The Inspiration
Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
Jack fell down and broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Up Jack got
And home did trot,
As fast as he could caper;
Went to bed
To mend his head
With vinegar and brown paper.
You’re the One: The True Story of Jack and Jill is the title of a novel in first rough draft I’m writing. The previous post, My WIP (Part 1) looked at parts of the rhyme and it’s symbolism which inspires the structure of the novel. This post will share the second less familiar half of the rhyme.
Up Jack Got
Following Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after, the rhyme and my WIP declares Jack bouncing back. The rhyme doesn’t but my WIP tells the fate of Jill after her “tumble.”
And home did trot
Jack’s and Jill’s hometown is a fictional southern Indiana city called Carsville. In my rough draft, they return at the same time for the ten year and twenty year high school class reunions. Both returns are significant events in their lives and their relationship.
As I shared in Part 1, there is a sexual tension based on relational ambiguity. Both reunions affect their relationship.
Went to bed
The dream meaning for bed involves your intimacies. The novel hopefully deals honestly with intimacy.
To mend his head
In Part 1, I share the different symbols for crown. In that discussion, I mention that crown can also mean head as well as ultimate rewards.
I explain that “broke his crown” indicates a failure. I taunt the reader by asking what type of failure did Jack experience. Crown can also symbolize emotional, spiritual or tangible personal or professional success. Breaking that crown means missing the mark emotionally or spiritually or materially. For Jack, like most of us at times, certain goals in every area of our life can be missed.
Head wounds indicate either physical or mental damage. Yet, in dreams and the arts like literature, head wounds can symbolize deeper emotional and spiritual wounds. Such will be the case in You’re the One.
With vinegar
How will Jack mend his wounds? In the rhyme, Jack’s wound is mended with vinegar and brown paper and then we’re done. My curiosity forced me to look for the symbols rather than the surface.
According to https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries, vinegar kills the bacteria and brown paper serves as a bandage. That is the surface meaning which gives the rhyme a happy ending. I wasn’t satisfied.
I looked up symbolism for vinegar. To my surprise, there are some. “Street cred” says full of vinegar means full of bitterness. This doesn’t satisfy me, either. Bitterness is not a good anesthetic to me.
I discovered that dreaming of vinegar might mean you have underlying phobias of instability. Still not the thing I think I want.
Vinegar can also stand for longevity and perseverance. This sounds like a better remedy to me.
Brown paper
I looked this up in symbols for dreams or in the arts and found very little. I guess people don’t dream of brown paper. But in urban dictionary.com, I found several definitions most of which I do not wish to share. One, though, is useful to my story.
“What’s your brown paper?” can mean “what’s your game?” or “what are you up to?” Jack after his last major pitfall is forced to reassess his life’s purpose. I think this makes him relatable. Many of us have reached a time or times in our life where we reassess what are game is and how well we played it.
Jack and Jill went up the hill and so on and so forth. The rhyme of our youth becomes the source for my WIP. That’s my brown paper for now.
Categories: Sample writing
Douglas Knight
I have the rich life full of a sinner wounded by misunderstanding and punishment but blessed by mercy and forgiveness.
Knight Writer 