I don’t know how many times I wished I could run into some mysterious magician man who would give me some magic beans. I know, I never had a cow on me, but for so long I thought that if a normal kid like jack can score some magical beans, then maybe there’s hope for a kid like me. Briefly, the story begins with how Jack and his mother were really poor and had to resort to selling their cow to obtain some means to survive. Jack’s mother sends him into the market with the hope that Jack would make a profitable deal, but then Jack is lured by a man selling magic beans in exchange for his cow. He returns home with the beans and angers her mother, who throws them out the window. Little did they know, the beans were actually magical and produced a humongous beanstalk in their yard. Jack climbed up the stalk and found the home of a giant in the sky. Jack started stealing from the giant continuously until the giant ‘fee fi fo fummed’ enough to catch him sneaking around. A chase then ensued, and Jack defeated the giant by cutting the stalk down. As I grew up I think I appreciated the story because of the fantastical aspect but also the fact that the plot reflected the reality of how money is hard to come by. It made me think of how my parents had to devote a lot of time and effort to provide for us, so Jack’s mom getting him to sell the cow was relatable. My favorite part of the story was definitely when Jack cuts the stalk down to save himself from the giant on his tale. The reason why I liked this part so much was because it left me wondering. Like, what did the people do with the giant body decomposing on the streets? Did they even know about giants? When I tell my kids the story, I’m going to continue the story a bit to conclude the fate of the post-mortem giant (just kidding? :)
The version I am most familiar with is the first listed on this webpage (as recorded by Joseph Jacobs)
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0328jack.html <<--Please read this before you read my rough draft of the new version of J&TB. In choosing this version, I determined that the narrative point of view is: Third Person Limited Omniscient >>This point of view reflects the structure in that the narrator is focusing on Jack’s feelings and thoughts in the story
So, now to tell the story from a different angle…let’s see how THE GIANT feels about Jack and his nosy beanstalk.
"We're at the bottom rung of this town, Edgar" Lara pleaded.
"I know honey, I'm saving up, but it's so hard to buy the big clouds these days--with the interest rates going up, I'm barely able to make ends meet on this one we have here.." With his head in his hands, Edgar spun his gold coins on the worn wooden table. Lara, his wife looked at him with concern and desperation. "Lara, I know it's been hard, with the droppings and all, but we have to ignore it and do our best...we're lucky we don't have kids yet, imagine the shame they'd have to endure!" Edgar envisioned his kids dealing with the garbage drops that they were facing from the Humongs and Gargants above them. Edgar and Lara were victims of the stratified giant society. The hierarchy consisted of the top level-Gargants. the mid-level-Humongs-and the lowest level of Insignos. The Insignos lived on the lowest clouds closest to the humans, which were like ants to the giants. Lately, Edgar and Lara were facing persecution by the upper crust of society by having garbage dropped on their cloud from the properties above. The shame and indecency of their social status was intolerable. Lara was a well-meaning housewife, who was dedicated to her husband, but the droppings were putting a strain on their relationship. Edgar worked on the human level, gathering lumber to make tables and chairs for the giants. His job was lowly, considering that he had to work near humans. Edgar was tired but trudged on, trying to make a better life for his wife and perhaps one day, children.
The next day Edgar headed to work. He kissed his wife goodbye and set off to the human-level. He dropped a few magic beans down to a remote area on Earth and waited a few minutes for his beanstalk. A luminous green stalk plunged into the sky and he slid down quickly to Earth. After he came down, he cut the stalk and threw it in a nearby lake. "the stench..the terrible stench" Edgar muttered. Humans were miles away, but the stench of the Englishmen filled his giant nostrils. Although, he was a victim of persecution himself, the constant belittling he faced made him a bitter giant. He hated all things low to the surface, and to be on the surface only reminded him of his failure as a provider. He brushed his thick brown air out of his face and began hoisting red oaks and maples from the forest floor. "Fee Fi Fo Fum, I hate these stupid Englishmen. Fee Fi Fo Fum, Humongs and Gargants are so dumb" he sang as he plucked each tree out. " When will I ever get to be one of those dumb humongs?...at least then, my wife will be happy and my kids will get to go to the good schools..." Edgar said to himself. Night approached and Edgar had to head back up to the cloud. He paused and looked at the sinking red sun in the distance. Sweat beads ran parallel to the tears streaming down his cheeks and before he could stop himself, the giant weeped in the empty forest.
