Fairy Tale Elements in A LIttle Princess

The fairy tale components we see in Francis Hodgson Burnette’s A Little Princess come from Joseph Campbell’s idea of the monomyth, or hero journey. Sara Crewe goes through all three stages of the hero journey: the initiation, the separation, and the return. Of the fairy tales, A Little Princess also most resembles the Cinderella stories.

In the initiation section of the story, Sara is left by her father at a boarding school in London, as he goes back to India to attend to his affairs. While the boarding school itself is a new world for Sara, it serves the function of the “Old World” or natural world. Sara becomes accustomed to living with these girls, some of whom adore her, others of who abhor her. She is the princess of the school—one who is in the favor of the headmistress who doesn’t actually like the girl.

This corresponds to the Cinderella portion of the story where she is still in her father’s favor, not having been made into a servant. Even though the stepmother character dislikes the protagonist, she treats her as she would someone she wants something from.

The separation occurs when Miss Minchin and co. find out that Sara’s father has died. At this point, Sara sets sail from the old world of being in the favor of Miss Minchin to the new world (or supernatural world) of a scullery maid. The fact that the old and new worlds are in the same physical location is possible because there is a change in circumstance. Sara is made to run errands in the worst weather, and treated badly by all of the other workers in the seminary. In the new world, the hero often meets people who will be both friends and enemies. Sara and Becky draw themselves even closer together in Sara’s adversity. Additionally, Sara finds out that there are some people who like her regardless of her status; those people who Sara believed turned to enemies actually remained friends.

Sara’s move to the New World is similar to the part of the Cinderella story we are most familiar with—the ill treatment of a young girl who has done nothing to deserve such abuse. Like Cinderella, because of her change in status, Sara becomes a slave to people of a higher social class.

The discovery of Sara’s identity by her father’s business partner marks the beginning of Sara’s return to the Old World. The prize that the returns from the New World with is a renewed sense of compassion for people less fortunate than she and a desire to do something about it more than giving a hungry girl five muffins.

Burnett, F. (2008). A Little Princess. New York: Puffin Classics.

Dean, C. (2008). The secret language of stories: beyond story grammar. Retrieved on June 23, 2009 from http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:-u7lNmUBThIJ:nmla.org/docs/conference/secret_language.pdf+carolee+dean+secret+language+of+stories&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a.

Smith, C. (2009). What is a fairytale/folktale. Retrieved on June 23, 2009 from https://salsa.nmsu.edu/SCRIPT/carmens01_SU/scripts/serve_home

"Charm" from The Rose and the Beast

A feature of young adult literature that I stress to my students is that it can be a mirror, reflecting their own lives, or a window, allowing them to see into someone else’s. The situation that underscores “Charm” is one that far too many adolescents may be familiar with. In this short story, we see thematic ideas on abuse and drug use.

With a rise in cyberbullying, there is also a rise in child pornography, though actually created at the hands of the children. To that end, adolescents will be able to identify with the protagonist and her friend, in light of the naked pictures taken of two young girls shackled together. I have heard of girls who take naked pictures of themselves with their cell phones and forward them to other people. While the story doesn’t suggest direct repercussions for those actions, the reader is presented with a world in which the protagonist is disconsolate and removed from herself.

We also get a sense that the protagonist is sexually abused, whether it be while she is high, in trade for drugs, or in a situation she cannot remove herself from. The familiarity with this scene can not only be with the rape, but also with the sense of powerlessness and dissociation that many victims experience during a trauma.

While opium isn’t a drug that many are familiar with anymore—I associate it with authors like Samuel Taylor Coleridge—a clear picture is drawn for the reader that Rev is on drugs. The way the narrator describes Rev’s addiction can be familiar to students, how the drugs feel like “ecstasy of pure honeyed delight in her veins, like being infused with the soul she had lost” (Block, 2000, 73). With the climate on the border the way it is right now, if nothing else, this image serves as a window into the world of someone the reader is close to or has heard about. The detox scene is similarly vivid, though done differently than scenes in novels like Go Ask Alice (Anonymous, 1971). The drug line of thematic idea resolves quasi-happily, with the realization that the drug is no longer necessary.


Anonymous. (1971). Go Ask Alice. New York: Simon Pulse.
Block, F. (2000). The Rose and the Beast. New York: Joanna Cotler Books.

