pocket as well. This is kind of what I mean about the slight negativity Sexton injects into the peasant. She sort of glorifies him like the tale does by exposing the wife’s cheating, but she exposes a trace of greed. This greed is what kills the entire village in the original tale. Wow, there’s so much more to discuss in this poem, but I have to go. I’ll revisit this. If you guys can, think about the meaning of the constant repetition of Krr. Krr., the wife’s smug smile upon not being discovered, possibly the miller’s cluelessness, and there’s more to be discussed about the connection of food and sex/desire.
First off to answer Josiah’s question, You already answered your own question, there German, no need for hallucinogens. They are trying to “include stories of kings, magic, and talking animals. Even though the stories are sometimes scary, fairy tales allow us to work through our fears. They often teach us a lesson about moral values, and right and wrong.” http://www.grimmfairytales.com/en/bio And I liked how Edan summarized above as talking about the ludicrousness of “The Little Peasant”. He reinforced the idea I mentioned before that these are fairy tales and should be expected to be out of the ordinary and also that we can see this similar structure in her other poems.
The Little Peasant by Anne Sexton focused on the middle of the tale and gives a much more sexual feeling to the overall meaning of the story by doing this, but in the end I think shows the ultimate greed that directs this fairy tale. As Edan mentioned, it talks about a lot of food referring to sex, “Lick me clean/ as clean as an almond.” and that this scene that Sexton dives into is Miller’s wife cheating on him. So yes there is much “more to be discussed about the connection of food and sex/desire.” Food is a persons need but also a persons desire, craving, and pleasure. Sexton fills this poem describing the desire but also under the ideas of possession and greed. Food a possession and a husband a possession, the better, the more desiree, the more pleasure. Then we have greed the idea of want over need, and it is the wife wanting more than her husband and the peasant wanting more money/power and the idea of eating more than is needed. The meaning of Krr. Krr. must be something to do with greed again, an above knowledge, or a arrogance from beheld information, or basically taking advantage of those that can’t defend themselves or don’t know any better. The peasant sees Miller’s cluelessness and uses this to gain money and a way out on top. In the story we see this greed at the end, but in this poem we see that in a smaller, narrower, and less obvious version. She ends with it being “Krr. Krr.” making the meaning, the statement about greed and desire. That the peasant got away with sin and ended up with gold and the Krr. is like a snicker or a evil laugh from a distance that says “I have tricked you all!”
Below a quotation for The Golden Key by Grimm Brothers:
“In the winter time, when deep snow lay on the ground, a poor boy was forced to go out on a sledge to fetch wood. When he had gathered it together, and packed it, he wished, as he was so frozen with cold, not to go home at once, but to light a fire and warm himself a little.” (Grimm Brothers, The Golden Key) This is the beginning of the story which sets up the boy’s character who is filled with ambition, discovery, and temptation. The boy is poor and under conditions of winter, death, cold, depression and darkness. He wants to build a fire to create, light, warmth, happiness, life into his body and the ability to work. The most significant thing about this passage is that the boy does not want to go home but wants to stay and find a way to allow himself and keep working. He only wants to heat the cold enough to carry on with his involuntary actions. Although he was put there involuntarily he basically volunteers himself to keep in the harsh conditions when most might give up and go back home. He wishes to seek a way to unable himself to go on or to invent a way to make his task easier. This is showing the characters ambition to possibly discover and invent which is later on in the story followed through with.
*I’m sorry but this was a lame story, some boy finds a key turns the key and then they don’t tell us what happens. Again I find myself frustrated with The Grimm Brothers. What about you brothers? Did you find this to be a very blahhh fairy tale? Am I missing something because for such a short story I thought there would be something powerful in it, but I was left disappointed.
