A Study of Fairy Tales Part 37

3. The Elephant's Child met Kolokolo Bird.

4. The Elephant's Child journeyed to the Limpopo.

5. The Elephant's Child met the Python.

6. The Elephant's Child met the Crocodile. He got his trunk.

(Climax.) 7. The Elephant's Child gained experience from the Python.

8. The Elephant's Child's journey home.

9. The Elephant's Child's return home.

10. Conclusion. How all elephants got trunks. Peace.

The characters are unique and interesting. They are usual animals but unusual in what they say. They exhibit animal traits and motives but they also show us a hidden meaning in their actions and words. They seem living, they speak directly; yet they preserve the idea of the fable for they are symbolic. The Elephant's Child typifies human innocence, the inexperience of youth; the Kolokolo Bird, a friend; the Python, experience or wisdom; and the Crocodile, guile or evil. All the animals become very interesting because we are concerned to know their particular reason for spanking the "'satiable Elephant's Child."

What they say is so humorous and what they do is consistent, in harmony with their natural animal traits. The Child is the hero. He is a very attractive character because he has that rare charm we call temperament. He is curious, polite, and sweet, and follows his own nose in spite of everything. He wins out with strength, experience, and a new nose; and we are rejoiced at his triumphs. His questions are so funny and yet they seem quite what any elephant with a b.u.mp of curiosity might ask. To the Giraffe--"What made his skin spotty?" To the Hippopotamus--"Why her eyes were red?" To the Baboon--"Why melons tasted just so?" And at last, "What does the Crocodile have for dinner?"

The setting of the tale is suggested continually in expressions which show visual imagination of a high order: such as, "And he lived in Africa"; "dragged him through a thorn bush"; "blew bubbles into her ear"; "hove him into a hornet's nest"; and "from Graham's Town to Kimberley and from Kimberley to Khama's Country, and from Khama's Country east by north to the Limpopo."

The tale possesses most delightful humor. A verbal magic which fairly scintillates with the comic spirit, and clinging epithets of which Kipling is a master, suggest the exact picture needed. Humor is secured largely through the use of the unique word; as, "_spanked_,"

"_precisely_ as Kolokolo Bird had said," and "for he was a _Tidy_ Pachyderm." Often it is increased by the use of newly coined words; as, "hijjus," "curtiosity," "scalesome, flailsome, tail,"

"fever-trees," "self-propelling man-of-war," and "schloop of mud."

Another element of humor in the tale is the artistic use of repet.i.tion, which has been previously referred to as one of the child's interests. Sometimes one meaning is expressed in several different ways; as, "immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time." Or we are given contrasted terms; as, "a little warm but not at all astonished," and then later, "very warm and greatly astonished." One main element of humor is this way in which expressions reflect back on preceding ones. Sometimes we are given very surprising, startling, expressions; as, "wait-a-bit-thorn-bush "--which reminds us of the "all-alone-stone" in _Water Babies_--and "he sang to himself down his trunk."

As to imagination, _The Elephant's Child_ is a delightful ill.u.s.tration of the appeal to the a.s.sociative, the penetrative, and the contemplative imagination. While its philosophy may be understood in part by the child it has a deeper meaning for the adult. It seems to imply that it is the way of life to spank somebody else. It is the stronger who spank the weaker until they become strong enough to stand up for themselves. Then n.o.body spanks anybody any more and there is peace. When the Child asked a question that no one would answer he set out to find his own answer just as in life it often is best to work to answer one's own questions. When the Elephant trusted the Crocodile he got something to keep just as in life the innocent may bear the marks of a contest though in no sense responsible for the contest.

Experience in the guise of the Python helped the Child in his contest for life with the advice his own common sense would have offered. As an allegory of Experience _The Elephant's Child_ does not view life as a whole; it gives but a glimpse of life. It would say: Experience teaches us to make the best with what we have. The way to get experience is to try a new power, just as the Child with his trunk tried to kill the fly and eat gra.s.s. As soon as he had received his new power he tested it on the Hippopotamous. He won the respect of his kind by beating them at their own game.

The emotional appeal in _The Elephant's Child_ would repay study. The dominant emotional tone is that of the adventurous hero with his "'satiable curtiosity." There is vividness of emotion, steadiness of emotion, and a rich variety in the contrasts of feeling. Emotion of a moral quality is characteristic of its implied message of worldly wisdom but it does not leave one exactly satisfied.

The form of the story is a splendid example of a literary cla.s.sic style. A pleasing humorous touch is given to the unity of the tale by making the Elephant's Child pick up with his new trunk, on his way home, the melon-rinds he had scattered on his journey to the Limpopo.

The coherence in the tale is unusually fine and is secured largely by expressions which look backward or forwards; as, "By and by when that was finished," or "One fine morning," or "That very next morning." Any study will show that the tale possesses the general qualities of form and has its parts controlled by the principles of composition.

OUTLINE

I. THE WORTH OF FAIRY TALES

I. Two public tributes 1

II. The value of fairy tales in education 3

1. They bring joy into child-life 3

2. They satisfy the play-spirit of childhood 4

3. They give a power of accurate observation 6

4. They strengthen the power of emotion, develop the power of imagination, train the memory and exercise the reason 6

5. They extend and intensify the child's social relations 7

6. In school they unify the child's work or play 8

7. In the home they employ leisure time profitably 9

8. They afford a vital basis for language-training 10

III. References 12

II. PRINCIPLES OF SELECTION FOR FAIRY TALES

I. The interests of children 13

1. Fairy tales must follow the law of composition and must contain the interests of children 13

a. A sense of life 14

b. The familiar 14

c. The surprise 15

d. Sense impression 17

e. The beautiful 18

f. Wonder, mystery, magic 19

g. Adventure 19

h. Success 20

i. Action 20

j. Humor 21

k. Poetic justice 22

l. The imaginative 23

m. Animals 24

n. A portrayal of human relations, especially with children 24

o. The diminutive 25

p. Rhythm and repet.i.tion 26

q. The simple and sincere 28

r. Unity of effect 29

2. Fairy tales must follow the law of the emotions and avoid elements opposed to the interests of the very young child 30