"Tiny" from The Rose and the Beast

For many adolescents isolation is a feeling that is all too prevalent in their everyday lives. In “Tiny,” the protagonist of the same name is familiar with this notion as well, and the story becomes a window to those who understand what it means to really feel different. Then again, maybe the message is about overcoming the differences to find what one really wants.

All Tiny’s mother wants is to protect her. As a result, Tiny is so sheltered that she doesn’t realize that she is different from anyone else. Not until she sees a boy and response to unrequited love in much the same way modern teenagers do—with retreat, depression and resentment. For her mother, Tiny is a star, a symbol of hope after losing eight other children. This hope is her mother’s motivation for keeping Tiny as safe as possible.

As with “Snow,” in “Tiny” the protagonist’s sexuality is activated upon seeing someone outside of the norm. We can see Tiny’s infatuation with the boy in the description of him blundering around the garden, and how she watches him and finds him both “full of wonder” and “terrifying” (Block, 2000, p. 41). Even further, we witness her discovery of musk as the boy watches Tiny’s mother. A scent that she says is “better than all the flowers in her garden” (Block, 2000, p. 43).

Tiny’s journey is a journey of self-discovery. She realizes that she cannot stay with her mother—that she must try to find what she desires. This desire instigated change in Tiny, though she doubts her own power. Many adolescents doubt themselves, especially when they are unsure of whether or not they can achieve what they want. No doubt some will identify with Tiny on her quest to be part of a world bigger than she is, and have a place that means something.

Block, F. (2000). The Rose and the Beast. New York: Joanna Cotler Books.

"Snow" from The Rose and the Beast

As I mentioned in my first post, some of the common themes in young adult literature are family life and sexuality. Both of these are present in Block’s first fairy tale retelling, “Snow.” One thing I wanted to mention about this tale before discussing the thematic ideas is point of view. Third person limited narrators are only in the head of one character, telling the story from the point of view of that character. “Snow” is told from the point of view of more than one character, making it more difficult to read. We find ourselves mainly in the head of the gardener, but we also get the thoughts of the seven brothers, Snow’s mother and of Snow herself. It limits the ease at which the story is read.

Family life can be considered a broad category. In the case of “Snow,” the main character is abandoned by her mother, and grows up with seven brothers. The narrator tells us that Snow’s mother is young, “still a girl herself” (Block, 2000, p. 3) when Snow is born. I infer that she asks the gardener to get rid of the child because she feels she’s not ready to have a child, which is noble in one sense, but sad in another. The mother tells the gardener that she will be devoured by Snow, possibly referring to the end of her life as she knew it, more than a literal devouring. We are to infer that the mother becomes jealous after the gardener visits the seven brothers and Snow and something dies (his love for the mother) and something is born (his infatuation with Snow and Snow’s sexuality), providing the motivation for the witch to kill the girl, as we saw in the other Snow White fairy tales. The mother’s issues with family, her own blood, stem from the loss of a lover.

As the mother is losing a lover, we see Snow discover her sexuality, something born, after meeting the gardener, “exploring the palpitations of her body under the nightdress” (Block, 2000, p. 18-10). Like Snow, many young adolescents are curious about their sexuality and the changes their bodies go through when they see someone to whom they are attracted. She is also excited by meeting the woman who is her mother, she has never seen a woman before and is curious about her own being and how it is similar to other women outside of where she lived all her life. The narrator’s description of Snow’s encounter with the mother and the apple draw on our ideas of oral fixation: “Snow put the piece to her lips and ran her tongue along the ridge” (Block, 2000, p. 25). The image there, in the context of the story, can be sexual in nature, especially for adolescents who have been conditioned by the media to focus on lips as an indicator for sexuality and beauty.

Block, F. (2000). The Rose and the Beast.. New York: Joanna Cotler Books.

What is Young Adult Literature?

This post is in response to this prompt for ENGL 363: What is young adult literature? What are the concerns/themes of young adult literature? In other words, what is this literature about? How do these stories relate to the fairy tales we read?

What is young adult literature? Just like television shows like Dawson’s Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Felicity and Popular were geared toward a teenage audience, such is the nature of young adult literature. Nancie Atwell, in her teacher’s text In the Middle, that the same way adults use novels to see the “universalities of our condition” (Atwell, 1998, p. 36), so can young adults “find their perspectives reflected and explored in a body of fiction of their own, books that can help them grow up and books that can help them love books” (Atwell, 1998, p. 36).

