The short fiction piece I chose to analyze was “Little Man” by Michael Cunningham. According to The New Yorker, “Little Man” reinvents “Rumpelstiltskin.” The last time I read “Rumpelstiltskin” was an awfully long time ago, so after reading “Little Man,” I revisited my Tales from Grim children’s book and read “Rumpelstiltskin” to understand the parallels. The stories are quite similar, but they do have slight differences.
In “Little Man,” “a two-hundred-year-old gnome” yearns for a child. The short story is not in the third person point of view. It is in second person meaning you is used rather than he. The reader is supposed to imagine him/herself as the little man. A poor miller “told the King that his daughter can spin straw into gold.” …show more content…
I think the main theme of “Little Man” is peoples inner battle with kindness and greed. The man wants a child, but also cares for the girl who does not know reciprocate his feelings. At the end of the story, the man is divided by love and greed. He literally splits in half. In addition, I think this story displays the importance of completing an act of kindness but not expecting something in return. The little man’s expectation of receiving a child for helping the Queen gets him in trouble. The story’s characters are the miller, his daughter, the King, Aunt Farfalee, the Queen’s messengers, and the little man. The characters are not completely developed. The reader never uncovers the little man’s name. One literary device used in the story was imagery. The little man is described as “a twisted and stub-footed man, just under four feet tall, with a chin as long as a turnip.” This quote allows the reader to generate a mental image of the man. Another literary device used was irony. The little man tells the girl that he would “teach the child generosity and forgiveness,” which is ironic because lack of generosity and forgiveness is what gets the little man split into two. The reader also feels sympathy for the man because he simply just wants a child, yet he cannot have
In “Little Man,” “a two-hundred-year-old gnome” yearns for a child. The short story is not in the third person point of view. It is in second person meaning you is used rather than he. The reader is supposed to imagine him/herself as the little man. A poor miller “told the King that his daughter can spin straw into gold.” …show more content…
I think the main theme of “Little Man” is peoples inner battle with kindness and greed. The man wants a child, but also cares for the girl who does not know reciprocate his feelings. At the end of the story, the man is divided by love and greed. He literally splits in half. In addition, I think this story displays the importance of completing an act of kindness but not expecting something in return. The little man’s expectation of receiving a child for helping the Queen gets him in trouble. The story’s characters are the miller, his daughter, the King, Aunt Farfalee, the Queen’s messengers, and the little man. The characters are not completely developed. The reader never uncovers the little man’s name. One literary device used in the story was imagery. The little man is described as “a twisted and stub-footed man, just under four feet tall, with a chin as long as a turnip.” This quote allows the reader to generate a mental image of the man. Another literary device used was irony. The little man tells the girl that he would “teach the child generosity and forgiveness,” which is ironic because lack of generosity and forgiveness is what gets the little man split into two. The reader also feels sympathy for the man because he simply just wants a child, yet he cannot have