n back together, but to no avail (Pars.1-2).Marli Murphy points out in her article that recently there has been quite an uproar over the old rhymes and their politically incorrect nature. Consider this standard of one of the old original rhymes:Peter, Peter pumpkin eater,Had a wife and couldn't keep her.Put her in a pumpkin shellAnd there he kept her very well.The new age parents of today are worried that rhymes like this can damage the self-esteem of young girls. Some see this as a form of spousal abuse and in this age when people are finally cracking down on domestic abuse, this rhyme is sending the wrong message (CO2). A new book titled The New Adventures of Mother Goose has been written by Bruce Lansky. He states that "I'm on a mission to create a new body of children's literature thatreflects contemporary values"(110). In his new book the formally "Three Blind Mice" are the "Three Kind Mice." Lansky says that he first noticed how sexist and violent Mother Goose rhymes were when his children were small. He couldn't explain to his children why "The Old Woman in the Shoe" whipped her kids when today that is considered child abuse. This book is great for the new 20th and 21st century, conscientious parents, who want good reading material for their kids (qtd in Seligman 110).Many people are appalled at the bawdy nature of some of these rhymes; in all actuality they were never intended for children, but once they had heard them, the children incorporated them into their play. Like any other things in history, we can only theorize about the origins and the purposes the authors had in mind because they are not around to ask. We can only look at the clues we have and try to put them together to find the truth. There are many versions of these rhymes and different cultures have changed their words to fit into their own culture. Sadly we may never know for sure the original intentions these anonymous authors had in mind, so for now...
