The little red hen
Retribution! Vindication! Just desserts and comeuppance!
This is my favourite fable of all time and I knew I had to create a piece in honour of the “little” red hen, who is small only in name, not in spirit. Her fortitude is admirable and her single-minded commitment to the task at hand is astounding. The tale begins when our determined heroine decides to bake bread from scratch. And I mean from SCRATCH; this fine feathered fowl resolves to bake a loaf before she even has access to flour. Nay, before the wheat has even been planted! (OK, OK, so the story doesn’t start with her decision to bake bread per se, it starts with her finding wheat seeds, but I can only assume that she had the bread thing in mind the whole time. That’s my interpretation, take it or leave it) Anyway, does absence of flour, arguably the most important ingredient in bread, stop her? Absolutely not! I’m ashamed to admit that I have often forgone bread because the three-minute walk to the corner store seemed like too much of a bother, but she was resolute. She had a craving for carbs and, lack of access to flour be damned, she was going to have it! So she sets to work; she plants the seeds that she found, she cuts the wheat when it’s grown, she threshes, (dear God, she THRESHES! When is the last time you threshed something? Ever? I bet not), she takes the wheat to the mill and grinds it into flour, she prepares and kneads the dough, she bakes the bread and at long last, she indulges.
Now we come to the moment of vindication. I think it’s pretty obvious that one of the hen’s faults is her choice of the company she keeps. Her “friends” suck. They not only sit idly by while she is toiling away at all of the stages of bread making from seed to table but they actively refuse to help her when she asks them to. AND THEN, they have the utter audacity to tell her that they would like to help her eat the bread, the fruit of her months and months of hard work. HOW DARE THEY?!?!?! Well, the hen sticks to her guns and lets them have it (not the bread, though). They indeed would not be eating the bread. SHE would be eating the bread, and in some versions of the story, her chicks as well. Ha ha! There you have it, comeuppance in all its glory! If you don’t do the work, you shouldn’t reap the spoils!
In my searches about the little red hen I have come across some less than favourable opinions of her, namely that she was a control-freak because she kept her plans to herself. Perhaps if she had told her “friends” her bread plan from the beginning they would have helped. I don’t agree with this take on the fable. I enjoy the sweet victory of bread denial and I don’t think others should only be willing to help out if there is promise of personal gain. I’ve also come across a theory that the little red hen should have changed the way she asked for help. This is victim blaming, plain and simple. Guffaw! So what’s the take away? Well, if you want the bread you better have put in the work. Oh and for goodness sake, if you see someone threshing something (anything!) by themselves, offer to lend a hand!
This is my favourite fable of all time and I knew I had to create a piece in honour of the “little” red hen, who is small only in name, not in spirit. Her fortitude is admirable and her single-minded commitment to the task at hand is astounding. The tale begins when our determined heroine decides to bake bread from scratch. And I mean from SCRATCH; this fine feathered fowl resolves to bake a loaf before she even has access to flour. Nay, before the wheat has even been planted! (OK, OK, so the story doesn’t start with her decision to bake bread per se, it starts with her finding wheat seeds, but I can only assume that she had the bread thing in mind the whole time. That’s my interpretation, take it or leave it) Anyway, does absence of flour, arguably the most important ingredient in bread, stop her? Absolutely not! I’m ashamed to admit that I have often forgone bread because the three-minute walk to the corner store seemed like too much of a bother, but she was resolute. She had a craving for carbs and, lack of access to flour be damned, she was going to have it! So she sets to work; she plants the seeds that she found, she cuts the wheat when it’s grown, she threshes, (dear God, she THRESHES! When is the last time you threshed something? Ever? I bet not), she takes the wheat to the mill and grinds it into flour, she prepares and kneads the dough, she bakes the bread and at long last, she indulges.
Now we come to the moment of vindication. I think it’s pretty obvious that one of the hen’s faults is her choice of the company she keeps. Her “friends” suck. They not only sit idly by while she is toiling away at all of the stages of bread making from seed to table but they actively refuse to help her when she asks them to. AND THEN, they have the utter audacity to tell her that they would like to help her eat the bread, the fruit of her months and months of hard work. HOW DARE THEY?!?!?! Well, the hen sticks to her guns and lets them have it (not the bread, though). They indeed would not be eating the bread. SHE would be eating the bread, and in some versions of the story, her chicks as well. Ha ha! There you have it, comeuppance in all its glory! If you don’t do the work, you shouldn’t reap the spoils!
In my searches about the little red hen I have come across some less than favourable opinions of her, namely that she was a control-freak because she kept her plans to herself. Perhaps if she had told her “friends” her bread plan from the beginning they would have helped. I don’t agree with this take on the fable. I enjoy the sweet victory of bread denial and I don’t think others should only be willing to help out if there is promise of personal gain. I’ve also come across a theory that the little red hen should have changed the way she asked for help. This is victim blaming, plain and simple. Guffaw! So what’s the take away? Well, if you want the bread you better have put in the work. Oh and for goodness sake, if you see someone threshing something (anything!) by themselves, offer to lend a hand!