“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.”
I have always been fond of nursery rhymes and short stories. Not because I can’t understand long and drawn out novels, but because the authors of these could create so much meaning using a minimal amount of words. Some would even take 20 pages, with drawings and colors, yet after digesting the whole piece, I feel as if I have read the work of an old sage.
Humpty Dumpty is one of those that I love the most. Four lines. Just four lines. Yet what it contains is boundless. Whenever I read this I see someone whose life is a whole tragedy. Imagine having a body as fragile as his, an egg shell could break with so little force that you always have to be careful with them. Heck, even a 5 inch drop could break an egg.
Humpty Dumpty had to be careful all his life. He couldn’t afford to bully or be bullied because both would break him. He couldn’t get too familiar with others because he might get broken along the way. He couldn’t enjoy as much as others did because of his body. I bet he never even experience running because he couldn’t afford the chance of tripping over and breaking his shell…Humpty Dumpty must have had a very sad and miserable life. Maybe he even committed suicide. Yes we all know that he fell from a wall, but nowhere in the rhyme would you hear that he went there to enjoy or to hang out.
He sat on the wall…
And had a great fall (he jumped)…
But the saddest part comes after that. Humpty Dumpty fell, probably still having a glimmer of hope that there are actually people whom he could call as his friends. They would come for him and help him until all the pieces come together again... but that never happened. You know who came? That’s right, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men.” No friend came, and those who did came because it is the job of the king to take care of his subjects. What’s more saddening is that not a lot of the king’s men must have wanted to help the poor Humpty Dumpty, that’s why he even needed to send out those horses.
You’d think he could still be saved and all the pieces could still come back. But then the ending takes out any hope that hangs…because the people who came “couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again.”
The end.
Art from: Tom Brown: Broken Egg Still Life