Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver
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Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver (original German title: Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer) is a German children fantasy novel written by Michael Ende, published in 1960, where it scored a tremendous success. In fact, this spawned the sequel Jim Button and the Wild 13 some time after.
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[edit] The Settings
While the novel and its sequel are supposed to play in about the 20th century, there are many elements mixed in which create an atmosphere of intentional anachronism: China is still an empire, and Native Americans and Eskimos still live in their traditional ways, while ocean liners, telephones, post service, chewing gum and many other modern conveniences are already in use.
In addition, there are many fictional locations, like the "Crown of the World", a vast mountain range coloured in red and white stripes, and the Magnetic Cliffs. Some of these are based on legendary and real places - here the Himalaya range and the magnetic cliffs in the Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor, respectively - but there are also original locations.
[edit] Plot summary
The story opens at a tiny island called Morrowland (original name: Lummerland), which has just enough space for a small palace, a train station and rails all around the island, a convenience store, a small house, a king, three subjects, a locomotive named Emma, and an engine driver by the name of Luke (Lukas). One day, the postman - who has to come by ship - drops off a package with a nearly illegible address with the names Mrs. Krintuuth and Zorroulend, and a large 13 on the back. After a futile search for the addressee all over the island, the people open the package - and find to their immense surprise a black baby inside. After the surprise has died down, the baby is adopted by the islanders and is named Jim Button.
But as Jim grows up, the King begins to worry about the fact that there is no space to let Jim live on the island once he's an adult, and he announces to Luke that Emma has to be removed. Luke, upset about this decision, decides to leave the island with his locomotive, but Jim (who had accidentally listened to Luke as he related his sorrows to Emma) decides to come along. Converting Emma into a makeshift ship, they sail off the island in the night and eventually arrive at the coast of China.
When they arrive in Ping, the capital, they win the friendship of a tiny great-grandchild named Ping Pong, and from him they learn that the Emperor is in mourning because his daughter, Li Si, has been kidnapped and is being held in a city full of dragons. Luke and Jim offer their help, and while investigating the circumstances of Li Si's disappearance they stumble upon several names which are directly connected to Jim's mysterious arrival on Morrowland: Mrs. Grindtooth (Frau Mahlzahn), the Wild 13, and the name Sorrowland (Kummerland). Now the two friends have one more reason to go to the Dragon City (which is located in Sorrowland) and confront Mrs. Grindtooth.
After a long and very hazardous journey - in which they make two new friends: Mr. Tur Tur the Giant (who is actually a "Scheinriese", an illusionary giant), and Nepomuk the half-dragon - they arrive in the Dragon City and free Princess Li Si and a large number of children, who had all been kidnapped by a gang of pirates naming themselves the Wild 13 and sold to Mrs. Grindtooth so she could torture them by "playing" school. They take the dragon with them as they make the journey back on the Yellow River, which has its origin right in the Dragon City. Making it back to China, where they receive a triumphal welcome, they are surprised by two startling news: that Mrs. Grindtooth is to turn into a Golden Dragon of Wisdom, and that the other inhabitants of Morrowland want them back on the island!
With a last advice given by Mrs. Grindtooth and the generous assistance by the Emperor, Luke and Jim come into the possession of a swimming island, which should solve the problem of Jim's future residence, and after a cordial welcome back on Morrowland, Jim and Li Si become engaged, and Jim gets a baby locomotive, which he names Molly. But there are yet many questions to solve, and these call for another adventure...
[edit] List of Jim Button characters
- Jim Button (Jim Knopf): While being the titular hero, this character shares the "glory" with his best friend Luke, the engine driver, by being his still-learning but bright "sidekick". He grows up on Morrowland (Lummerland) under the care of Mrs. Whaat and wants to be an engine driver too, but he later finds out that his destiny is far larger than that. His name is derived from his habit of tearing a hole into his trousers every time he does something wild; after many mendings of the hole Mrs. Whaat had added the button so that it can simply be opened instead of it tearing up all over again.