I tell my reading students that for them, in my class, fiction will be one of two things: a window, or a mirror. And that’s essentially what young adult literature is. Young adult literature provides an avenue for adolescents to explore issues and situations that mirror their own lives or the lives of people around them, allow them to make a text-to-self connection, thereby working through the painful issues of adolescence. Young adult literature also provides an avenue for adolescents to explore issues that they are not familiar with, a window into other worlds.

It is difficult to narrow a genre of literature, a growing body of work, into a short list of concerns or themes that interest young adult readers. Some major concerns or themes within this body of literature, those hit close to home for many readers are self-identity/self-discovery, family issues, overcoming adversity, sexuality, and violence.

The two specific major themes from young adult literature that are present in the fairy tales we read are sexuality and violence. Throughout many of the fairy tales we witnessed violence against children, namely in the form of neglect. We’ve also seen parents’ sexuality come into question in the form of lust after their own children. The voice used in The Rose and the Beast (Block, 2000), is decidedly adolescent throughout all of the stories.

See also, "Characteristics of Young Adult Literature" on BlogForLiteracy

Atwell, N. (1998). In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading and Learning. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.
Block, F. (2000). The Rose and the Beast. New York: Joanna Cotler Books.

Bruno Bettelheim and "Hansel and Gretel"

In Bettelheim’s article on “Hansel and Gretel,” he begins by stating the realistic nature of the story. That a family is poor and the parents may not be able to provide for the family is a very real possibility at the time of the story. Bettelheim discusses the differences in how the overheard conversation between parents, when discussing what to do about their hunger, is perceived. In terms of the parents, it is that “poverty and deprivation do not improve man’s character, but rather make him more selfish, les sensitive to the sufferings of others and thus prone to embark on evil deeds” (Bettelheim in Tatar, 1999, p. 273). Basically, the id overpowers the ego. But the children, being children, interpret the communication differently, letting themselves be “convinced that their parents plan to starve them to death” (Bettelheim in Tatar, 1999, p. 273).

In a previous post, I asked about the nature of Bettelheim’s “regression,” wondering if it likened to the Golding’s regression in Lord of the Flies. Rereading helped me understand the actual nature of Bettelheim’s regression, being one that entails reverting back to the original state of being, one that is completely dependent upon the mother. The children are ruled by their id, the need to find food. Bettelheim’s suggestion that the gingerbread house is symbolic of the mother’s body made me think for a minute. If they think of the mother in terms of being someone who provides them with sustenance, then this comparison makes sense.

Because symbolism is particularly interesting to me, the last point that interests me is the symbolism of the bird. Bettelheim explains that Hansel turns back to the house to say goodbye to a bird sitting on the chimney, a white bird guides them to the witch’s house, and it is a bird that guides the children back home. Bettelheim suggests that, since a bird is present at all three stages of the story, that the characters are exactly where they’re supposed to be in order to learn a specific lesson. Given that he also discusses the characters’ newfound independence when they return home, I’m inclined to agree with Bettelheim. Especially when considering the water archetype on the children’s return home. Water is symbolic of purification, and has a transformative nature. As they cross the river to return home, they are transformed from dependent child into independent child who is no longer ruled by the id.

Bettelheim, B. Hansel and Gretel in Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Freud and Charles Perrault's "Little Thumbling"

According to Freud, everyone has an id, an ego, and a superego as part of their psyche. The id portion of a person’s psyche only cares about getting what it needs or wants in a timely fashion. The superego is where a person’s moral compass resides, and Freud’s ego holds the id and the superego in balance (AllPsych, 2004). Within the fairy tale “Little Thumbling,” by Charles Perrault, we can see how these three elements of the psyche contribute to the characterization of the story’s characters.

The easiest character to pinpoint with Freud’s theory is the character who demonstrates a prevalence of the id. In the case of “Little Thumbling,” the character with an overdeveloped id is the ogre. It is his desire for the meat of the seven boys that leads him to kill his own daughters, who he mistakes for Little Thumbling and his brothers. He is further driven by his id when he chases the boys down with his seven-league boots in attempt to both avenge the deaths of his daughters and to retrieve his dinner. He shows a disregard for his wife, leaving her home alone to pursue the boys, even though her daughters, too, are dead.

