My theory is they meant the lesson to be learned by santa and the others, through Rudolph, but they focus on him so much that you expect Rudolph to have learned or grown himself. Truth is its santa and the head elf who grow, by realizing that even outcasts have something to offer, and that being cruel is, while morally wrong, just dumb as shit because you might need a glowy reindeer snoot someday, but only if you didn’t drive them to run away and die to a snow monster. Or something.
That or they just didn’t think it through very well at all. Which is probably more likely. Idk. But it feels a little bit more understandable if you think of Santa as the one with the arc, not rudolph.
Old children’s stories were never really about teaching morality. I think there’s a German story where some guy goes around killing children who don’t eat their vegetables.
The message to me was just that sometimes you have to sing and dance to entertain the people who have power over you. That doesn’t make the situation right, but I’ve gotten a lot more done since that realization.
I think the important message is „informed decision“ instead of „indoctrination“.
You can decide to do something against your immediate self interest to get a greater benefit later.
But the way we were brought up was „do what you‘re told“ which leads to exploitation and endless suffering to provide for the exploiters.
This interpretation is valid. But I recently learned to see it a different way.
If you’ll humor me, please consider this. Since Santa knows if you’ve been “bad or good,” he knows the other reindeer have been bullies to poor Rudolph. And, while a red glowing nose is cool, it’s not a useful fog light. It’s just not.
So Santa “uh oh!” had an emergency where, for the first time ever, the fog was going to be too thick all over the world to deliver presents?
Nope, he set up Rudolph in a position to “lead” his peers in a situation that maybe needed a little help but was not, in any way, a true, worldwide magic-assed Santa emergency. Santa knew how to guide his reindeer to accept each other. The story of Rudolph was not about Rudolph doing something to prove himself. It was about recognizing a Rudolph in need and helping him rise to the occasion to bring him closer to his peers in a way that could heal division.
Rudolph isn’t about how to triumph as a Rudolph. It’s about how to be a good Santa.
(Edit: For everyone who already thought this was obvious in the story, thanks for letting this Rudolph have his epiphany anyway.)
