As technically incorrect as it may be, I have definitely used the phrase “turn into a pumpkin” to mean that I’m tired and it’s time to go home.
The phrase is pretty obviously a reference to Cinderella (even though Cinderella herself didn’t turn into a pumpkin, a point that has always bothered me a little, haha). It’s common enough to have many dictionary entries online. Plus, it’s just fun–purely because of the imagery of it, I think.
But what’s the deal with the pumpkin thing in the first place? Why did Cinderella’s carriage come from a pumpkin at all?
Well, probably because of that imagery again. If you look up “pumpkin” in your encyclopedia of plant associations or secret symbols, you’ll likely find . . . Nothing. 😉 There’s no particular meaning behind the pumpkin. It just happens to look like a rounded carriage, and it makes for a fun transformation scene!
Now, that said, you can find some scholars who say pumpkins have historically been associated with poorer folk. The argument goes that, for farming families, a pumpkin meant reliable food; but for rich families, pumpkins were just something their employees ate. I haven’t explored this idea deeply myself, but I do see a kind of poetry in the fact that a lowly pumpkin carried Cinderella to her fancy ball. It supports the one of the overall themes of Cinderella, that faith and constancy are rewarded.
The only pumpkins in my Cinderella retelling, Cinders to Dust, appear in muffin form. 🙂 Nonetheless I felt that pumpkins had to be the topic for today, the Friday after Cinder‘s release. Because I am definitely danced out and tired enough to turn into a pumpkin! 😉
Selected Sources
No books this week, but if you want to read a review of Cindy Ott’s book Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon, you can find it online here. That’s the book that talks about pumpkins as socio-economic symbols. If you want more fictional books that just use pumpkins for inspiration and fun, check out this blog post from Barnes & Noble with a round up of pumpkin-containing stories!
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