Jack and the Bean Stalk

As I begin to look back at the many stories that I have heard in my childhood, one story in particular stands out to me the most. That is, the story of Jack and the Bean Stalk. If you didn’t know, this classic childhood tale traces the journey of a poor boy named Jack and his mother. One day Jack goes out to town with the family cow in hopes of selling it in return for some sort of compensation to buy him and his mother some food. Instead he comes home to offer his mother several seemingly worthless magic beans. In a fit of rage, Jack’s mother throws the beans out of the window never to be seen again. In the morning however Jack awakens to find a giant beanstalk growing in his backyard. He climbs it and finds that a giant lives at the top of the beanstalk, along with a hen that lays golden eggs. Jack steals the eggs and climbs down the beanstalk. Jack later climbs back up the beanstalk on several other occasions to steal the giant’s golden coins and even his magical harp. After a multitude of successful plunders Jack eventually cuts down the magic beanstalk to escape the giant’s rage. This is how I imagined the story when told it as a child.

One of the main images that stuck out to me as a child was the image of the great beanstalk, upon which the whole story is centered. As a child the idea that magical beans could ever possibly exist to create a giant magical beanstalk and take you high above the clouds where giants dwelt along with magic hens, golden eggs and enchanted harps was all completely enticing to me.

The origins of the story are somewhat unclear, regarding who the writer is or even when the story was created. The earliest known printed edition of this tale can be found in the 1807 book The History of Jack and the Bean Stalk. After further research I noticed that this story told is generally the same. It begins with Jack exchanging a cow for magic beans, then later his mother throwing the beans out of the window and ultimately ends with jack cutting the beanstalk down. There are however, some versions in which, the giant’s wife helps Jack to rob the house, and some more violent versions where Jack kills the angry giant altogether. One reason for such an exclusion of details could simply be for censorship. While parents do enjoy telling their children this story, most (including my own) would not want to expose Jack as the murdering thief that he clearly was. Many of the details, in my opinion, were omitted simply to protect the image of poor innocent Jack , who was simply trying to provide for him and his mother.