How much of Little Thumbling’s id and superego are held in the balance by his ego is debatable. The need that Thumbling is preoccupied with is the survival of himself and his brothers. Because of him, and his id, the ogre’s daughters are killed. But Thumbling isn’t ruled by his id. Using his ego, he considers his brothers and their well-being, and those thoughts drive his actions. I wonder, though, if Thumbling has an under-developed superego. He doesn’t seem to consider the repercussions of his actions—especially those that get the ogre’s daughters, who are, admittedly monsters, killed. His underdeveloped superego also is what helps him secure his family’s wealth. He doesn’t consider lying to the ogre’s wife to steal their fortune as an immoral act, thus allowing his family to live happily ever after.

The father, on the other hand, is more balanced, though still ruled by his id. With is superego, he realizes, though this is more evident in his wife, that abandoning his children in the forest isn’t the most honest of acts, but his own desire not to see his sons perish from hunger overrules his superego. We see the father’s superego in action when he rejoices because his boys have returned home.

AllPsych and Heifner Media Group, Inc. (2004). Id, Ego, Superego and the Unconsious in Psychology at AllPsych Online. Retrieved June 13, 2009 from http://allpsych.com/psychology101/ego.html.
Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Charles Perrault's "Little Thumbling"

In the introduction to Hansel and Gretel, Tatar suggests that the Tom Thumb type Hansel and Gretel stories “offer comic relief in the form of spunky adventurers who use their wits to turn the tables on adversaries with daunting powers” (Tatar, 1999, p. 183). Perrault’s “Little Thumbling” is just one of those tales.

But if we take fairy tales as social commentary of the times, we are also moved to look at how the number of children affects the tone of a household. The townspeople in “Little Thumbling” are amazed that the family “had so many children in so short a time,” (Perrault in Tatar, 1999, p. 199). It is clear that while the parents (or at least the father) love their children, having so many takes a toll on the family finances. We learn that “these people were very poor. [And] having seven children was a great burden, because not one of them was able to earn his own living” (Perrault in Tatar, 1999, p. 199). If famine, or hard times even, are taken into account, this becomes a tale about what can happen when a family overproduces offspring.

In Virginia Hamilton’s collection of American Black folktales called The People Could Fly, there is a tale called “John and the Devil’s Daughter.” The ogre’s “seven-league boots” are similar to the boots of the devil character in this folk tale. The Hansel and Gretel story formula doesn’t apply to “John and the Devil’s Daughter,” but Hamilton, in her notes on the story, discusses motifs, the motif of “the girl as helper in the hero’s fight” and “obstacle flight” that are applicable to our readings (Hamilton, 1985, p. 114-115).

In “Little Thumbling,” the hero receives help from the ogre’s wife. In many of the American Black supernatural tales, the hero received help from the ogre’s daughter. In that there is a variation, but there is similarity in the motif. Also, the boys from “Little Thumbling” engage in an obstacle flight, as their passage from the house of the ogre is not simple. First, the hero keeps the boys from being killed, then they are chased by the ogre in his seven-league boots. Finally, the hero steals the ogre’s boots and secures his family’s well-being by stealing from the ogre.

So not only do we see these motifs in European and Anglo-American versions of fairy tales, but in the African American fairy tales as well.

Hamilton, V. (1985). The People Could Fly. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

"The Juniper Tree" by the Grimm Brothers

Post 2
One of the most intriguing aspects of fairy tales, and the different stories we’ve read so far, is the interconnectedness of the stories, even those of different types. In the Grimm brothers’ “The Juniper Tree,” the pious wife of the rich man wished for a child “as red as blood and white as snow” (Grimm in Tatar, 1999, p. 190). Interestingly, one of the instances I found when reviewing this minor detail is that another instance occurs not in the story of a different author, but in the Grimm brothers’ version of “Snow White.” It makes me wonder why the authors chose to reuse this particular detail, not to mention what it means to want a child “red as blood.”

While many of the Hansel and Gretel type stories used bird imagery, it is the imagery from “The Juniper Tree” that particularly stands out, if only because of the brothers’ use of an allusion to the mythical Egyptian/Greek phoenix. When the boy’s sister takes his remains in silk to bury under the tree, there was a mist, “and in the middle of the mist burned a flame, and from the flame a beautiful bird emerged and began singing gloriously” (Grimm in Tatar, 1999, p. 192). In both Greek and Egyptian mythology, the phoenix was a bird that, after from 100-600 years (depending on the version of the myth told), bursts into flames and is reborn from the ashes of that fire.

