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SHREK--Chapters 2 and 3 |
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SHREK--Chapters 2 and 3 |
Chapter 2
Here we see a number of fairy tale creatures. Can you name five of the stories these creatures are from?
The soldier says, "Twenty pieces of silver for the witch." Silver, of course, was used for money is various parts of the world. However, most people of European/Christian heritage known that Judas betrayed Jesus to the Romans and in return received thirty pieces of silver. Thus, receiving pieces of silver here also indicated betrayal as owners are selling their precious animal friends and Geppetto sells his creation--his wooden boy Pinocchio.
In this chapter we meet Donkey, who talks a lot. He starts off with reference to a children's game playing with words: "You might have seen a house fly, maybe even a super fly, but I bet you ain't never seen a donkey fly!" The fun of it comes from using a word as either a noun or a verb. Here's how it works.
You start with a compound noun made up of a modifier and noun. Those that work best are those that describe different types of that noun. For example, here we have fly. There are many kinds of flies. There are ordinary flies that sometimes get into our houses, especially when we are cooking some good-smelling food. There are usually called house flies. There are larger flies that are often found around animals such as horses. These big flies are called horse flies.
You've learned in linguistics class that in these kinds of compounds where the modifier delimits the type of noun the stress falls on the first word, so in horse fly, the stressed word is horse. In the game, you ask, "Have you ever seen a horse fly?" but you change the stress to the second word--fly--and it changes the meaning of fly to a verb and means Have you ever seen a horse that was flying?
In the game, children compete by thinking up more funny examples. It only works when the second word of the noun compound can also be a verb. Thus, fly is a good one. There are also many examples with box and bowl (both can be the verbs of sports). There are also single examples, such as "Have you ever seen an ear ring?" (earring) Try to think of some other examples.
Now you can see why what Donkey says is so funny.
Tic Tacs, a mint candy whose purpose is to freshen your breath. When Shrek tries to scare Donkey, Donkey tells him, "...you definitely need some Tic Tacs 'cause your breath stinks!"
Varieties of English
Donkey uses double negatives, such as "...you ain't never seen...", typical of American Black English Vernacular.
Shrek says, "That would be my home." a rather more British usage. An American would more likely say "That's my home."
Chapter 3
Here again we see the creatures from a number of fairy tales. How many stories can you see represented? Can you name the stories?
Shrek says, "Dead broad off the table!" Broad here is a disrespectful term referring to a woman.