What Is the Moral of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”?
The moral of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” is that individual actions can hurt others, especially when one person uses or destroys another person’s property. In addition, the popular fable stresses the importance of self control and respecting others.
“Goldilocks and the Three Bears” uses repetition to impress upon the reader how much destruction is caused by Goldilocks entering the bears’ home without permission. Although she intends to simply look around, Goldilocks is soon tempted by what she finds. In the bears’ home, she tries two bowls of porridge before choosing to consume the entire third bowl. She next sits in each of the three chairs, eventually breaking the chair she likes best. Likewise, Goldilocks tests each of the three beds to find the one she likes best.
The repetition of three actions repeated three times each enforces the moral lesson that social rule breaking, such as trespassing, has consequences and highlights the difficulties of and need for self control. Although Goldilocks does not apologize to the bears after they return home and find her sleeping in one of the beds, she is greatly frightened and runs out of the house quickly. The consequence of Goldilocks’ actions is further reinforced by the description of the anger and sadness of the bears.
In the end, Goldilocks learns her lesson and decides not to wander alone in the forest again, the situation that tempted her to enter the bears’ home in the first place.
