Marx, Jack and the ‘Magic Beans’

I was hanging out with a few of my favourite 6 year olds today and we were reading Jack and the Beanstalk. While we were reading I came to a startling realization. For those who came late, here’s the classic children’s fairy tale in a nutshell:

Jack and his Mum are very poor. One day, Jack’s Mum sends him to the market to sell their only asset, the family cow. On the way, Jack encounters a mysterious stranger who offers him ‘magic beans’ for his cow. Jack accepts and returns home with his beans. Jack’s Mum is furious and throws them out the window. Overnight they grow to the clouds and Jack climbs the beanstalk to reach the ‘house in the cloud’, owned by an ogre. The ogre is very rich and Jack sees an opportunity. Jack and the ogre have an altercation, with the ogre stating, “I’ll grind his bones to make my bread’. Ultimately, Jack prevails and takes the ogre’s riches, killing the giant in the process. The prize possession is a ‘magic goose’, which lays golden eggs. Jack and his Mum live happily ever after.

Now to my suggestion that there’s more going on here than meets the eye, just humour me for a moment. Imagine the following:

The mysterious stranger is Karl Marx;

His ‘magic beans’ are Marx’s works Capital and The Communist Manifesto;

Jack is a revolutionary leader – say Lenin, Mao, or Castro;

Jack’s Mum is the proletariat;

The cow is labour value;

Grinding Jack’s bones is the exploitation of the proletariat;

The ogre is the bourgeoisie in his ‘castle in the sky’;

The golden egg is of course the ‘never ending’ supply of capital and wealth.

So what we see is a ‘clear’ allegory between Jack and the Beanstalk and revolutionary Marxism. If we view the story with these characters in mind we find:

Karl Marx (the mysterious stranger) brings his Communist manifesto (magic beans) to the proletariat (Jack’s Mum), to be used by revolutionary leaders Lenin, Mao and Castro (Jack) to end exploitation (the grinding of Jack’s bones to make ‘bread’) and destroy the bourgeoisie (the ogre), distributing its wealth (golden egg) to the proletariat.

Now don’t panic parents. I’m not espousing these theories with your children, converting to the evils of communism. But let’s hope that they might hear these classic stories and stop to re/consider our dominant ideolgies, be they good or bad.

Footnote: has anyone ever noticed that The Three Little Pigs is colonial propaganda… think about it.