KidLit Forum

American Fairy Tales by Frank L. Baum

a. The Box of Robbers
b. The Glass Dog
c. The Girl Who Owned a Bear
d. The Magic Bon Bons
e. The Capture of Father Time
- there is a certain pattern in these stories:
1. Children are left alone in : a. , c., d., e.
2. Children are of 12 years of age
3. The idea of being captive in a chest, box, book, lasso
- robbers come out of a chest after the girl opens it
- a clown, a moneky, a grey donkey, a leopard, a bear come out of a book and they all go back by the end of the story (like in the Toy Story movie)
4. All the stories have a moral EXCEPT for b. where the reader is invited to draw a conclusion
5. Same expressions are to be found in almost all the stories (at least in those mentioned above)
- to kick / knock all the globes off the chandelier : c., d.
- shopping in / at / in front of a big dry goods store: d., e.
- same activities: “sewed a few stitches in her embroidery”: a., c.
6. The doorbell that triggers the beginning of the end of the story and established the initial setting, gives the idea of how to get back to the initial setting; until then the girl is terrified, has no solutions to the created situation (The Box of Robbers, The Girl Who Owned a bear). The doorbell makes the difference between real and imaginary world as all the story may have been only in the girl’s imagination

Recontextualisation
7. Modern times jobes as opposed to ancient jobs: wizard (The Glass Dog), ancient chemist (The Magic Bon Bons); iceman, milkman, baker’s boy, laudry man, peanut woman, glass blower, Miss Mydas = a female King Midas
- explorer, layer, police inspector, clerk in a department store, politician as opposed to the Italian bandits
8. Payment for the done jobs:
- pay for the glass dog
- pay for the bon bons
9. The magic remedies are one of a kind:
- a drop of liquid for rheumatism : b.
- a box of coloured bon bons: d.
The Box of Robbers
- The Italian bandits in a chest could be a reference to:
- Illegal imigrants to the USA
- Illegal goods = smuggling if we consider the description of their clothes
- America is the promised land for imigrants: “A great deal can be done a a big American city”
Irony:
- About getting a honest job:
“You could be motor men on trolley cars, or clerck in a department store.” (…) it is rather hard to get positions in the gas office, but you might become politians.”
- About the times the stories were written:
“… Italy, where bandits are highly respected, and brought us to a strange country were we shall not know whom to rob or how much to ask for a ransom”
“And we had won such fine reputation in Italy!”
“ Perhaps uncle Walter wanted to reform you”, suggested Martha
“Are there, then, no bandits in Chicago?”asked Victor
“Well, replied the gir, blishing in her turn, w do not cll them bandits”
“Even in Chicago there must be people to rob”, remarked Victor
“I think they all have been robbed”, she objected.
“Then we can rob the robbers”
“You can’t remain bandits any longer, she said, because you are now in America”


The Glass Dog

Although it is the only story with no moral in the end (and the author invites the reader to get one), still there are hidden provesbs and sayings inside the text: the glass blower thinks that he will marry Miss Mydas and he goes home tryumphantly and “the first thing he did on reaching his room was to smash his glass-blowing tools and throw them out of the window” (the proverb that is depicted from his attitude: He is not poor that has little, but that he desires much / Don’t throw out your dirty water until you get in fresh)

Aestheticism characteristics is depicted in the description of the flower pot and the dog: “a blue glass flower pot with a pink glass rosebush in it, having green glass leaves and yellow glass roses”, “it was beautiful pink in colour, with a fine coat of spun glass, and about its neck was twisted a blue glass ribbon”

Birocracy of the time presented in a humorous way: “he spoke to the housekeeper and the housekeeper mentioned the matter to the steward and the steward consulted the chef and the chef kissed the lady’s maid and sent her to see the strange. Thus are the very wealthy hedged around with ceremony, even when dying”

There are also missmatches in this story: a strange diagnosys is given: “you may have glassophobia ” if you are bitten by the glass dog.

Recontextualisation …and humor

First of all there is a butler in service (which is not found in other fairy tales) who the moment he opens the door has a wrong impresson about the glass blower:
“The butler opended the door and said:
“No soap, no chromos, no vegetables, no hair oil, no books, no baking powder. My young lady is dying and we’ve well suplied for the funeral. (…) No thumbstones either, there is a family graveyard and the monument’s built”. AND
“No doctors, sir; they’ve all given up my young lady, and she’s given up the doctors”, continued the butler , calmly.
I’m not a doctor,” returned the glass blower.
“Nor are the others.”

_________________
Monika Bandi