Comparative analysis of fairytales “Колобок” and “The Gingerbread Man” Aspect

Comparative analysis of fairytales “Колобок” and “The Gingerbread Man”

Aspect: Cultural specifics

Given two fairytales and their similarities are the evidences that all the nations live in one planet and develop with one general rule of history. But, at the same time fairytales demonstrate the national originality of the folklore of each nation. The heroes of fairy tales resemble both their speech and the behavior of the people of the country where these tales exist.

The beginnings of the works are similar to fairytales of each folklore, Russian and English: “Жил-был…” and “Once upon a time…”. Then, there are given settings, which describe the space of events. In “Колобок” it is “изба” which considers to the old Russian house made from wood. Describing this kind of house we can observe in many other tales related to this nation. Besides that, it shows us that old man and woman live poorly, so they cook “колобок” in order not to be hungry. While our English characters are rich as they have a big farm and kinds of domestic animals in it. These signs mean that, maybe they have all conditions, but cannot have their own children, so the old woman wanted to cook a “child” for them: “I made you because I wanted a baby”. It is not a coincidence that she found the recipe in her old cook book on page number 4, which symbolizes being, life, the safety and security of home, the need for stability and strength on a solid foundation of values and beliefs.

The houses in both tales are the symbol of safety, whereas forest in Russian tale and river in English one are the signs of LIFE and animals depict life experiences. Колобок and Gingerbread man are the young people who are naive and ingenuous and they want to be free from their creators, thinking that they can live independently. However, they can`t stand the test of life and fail it trusting to sly fox. This failure brings to terrible end in the Russian fairytale: Kolobok thought that sang song by him can always release from all enemies but at the end fox eats him up. Children are also like this, they want freedom when they are not ready for the real life. Except naivety, these heroes have the characters resembling pure childish mood, like cheerfulness and naughtiness. These heroes teach us that independent life is not easy, and without experience we can lose many things in our life.

There are some characters which are similar, like old man, old woman and fox, but the other personages are different. In English fairytale they are all domestic animals that can be not as dangerous as wild animals who act in Russian version. Moreover, every wild animal has its Russian nickname, like “косой зайчик”, “серый волк”, “косолапый”, which are common to almost all Russian fairytales. Furthermore, the fox is a female character while others are male, and it shows deceptive and sly character typical to women. And here we can understand that the worst enemy is not the one who is physically menacing, but the one who is spiritually dangerous. The fox is insidious, she does not threaten Kolobok, but flatters: “Здравствуй Колобок! Какой ты хорошенький”. This turned out to be enough for him to lose not only his suspicion, but also discretion, and he jumps first to the fox on its face, and then on its tongue.

The police officer and office worker in “The Gingerbread man” are the personages who show the ordinary English workers. A fox as an only wild animal in this story, pose a threat and danger, but old woman shows how much she loves a gingerbread man and rescues him in the end. Because she cooked him with love: “I like biscuits. No, I love biscuits” she says while choosing what to cook. In the contrast, old woman in “Колобок” is lead to cook a biscuit by old man; she herself doesn’t want to do it, because of lack of ingredients.

The creators of Kolobok and Gingerbread man mention us the parents, who always take care and teach us. They make these creatures but their creations go away from them, and they are proudly singing about it, forgetting that it will be harder without them.

As a result of comparing these two tales, we can say that despite the fact that they are composed in different countries and with different traditions, they are slightly similar. But at the same time, they have differences, which confirm the conclusion that a fairy tale can be borrowed from one country, where local traditions, folklore and the people themselves can influence it.