Catch Me I\'m the Gingerbread

¶ … Catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man

The Gingerbread Man

The story of the Gingerbread Boy / Man is a classical tale for children with an interesting subject. As it has often been noticed, fairy tales many times evoke and reflect important social issues. In this case, the story offers an important insight into human development or evolution from childhood to adulthood. The contrastive analysis of the two versions of this story highlights this fact even more: the "gingerbread boy" is more naive and easily deceived than the "gingerbread man." Moreover, the plot itself emphasizes the emotional development of the boy / man who plunges into the world immaturely and imprudently and thus finds an unhappy end.

The plot of the tale is in fact an interesting riddle: a woman with no children bakes one day a gingerbread boy. Once he's out of the oven though, he eagerly springs into the world and starts running, managing to avoid the peril of being eaten by some construction workers, some musicians and some policeman in one version, and a cow, a horse and some farmers in the other. In both versions, the gingerbread man is finally deceived and eaten by the fox, the classical figure of cunning in most of the tales. The fable thus emphasizes that the destiny of the gingerbread man is inescapable, as gingerbread men are actually meant to be eaten. The ending of the second version of the story, the Gingerbread Man, highlights this idea: After all you know, gingerbread men are meant to be eaten! It is what they are for!"("The Gingerbread Man") What is actually interesting though is the contrast between the two versions of the story. The main difference between the stories thus is that in the first version the gingerbread figure is called a 'boy', while in the second it is called a 'man.' There are also indicatives that the boy is more easily deceived than the man in the other story: the man at first attempts to reject the fox's proposal to run with him. The boy immediately takes for granted the fox's words that he is being chased by everyone and that he will not be able to escape the chasers without help because of the great lake that cuts his way. Without even seeing the chasers or the lake, the boy immediately asks the fox for advice and climbs onto her nose when told to do so. The gingerbread man in the second version however refuses the advances of the fox, and only accepts her help when he gets to the great lake and there is no other escape. Still, he is naive in that he fails to see her real purpose.

The other main difference between the stories is given by the different classes of people or of animals that the two gingerbread men encounter on their way. While the first meets with a rat, constructors, musicians and a policeman on a horse, the seconds meets with a cow, a horse and some farmers. Obviously, the classes are not so important in themselves but in the fact that they emphasize the social and emotional evolution of the gingerbread man. He thus meets with a variety of dangers and people, and manages to run away from them as long as he hears their threat directly. This image closely resembles human evolution, with its different interactions and experiences. The man manages to escape every time simply because he has the crude instinct of fear and self-defense. What is interesting is that the gingerbread man runs away from his home although the second version of the story emphasizes clearly that the woman had baked him not to eat him but because she could have no children of her own: "I have decided to bake a gingerbread man. Then we will have a little boy to call our very own!"("The Gingerbread Man") Thus, it would seem unclear why the boy runs away immediately from the old woman, when she did not intend to harm him.

This fact only highlights the more the idea that the tale is in fact a fable about immaturity and lack of discernment. The gingerbread man runs away from the only place he could have been safe (the house of the old man and woman) and goes eagerly into the world. Also, he is so confident in his own forces that he becomes imprudent and is not careful enough. In the first version of the Gingerbread Boy his little speech when he meets the fox emphasizes the fact that his previous success with running away makes him brag and feel too full of confidence: "I've run away from the woman and the man, the rat, the construction workers, the musicians, the policeman on a horse and I can run away from you too!' he bragged..."("The Gingerbread Boy") Thus, when he fails to take the necessary measures to protect himself, the inevitable happens and he is eaten by the fox. Here too the immaturity of the gingerbread boy in the first version is more accentuated than that of the gingerbread man in the second.