Below a quotation for The Gold Key by Anne Sexton:
“we must have the answers. The boy has found a gold key and he is looking for what it will open… Presto! It opens this book of odd tales which transform the Brothers Grimm. Transform? As if an enlarged paper clip could be a piece of sculpture. (And it could.)” (Sexton, 2 The Gold Key) This is Anne Sextons delicious introduction which I think she boldly tells to her readers, “I have the answers to the Grimm Fairy Tales”. This story is being told by her and she is using this story to introduce a bigger idea, the idea that has her poems answer the tales left by the Grimm Brothers to show a much different story. She shows this by using the golden key as the answer or a tool to reveal the answers. The key opens the the book which shows a transformation of the tales. possibly transforming them in a way that is less like a plain question and answer and more of an abstract piece of art. She might be making fun of the Golden Key tale by the Grimm Brothers which is very strait forward and a story that is reasonably and realistically laid out that you are far from surprised at the next event. Sexton says, “Upon finding a nickel he would look for a wallet… Upon finding a string he would look for a harp.” showing the boys attempt to find the answer is so normal, so obvious. She uses this story to show how she transforms the old tales into something new, something unordinary. Sexton says,“an enlarged paper clip could be a piece of sculpture. (And it could.)” probably meaning that she would not have the boy look for a large stack of paper but instead has transformed something ordinary, something plain, into art, something extraordinary.
*Now this was much more interesting! Turns the blahh into yahhh! Did you guys like this introduction to her transformations as much as I did? And did I miss anything or did you find that she used The Golden Key tale in a different way then what I said? I find that powerfully at the end she states that this is not a book of boring, normal, ordinary, little fairy tales but that she has transformed them and is revealing them to us as art. I love it! She is introducing her work to us as a conclusion of her overall work. The reader can also see the significant change in the story and style in Sexton’s writing. In the beginning most of her version of this tale is her herself telling a story to people and she finally gets to the actual tale when she makes the statement about the rest of her transformations.
You know what’s funny, I was thinking about this whole food theme in “The Little Peasant”, the poem, and I can’t believe that none of us thought of this: what about “Hansel and Gretel”? Obviously there’s a bunch of food references in there, I mean, Sexton had to, the stories about 2 kids that come across an edible house! So I compare these 2 poems and it’s kind of interesting: she uses these food references in a completely different way than in “The Little Peasant”. Rather than paralleling them with sex and desire, she uses them to enhance (for me anyways) a creepiness factor. I mean, most of these references are used to describe people, rather than actions in “The Little Peasant”. “I want to bite,/ I want to chew,/ I want to eat you up./ Little child,/ little nubkin,/ sweet as fudge”. She describes people as being “tasty”, I think it’s obvious how this relates to the original tale, but it definitely unsettles me. Mac, now that I think about it, this would have been a perfect poem for the Virginia essay had I read this earlier. Oh well. Anyways, still on food. Most of her food references are meat, something that was once living “mutton, lamb chops, ect.” The meat metaphors gradually shift into cannibalism at the very end. “The smell of the cooking witch,/ a little like mutton,/ to be served only with burgundy/ and fine white linen/ like something religious.” The idea of a witch being cooked and mused about as a dish is grotesque. The last word, “religious” does a lot for me, I’m not sure what, it might just be that creepy factor. Maybe you guys can help me out. What does she achieve besides creepiness by comparing boiling blood to Coca Cola and a neck to a hard boiled egg?
Mac, good analysis of “The Golden Key”! However, I do disagree a bit on your take of the original. I think that it is a beautifully simple story, an extreme outlier from the other Grimm tales. The ending, to me, is awesome: there isn’t really any. The story can’t help but encourage the reader to use his/her imagination. It’s the perfect story for Sexton to open up her book with. I don’t think that she’s making fun of it. Out of all the Grimm tales, this was my favorite, and one of my favorites of all of Sexton’s poems. I do think that she makes fun of a lot of their other tales, but not this one. What you said, she begins by reading to an audience of adults, all who seem distant from childhood, and she treats them like children, as if they were in a nursery. She introduces the reader to her style right away, from her perspective, focusing on an external idea and then scoping in to a fairy tale, in a style that reinforces the ideas that she planted at the beginning of the poem. She introduces herself as a “middle-aged witch”, like she herself is estranged from childhood. Like this boy, we want answers, and forcibly grip anything that may lead us to them. Like this boy, we also have a linear way of thinking (if we find a key, we look for a chest, a dime a wallet, ect.) Well the Grimm fairy tales are far from linear, and I think that she thinks that this is refreshing. An abstract way of thinking can be beneficial. Mac, you’re right. Sexton is transforming the Brothers Grimm Tales into something new. Presto!, and their like art. They can carry new meaning, meaning that may have not been present in the original tales but pertains to our society. These works of art are her personal pieces, she shares personal memoirs, but she is sharing them. The ending, like the original is a bit open-ended, “As if an enlarged paper clip/ could be a piece of sculpture./ (And it could.)” She has created this art, but we as readers, are free to interpret as whatever our imaginations detect. We may detect things that she intended, or accidentally invent a meaning that she had even Sexton had never considered.
