Carol Ottolenghi's Jack And The Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk as retold by author Carol Ottolenghi is about a boy named Jack, whose mother sends him to the market to sell their cow. They just ran out of money and if he doesn’t sell the cow they won’t have any money to live. On his way to the market, a man stops Jack and says “I’ll give you five magic beans for your cow” (Ottolenghi 4). Now thinking as a child would, he accepted the man’s offer and sold the cow for five magic beans. When he goes home his mother is furious and throws the beans out the window. The next morning Jack awakes to giant beanstalk growing outside his house. Instead of informing his mother like “mom there’s a giant beanstalk outside I’m going to climb it.” Jack begins to climb the beanstalk without anyone knowing. That's when Jack stumbles upon a castle and guess who lives in the castle, giants. So, Jack knocks on the door and a giant woman opens the door. Jack introduces himself and says “he’s willing to work for food” (Ottolenghi 10). The giant woman accepts his offer and gives him the job of cleaning the floor. Her husband comes home soon after and she hides jack in a cupboard. The husband smells Jack, but his wife assures him it’s only breakfast. The giant man begins to count his money and falls asleep. Soon after Jack

She scolds him and then says “You were tricked, you silly boy! There are no such thing as magic beans" (Ottolenghi 5). If the property was truly theirs, why would she act is if she never saw the beans before in her life? The fact that she discarded the magic beans implies that she was lying when she told Jack the giants robbed them. If Jack’s father had been killed and robbed by the giants, this indicates that the giants would be hostile. The evidence shows the giantess only wanted to help Jack and offer him money or food in exchange for his work. Her husband was only concerned about Jack because he was inside their