That the boy’s resurrection as a bird comes from the Juniper tree is appropriate since it was under that tree, due to the blood of his mother, which could be considered a sacrifice to the tree, that he was conceived. Once again, the tree is given a sacrifice, in this case the bones of the boy, and this is what allows him to be resurrected. Upon rereading, the bird may be a gift from his mother, who is also buried beneath the tree.

The phoenix imagery comes full circle at the end of the story, when the boy is restored to his former state of being, resurrected from the ashes of the woman who took his life. I wonder what possessed the brothers to take the bird imagery from the story and shift it to the specific imagery of the phoenix.

Brothers Grimm. The Juniper Tree in Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Introduction to "Hansel and Gretel" Stories

In Tatar’s “Introduction: Hansel and Gretel,” the first point discussed is food. She says, “Food—it’s presence and absence—shapes the social world of fairy tales in a profound way,” (Tatar, 1999, p. 179). In the case of the “Hansel and Gretel” stories, it is the absence of food that is the story’s driving force. Tatar also reaffirms what we’ve already discussed about how fairy tales reflect the climate of society; these stories “not so much stage a child’s fears about starvation, exposure and abandonment as mirror the hard facts of the pre-modern era” (Tatar, 1999, p. 180). Starvation was a real part of the mid-19th century in Ireland, where a fungus wiped out the potato crops in a country where the majority of the population was relied on this crop for survival.

Tatar also discusses the transformation from the mother into the witch, which seems to be a motif among fairy tale stories. In this incarnation of the maternal transformation motif, both the mother and the witch are most concerned with their own survival, rather than the survival of the offspring, though “the witch is an even more exaggerated form of maternal malice than the stepmother” (Tatar, 1999, p. 180). The mother, since she is not capable of providing nourishment for her entire household, plots to rid herself of the competition, thus ensuring, or at least upping the odds of, her continued existence. The witch’s survival, on the other hand, is not dependent upon her cannibalistic tendencies, as she has the means to fatten up the children, but it is clearly her preferred means of sustenance. It is the fact that the witch appears to be the antithesis of the mother character that the children follow her and their cleverness that they triumph over her.

Bettelheim suggests that “Hansel and Gretel” is a story based on the “oral greed, denial and regression of the children” (Tatar, 1999, p. 181). The question I have is regression to where? Yes, in some versions of the story it is the reincarnated child that avenges his or her own death, but is that regression? It’s not like Golding’s Lord of the Flies, where the lack of structure facilitates a regression of sorts to a pack-type mentality. In the case of the characters of Hansel and Gretel, their motivation stems from the desire not to be eaten, as well as the desire to return home to their father.

Golding, W. (1954). Lord of the Flies. United States: Wideview/Perigee Books.
Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Motif in Margaret Atwood's "Bluebeard's Egg"

The most intriguing motif in Atwood's "Bluebeard's Egg" was the heart
motif. Sally's husband Ed is a "heart man," which we can infer is a
cardiologist. He works in a hospital, and according to Sally, many women
 want him to fix their hearts. The narrator says that Ed is "beset by
sirens," (Atwood in Tatar, 1999, p. 160) alluding to the mythological
characters said to lure sailors off course and to their deaths. But even
 though Ed is a heart man, he's not clear on matters of the heart, thus
making him a target for those sirens. To Sally, however, the heart is
not a necessary organ, it is something that can be removed,
symbolically, I imagine, if it causes trouble.
 
We see, even further, Sally's detachment from her heart when Ed allows
her to test the new machine in his wing. She sees her heart in black and
white not as something that is attached to her, but something that beats
 somewhere off in the distance of its own volition. Thus, she cannot get
a read on her own feelings, her own sense of self.

At the end of the story, past the retelling of a version of Bluebeard,
after Sally decides to retell the story from the perspective of the egg,
 she revisits the black and white version of the heart outside of herself
as something she has no control over. The egg is the next image to pop
into her mind, one that shifts and changes, and feels alive to her. Its
 red hue intrigues Sally, and she wonders what will hatch from it. 

I wonder, as a reader, if we are supposed to infer that within the egg
is a color version of Sally's heart, very alive and very much part of
 her. This could represent a liberation of sorts, returning to the actual
question. There life within an egg, followed by the birth (hatching) of
an egg--Sally's sense of self is confined inside this pulsating object,
 and Sally is afraid of it, as many women find themselves afraid of life
on their own.

Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton
& Co.

