Behind the Meaning of the Elusive Nursery Rhyme, “The Gingerbread Man”

One of the glories about being a child is the eye-opening days when confections like cookies enter our world. Sometimes industrious parents even introduce their children to life-like pastries like the delectable Gingerbread Man. Indeed, he’s a character we’ve all heard of ever since we were young.

And when we’re introduced to the cookie, we’re introduced to the story, complete with the refrain, Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me. I’m the Gingerbread Man! But what is this part-fairy tale, part-nursery rhyme all about? Let’s dive into the meaning of the work below.

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Food Comes To Life

For as long as human beings have lived in societies, we’ve been cooking. There is something magical to the process. You combine ingredients, turning basics like flour and sugar, into balls of dough that spring to life with flavor and anticipation. Then you shape those balls of dough into delectable confections and pop them into an oven—heat, fire—that warm dark cavernous appliance. Then, using that heat, the stuff turns the dough into something life-giving: food.

But what if that life-giving object was alive, itself. Such is the subject of several fairy tales and nursery rhymes throughout history, including the German, The Big, Fat Pancake. But the story of the Gingerbread Man is the most famous, of course, even appearing prominently in the billion-dollar movie franchise, Shrek.

Human Beings Don’t Want To Be Alone

But if we, as bakers or as storytellers, are able to conceive of a pastry coming to life, what is next? Taking that imaginative prospect further, it’s something like parenthood. And what is a parent’s greatest fear? Losing their child. So, given this, it makes sense to think about this cookie person coming to life and then running off, as the Gingerbread Man famously does. It’s our greatest joy meeting our greatest worry.

But what comes of him in the tale? In the traditional story, which first appeared in a 1875 issue of St. Nicholas Magazine, he outruns farmers, workers and even animals, dashing away from the place where he was created, skirting work, skirting society itself. The lesson in all that? Well, the Gingerbread Man, tasty as he is and as alone in the world as he makes himself, is eaten up by a sly fox.

The lesson? Nature and cunning and violence will get you in the end, especially if you forget where you’ve come from. And we as readers of the story learn all this through the lens a cute, cartoonish character like a cookie.

Final Thoughts

Known for the spirited lyric, Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me. I’m the Gingerbread Man!, the Gingerbread Man is let down in the end. He is outwitted by the hungry fox and devoured piece by piece. Indeed, in some versions of the tale, he cries out, “I’m quarter gone…I’m half gone…I’m three-quarters gone…I’m all gone!”

Perhaps he should have stayed with his maker, not run about and flouted those on the farm (where his ingredients come from) and neglected to even insult those around him. Stay in your place, Gingerbread People, it’s the way to long life and salvation!

In the end, though he thought he was special, the Gingerbread Man was as vulnerable as anything on Earth. He should have known better. That’s what we find out from the story. At least now we know.

Photo by Stuart Wilson/Getty Images