A quiet character, usually female, from a rural location, commonly
Arcadia, often found as a
Fish Out Of Water in the Big City. Frequently depicted as having an
inherent superiority in morality, ethics or common sense compared to the people around her. Often used as an authorial voice to deliver
An Aesop, or simply to provide a contrast to the "sophisticated" people with whom she lives or works.
Often becomes the target of the
Rich Bitch.
Frequently overlaps with
Naive Newcomer. Compare with
City Mouse.
This term and
City Mouse derive from
Aesops Fables, making it
Older Than Dirt.
Examples
Anime
- Arika Yumemiya in Mai-Otome
- Sakura Shinguuji in Sakura Taisen
- Aurelia Hartwick from Victorian Romance Emma. She falls for the good-looking city boy, marries him, and relocates to London, where high society enjoys gossip at her expense.
- Hagumi of Honey And Clover is actually nicknamed "Nezumi" (mouse) by one of the other characters. While it is mostly a reflection of her artist's character that she cannot properly socialize in the university environs, her deficiency is made greater by her back-country origins, and despite prodigious talent and constant encouragement towards fame, she wants nothing more than to return to the countryside.
- Sora in Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~, although she adapts rather well to Tokyo.
- To a smaller degree, Nana "Hachi" Komatsu from NANA.
Film
Literature
- Beatrix Potter retold Aesop's fable as The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse. A country mouse is accidentally brought to the city, finds it too dangerous, and returns home; a city mouse visits him there, is frightened by the weather and prospect of a cow stepping on him, and returns home. Potter draws the Aesop that people like different things (and ignore different disadvantages).
- Louisa May Alcott's novel An Old-Fashioned Girl has this as its basic premise. Poor country girl Polly Milton befriended wealthy city girl Fanny Shaw when the latter was visiting a mutual friend, and after several months of correspondence, goes to visit her friend in the city. During the two months of her visit, she Pollyannas the entire household.
- Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar centres around Esther Greenwood and her failure to cope with New York City.
- José Antonio from the Chilean novel Golondrina de Invierno ("Winter Swallow").
- An element of Carrot's personality in Guards Guards, before he starts fitting into the city as if he was born to it, and also Imp in the first few scenes of Soul Music. Noticably absent on Granny Weatherwax's visits to the Great Wahoonie, since she assumes it's the city's job to fit round her, not the other way round.
Live Action TV
- Although being the engineer of a spaceship has broadened her quite a bit, there's still a fair amount of Country Mouse in Firefly's Kaylee.
- Radar O'Reilly from M*A*S*H falls mostly into the "contrast" category, but was sometimes used as a straight-up innocent foil (most famously in the sixth-season episode "Fallen Idol").
- Gomer Pyle, of Gomer Pyle USMC.
- Woody Boyd from Cheers, from rural Indiana.
- Kenneth the page from 30 Rock.
- Penny from The Big Bang Theory, from Nebraska. The contrast here is not so much urban/rural as it is book smarts/street smarts
Mythology
- Aesop recounted the story
of a city mouse visiting a country mouse and scorning his life as simple, but when the country mouse went to the city, he found the danger of cat and concluded that safety and simplicity in the country were best.
Video Games
- Quina in Final Fantasy IX forms a definite contrast to the sophisticated princess Dagger, though s/he is played mostly for laughs
Western Animation
Other
- A Real Life Example is Kondo Isami, Commander of The Shinsengumi. While far from uncultured, Kondo is reported to often find himself out of his depth in political matters and the bureaucracy that heading up the capital's police force entailed. He is also described as having a great sense of honor and an inherent and very humble moral superiority.
- An oldish kid's TV show, Country Mouse & City Mouse.
