An Interpretation of Realism in Mother Goose

Abstract

For a long time, children's nursery rhymes have been an important tool to help children learn letters and numbers, since nursery rhymes have been considered as an important means to improve children's language ability. Through nursery rhymes, children can learn a lot of literary knowledge. By interpreting nursery rhymes, we can further analyze their hidden values in culture. However, nursery rhymes can also reflect the dark side of human nature and society from the social, humanistic, historical and moral levels. 

At present, the analysis on nursery rhymes maybe less and not focus on the history behind the nursery rhymes, so this article try to discuss the story behind the nursery rhyme from the perspective of realism. And through the social reality readers can understand the real story background, so as to better interpret the similar others works.

This article is divided into three parts: the first part briefly introduces nursery rhymes and Mother Goose. The second part mainly introduces realism and its manifestation in Mother Goose, and analyzes it with specific nursery rhymes. The third part mainly discusses the social problems and the social reality reflected in Mother Goose. Finally, it can help us better understand the social background and reality at that time. 

Through the analysis of some nursery rhymes, historical stories can be seen. That implicit information can even reflect reality better than historical records. Through the depiction of distorted characters, abstract images and strange storylines, the British society's reality has been reviewed and criticized.

Key words: Mother Goose; realism; nursery rhyme; politics; society