The Little Red Hen: Difference between revisions
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Revised the article, corrected some errors, included the story's origin |
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[[File:TheLittleRedHen.png|thumb|alt=An illustrated hen wearing a shirt and hat uses a shovel to dig a hole. |[[Little Golden Books|Golden Book]] version book cover]] |
[[File:TheLittleRedHen.png|thumb|alt=An illustrated hen wearing a shirt and hat uses a shovel to dig a hole. |[[Little Golden Books|Golden Book]] version book cover]] |
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[[File:The Little Red Hen cover.jpg|thumb|alt=An illustrated red hen stands in front of a fence, holds an umbrella, and leans to the left. |''The Little Red Hen'', illustrated by [[Florence White Williams]]]] |
[[File:The Little Red Hen cover.jpg|thumb|alt=An illustrated red hen stands in front of a fence, holds an umbrella, and leans to the left. |''The Little Red Hen'', illustrated by [[Florence White Williams]]]] |
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'''''The Little Red Hen''''' is an |
'''''The Little Red Hen''''' is an American [[Folktale|folk tale]] first collected by [[Mary Mapes Dodge]] in ''[[St. Nicholas Magazine]]'' in 1874<ref name="Dodge1874">{{cite book|author=Mary Mapes Dodge|title=St. Nicholas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_KRNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA680|year=1874|publisher=Scribner|pages=680–}}</ref>. The story is meant to teach children the importance of [[Work ethic|hard work]] and personal initiative. |
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==The fable== |
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==Role in reading instruction== |
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A [[Chicken|hen]] living on a farm finds some wheat and decides to make bread with it. She asks the other farmyard animals for help planting it, but they refuse. The hen then harvests and mills the wheat into flour before baking it into bread; at each stage she again asks the animals for help and they refuse. Finally the hen has completed her task and asks who will help her eat the bread. This time the animals accept eagerly, but the hen rebuffs them stating that, just as she made the bread herself, she will eat the bread herself, and runs away with the bread. |
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During the 1880s, reading instruction in the United States continued to evolve to include primers that became known as literature readers. Prior to this time highly moralistic and [[religious texts]] were used to teach literacy. ''The Little Red Hen'' offers a moralistic tale of the importance of hard work and the shame, as well as consequences, of laziness. During this time, consideration of the interest of the young reader became more central to the teaching of reading. In considering the young reader, the authors of this genre made their texts appealing visually both through illustrations and text formatting. "Margaret Free and Harriette Taylor Treadwell were the first authors to prepare beginning readers with a content consisting wholly of adaptations from the old folktales." (Smith, 1965/2002, p. 141). The genre of the folktale lent itself to repetitive vocabulary – an early reading strategy still in use today.{{citation needed|date=March 2009}} |
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==Background and adaptations== |
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the little red [[Chicken|hen]] finds some [[wheat]] and asks for help from the other farmyard animals (most adaptations feature three animals, a [[pig]], a [[cat]], and a [[rat]], [[duck]], [[goose]], [[dog]], or [[goat]]<ref>(Versions by Frederick Richardson, Golden Book, Jerry Pinckney, Margot Zemach, Florence White Williams)</ref>) to plant it, but they all refuse. |
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The tale is based on a story Dodge's mother often told her. Originally the other animals besides the hen consist of a rat, a cat, a dog, a duck, and a pig.<ref name="Dodge1874"></ref> Later adaptations often reduce the number of other animals to three. |
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The story was likely intended as a literature primer for young readers, but departed from highly moralistic, often religious stories written for the same purpose. Adaptations throughout the 1880s incorporated appealing illustrations in order to hold the reader's attention as interest became more relevant to reading lessons. Repetitive vocabulary is still used in adaptations in order to encourage learning for very early readers.{{citation needed|date=March 2009}} A 2006 [[The Little Red Hen (Pinkney book)|picture book adaptation]] by [[Jerry Pinkney]] was well-received for similar reasons. |
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At each later stage (harvest, threshing, milling the wheat into flour, and baking the flour into bread), the hen again asks for help from the other animals, but again she receives no help at all. |
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An animated adaptation of the story titled ''[[The Wise Little Hen]]'' was produced by [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions]] in 1934. It is notable for the first appearance of [[Donald Duck]] as one of the lazy animals who refuse to help the hen. |
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Finally, the hen has completed her task and asks who will help her eat the bread. This time, all the previous non-participants eagerly volunteer to join her, but she refuses them, stating that no one helped her with her work. Thus, the hen eats it with her chicks, leaving none for anyone else. |
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===Revisions=== |
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When the hen finishes she decides to give her friends another chance. She says that next time she would be happy to make enough bread for herself, her chicks, and her friends if her friends help her do the work. The friends happily agree with that idea and say, "We will". |