“The Little Peasant” was a good starting point. There are many themes in here that are present in most other tales. One that we briefly touched on was greed. We mentioned the different types of greed between the peasant and the miller’s wife; how the wife’s was obvious, but the peasant’s was a bit more discreet. Another fairy tale/poem combo that I really enjoyed was “Godfather Death”. Basically, the tale is about a man that chooses death to be the godfather of his 13th child. Death gives the boy the ability to be the world’s greatest doctor, which leads to many riches, but there is one catch: if the boy sees death standing at the body’s head, he must allow death to claim it. I’m not going to waste my time sharing the entire story, but basically what happens is that the boy’s greed ends up killing him. When I first read the tale, I liked the part where the father chose death over god and the devil because
“ “I am God." "Then I do not wish to have you for a godfather," said the man. "You give to the rich, and let the poor starve." Thus spoke the man, for he did not know how wisely God divides out wealth and poverty. Then he turned away from the Lord, and went on his way. Then the devil came to him and said, "What are you looking for? If you will take me as your child's godfather, I will give him an abundance of gold and all the joys of the world as well." The man asked, "Who are you?" "I am the devil." "Then I do not wish to have you for a godfather," said the man. You deceive mankind and lead them astray." He went on his way, and then Death, on his withered legs, came walking toward him, and said, "Take me as your child's godfather." The man asked, "Who are you?" "I am Death, who makes everyone equal." Then the man said, "You are the right one. You take away the rich as well as the poor, without distinction. You shall be my child's godfather.”
The idea of calling god an the devil out like this seemed clever to me and was a nice change of pace. Embracing death may seem odd, but it’s true, death does not discriminate, it welcomes everyone. Sexton begins the poem by speaking of death with excitement, and ends (from the perspective of the boy) with fear. She gives off the sense that death is necessary and unyielding. Death is inevitable when he delivers “the big no”, even to his godson. Sexton calls the bodies that the boy operates on “shoeboxes”, they are simply lifeless objects, and the boy as a doctor gains enough power and greed to attempt to usurp death. His love for the dying princess “bites” him as if it is poisonous. Is love poisonous? Well this love fuels the boys greed which leads to “the big no”.
we have found a name:
ReplyDeleteTEAM KOREAN WIFI
The Little Peasant
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm061.html
The above is the story/background/context for Ann Sexton’s poem about The Little Peasant. To my fellow brothers (teammates) beware reading this story because by they end you will be pissed beyond beyond frustrated mostly if not all at the little peasant. First of all the story makes no sense at all not because its confusing and you can’t follow it, it is because the reasoning behind the story and the actions of the characters is at first seems completely absent. The ending I just have to say is frustrating to say the least, “Then the entire village was dead, and the little peasant, as the only heir, became a rich man.” I mean come on! Everyone dies and he becomes rich. Now there is reasoning but at first read the first impulse comes from emotion an emotion that disagrees with what happens. But you can find that the little peasant could have led the villagers to their death for revenge, a revenge from when the villagers tried to trick him and kill him. This revenge possibly leading to a greed/power that led to becoming rich which I found unjust and most unsatisfying. Revenge shouldn’t be rewarded with money and mass murder but thats just me. Did you guys feel this unsatisfying feeling as well referring to the conclusion of this fairy tale? Any ways as far as things not making reasonable sense, I actually liked this, I found that creative although very weird. It feels not to make sense because a lot of this story is not normal and has weird things in it, but I like it, its creative, artsy, but did I mention weird. For example, “the cabinetmaker should make us a calf out of wood and paint it brown so that it looks like any other calf” now why are they painting a wooden calf? your understanding of that is as good as mine but in the story it fits. With out that the story can not begin so it does not matter that its ridiculously weird and out of the norm, what really represents is the peasants ambition and his wants and needs. Now I think this all falls under the category of fairy tale requirements such as their being very abnormal occurrences in the story such as the prophecy of “cake under the bed." This story ends up telling a clear story but not necessarily a realistic one. But because of the story I felt I had to respond as if it was true, it happened, and it existed in reality just as I do. That all being said how did you guys respond to The Little Peasant story and his actions? Did you sense an unrealistic feeling and abnormal occurrences? And did you find yourself reacting with emotion as if the story should be more like the perfect world that you have created in your mind that has been formed from the reality from our world? Or more importantly and less confusingly, did you agree or disagree with the story?
