"The Talking Eggs" Multicultural/Traditional Reflection

The Talking Eggs  by Robert D. San Souci

San, S. R. D. (1989). The talking eggs: A folktale from the American South. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers.






"The Talking Eggs" is a multicultural tale based upon a Creole folktale. It also has a traditional feel of a version of a Cinderella story. Young Blanche is treated terribly by her evil mother and sister, but remains kind and sweet. When she comes across a strange old woman in the woods who needs a drink of water, Blanche doesn't hesitate to share her water with her. Because the old woman saw how kind-hearted she was she came to find her in the woods again. The old woman took her back to her home, but asked her not to laugh at anything she saw. Blanche went with the old woman and never laughed, even though some of the things she saw were rather strange (a cow with two heads and colorful chickens who sang like mockingbirds.) She continues to be kind and respectful to the old woman, even when she pulls her head off! She does everything the old woman asks her to do without complaining. Before she leaves the old woman told Blanche to go to the chicken house to get some eggs to take home with her. She says only take the ones that say "take me", which turn out to be the plain looking eggs while others have gold, silver, and jewels on them. Being honest as Blanche is she only takes the plain eggs, even thought she really wants the others. However, as she is walking home she throws the eggs over her should just as she was told. Every last eggs turns into something valuable! She is so excited to bring her new found treasures home to her mother and sister.

Once Blanche gets home her mother schemes a plan to send her evil sister, Rose to find the old woman and get some of these talking eggs. However, Rose was not sweet and kind, but rather rude and sharp-tongued. She laughs at the animals and complains about every chore the old woman asks her to do. When she goes to the chicken coop she immediately grabs the eggs that said "don't take me". While Rose is on her way home she threw the eggs behind her which created a group of angry, dangerous animals that followed her and her mother all the way into the woods. Meanwhile, Blanche takes her treasures and moves to the city, where she lives like a grand lady but remains as kind and generous as always. 

I thought this story was a twist on the traditional Cinderella tale because of the mean, evil mother and sister as well as the sweet, skin, selfless protagonist, Blanche. Her personality was very evident in the way she spoke to the old woman and did everything she asked with courtesy and respect. She was a hard worker just as Cinderella was, and in the end her hard work and sweet personality paid off.  

This story would be great to teach theme, as the lesson in this story is very clear. When you treat others well and are sweet and kind, good things happen. I would also use it for character analysis, Blanche and Rose are so different. There are also many different actions the girls do in the story that students could use as evidence for how they describe each character. You could use this story to compare and contrast the two characters, Rose and Blanch. Or a challenging activity would be to have students compare this story to a more traditional version of Cinderella. There are several similarities and differences between the two stories.