Struwwelpeter (or Shockheaded
Peter) is a collection of German myths. They were created as ways for parents
to scare kids from them doing unwanted actions. They were essentially scare
tactics.
The
most well-known myth in this collection is the first: Stuwwelpeter.
This
story is about a young boy named Conrad. His mother tells him not to suck on
his thumb for a tailor always visits those who suck their thumbs. And with him,
the tailor brings a great pair of scissors and cuts off said thumbs. The mother
says that the tailor will cuts off his thumbs clean so they won’t ever be able
to grow back again.
The
story ends with the mother catching her son sucking on his thumb, and this tall
tailor runs in. He snips off the thumbs and that is the end! No more
thumb-sucking for Conrad.
Reading
this myth made me think of how common scare tactics are. I would think it’s
because they work so well, or at least get people thinking.
When
a person is shown the possibility of how some of their actions may end up, then
it’s definitely more likely for them to care about what they are doing. In the
very least, it gets an opinion out of people.
I
can see this applying to the writing of Rudyard Kipling in The White Man’s Burden.
In
this, Kipling writes in a slight bit of a scare tactic. It can be seen as a way
to get people thinking about imperialism and the choices that are made in
regards to it. I think The White Man’s
Burden can be seen as a bit of a scare tactic in that: countries adding more
land or people in their power do want to be respected in the new territory, and
for at least some of their customs to be implemented throughout it. The main
idea here is that there can be variances in how much you want customs
implemented.
Since
Kipling’s writing is so dramatic and opinionated in this, I think that the
scare tactic could work in two ways. It could either get people thinking about
how they are the superior race and they need to uphold that by doing these
certain things OR it could work that people realize how crazy that some of this
seems and they don’t want to be thinking like extreme imperialists.
The
main difference in comparing the scare tactic between Struwwelpeter and Kipling’s writing is that in Struwwelpeter, we see the immediate consequence of the actions.
Conrad sucked his thumb, oh, no more thumb. In The White Man’s Burden, there is no definite outcome of Kipling’s
point of view. His writing is more of a call to action instead of doing actual
action. Since it is a call to action, we don’t get to see a consequence. ( This
is related to the different purposes in the writing and also the different
audience! You wouldn’t tell a kid: don’t suck your thumb, things could happen! I
just don’t know what they would be!
In the story, Conrad is immediately warned of the tailor. In Kipling’s writing, it’s more of a text to consider and then one can act appropriately to that instead of seeing an immediate ‘this will happen if you do this.’)
In the story, Conrad is immediately warned of the tailor. In Kipling’s writing, it’s more of a text to consider and then one can act appropriately to that instead of seeing an immediate ‘this will happen if you do this.’)
I
found a link to Struwwelpeter to read
online if anyone is interested
It’s
short and fun!