- Luke (Lukas): The engine driver on Morrowland is the closest friend of Jim, and where Jim represents the adventurous youth, he is the man of experience and practicality who manages to solve almost any technical problem. He is very strong and is an artist in spitting (including the ability to spit a loop). His most constant trademark is his pipe, which he smokes in emotional situations.
- Princess Li Si: the daughter of the Chinese Emperor is rather headstrong, especially when it comes to discipline. Still, she admires Jim for his courage and intelligence, even though (for most of the story) he refuses to learn reading and writing, in which she already is very capable.
- Emma and Molly: respectively Luke's and Jim's tank locomotives. Emma is depicted as quite sensitive, expressing her feelings with whistling and huffing, even though she often does not quite understand why her owner, Luke, does feel that way.
- Mrs Whaat (Frau Waas): the propietor of a convenience store on Morrowland and Jim's surrogate mother. She loves Jim dearly, and as a result she worries about him constantly when he is out on an adventure. Her speciality skill is making sweets, particularly ice cream and Gugelhupf.
- King Alfons the Quarter-to-Twelfth (König Alfons der Viertel-vor-Zwölfte): the king of Morrowland, who is called after the stroke of the clock at which he was born and on which he shows himself to his subjects on holidays. He is well-meaning but can get overly nervous in times of stress.
- Mr. Sleeve (Herr Ärmel): the token 'faceless' subject on Morrowland because he has no special occupation; he is mostly seen taking a stroll wearing a bowler hat and with an umbrella under his arm. He is, however, very polite and educated, and quite well-liked by the other inhabitants of the island.
- Mr. Tur Tur, the illusionary giant, is a gentle and modest person, and tragically alone because everybody is afraid of him when he seems to be a giant from the distance. He therefore lives at an oasis in the desert "The End of the World" and is a vegetarian.
- There is a big sense behind this figure: People who we don't know seem to be giants to us in a distance because we don't know them precisely. Mr. Tur Tur is a signal to get to know more details from each other and to understand the world better by understanding, so the distance gets shorter and one does not see each other as giants any more.
- Nepomuk: a half-dragon by birth (his mother was a hippopotamus), he bears some resemblance to his mother's side and is thus - like his fellow half-dragons - not accepted by the pure-blood dragons in Sorrowland. Still, he tries to behave as a 'real' dragon would: being scary and mean - something he is not overly adept at.
- Ping Pong: a very young (and simultaneously very small) Chinese boy; while being hardly more than one year old and just as tall as a man's hand, he is already very capable of behaving and thinking like an adult (a stereotypical depiction of the Chinese [1] common in the story). He is one of the numerous descendands of the Emperor's chief cook; after saving Jim and Luke from a treacherous minister, he is made Prime Minister of China by the Emperor - a role which he fulfills surprisingly capably.
- Mrs. Grindtooth (Frau Mahlzahn): a pure-blood dragon and the main villainess of the story, so called by her single fang projecting from her long snout. She is very knowledgable, but like all dragons likes to torment lesser beings with her power; in her special case it's running a school for human children in Sorrowland.
- The Wild 13 (Die Wilde Dreizehn): a band of pirates completely identical in appearance and abilities. Fearsome pirates and seamen, but not particularly bright and poorly educated (each of them knows only one particular letter of the alphabet); hence, they are always in need of a guiding peronality. At first portrayed as antagonists, they evolve into important characters and plot carriers in the sequel.
[edit] Other media
- Both Jim Button stories were adapted for the screen by the Augsburger Puppenkiste ("Augsburg Puppet Crate"), a company which has specialised in converting children stories into marionette plays, in the 1960s and 70's.
- In 1996 a 52-episode cartoon series was created as a German-French co-production. However, the storyline diverted greatly from the original novels with the introduction of new characters and settings.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ ¹
In the orignal editions, the country was called China. In later editions, this was changed to "Mandala" (presumably because of the negative stereotypes about the Chinese people).
