Jack and the Beanstalk Compare and Contrast

Similarities

Plot:

• Climb a vine to get to a giant's home

Characters:

• A vine climber
• A mother
• A giant
• The giant's wife

Solution:

• Steal from the giant
• Sell what they get

Kate (not plus 8) and the Beanstalk

Problem:

• Family is out of money
• Needs to sell their pet/farm animal

When Mary Pope Osborne found the Jack in the Beanstalk story, she thought that she should throw her two cents into the mix as well. When she did it though, it was a bit different from the original. She made the main protagonist Kate, a young girl who lives on a ranch with her mother and her favorite cow. When she is forced to sell her, she is stopped by a strange man with a bag of beans. He claims that they are magic beans that will be grow into an amazing miracle. All that the man wants in return is the cow. After hearing this, she gladly makes the trade. She then runs home to tell her mom the great news. After she finishes explaining what she has done, her mother gets furious. Her mother then takes the beans from her daughter's hand and throws them to the ground. Over night, they grow into a giant beanstalk. During the night, Kate ran away and went up the stalk. Once she reached the top, she found a giant castle. Upon knocking on the door, a woman came to answer the door. When she did, she asked why the girl was here. Kate said she wanted to get food for her family. The woman graciously lets her in and gets her some food. While eating, the woman decides to tell Kate that all the golden items in the castle were stolen from an old knight by her husband, the giant that lives in the castle. Kate believes that she knows the knight the woman is talking about, and decides to take the items to him. After she finishes eating, Kate asked the woman if she could help move the gold items somewhere else. The woman agrees and tells her to move it outside. From there, Kate takes the items she deems the most valuable, a golden harp and a bag of gold coins, and jumps down the vine. From there, she goes to the knight and gives the items back. He allows her to keep them for being valiant, and now has enough money to sustain their family.

Paco and the Giant Chile Plant

This story starts similarly. Paco and his mom do not have any money. Paco must take his cow to sell it at the market. He is then stopped by a man with a bag. He says that he will trade the bag of magic seeds beans for the cow. Paco accepts this and takes the seeds home and plants them. Over night, the beans grew into a giant plant. Paco then climbed the plant to the top. At the top, he found a giant castle. He went in undetected and found many golden chile peppers. He started to take them and was then found by the giant that lived there. He yelled at Paco to put the plants back. He did not do as he was told. He began to run down the vine back to his house. The giant soon caught Paco and lifted him up to his mouth, he was going to eat him! Just as he lifted him to his eye to take a good look at him, Paco pulled a string on the bag that was given to him. Remnants of peppers shot out onto the giants eye and began to burn his eye. This allowed Paco enough time to escape down the vine. From there, he cut down the vine and went to sell his new golden chili peppers. He was given more money than he could have ever imagined. After that, Paco took the money back to his mom and she was overjoyed. They now had enough money to sustain themselves.

Original Jack and the Beanstalk

In the original story, a boy named Jack needs to trade his horse for some money in the market. He gets stopped by a man with a bag and says there are magic beans inside. Jack willingly trades his horse for them and runs back to his mom. His mom sees him and expects him to come with money. When she sees the beans, she gets upset. His mother then explains that they are they will have to eat until Jack goes to work in town. Jack explains that if they plant them, they will grow into an amazing plant that will supply them with food. His mother does not believe him, so she throws them onto the ground. Over night, the beans grow into a giant bean stalk Jack climbs it up to the top and sees a giant castle. He goes up to it and yells into it to ask for some food. A woman opens up the door and lets Jack in. From there, he notices the giant, hides inside the castle, and begins to steal his riches. He got a hen that lays gold eggs and a golden lyre before the giant found him. He chased Jack down the beanstalk. He calls for his mom to get the ax, and she begins to hack at the stalk. Jack got down safely but the giant could not. They now have more money than they know what to do with.

Jack and the Beanstalk Compare and Contrast

Differences

Type of animal sold:

• Some Cow
• Some Horse

Gender of protagonist:

• Some male
• Some female

Type of vine climbed:

• Some were beanstalks
• One was a chile plant

Cultures:

• One Spanish
• One European
• One American

By Nakota Newman