The Gingerbread Man

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The Gingerbread Man
The Gingerbread Man (also known as The Gingerbread Boy or The Gingerbread Runner) is a fairy tale about a
Gingerbread Man's escape from various pursuers and his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. The story is
variety of the class of folk tales about runaway food, which are classified in the Aarne-Thompson classification
system of traditional folktales as AT 2025: The Fleeing Pancake. A gingerbread boy as hero is a uniquely American
contribution to the tale type.
The Gingerbread Boy makes his first print appearance in "The Gingerbread Boy" the May 1875 issue of St. Nicholas
Magazine in a cumulative tale which, like "The Little Red Hen", depends on rhythm and repetition for its effect with
one event following hard upon another until the climax is reached.
[]
According to the author of the 1875 story
(whose name is not known), "A servant girl from Maine told it to my children. It interested them so much that I
thought it worth preserving. I asked where she found it and she said an old lady told it to her in her childhood."
1875 story
In the 1875 St. Nicholas tale, a childless old woman bakes a gingerbread man who leaps from her oven and runs
away. The woman and her husband give chase but fail to catch him. The gingerbread man then outruns several farm
workers and farm animals while taunting them with the phrase:
I've run away from a little old woman,
A little old man,
And I can run away from you, I can!
The tale ends with a fox catching and eating the gingerbread man who cries as he's devoured, "I'm quarter gone...I'm
half gone...I'm three-quarters gone...I'm all gone!"
Variations on the 1875 story
The Gingerbread Man remains a common subject for American children's literature into the 21st century. The
retellings often omit the original ending ("I'm quarter gone...I'm half gone...I'm three-quarters gone...I'm all gone!")
and makes other changes. In some variations, the fox feigns indifference to the edible man. The cookie then relaxes
his guard and the fox snatches and devours him. In other versions, the Gingerbread Man halts in his flight at a
riverbank, and after accepting the fox's offer as a ferry, he finds himself eaten mid-stream.
In some retellings, the Gingerbread Man taunts his pursuers with the famous line:
Run, run as fast as you can!
You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man!
Also, there is a little-known version of The Gingerbread Man in which the Gingerbread Man tracks down a boy
named Caleb Miller and beats him with a stick. This was later taken out of many libraries for being too violent for
young children. It was released again in 1984, except with a bat instead of a stick.
The Gingerbread Man
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Folk tales
Folk tales of the runaway food type are found in Germany, the British Isles, and Eastern Europe, as well the United
States.
In Slavic lands, a traditional character known as Kolobok (Russian: ) is a ball of bread dough who avoids
being eaten by various animals. "The Pancake" ("Pannekaken") was collected by Peter Asbjornsen and Jorgen Moe
and published in Norske Folkeeventyr (1842-1844), and, ten years later, the German brothers Carl and Theodor
Colshorn collected "The Big, Fat Pancake" ("Vom dicken fetten Pfannekuchen") from the Salzdahlum region and
published the tale in Mrchen und Sagen, no. 57, (1854). In 1894, Karl Gander collected "The Runaway Pancake"
("Der fortgelaufene Eierkuchen") from an geln cottager and peddler and published the tale in Niederlausitzer
Volkssagen, vornehmlich aus dem Stadt- und Landkreise Guben, no. 319. The Roule Galette story is a similar story
from France.
An interesting variation of this trope is found in the Hungarian tale "The Little Dumpling" ("A kis gmbc"), and
contrary to the title tha main character is not a dumpling, but the Hungarian version of head cheese. In the tale it is
the gmbc that eats the others; it first consumes the family that "made" it, and then, rolling on the road, it eats
various others - including a whole army -, the last of whom is a swineherd. His knife opens the gmbc from the
inside, and the people run home. In another variation the gmbc bursts after eating too many people.
Joseph Jacobs published "Johnny-Cake" in his English Fairy Tales (1890), basing his tale on a version found in the
American Journal of Folk-Lore. Jacobs' johnny-cake rolls rather than runs, and the fox tricks him by pretending to be
deaf and unable to hear his taunting verse. In "The Wee Bannock" from More English Fairy Tales (1894), Jacobs
records a Scottish tale with a bannock as hero.
Derivations and modern works
Frederick Ranken's 1906 musical The Gingerbread Man (music by Alfred Baldwin Sloane) features a character
named John Dough ("John Dough" being another term, current at the time, for a gingerbread man). Ranken's
character has no qualms about being eaten.
L. Frank Baum's John Dough and the Cherub (1906) and The Road to Oz (1909) also feature a character named John
Dough. Baum's John Dough is life-sized creation and scared of being eaten, but ultimately sacrifices his hand to save
a child's life.
Modern literary runaway food tales include Ruth Sawyer's Journey Cake, Ho! (1953), a tale about an old couple and
their "bound-out boy", Johnny, whose journey-cake is chased by the boy and a variety of animals.
[1]
Some tales have
ethnic settings such as Eric Kimmel's The Runaway Tortilla (2000) about a desert-roving tortilla who avoids
donkeys, rattlesnakes, and buckaroos only to be defeated by crafty Seor Coyote; the Hannukah version called The
Runaway Latkes (2000) by Leslie Kimmelman; and Ying Chang Compestine's Chinese New Year tale, The Runaway
Rice Cake (2001). Peter Armour's Stop That Pickle! (2005) is a tale about a runaway deli pickle. His pursuers include
a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Modern twists on the tale that retain a gingerbread man as protagonist include Janet Squires' The Gingerbread
Cowboy; The Gingerbread Kid Goes to School (2002) by Joan Holub; and Lisa Campbell's The Gingerbread Girl
(2006). In Campbell's tale, The Gingerbread Man's parents mourn his death and then bake a gingerbread daughter. In
keeping with the author's disappointment at the original tale's sad ending and The Gingerbread Boy's gullibility,
Campbell's Gingerbread Girl outwits the fox that ate her brother and lives happily ever after.
In 1992 Jon Sciezka published The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. "The Stinky Cheese Man" is a
rendition of "The Gingerbread Man" where the cheese man runs away from everyone fearing they will eat him, when
really everyone just wants to get away from his smell.
The Gingerbread Man
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References
[1] Hanlon, Tina L.. "Runaway Cakes and Gingerbread Boys." (http:/ / www. ferrum. edu/ applit/ bibs/ tales/ Runcake. htm) Retrieved 1
November 2008.
External links
Facsimile of 1875 story "The Gingerbread Boy" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=iqZNAAAAMAAJ&
pg=PA448)
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
The Gingerbread Man Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=596994313 Contributors: Alansohn, Andrewman327, AtticusX, Avoided, Bobak, Boing! said Zebedee, Can't sleep,
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