Comments on Tatar's Introduction to Cinderella

I have to admit that I read the introduction to this section of the
anthology twice, once before reading the variations, and once following.
Reading the introduction beforehand allowed me enough awareness that I
 was able to see the difference in personality from one Cinderella to the
next. Tatar said that "even within a single culture, she can appear
genteel and self-effacing in one story, clever and enterprising in
 another, coy and manipulative in a third" (Tatar, 1999, p. 102). Knowing
this beforehand, and having read other fairy tale variations, made these
character changes easier to see.

Because of Tatar's introduction I was also aware of the role of the
 father in the stories--the father either is cause of the turmoil,
lusting after his daughter because of his dying wife's wish for fidelity
(I don't think she thought he'd find anyone that met her requirements),
 or his own daughter's neglect. I find it interesting that the father
figure fades into the backgroud. I remember reading on Disney animated
movies for another class long ago, and something there was mentioned
 about the absence of father. If I remember (and I haven't seen
Cinderella in a long time), something happens to the father, it's
not that he's absent so much as he dies, I think, and Cinderella is left
 with her stepmother and stepsisters. We see this particular idea again
in other film versions of the story as well.

Finally, and I mentioned this a little above, I never thought about the
story of Cinderella involving incestuous relationships between father
 and daughter before. Where must a father be after the death of his wife,
to pursue a relationship with his own offspring? 

Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton
& Co.
 

Cultural Value in Grimms' Cinderella

I chose to look at the Grimms' version of Cinderella and the values that
are evident in the culture.

By his absence throughout the entire story, a message sent to
readers/listeners of this version of the story are led to believe that a
 father's love for a daughter wanes to non-existance when he remarries.
The father does not admonish his wife, nor her daughters for the
mistreatment of his own progeny. He allows them to strip her of her
clothing, and treat her as a servant, placing conditions on her
 attendance to events she is rightly entitled to attend. By doing this,
he has elevated his wife and step-daughters to a station higher than his
flesh and blood. Additionally, he refers to Cinderella as "my dead
 wife's daughter" (Grimm in Tatar, 1999, p. 121), placing no claim on her
whatsoever.

Also, we see that sacrifices of the flesh, if made dishonestly, are
fruitless when attempting to come about our desires. Both of
 Cinderella's stepsisters mutilate themselves to fit into a shoe, but the
fact that they are morally corrupt and Cinderella is not leads nature to
respond on Cinderella's behalf, alerting the prince to the girls'
 deception. In the end, their misdeeds are rewarded with blindness,
another gift from nature.

Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton
& Co.

Image and Symbol in Cinderella

An interesting image in the Cinderella stories to me was the image of
the antagonist sending a "hunter to kill and recover her lungs and liver
for dinner" (103). This image is recurring, not only in the Cinderella
 stories, but in the Snow White stories as well. The antagonist, in this
case the "wicked" stepmother, is looking for evidence of her
stepdaughter's murder. The fact that she wants to ingest parts of her
stepdaughter's remains suggests that by consuming these pieces of the
 girl, the stepmother is thereby internalizing Cinderella's (or Snow
White's) power, becoming one with it.

A prominent symbolic element in the Cinderella stories is the
protagonist's finding of aid in the natural world. From animals helping
 with ridiculous tasks (Grimm's "Cinderella"), gifts from a dead fish
("Yeh-hsien"), to being dressed up in the hides of animals
("Donkeyskin", "Catskin", and "The Princess in the Suit of Leather"),
the protagonists have a peace with nature that allows it to help the
 with their tasks and away from harm. In "Catskin," "Donkeyskin," and
"The Princess in the Suit of Leather" specifically, the Cinderella
character assumes the outward figure of an animal, dressed in their
hides, to keep from being recognized.
 
Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton
& Co.

Grimm Brothers & Sex and Violence

It's interesting to me that the Grimm brothers, while were galled at the
appearance of sex and/or desire in their stories but the "fastidious
descriptions of cruel punishments, on the whole escaped censorship"
 (Tatar, 1999, p. 369-370); in many places they further expanded on the
violent scenes from whichever story version they pulled from. The
brothers were encouraged by their brother Ferdinand to remove the sexual
connotations from the story, "eliminating anything that might offend
 sensibilities of the reading public" (Tatar, 1999, p. 372). This
suggests that the brothers decided that violence was completely
acceptable, but the discussion of sex and incest was not.

Here's where I'm having trouble. If the intended audience for these
 stories was not children, why did they title the collection Nursery
and Household Tales? Yes, they thought that parents should use their
discretion in telling tales to the children (connection to present day
 television watching, anyone?), but the title seems misleading.
 
Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton
& Co.

Symbolism in "Bluebeard" Variations

One symbolic element seen in the Bluebeard stories is the key. In the
Perrault version of the story, Bluebeard gives his wife the keys to the
storerooms containing all of his valuables. He uses the key to try and
 "unlock" the happiness of his wife, or at least, to keep the door to
happiness open and thus misdirect her. However, Bluebeard gives her the
specific instruction not to enter the little room at the end of the
hall, though he does give her the key. This small key is the key to
 unlock Bluebeard's anger, as well as the key that unlocks his past and
what became of his previous wives.  This little key also becomes the key
to her potential demise—because it is enchanted, she cannot wipe it of
 her misbehavior, and it is stained with the blood of the women in the room.

Similarly, in the Grimms' version ("Fitcher's bird"), the husband gives
the wife the keys to the estate and says that she can go anywhere except
 in one room with penalty of death. This small key represents the
husband's history. That it is locked away may mean that it is something
he wants private, but that he also wants her to find, otherwise he would
have removed the key to begin with. In the end of the story, it is a key
 (though not explicitly stated) that becomes the demise of the sorcerer
as he is locked in his house and destroyed by fire.

In the second Grimms' version ("The Robber Bridegroom"), there is no
mention of a key in this story, though the finger that the girl
 possessed is like a key as it is the element that unlocks the story of
the robber and is used to turn this robber over to the authorities so he
and his band of murderers cannot kill anyone else.

Another symbolic element present in the Bluebeard stories is the use of
 dreams and rings. Both the girl in "Fitcher's Bird" and Lady Mary in
"Mr. Fox" use dream telling as a means of confrontation. By using dream
telling, the protagonists can distance themselves from the action they
 witnessed, express to the antagonist their knowledge of his
transgressions, and find their way out of the marriage contract.

In both of these stories, as well, the protagonists witnessed the
antagonist's attempt to remove a ring from the finger of a murdered
 girl. The archetypal ring is associated with fidelity. The removal, or
attempted removal of the ring from the girl is symbolic, to the
antagonist, of the girls' fidelity, in death, to the antagonist.

Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.
 

On "Domesticating Dreams in Walt Disney's Cinderella"

Naomi Wood says that "Disney's reputation for squeaky-clean family
entertainment has led many to overlook the very American prurience that
was so appealing and acceptable to his audiences" (Woods, p. 31). What I
 want to take from this is a look at the lasciviousness of the Disney
films, so much as a look at this idea of the purity of Disney's reputation.

Wood points out that Disney films have a tendency to stereotype. She
 mentions the relationship between body type and intelligence as well as
the use of accent in speech as two examples of how the Disney films have
been used to create and/or perpetuate certain societal norms in American
 culture. This portrayal in Disney films is not so different from what
the Grimm brothers were trying to do with their stories.

This "squeaky-clean family entertainment" in addition to
not-so-inadvertently expressing the desires of adults and instilling
 ideas of a social hierarchy based on regional dialect, also uses song
lyrics to implant cultural stereotyping ideas in the minds of the
viewers. Take Aladdin (1991) for example. In the opening song,
the character talks about his middle-eastern homeland as a place where
 people "cut off your ear / if they don't like your face," continuing to
call it a "barbaric" place, thus giving the viewer the idea that anyone
of middle-eastern descent is uncivilized. 

 Further examination of the color archetypes used in Disney films most
likely would add to Wood's assertion, but I won't go into that here.

Wood, N. Domesticating dreams in Walt Disney's Cinderella.
 Retrieved June 7, 2009 from
<https://salsa.nmsu.edu/SCRIPT/carmens01_SU/scripts/student/serve_bulletin>.

Comments on "Snow White" Stories

In the introduction to this section of the anthology, Tatar says that
"Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has so eclipsed
other versions of the story that it is easy to forget that hundreds of
 variants have been collected over the past century in Europe, Asia,
Africa and the Americas" (1999, p. 74). It seems that such is the case
with many fairy tales adapted for the screen by the Disney company. Once
 again, there are two particular parts of this story that caught my
interest, evidence of both can be seen in the Grimms' adaptation of the
story, the second of which is blatantly referenced in Sexton's poem
 version of the tale.

