Short Story Analysis: Saint Nicholas and the Children

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Short Story Analysis:

1. About the story:

- Summary:

This story is about two twin indian children who lost their parents and went to live with their grand-mother in the forest. One day the grand-mother got sick and sent the children to get a piece of meat to prepare broth and get better. The children sought and sought, then, they found an old-man who gave them a whistle each, to call St. Nicholas if they were in danger. The old-man told them that the butcher was the only man with meat available at this time, however, there were stories that tell that he was a mean man. The kids went to the butcher to get the meat for their grand-mother, in his shop, the butcher killed them and traded them for meat and fur with a giant who was crazy about children taste. The children before entered the shop had blown the whistle and St. Nicholas heared it. However, he was far away from children and took his time. When he arrived, he percieved the meanness in the air, where the butcher and the giant were pickling the children in brine. He rescued the children, brought them back to live and killed the butcher and the giant in the same fashion they did to the children. Finally, St. Nicholas took the children back with meat to their grand-mother who got better.

- Characters:

Twin Children

Saint Nicholas

The Grand-mother

The Old-man

The Giant

- Stages:

Beginning: The fairy tale talks about the story of two twins children who live with their grandma, she works to try to sustain their grandsons but she gets sick and can not continue bringing the meat that is the main food of this family. So now, the grand children have to find the meat to their grandma so that she can get strength and get well again.

Plot: The children move from their home and go through the forest to find the meat but they can find anywhere except in the butcher's shop whose an old-man warns that he is a wicked fellow and sometimes little children who enter his shop never come out again. And it happens so the two twins children are part of a deal which a giant agrees to give the butcher all his meat in exchange for the children.

Ending: The children are put into a barrel and the children blow the whistles the old-man of the House of Boughs had given them if they were in danger in order to call Saint Nicholas to rescue them . And it happens; Saint Nicholas hears their request and goes for them but first, he push the butcher into a barrel and cover it and then, Saint Nicholas took a large bone and struck the giant a powerful blow on the head so, he fell into a hogshead which was covered by Saint Nicholas, and it was the end of the giant. Then, he brought children to life and got them back home with their grandma.

- Setting:

Time: it is a snowy weather where it was not easy to find meat or whatever food, due to the forest was covered by snow and the animals were hibernating.

Place: It was a remote place in the Canadian forest.

Traditions: During the winter season, the fur and the meat were important things for peasants Canadians because of they provide the protection, hot, and calories necessary to survive the lows temperatures of the winter, reasons for which the life of the children in this story overestimate so much as the value of the fur and meat and they were form of exchange.

- Socio-political context: Canada in the 1920's

2. Main Theme: the Good and the Evil

In this fairy tale good is represented by sublimes concepts like love, justice, solidarity and innocence. For instance, love is embodied by the children, their commitment with their grandmother’s health (going beyond their strengths, until risking their lives); furthermore, the grand-mother is an act of love herself, because being old, agreed to receive the children, becoming in a provider where she should be a receiver. Furthermore, solidarity is portrayed by the old-man, who helped the children when they were lost in the forest. He provided them with a magic tool (St. Nicholas’ whistle) and knowledge to face danger (he warned them about the butcher). Innocence is not only portrayed by the children, where were not aware of the dangers of the forest and of wicked people, but innocence is also shown in the old-man, who didn’t know why children entered the butcher’s shop but never come out. Finally, justice is represented by St. Nicholas, who re-arranges the natural order of the nature by saving the children and punishing the butcher and the giant. On the other hand we have the evil. It is performed by the treachery, the wicked actions and thoughts, the gula, the ambition and the lost of values. All this is embodied by the butcher and the giant who trade meat and fur for children to be eaten. Treachery is represented by the butcher, who betrays his people’s traditions for ambition. Ambition is a well portrayed concept entailing society’s beliefs and human’s wish of power. Wicked actions and thoughts are performed to show how evil could be humans and as well, how justice should work.

3. What does ___________ symbolize in the story?

- The Children: they symbolize the innocence. In social terms, they are a society in development: they're dependent on the grand-mother (this could be seen as an economical dependence); and, they are building and acquiring knowledge (they are learning the know-how of their culture, then developing their own identity).

- St. Nicholas: he embodies the justice. Saint Nicholas is the re-arranger of the natural order (he punishes mean people in the same degree of their evilness)

- The Grand-mother: she is the provider of knowledge, values, traditions and culture. She is the model to be followed, she is the maximum expression of the identity of their people.

- The Old-man: he is the voice of the conscience. He is the patriarch of the forest. He does as a starting Master: he is the bridge between the Gods and the human beings. The old-man gives the tool to the children to defend themselves from evil: the knowledge of the evilness of the butcher; the whistle to call St. Nicholas (i.e. to set justice when the natural order is altered).

- The Butcher: he represents the spoiled society. He embodies the typology of traitors. He has two faces: on one side, he wants to appear as a powerful man, with an important job; on the other, he has sold his soul to a powerful lord in order to get his powers. Then he symbolizes the weakness of the soul, the ambition.

- The Giant: he is the pure evil. The adjective wicked gains its ultimate sense in him: going beyond reasonable or predictable limits (Merriam-Webster online dictionary). We ask ourselves: why does he prefer children over animal meat (he is a great hunter)? It is because this Giant is not human in fact. He makes reference to the Bible's giants, beings with enormous strength and abilities to handle tools (they were fallen angels). The Giant feeds of the innocence of the children and want them very salt to get the picture nastier.

- The Meat: it represents the power. The one who possesses meat is able to control others, or at least is in a privileged position in the social hierarchy.

4. Second theme: the sense of justice

- How is justice portrayed here in the story?

Justice is seen as assignment of punishment. It is the establishment of rights. St. Nicholas, the provider of justice (the justice itself) acts according to the principle of right action. However, this sense of justice is still undeveloped because it sees justice as an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

5. Third theme: the loss of innocence
- How were the children before meeting the butcher?

They trust in other people, they weren't afraid of strangers, take decisions when they face problems (search meat while their grand-mother was sick), they have an open mind when find with the old-man of the whistles and believe that when they blow them Saint Nicholas will come to rescue if they are in danger, when they get a benefit they always think of their grandma to get it too ( it happens when the butcher give food in his house and they ask for her).

- How are the children after St. Nicholas miracle?

After St. Nicholas miracle, the children obtained a certain degree of maturity (after such an experience who could still be a child) towards environment –including people–. In other words, now, the children are aware of evilness that is present in any human action and anywhere.