Jack as a Modern Hero in His Beanstalk Story

Oct 22, 2026

Uploaded by Connor

A hero shaped by an adventurous quest is presented as a celebrated model of achievement, structured by recognizable patterns across both classical mythology and contemporary storytelling. The paper applies Northrop Frye’s mythical critique to the folktale Jack and the Beanstalk, examining how shared narrative progress organizes mythic meaning. Using characterization, plot, and theme, it highlights an overarching structure linking the hero’s journey to seasonal, daily, and life cycles.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Review of Related Literature

Discussion

World Applied Sciences Journal 37 (2): 118-120, 2019 ISSN 1818-4952 © IDOSI Publications, 2019 DOI: 10.5829/idosi.wasj.2019.118.120 Jack as a Modern Hero in His Beanstalk Story Layla Farouq Abdeen Department of English Language and Literature, The World Islamic Science and Education University, Amman, Jordan Abstract: A hero, who undergoes an adventurous quest, is a celebration of achievement. Despite the numerous stories existent in literature and the variety of details offered, heroes share a common structure of progress in each starting from classical mythology up to our contemporary time. This paper will attempt to highlight that structure by applying it to a classic folktale entitled Jack and the Beanstalk in light of Northrop Frye’s mythical critique. Key words: Jack Frye Hero Structure Folktale Jack and the Beanstalk INTRODUCTION The classic Jack and the Beanstalk is chosen for examination due to its popularity and existence in different versions of folklore forms around the globe. Folktales are traditional stories that have been passed on by word of mouth. Folktales of a culture are usually preserved as part of a long folk tradition reflecting the humor, romance and wisdom of the people in the culture. Folktales are the simplest form of narrative and are analyzed in terms of their structure. Folktales in general are part of folk literature, which is more widely referred to as folklore. They can be classified as one of the categories of folk storytelling. Many folklorists have labeled myths, legends and folktales as major narrative genres in folklore. Myths are stories that are considered sacred, legends are more secular recounting of actual events, while folktales are simpler narratives that share diverse structures with myths and legends. Objective: The objective of this paper is to shed light on Northrop Frye’s theory about how a hero in a story is related to a single pattern of significance in the seasonal cycle of the year, the solar cycle of the day and the organic cycle of life, out of which myth constructs a central narrative around a figure, who is partly the sun, partly a god or an archetypal human being based on the study of characterization, plot and theme in a literary story. This will be exemplified on the character of Jack in Joseph Jacob’s version of Jack and the Beanstalk [1], which appeared in 1890 as it is considered to be the closest to the oral variants and it is the one that is most commonly used in folktale collections. Review of Related Literature: Encyclopedia Britannica [2] states that a folktale travels with great ease from one storyteller to another. Since a particular story is characterized by its basic structure and by narrative motifs rather than by its verbal form, it passes language boundaries without difficulty. According to Harmon and Holman [3], the folktale paved the way for the development of the short story as a recognized genre in the 19th century in both Britain and America (468-469) . In “From Folktales to Fiction: Orphan Characters in Children’s Literature” [4] Melanie Kimball says that folklorists, psychologists, literary scholars and sociologists who study folktales agree that these stories represent more than simple entertainment for youngsters as the meaning contained in folktales varies according to who is reading, listening, or telling the story. She adds that the cultural context in which a folktale is read or heard and the sense that the individual teller tries to convey also play a major role in defining its meaning (560) . Joseph Campbell states in The Hero with a Thousand Faces [5] that there are basic stages all heroes go through regardless of the culture the myth or folktale belongs to. He calls these stages or this structure the “monomyth” Corresponding Author: Layla Farouq Abdeen, Department of English Language and Literature, The World Islamic Science and Education University, Amman, Jordan . World Appl. Sci. J., 37 (2): 11

FAQs

Why is the folktale Jack and the Beanstalk chosen for examination?

It is selected for its popularity and for existing in many global versions of folklore forms. The paper treats folktales as narrative structures that can be analyzed systematically.

What is the main objective of the paper?

To clarify how Northrop Frye’s theory connects the hero in a story to a single meaningful pattern across seasonal, daily, and life cycles, and how myth constructs a central narrative figure.

Which theoretical sources are used to interpret the hero’s journey?

The paper references Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism, Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and Vladimir Propp’s Morphology of the Folktale, alongside commentary from other scholarly sources.

Oct 22, 2026

Uploaded by Connor