A section of the Grimms' tale struck me as very similar to tellings of
the "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" story I heard as a child. There are
references to, and all seven dwarfs go through the line, to the ideas
 that someone's eaten their food, drank their wine and slept in their
beds, much like the bears' lament, though without the destructive
element of Goldilocks. I can't help but wonder if the Grimm brothers
 were alluding to that story when telling their version of "Snow White,"
or if the story of Goldilocks grew from this one section of the Grimm
brothers' tale.

The other point of interest in the "Snow White" stories is the
 implication that women are the lesser in intelligence when men and women
are compared. Again, in the Grimm brother's tale, the dwarfs repeatedly
tell Snow White not to open the door for anyone as they know her
 stepmother is coming after her. Snow White, and Sexton refers to her as
a "dumb bunny" (in Tatar, 1999, p. 99), repeatedly ignores the warnings
of the dwarfs, and finds herself killed as many times as she opens the door.
 
We have already discussed the purpose of the Grimm's tales--that they
were designed to be morality tales for children of a set social class.
This being the case, that the protagonist of these stories continued to
 repeat a dangerous action further perpetuated the Arthurian idea that
women need protecting from men, as they are not intelligent enough to
protect themselves.

Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton
 & Co.

Gilbert & Gubar's Snow Whit

Gilbert and Gubar (in Tatar, 1999) offer analytical perspective into the
classic fairy tale we know as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." As I've
looked at the role of parent already, I'll continue with that theme,
 focusing on Gilbert and Gubar's take on the role of  the father figure
within this particular tale.

The male figures in "Snow White," according to Gilbert and Gubar, take a
backseat to the conflict between mother and daughter. This secondary
 role, however, still has a vast impact on the mother's motivation, and
thus the patriarchal characters are part of the driving force in terms
of plot movement. 

Of the "magic mirror" as we know it, Gilbert and Gubar say that one male
 figure, the father figure, is "the voice of the looking glass, the
patriarchal voice of judgment that rules the queen's--and every
woman's--self-evaluation" (in Tatar, 1999, p. 293). It is this
 judgmental voice, the one that tells the queen that she no longer holds
highest favor, that provides the catalyst for the queen's hatred of her
daughter, and the part of herself that mirrors her daughter.

 Similarly, the "huntsman is really a surrogate for the King, a
parental--or more specifically, patriarchal--figure who 'dominates,
controls and subdues wild ferocious beasts" (Gilbert & Gubar in Tatar,
 1999, p. 294). Here we see another male character who has limited input
in the story become a driving force for plot. It is the huntsman's
failure, his choice to save his "daughter" that escalates the queen's
 anger, having ingested the innards of a wild boar instead of the girl's
own entrails.

Gilbert, S. and Gubar, S. Snow White and her wicked stepmother. In
Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton
 & Co.

Comments on "Beauty and the Beast"

It's interesting to see how much the Disney renditions of classic fairy
tales have infiltrated our perceptions of what fairy tales are, and how
the plots of these fairy tales should unfold. I'll admit that when
 beginning to read "Beauty and the Beast," I drew on my already establish
knowledge of the story and drew comparisons between that version and the
classic tellings. The two versions I found particularly interesting were
 "The Pig King" as told by Giovanni Straparola and "The Tiger's Bride" as
told by Angela Carter.

What struck me about "The Pig King" first was the role the pig's mother
played in the pig's matrimonial pursuits. Did anyone else find it
 intriguing that the mother of the girls the pig found infatuating didn't
protest after the pig murdered her first daughter. The second daughter
met the same fate as the first and it was only the difference in the
 third daughter's countenance that allowed her to be shown the pig
without his swine hide. What I can't figure out, and I don't know if I
just misread, is why the pig chose to be a pig if he knew that he could
 shed that skin. Why would he choose solely to appear as a man to his
wife and keep it secret from the rest of the world? So while the spell
was cast on him in the womb, the difference between this and the other
versions of the tale is that the beast character is capable of changing
 between his human and beast forms at will.

The end of "The Tiger's Bride" is what struck me most. Where in most
stories, the prince takes the form of a human because someone loves him
for who or what he is on the outside, in "The Tiger's Bride," the
 narrator ends up as a tigress, and doesn't seem too disturbed by this
change. What actually caught my attention was the way she became a
tiger. For cats, licking is the process by which they bathe themselves,
 and sometimes each other. The narrator's transformation is a result of
being licked by the tiger, or bathed if you will, cleaning off her human
form such that she can exist in her true form. 

Tatar, M. (1999). The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W. W. Norton
 & Co.