I believe in fairy tales. As a child, I adored hearing my mom read them to me. I loved everything about them. I never thought there was anything that could not be solved or fixed, until I heard the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. I honestly never fathomed things would not always end "happily ever after," which is why I am still a dreamer to this day, but not as adamant as I was when I was a child due to this little riddle. I know that's the reason Humpty Dumpty always stuck with me, because it showed me a sense of reality apart from the usual fantasy. The picture in my head of Humpty falling off a wall and the brawny "king's men" not being able to fix him was unimaginable to me. Those men were the best of the best for any task at hand. I still question to this day why they could not put Humpty back together again.
The origin of this riddle came from England and is supposed to depict a person after they have drank too many drinks named "humpty dumpty," which is a mixture of brandy boiled with some sort of ale. Once they have had too many of the "humpty dumpty," they fall over and cannot get up again; just as, Humpty Dumpty did when he fell off the wall. This riddle was brought to America and portrayed as an egg, because of it's frailty, by W.W. Denslow in the manuscript of Mother Goose's Melody. Humpty Dumpty has appeared in many nursery rhyme books and in novels; like, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass; Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, which was turned into an Academy Award winning movie; Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's All the President's Men; and in many songs with singers like Hank Thompson, Aretha Franklin, and many other random singers. This nursery rhyme has many diverse styles of interpretation- novels, poems, lyrics, and the original riddle.
This nursery rhyme is still one of my favorites today, even though it has not been the leading star of a multimillion dollar Disney movie, but hey it has at least had a cameo in one! :) It is highly popular in the book world but why? Maybe because of its lack of a happy ending. Or maybe because it shows reality and not an unrealistic fairy tale like all the others. But that's just how I interpreted the riddle and how I was personally affected by Humpty Dumpty having a great fall.
I really like how you talked about how the story of Humpty Dumpty is lacking a happy ending and maybe that is why people use this story so often. I never would have thought to talk about that, but it does bring up an important issues about the lack of reality in these fairy tales. Also, your pictures are hilarious, especially the third picture.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your view of Humpty Dumpty. I never considered the fact that this specific story is one of many which did not actually have a stereotypical "fairytale ending." Another point I had not considered was the origin, that it was simply about drunk. This now of course all adds up to me.
ReplyDeleteI found it really funny, and horrifying for a child, that this shattered your view of an ideal reality. It's silly that something as simple as a fairytale could effect someone so much. Also, I never realized that it was supposed to represent a drunk; I never really thought about it. It makes me actually like the story now, whereas before I actually found it kind of stupid.
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