The Little Red Hen

Stay away from her bread.

Hello, readers. Today's story comes to us from the United States of America. The Little Red Hen is a story about not rewarding laziness, among other things. Click the link above to read the story, and continue below to think about it with me.

This story is different from some fairy tales. There was no driving need for the Little Red Hen to plant that wheat. Some stories have a person who needs to be rescued or a villain to defeat. This story just had a hen who decided she would plant some wheat. I wonder if she forgot about it sometimes. After all, wheat takes awhile to grow.

We see throughout the process of making a loaf of bread that the hen does everything by herself. She asks for help, but no one else helps her at any step. I'm struck by her response after everyone says no. She says, "Then I will." Again, this wasn't necessarily something that had to be done. It was all voluntary, but the hen decided it needed to happen, so when no one else would help, she did it on her own. There's no kingdom or lives at stake, but there is a future loaf of bread at stake, which was obviously important to the hen. There's a whole lot of resonance in that idea, so I'll say it again. It didn't have to happen, but when no one else would do it, she did it by herself.

Throughout this bread journey, the hen never complains about having to do all of the work on her own. She just does it. Then at the very end, when the bread is finally done, she says they'll see who will eat it. All of the animals who told her they wouldn't help before said they'd eat it. The hen says that they won't be able to get it, and then feeds it to her chicks. I had forgotten that she didn't just eat it herself. We can't say that she's selfish, not that I would anyway. But when it was finally time to get the fruits of her labor, she shared them with her kids. And not the animals who refused to help her.

There are a lot of themes in this story of not taking advantage of others, and in standing up for what you want. But I also want to talk about how the hen takes care of her family. They aren't mentioned at all until the very end. I'm not sure if chicks would have been able to help her, but she didn't ask them. We'll leave aside the length of time that chickens stay chicks compared to the length of time needed to grow wheat and go through all the steps to make bread. The hen never asks her chicks for help and at the very end, they get the bread anyway. They weren't able to do it for themselves, so the hen did it for them. In contrast, the other animals could have done any or all of the steps, and they got nothing. So, there are also themes in here about taking care of your family, as well as those who can't take care of themselves.

All of that out of a short fairy tale!

The moral of this week's story is, if you want something, be prepared to work for it. Alternatively, make sure you thank people who do things for you, you won't be a little chick forever.

Have a different moral? Confused about how a hen could go to a mill and get flour? Have a different story you want me to talk about? Comment below! I will do my best to respond to comments quickly.