How 'The Story About Ping' Teaches Us To Embrace Discipline

This essay was one of my first rhetorical analyses from my Communication Criticism class, my favorite course in undergraduate. Our prompt was to pick a story from childhood that really stood out to us and affected us as children, and our job was to go back and find out why. What I discovered in this book from my homeschool Five-in-a-Row reading curriculum surprised me because it brought me right back to biblical principles I had learned growing up that did not make sense until now. A good summary of my learning is found in the last paragraph, probably my favorite part of the essay.

Discipline and correction are not always received well in our present society and there is certainly a noticeable lack of humility and submission in our human integrity. This kind of character is not easy to grow, and yet these qualities—humility and receiving correction—are essential for human growth, flourishing, and productivity. Perhaps the best time to learn these lessons is during the childhood years, before the challenging circumstances of life allow cynicism, pride, suspicion, and self-absorption to take shape in the human heart. By looking at Flack and Wiese’s (1933) children’s book, The Story About Ping, we will be able to discover what methods a rhetor can use in teaching the moral lesson of the need for humility and welcoming discipline. To arrive at the answer, we will review the method of narrative criticism and the story synopsis and then move to the critical analysis of the narrative.

Method and Artifact

The method of rhetorical criticism being employed for this analysis is narrative criticism, a critical method specifically used for exploring the impact of stories. In the assessing of a narrative via this system, three steps are taken: identification of the objective of the narrative, identification of the key narrative elements, and lastly, evaluation of either the reasonableness of the objective or the rhetor’s effectiveness in realizing his or her objective through use of the narrative components (Foss, 2009, pp. 310-315). This paper will explore the success of the objective through the narrative elements.

The artifact to be used for determining strategies that can promote humility and the willingness to accept discipline is the children’s book The Story About Ping, written by Marjorie Flack and illustrated by Kurt Wiese, first published in 1933. Flack and Wiese’s (1933) story follows a young duck named Ping who lives on the Yangtze River on a boat with his family. One evening, Ping decides not to return home to the boat for fear of being spanked for being late, so he hides, and the boat sails away. The next day, Ping, alone on the Yangtze, is captured by a Boy. Though the family wants to eat Ping, the Boy sets Ping free, and as Ping swims gratefully away, he hears his Master’s call afar off and swims quickly to his home, and though he is late again, he scurries up the little bridge and receives a big spank on the back—but at last, he is home, safely and soundly, with his family (Flack & Wiese, 1933).

Analysis

Using narrative criticism, The Story About Ping can shed light on how a rhetor can tell stories that effect humility and the motivation to receive discipline. Identification of the objective is the first step. Ping’s story may have various objectives, but the most clear (particularly due to the author’s nostalgic emotions associated with this story) is the idea that the safety and security of a family’s love amidst a cruel world is always worth the hard discipline and correction one may face from the superiors in the family unit. The story presents the theme that punishment and being found is better than independence and being lost.

The key narrative elements in The Story About Ping are characters and events. Regarding characters, three stand out most prominently: Ping, the Master, and the boat. It is important to note that Ping, as the protagonist, is a young duck, one to which audiences will relate—the young in the fact that Ping also is a child and the old in the reminiscent areas of innocence, absent-mindedness, and simplicity. The Master of the boat represents the enforcer of rules and the issuer of discipline for the sake of a child’s growth—a clear parallel to parents. The boat is included in this list because it is described as a “wise-eyed boat” and is illustrated with a pair of watchful eyes decorating the vessel’s bow (Flack & Wiese, 1933). The boat represents the security of the home and the wisdom of those who rule it. Moving onward, the events of the book also are revealing. One such event is a satellite (a minor plot event), where Ping, alone on the Yangtze, observes dark birds with metal rings around their necks fish for their master, who keeps the rings around their necks to prevent them from swallowing the fish they catch (Flack & Wiese, 1933). This minor event grows the picture in the mind of the audience that the world is a harsh place—a place where, even though the birds are paid with little pieces of fish, they are not trusted with what they truly desire.

This story is exceptionally effective at sending the message that discipline and correction are worth the pain. By painting a world where the audience is a young, naïve child, where home is a comfortable and secure place protected by strictness and wisdom, and where the outside world is a severe and exploitative place, the rhetors allowed the audience to rediscover the reality that all people desire the comfort and security of a home that is guarded with wisdom and love by those committed to the flourishing and protection of the individual through discipline. For the child reader, this message is simple enough. For the grown-up audiences, the rhetors bring back the childlike days and the innately human desires to not be the one in charge and to be given order and structure. The story reminds the audience that we are all lost children desiring to curl up beneath our mother’s wing and that any correction needed to bring us home is appropriate.

Conclusion

The Story About Ping, through its usage of characters and events, clearly upheld its objective of explaining that the safety and security of home and family is worth the discipline. The rhetors did this through engaging their young audience on their own level and bringing the adult audience back to childhood days when their pure human drives were strong and their human psychological needs were still regarded as important—the need to be found, the need to have a place to belong, the need to be a child, and ultimately, the need to be watched over and taught by a wise and good Master. These ideas can greatly benefit a rhetor in his or her quest to teach the moral lesson of the importance of humility and accepting correction and discipline.

References

Flack, M. and Weise, K. (1933). The story about ping. New York: The Viking Press.

Foss, S. K. (2009). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice (4th ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.