UNDERSTANDING POST-COLONIALISM: Post-colonialism highlights the “political, aesthetic, economic, historical, and social impact of European colonial rule around the world in the 18th through the 20th century.” J. Daniel Elam writes: “Postcolonial theory takes many different shapes and interventions, but all share a fundamental claim: that the world we inhabit is impossible to understand except in relationship to the history of imperialism and colonial rule.”

A post-colonialist approach to Into the Woods may highlight Jack’s stealing of the giants’ resources when he visits their land via the beanstalk. Stealing a harp and golden eggs may be seen as symbolic of European colonization. Curiously, “Jack and the Beanstalk” is also the only one of the four main stories of Woods that does not see variations in world cultures. Instead, “Jack and the Beanstalk” is understood to have originated in the British Isles. (There exists other stories in the saga of “Jack”, as well.) Reading the source material as from the Anglophone world, one may interpret Jack’s actions as being representative of British imperialism.