Who Needs Similitude?
ReplyDeleteThe Little Peasant filled me with mixed emotions. Firstly, the way the story is written and the manner in which connections are made within it are genious. No words are wasted, and one ridiculous scenario feeds another. I was anxious to read the actual story after reading Mac’s post, because it sounded like an interesting and rather unknown tale. A B-side fairy tale if you will. The scheme by the peasant in the beginning with the calf is hilarious, but sets up the rest of the story by introducing the little peasant as a smart and inventive mastermind who ALWAYS is lucky enough to get his way. Literally, everything that could have gone wrong for the him seemed to work itself out for the best. The fact of the matter is, the Brothers Grimm invented a character I cannot help but like and hate at the same time. None of the events are plausible, and it brings to mind all of the times when I got in trouble as a kid, all the times I got screwed over and wasn’t able to find a way out of it. The Little Peasant life is every child’s dream. Hmmm, well I was just sentenced to death by barrel…but wait! The priest I saved earlier in the miller’s home is conveniently right here to help me get away. Hmmm, well who am I going to put in the barrel instead of me so that I can fool the oblivious villagers?...oh hey! Here’s the shepherd who always wanted to be mayor; if I tell him that he will become mayor if he climbs into the barrel, I will escape! Because that happens to all of us right? Always in the right place at the right time? Wrong. It never happens to anybody. Still, this is where my hate for him starts to emerge. The man is, quite simply, a snitch. The word is thrown around our school like the plague and I hate it with a passion, but in this case it fits perfectly. To put it in Gloucester High School terms, he snitches for cows, sheep, cake, and his life. For this, I despise the character. But what I cannot seem to get over is his cunning and clever approach to every situation. The Raven, for instance, was a crazy idea, but so crazy and inventive that it worked perfectly. Who would come up with that? What kind of crazy German hallucinogens were the Grimm brothers on to come up with some of this? I hope I provided helpful insight for you fellas, I look forward to your next posts!
You guys are talking about the ludicrousness of “The Little Peasant”. I agree that it’s a weird tale; they decide to construct a wooden calf, then completely drop the idea when they lose it... random? The story begins with the peasant portrayed as a victim, and I feel for him, but by the end I hate him! The agonizing thing is that the tale seems to want the reader to admire the peasant, as the smart, sly underdog that goes from rags to riches while all who were unkind to him experience tragedy. This is all okay until you analyze how he achieved this transformation: he conned, stole, and murdered. Is that the good guy? Well, at the end of the day, he wins; he kills an innocent man to escape his own death, and then kills off the rest of the town and hoards their money.
ReplyDeleteMost of the other Grimm’s tales have a similar structure. They are all crazy, but that’s what a fairy tale is meant to be. Sexton addresses this in her version of “The Golden Key” (a particularly weird but cool fairy tale), saying that fairy tales are necessary to adults, providing an abstract way of thinking, contradictory to our “linear thought process”. Secondly, all of the tales seem to get repetitive at times and reward the wronged and mercilessly tear apart any who has ever wronged them. The only tale that I’ve come across that gives the “villains” a second chance is “One-Eye Two-Eyes Three-Eyes”. For most of these tales, with the exception of “The Little Peasant” and “The Wonderful Musician”, I agree with the portrayal of the good guy and the bad guy. It’s funny. In Sexton’s version of each of these stories, she portrays as the Grimms did, with the peasant and the hunter being “good”, but I do detect some sarcasm in these particular poems. I guess we’ll talk more about that later.
