[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 40 KB, 400x300, the-very-hungry-caterpillar-01.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1470679 No.1470679 [Reply] [Original]

Sup, /lit/.
Let's discuss The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
How hungry was that caterpillar exactly? And what was the source of his hunger?

>> No.1470691

Written in 1969 it was really an allegory for the cold war.

>> No.1470699

>>1470691
His hunger is capitalist/consumerist greed. His cocoon is revolution. The butterfly is true communism.

>> No.1470705
File: 1.75 MB, 300x208, omgcat.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1470705

>>1470691
>my face when it all makes sense now

>> No.1470725

>>1470691
That... that actually makes sense.

>> No.1470736

>>1470699
I just reread the story and it all makes since now. I thought it was just a caterpillar eating itself fat then build a cocoon and sprout into a butterfly. But I can see I'm totally wrong now.

>> No.1470743

Symbolism aside, I think that we can all agree that Carle was really groundbreaking in his ability to involve the reader in the story. He wasn't interested in simply stringing the readers along a path and getting them sidetracked in back stories and pointless stock characters. No, what Carle wanted was his readers to understand only the journey of the caterpillar as it existed on it's own.

>> No.1470758

his hunger was an existentialist one, the hunger for meaning which would eventually, after a period of thought and self reflection (the cocoon), bring forward a more complete person (the butterfly)

>> No.1470759

>>1470743
The pictures reflect this as well, with the caterpillar and the fruits being lost in white space.

>> No.1470763

>>1470699

It seems to me more like man's ascent into space. He emerges from his egg hobbled by his form, but insatiably curious and consumes so much he becomes sick, then becomes dormant for a while, creating wonders within the cocoon, from which he emerges borne on wings and ready to reach the stars. Although the consumption of so much food might suggest the excesses and indulgences of capitalist society, he never seems to encounter competition, and he never owns anything; all he does is eat through stuff (which for all he know occurs naturally, even cheese and sausage). See Kardashev scale.

>> No.1470779

>>1470763
The Kardashev scale if anything is a perfect symbol of capitalist world view; that we need to consume more and more, even consuming stars. If that was the case, the hungry caterpillar would consume the entire universe.

Although, there are physical holes in the book, as if the very fabric of reality has been consumed... interesting.

>> No.1470800

We cannot truly know what the source of his hunger was. We can only have our own interpretations.

/Derrida

>> No.1470815

>>1470779

Now we're getting somewhere!

The Kardashev scale, as I see it, is apolitical. Communism as envisioned by Marx stipulates only that the means of production must be publicly owned. It sets no limits upon consumption, expansion, progress, or demand for energy. I think that either a communist or capitalist society will pursue scientific and philosophical inquiry indefinitely,

>> No.1470844

I love you /lit/

I'm not smart enough to add anything to this discussion, nut at least I understand the humour!

>> No.1470867

>>1470679
well, i saw that the plot was social criticism, only through consumerism and the desire for material things, and then want for even better more intricate material things will society better itself, and become better overall( the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly)