The Little Red Hen study guide

Little Red Hen

Little Red Hen cares for her chicks while completing the work that turns wheat into bread. Her refusal to feed the three unwilling helpers shows that she connects the reward with participation.

Pig

Pig cares about eating and growing fat, but he refuses every task involved in making bread. His offer to eat the finished bread shows his interest in the reward without the work.

Cat

Cat refuses to help and laughs nearby while Little Red Hen makes bread. The later offer to eat it shows a contrast between Cat's unwillingness to contribute and willingness to benefit.

Rat

Rat refuses every task and spends time admiring himself in a mirror. His wish for the finished bread shows how his attention to himself contrasts with any willingness to help.

chicks

The chicks are Little Red Hen's children, and their need for food and attention interrupts her work.

Work and reward

The finished bread brings the difference between working and merely wanting into view, because the three animals offer to eat after refusing every task. Little Red Hen's answer shows that she treats participation as the basis for receiving the reward.

Care and responsibility

Little Red Hen's work includes both making bread and caring for chicks who need her attention.

Persistence

Little Red Hen continues working even though the other animals repeatedly refuse to help and her chicks interrupt her. Completing the bread shows persistence through repeated demands, rather than a willingness to work only when help is available.

Refusal and fairness

The animals refuse the work, and Little Red Hen later refuses their offers to eat the result. This reversal suggests that fairness involves a connection between what someone contributes and what that person expects to receive from others' effort.

Wheat seed

The wheat seed works as an image of possibility that requires effort. Its change into bread shows the connection between a useful discovery and the work needed to develop it.

Bread

Bread works as the visible reward for work the animals refuse to do. Little Red Hen's refusal to let them eat it shows how that reward becomes a question of fairness.

Repeated refusals

The repeated refusals show a continuing unwillingness to contribute, rather than a single missed opportunity. Little Red Hen's final refusal works as a reversal of the animals' own behavior.

Little Red Hen, Part 1. Little Red Hen speaks when the animals offer to eat after refusing the work. Her answer shows a firm connection between contributing effort and receiving its reward.