I guess I’ll digress back to “The Little Peasant”, except, since you guys have pretty much covered the story, I’ll talk about the poem. As you know, the poem focuses just on the peasant’s experience at the miller’s house. Obviously much of the poem is sexual, the scene is, after all, focused on a wife cheating on her husband. Something that I noticed right away was how many sexual references and food references Sexton used. She combined the two; food is basically synonymous with sex in this poem. Before reading the poem, you know that the wife and parson are having a fabulous dinner. It’s also important to note the peasant’s cheese and bread and compare it to their food, their dinner has much higher quality than his. This is where the themes of greed and possession begin to play a role. He owns the raven. “Come little fellow, your a part of my booty”, and at the end, “gold pieces knocking like marbles in his deep pants pocket. Krr. Krr.” as we know “krr” is the raven’s noise. It represents the raven and we get a sense that it is within his pocket as well. This is kind of what I mean about the slight negativity Sexton injects into the peasant. She sort of glorifies him like the tale does by exposing the wife’s cheating, but she exposes a trace of greed. This greed is what kills the entire village in the original tale. Wow, there’s so much more to discuss in this poem, but I have to go. I’ll revisit this. If you guys can, think about the meaning of the constant repetition of Krr. Krr., the wife’s smug smile upon not being discovered, possibly the miller’s cluelessness, and there’s more to be discussed about the connection of food and sex/desire.
First off to answer Josiah’s question, You already answered your own question, there German, no need for hallucinogens. They are trying to “include stories of kings, magic, and talking animals. Even though the stories are sometimes scary, fairy tales allow us to work through our fears. They often teach us a lesson about moral values, and right and wrong.” http://www.grimmfairytales.com/en/bio
ReplyDeleteAnd I liked how Edan summarized above as talking about the ludicrousness of “The Little Peasant”. He reinforced the idea I mentioned before that these are fairy tales and should be expected to be out of the ordinary and also that we can see this similar structure in her other poems.
The Little Peasant by Anne Sexton focused on the middle of the tale and gives a much more sexual feeling to the overall meaning of the story by doing this, but in the end I think shows the ultimate greed that directs this fairy tale. As Edan mentioned, it talks about a lot of food referring to sex, “Lick me clean/ as clean as an almond.” and that this scene that Sexton dives into is Miller’s wife cheating on him. So yes there is much “more to be discussed about the connection of food and sex/desire.” Food is a persons need but also a persons desire, craving, and pleasure. Sexton fills this poem describing the desire but also under the ideas of possession and greed. Food a possession and a husband a possession, the better, the more desiree, the more pleasure. Then we have greed the idea of want over need, and it is the wife wanting more than her husband and the peasant wanting more money/power and the idea of eating more than is needed. The meaning of Krr. Krr. must be something to do with greed again, an above knowledge, or a arrogance from beheld information, or basically taking advantage of those that can’t defend themselves or don’t know any better. The peasant sees Miller’s cluelessness and uses this to gain money and a way out on top. In the story we see this greed at the end, but in this poem we see that in a smaller, narrower, and less obvious version. She ends with it being “Krr. Krr.” making the meaning, the statement about greed and desire. That the peasant got away with sin and ended up with gold and the Krr. is like a snicker or a evil laugh from a distance that says “I have tricked you all!”
HOW she introduces her Transformations as Extraordinary! With THE GOLDEN KEY, a very ordinary and plain, blahhh story.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.familymanagement.com/literacy/grimms/grimms209.html
Below a quotation for The Golden Key by Grimm Brothers:
“In the winter time, when deep snow lay on the ground, a poor boy was forced to go out on a sledge to fetch wood. When he had gathered it together, and packed it, he wished, as he was so frozen with cold, not to go home at once, but to light a fire and warm himself a little.” (Grimm Brothers, The Golden Key)
This is the beginning of the story which sets up the boy’s character who is filled with ambition, discovery, and temptation. The boy is poor and under conditions of winter, death, cold, depression and darkness. He wants to build a fire to create, light, warmth, happiness, life into his body and the ability to work. The most significant thing about this passage is that the boy does not want to go home but wants to stay and find a way to allow himself and keep working. He only wants to heat the cold enough to carry on with his involuntary actions. Although he was put there involuntarily he basically volunteers himself to keep in the harsh conditions when most might give up and go back home. He wishes to seek a way to unable himself to go on or to invent a way to make his task easier. This is showing the characters ambition to possibly discover and invent which is later on in the story followed through with.
*I’m sorry but this was a lame story, some boy finds a key turns the key and then they don’t tell us what happens. Again I find myself frustrated with The Grimm Brothers. What about you brothers? Did you find this to be a very blahhh fairy tale? Am I missing something because for such a short story I thought there would be something powerful in it, but I was left disappointed.
Below a quotation for The Gold Key by Anne Sexton:
ReplyDelete“we must have the answers. The boy has found a gold key and he is looking for what it will open… Presto! It opens this book of odd tales which transform the Brothers Grimm. Transform? As if an enlarged paper clip could be a piece of sculpture. (And it could.)” (Sexton, 2 The Gold Key)
This is Anne Sextons delicious introduction which I think she boldly tells to her readers, “I have the answers to the Grimm Fairy Tales”. This story is being told by her and she is using this story to introduce a bigger idea, the idea that has her poems answer the tales left by the Grimm Brothers to show a much different story. She shows this by using the golden key as the answer or a tool to reveal the answers. The key opens the the book which shows a transformation of the tales. possibly transforming them in a way that is less like a plain question and answer and more of an abstract piece of art. She might be making fun of the Golden Key tale by the Grimm Brothers which is very strait forward and a story that is reasonably and realistically laid out that you are far from surprised at the next event. Sexton says, “Upon finding a nickel he would look for a wallet… Upon finding a string he would look for a harp.” showing the boys attempt to find the answer is so normal, so obvious. She uses this story to show how she transforms the old tales into something new, something unordinary. Sexton says,“an enlarged paper clip could be a piece of sculpture. (And it could.)” probably meaning that she would not have the boy look for a large stack of paper but instead has transformed something ordinary, something plain, into art, something extraordinary.
*Now this was much more interesting! Turns the blahh into yahhh! Did you guys like this introduction to her transformations as much as I did? And did I miss anything or did you find that she used The Golden Key tale in a different way then what I said? I find that powerfully at the end she states that this is not a book of boring, normal, ordinary, little fairy tales but that she has transformed them and is revealing them to us as art. I love it! She is introducing her work to us as a conclusion of her overall work. The reader can also see the significant change in the story and style in Sexton’s writing. In the beginning most of her version of this tale is her herself telling a story to people and she finally gets to the actual tale when she makes the statement about the rest of her transformations.
You know what’s funny, I was thinking about this whole food theme in “The Little Peasant”, the poem, and I can’t believe that none of us thought of this: what about “Hansel and Gretel”? Obviously there’s a bunch of food references in there, I mean, Sexton had to, the stories about 2 kids that come across an edible house! So I compare these 2 poems and it’s kind of interesting: she uses these food references in a completely different way than in “The Little Peasant”. Rather than paralleling them with sex and desire, she uses them to enhance (for me anyways) a creepiness factor. I mean, most of these references are used to describe people, rather than actions in “The Little Peasant”. “I want to bite,/ I want to chew,/ I want to eat you up./ Little child,/ little nubkin,/ sweet as fudge”. She describes people as being “tasty”, I think it’s obvious how this relates to the original tale, but it definitely unsettles me. Mac, now that I think about it, this would have been a perfect poem for the Virginia essay had I read this earlier. Oh well. Anyways, still on food. Most of her food references are meat, something that was once living “mutton, lamb chops, ect.” The meat metaphors gradually shift into cannibalism at the very end. “The smell of the cooking witch,/ a little like mutton,/ to be served only with burgundy/ and fine white linen/ like something religious.” The idea of a witch being cooked and mused about as a dish is grotesque. The last word, “religious” does a lot for me, I’m not sure what, it might just be that creepy factor. Maybe you guys can help me out. What does she achieve besides creepiness by comparing boiling blood to Coca Cola and a neck to a hard boiled egg?
