As I said in my introduction, Jack is the Everyman, and the Trickster.. the Trickster pops up in folktales all over the world in different guises... Loki in Norse mythology, Raven and Coyote in North American Indians, Anansi in West Africa, Brer Rabbit in American folk tales... and the Brave Little Tailor and Puss In Boots are also trickster characters...But at the heart of it, in traditonal European fairytales, Jack is simply a right little sneaky bastard - in the figurative sense. The Hallmark series "Jack and the Beanstalk - The Real Story" portrays this nicely. The modern-day descendant of Jack is cursed, because his forbear was a thief who snuck into someone else's home (the Giant's) and stole what didn't belong to him.... then brutally murdered the Giant when he was found out. Its up to the modern descendant to go back to the Giants and right the wrongs.
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