Many people do things that they wouldn’t normally do themselves, why? That would be because of the people around us, our actions may be because of what others around us is doing. What others around us does may inspire us to do it as well, even when we wouldn’t normally do it ourselves. The short story “The Little Girl Who Would Not Work” is about a little girl who loves to play all day and is unwilling to work. At the start of the story, the little girl’s mother told her to do some work, but again, she was unwilling to do work. But the she meets different animals that work, which made the little girl want to work as well. The theme of this short story is what others around you do can inspire you to do it as well, even when you would not normally do it.

In the story “The Little Girl Who Would Not Work” by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey, the author believes that what others around you do, often inspires you to do it too, even when you wouldn’t do it normally. When the little girl’s mother told her daughter to do some work, she didn’t like the idea of doing work, and would rather go into the woods and play: “But the little girl said, ‘Oh, mother, I do not like to work. Please let me go to the woods and play just a little while before I do my tasks’” (Bailey 1). Work was something the little girl was not willing to do, at least not by herself, without knowing the fact work was almost everything that is around her and in the woods is doing. As the quote shows, she is does not like and is unwilling to do work, even when her mother told her to.

Further along in the story, after the little girl met many different species of animals, and realized that the all do work, she slowly realizes that work is something she has to do, and also something almost everything is doing. When the little girl finally decided to go back home, she said to her mother, “‘Mother, the Squirrels and the Bees… all work. I am the only Idle one. I want some work to do’” (Bailey 2). After the little girl met many different species of animals and realized they all do work, she got inspired to do work, and was not reluctant and unwilling at all anymore. This short story shows the power of the people around you and how they can inspire you to do the things they are doing, and this power becomes more powerful the more people are doing the same thing, whether the thing all these people around you is doing is “good” or “bad”, the things and people around you can inspire you to do many things that you would not normally choose to do.