To the typical audience reading “Jack and the Beanstalk” the story at first may be very unclear and not really teach any morals or lessons but once you analyze in depth it can affect you drastically like it did me. From my point of view The story involves a poor boy that has to overcome poverty, he has to grow up fast because he isn’t in charge of his own destiny. At the beginning of the story the Grimm brothers make it clear that Jack is the only son of a poor old widow who has nothing but a cow, they are living day by day selling the milk the cow produces in the market.
One morning milky- white produces no milk and jack and his mother are left with nothing. Jack tries to keep his head up ” cheer up mother, ill get work somewhere,” Jacks mother is shacking with agony because she knows that this could be the end. Even though jack can’t get work anywhere he still has a positive attitude towards the situation. It may be because he is too young and ignorant to understand life at this point in the story. Jacks mother sends him on a quest to the market to sell the cow.
His mother expect him to bring back five, ten, fifteen or even twenty pounds so they can start up a shop at least to get through this hardship. When jack takes off into the market he still has a child mindset. “This venture is a very important first step in Jack’s road to maturity, though it may not seem so at the time. This is the first time that we know of Jack’s mother ever sending him to the market. According to Bruno Bettelheim, this first encounter with the world represents the end of infancy for Jack. As Bettelheim reminds us, Jack’s mother demands that he “learn to make do with what the outside world can offer” .
Now that Jack can no longer expect his mother to do everything for him, he realizes that he must take steps toward maturity. As Bettelheim says, “The child then has to begin the long and difficult process of turning himself into an adult” jack’s process of adolescent maturation and socialization has begun. On the way to the market jack encounters a mysterious old man that wants to trade him 5 magical beans for milky-white. Jack knows that this is a gamble but then again the old man tells him “ If it doesn’t turn out true you can have your cow back”.
Jack knows that the money he will gets for the cow at the market will not last long , what will they do once they run out of money? This is Jack’s first act of independence and initiative. He doesn’t care about disobeying his mother. He sees this opportunity and decides to roll the dice , “this is an important process of adolescent maturation and socialization because selling the cow is an expression of the beginning of his personal initiative”. Jack gives the old man enough trust that these magical beans will somehow get him out of his struggle and hard times.