Drained and exhausted, the giant finally made his way back to the area near his cloud. Before he dropped some beads, he noticed a stalk in the distance, seemingly attached to his cloud. He wondered if maybe he had left his stalk up earlier when he went to go gather trees. Being so tired, he didn' t feel like investigating the stalk that was further away, so he planted some seeds of his own and climbed back to his home. Kicking banana peels and toilet paper that littered his yard from the drops, he made his way home. Sadness left him, and he was now filled with anger. He stormed through his door and bellowed "Fee Fi Fo Fum, where's dinner!" Lara, surprised, hurriedly set up a table of bread and boiled potato stew. Edgar ate ravenously, filled with an unstatiable emptiness. Lara sat and watched him, herself, filled with a mixture of concern and resentment. Edgar pushed his plate away as he finished, and pulled his bag of gold coins out to count his gold coins. He counted over and over again until he dozed off into sleep at the table. Lara called her mother and thought of making plans to stay with her for a few days, but relented out of her deep love for Edgar.
The next morning, Edgar resumed the daily routine. He plucked more trees, but more violently this day. With no regard for the small forest animals or surroundings he plucked so fervently, he had doubled his normal amount. The anger was building in Edgar as he cursed the englishmen, the humongs, and the gargants. He hated them for being the little pieces in the system that was making him feel so isolated. The other insignos meant nothing to him, he thought of them as being the same shameful giant that he had become--worthless and indignant.
As the day ended, he forgot about the phantom beanstalk in the distance planted his own to go home. Kicking the heaping amount of garbage that had accumulated from the giants above, he stormed into his house again. On this day, he smelled a scent that was more familiar on Earth...he smelled the smell of an Englishman, but he ignored it. He couldn't gauge his senses properly anymore, anger had taken his awareness to an inconceivable level. Skipping dinner, he threw his gold coins down on the table and counted them. There were always 52, but today he counted 51. The veins in his forhead pulsed up and down as sweat covered his brow. "Lara! Lara! You took! How could you? How could you be so selfish!" Lara's jaw dropped, after all she's put up with, she couldn't believe Edgar could accuse of herof taking the very thing that gave them their lives back. Speechless and in tears, she couldn't tolerate the very accuasation against her, and ran to the bedroom. Edgar, knowing she didn't take it, spent the night awake cleaning the trash in their yard. Lara could hear him yelling and crying from her bedroom, and remembered a visitor that made it up to their home earlier that day...Angrily, she awaited his return so that her husband could have his vengeance.
The next day, Edgar sleepily went to the Giant market in the sky to make chairs and tables. He didn't take his stalk down to Earth so was near home. That day, Jack, the human who had visited Lara before, made another encounter with the now raging Lara. Jack climbed up on the table and asked Lara for some food. Lara, instead of squashing Jack on the spot, gave him some food. She kept him eating for awhile, knowing that her husband would be home soon. Before they knew it, 'thump thump thump' came Edgar screaming this time "Fee Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of and Englishman!" She told Jack to hide in the oven, like the day before, but this time, she told Edgar exactly where Jack was. Edgar was enraged, he ran toward the oven, with flashes of falling trash and the laughter of the humongs and gargants singing a sinister melody in his head. The Englishman reminded him of his insigno status, and worst of all, he knew that this piddly little ant had the audacity to steal from him, a giant. With adrenaline and irrationality coarsing through his portruding veins, Edgar chased the boy out of the house and into the yard. Tripping over trash and stumbling to the stalk, Edgar knew he had instilled enough fear into the boy into staying away forever. But no, Edgar refused to restrain himself, he was sick of being patient, sick of letting things go, so sick of it all. He chased Jack down the stalk and grew more enraged remembering that he could have cut this stalk himself when he saw it those days back. Jack hit Earth before Edgar and wieled an axe. Edgar froze, he was only half way down the stalk when Jack swung the axe with such force that Edgar was powerless to do anything. The stalk came tumbling down and the giant's body hit the ground with such force that the Earth shook for a considerable distance. Edgar lay, staring up at the clouds, breathing his last breath. Blood trickled from his body on the cold Earth, and he cried out for one last time screaming "Lara, Lara, I'm sorry, I'm sor....." and passed.
epilogue:
Edgar believed in the system that enslaved him, and therefore tried to succeed in a world of injustice. The frustration drove him to heights of anger and hate that reflected the struggle he faced. His tale tells of the impact of inequality and injustice on the oppressed and illustrates the extent of the mental battle that he succombed to. His wife, Lara, went on to fight for equality and fair treatment of all cloud levels. She succeeded in passing a law that prohibited trash dropping and named it the "Edgar Act" in her husband's memory. From then on, giant discrimination receded and is an issue that has made it into the awareness of the culture. The terms Gargant, Humong, and Insigno were banned as slurs, and are slowly fading from the modern giant vocabulary.Additionally, the selling of magic beans on Earth was prohibited by an act passed in a giant-human joint coalition against theft. Humans and giants traveled to eachother's world by permission of the the H-G Committee that issued and monitored the use of magic beans.