ReplyDeleteMac, good analysis of “The Golden Key”! However, I do disagree a bit on your take of the original. I think that it is a beautifully simple story, an extreme outlier from the other Grimm tales. The ending, to me, is awesome: there isn’t really any. The story can’t help but encourage the reader to use his/her imagination. It’s the perfect story for Sexton to open up her book with. I don’t think that she’s making fun of it. Out of all the Grimm tales, this was my favorite, and one of my favorites of all of Sexton’s poems. I do think that she makes fun of a lot of their other tales, but not this one. What you said, she begins by reading to an audience of adults, all who seem distant from childhood, and she treats them like children, as if they were in a nursery. She introduces the reader to her style right away, from her perspective, focusing on an external idea and then scoping in to a fairy tale, in a style that reinforces the ideas that she planted at the beginning of the poem. She introduces herself as a “middle-aged witch”, like she herself is estranged from childhood. Like this boy, we want answers, and forcibly grip anything that may lead us to them. Like this boy, we also have a linear way of thinking (if we find a key, we look for a chest, a dime a wallet, ect.) Well the Grimm fairy tales are far from linear, and I think that she thinks that this is refreshing. An abstract way of thinking can be beneficial. Mac, you’re right. Sexton is transforming the Brothers Grimm Tales into something new. Presto!, and their like art. They can carry new meaning, meaning that may have not been present in the original tales but pertains to our society. These works of art are her personal pieces, she shares personal memoirs, but she is sharing them. The ending, like the original is a bit open-ended, “As if an enlarged paper clip/ could be a piece of sculpture./ (And it could.)” She has created this art, but we as readers, are free to interpret as whatever our imaginations detect. We may detect things that she intended, or accidentally invent a meaning that she had even Sexton had never considered.
ReplyDelete“The Little Peasant” was a good starting point. There are many themes in here that are present in most other tales. One that we briefly touched on was greed. We mentioned the different types of greed between the peasant and the miller’s wife; how the wife’s was obvious, but the peasant’s was a bit more discreet. Another fairy tale/poem combo that I really enjoyed was “Godfather Death”. Basically, the tale is about a man that chooses death to be the godfather of his 13th child. Death gives the boy the ability to be the world’s greatest doctor, which leads to many riches, but there is one catch: if the boy sees death standing at the body’s head, he must allow death to claim it. I’m not going to waste my time sharing the entire story, but basically what happens is that the boy’s greed ends up killing him. When I first read the tale, I liked the part where the father chose death over god and the devil because
ReplyDelete“ “I am God." "Then I do not wish to have you for a godfather," said the man. "You give to the rich, and let the poor starve." Thus spoke the man, for he did not know how wisely God divides out wealth and poverty. Then he turned away from the Lord, and went on his way. Then the devil came to him and said, "What are you looking for? If you will take me as your child's godfather, I will give him an abundance of gold and all the joys of the world as well." The man asked, "Who are you?" "I am the devil." "Then I do not wish to have you for a godfather," said the man. You deceive mankind and lead them astray." He went on his way, and then Death, on his withered legs, came walking toward him, and said, "Take me as your child's godfather." The man asked, "Who are you?" "I am Death, who makes everyone equal." Then the man said, "You are the right one. You take away the rich as well as the poor, without distinction. You shall be my child's godfather.”
The idea of calling god an the devil out like this seemed clever to me and was a nice change of pace. Embracing death may seem odd, but it’s true, death does not discriminate, it welcomes everyone. Sexton begins the poem by speaking of death with excitement, and ends (from the perspective of the boy) with fear. She gives off the sense that death is necessary and unyielding. Death is inevitable when he delivers “the big no”, even to his godson. Sexton calls the bodies that the boy operates on “shoeboxes”, they are simply lifeless objects, and the boy as a doctor gains enough power and greed to attempt to usurp death. His love for the dying princess “bites” him as if it is poisonous. Is love poisonous? Well this love fuels the boys greed which leads to “the big no”.