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| ⚫ | Politically themed revisions of the story include a conservative version based on a 1976 [[Ronald Reagan]] monologue. This version features a farmer who claims that the hen is being unfair by refusing to share the bread and forces her to do so, removing the hen's incentive to work and causing poverty to befall the farm.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sodahead.com/blog/16103/little-red-hen-the-political-spin-quite-amusing/ |title=Little Red Hen ~ The Political Spin ~ Quite Amusing!!! |publisher=Sodahead.com |accessdate=2011-12-31}}</ref> Another version satirizes capitalism by depicting the hen promising the animals slices of bread if they make it, but keeping the largest slice for herself despite not doing any work. A version by [[Malvina Reynolds]] adapts the story into a pro-work [[Socialism|socialist]] anthem as the hen retains the fruits of her labor, saying "And that's why they called her Red."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Little Red Hen |url=http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/MALVINA/mr099.htm}}</ref> |
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An episode of the animated series ''[[Super Why!]]'' features a revision of the story. In the episode, the Super Readers change the ending so that the hen tells the animals why she needs their help and they listen, enabling them to help her finish the bread so that she shares it with them. |
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==In popular culture== |
==In popular culture== |
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* A [[Disney]]-produced [[Silly Symphony]] called ''[[The Wise Little Hen]]'' uses this tale as its basis. This version features Peter Pig and [[Donald Duck]] (in his debut), instead of the cat and the frog from the folk version, as the ones who decline to participate in the preparation of the bread. |
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* The Little Red Hen was featured in episode 14 of the animated series ''[[Super Why!]]'' In the book, the animals who decline to help the Little Red Hen make corn bread are a dog, a cat, and a duck. ''Super Why'' changes the ending by having the three animals help the Little Red Hen bake the corn bread for her chicks and later joining her in eating the corn bread. |
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* [[Jerry Pinkney]]'s retelling in picture-book form ''[[The Little Red Hen (Pinkney book)|The Little Red Hen]]'' was published in 2006. |
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==See also== |
==See also== |
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* [[The Ant and the Grasshopper]], Aesop |
* [[The Ant and the Grasshopper]], an Aesop fable with a similar moral |
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==References== |
==References== |
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Revision as of 05:58, 10 March 2020
The Little Red Hen is an American folk tale first collected by Mary Mapes Dodge in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1874[1]. The story is meant to teach children the importance of hard work and personal initiative.
The fable
A hen living on a farm finds some wheat and decides to make bread with it. She asks the other farmyard animals for help planting it, but they refuse. The hen then harvests and mills the wheat into flour before baking it into bread; at each stage she again asks the animals for help and they refuse. Finally the hen has completed her task and asks who will help her eat the bread. This time the animals accept eagerly, but the hen rebuffs them stating that, just as she made the bread herself, she will eat the bread herself, and runs away with the bread.
Background and adaptations
The tale is based on a story Dodge's mother often told her. Originally the other animals besides the hen consist of a rat, a cat, a dog, a duck, and a pig.[1] Later adaptations often reduce the number of other animals to three.
The story was likely intended as a literature primer for young readers, but departed from highly moralistic, often religious stories written for the same purpose. Adaptations throughout the 1880s incorporated appealing illustrations in order to hold the reader's attention as interest became more relevant to reading lessons. Repetitive vocabulary is still used in adaptations in order to encourage learning for very early readers.[citation needed] A 2006 picture book adaptation by Jerry Pinkney was well-received for similar reasons.
An animated adaptation of the story titled The Wise Little Hen was produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1934. It is notable for the first appearance of Donald Duck as one of the lazy animals who refuse to help the hen.
Revisions
Politically themed revisions of the story include a conservative version based on a 1976 Ronald Reagan monologue. This version features a farmer who claims that the hen is being unfair by refusing to share the bread and forces her to do so, removing the hen's incentive to work and causing poverty to befall the farm.[2] Another version satirizes capitalism by depicting the hen promising the animals slices of bread if they make it, but keeping the largest slice for herself despite not doing any work. A version by Malvina Reynolds adapts the story into a pro-work socialist anthem as the hen retains the fruits of her labor, saying "And that's why they called her Red."[3]
An episode of the animated series Super Why! features a revision of the story. In the episode, the Super Readers change the ending so that the hen tells the animals why she needs their help and they listen, enabling them to help her finish the bread so that she shares it with them.
In popular culture
- The blues song "Little Red Rooster" by Willie Dixon is loosely based on the story. The lazy rooster in the song is the opposite of the industrious hen, being "too lazy to crow for day".
See also
- The Ant and the Grasshopper, an Aesop fable with a similar moral
References
- ^ a b Mary Mapes Dodge (1874). St. Nicholas. Scribner. pp. 680–.
- ^ "Little Red Hen ~ The Political Spin ~ Quite Amusing!!!". Sodahead.com. Retrieved 2011-12-31.
- ^ "The Little Red Hen".
External links
- The Little Red Hen: An Old English Folk Tale (HTML version), Retold and Illustrated by Florence White Williams, Saalfield Publishing Company, 1918, available from Project Gutenberg