Watter Piper's The Little Engine That Could

The Little Engine That Could, written and illustrated by Watter Piper, was first published in the United States in the 1930’s by Platt & Munk. Being considered a classic children’s book, it is used to teach children about the importance of hard work. While children may see this as the overall message of the book, there’s also an underlying theme of misogyny. In The Little Engine That Could,there’s a clear difference between the description of the female vs.the male train. The original train the carrying the toys and treats to the children over the mountain was a girl and at the very start of the book she was described as a “happy little train.” This train is one of the two only female trains in the book. Once the first train breaks down the clown and the dolls wait for other trains to pass by so they could ask for help. The first train that rides by is described as a “shiny new engine” and of course it’s a male train. The second train that passes is also a male train who is described as a “big engine.” Although the last male train was smaller than the others and old he was not described by his size but described as a “kind engine.” The last train to

The blue engine also had a job that could be interpreted as being stereotypical.Her job was staying at the yard as a switch train, which could be looked as women being expected to stay home. The male trains were given important and specific jobs; passage engine and the freight engine. The male trains also thought that there job was too important to help the little engine, when asked for help the male trains “snorted” and “bellowed”with smart remarks refusing to help. The males are portrayed as being superior to the