Cinderella's Stepmother Not so Evil After All

Perhaps one of the most unnatural and mad behaviors is devouring human flesh, being a cannibal. Besides the cannibalistic witches there are also other cannibals. An incomplete tale from the Brothers Grimm, “The Stepmother”, is also wildly horrific. The story is about an evil mother-in-law. After her son goes off to war she locks her daughter-in-law and grandchildren in a damp cellar. She eventually grows hungry for human flesh and requests her cook to slaughter and cook one of the children. The cook does not go through with this and instead cooks a pig. The mother-in-law craves flesh again and asks for the second child and then the queen herself. The cook tricks her each time and cooks a pig instead; the story ends with the queen trying to muffle her children’s screams so they are not discovered. When a maiden goes to meet her “Robber Bridegroom” at his home she comes to realize the den belongs to a group of murderers, her bridegroom being one of them. They bring home maidens and, “...chop them up to pieces without

Furthermore, when the upcoming ball is announced, the stepsisters consult Cinderella because of her good taste, and she willingly gives them excellent advice and even offers to help style their hair. She toils away happily and selflessly. She is so self-sacrificing that at the end of the tale she not only forgives her stepsisters cruelty but arranges advantageous marriages for them.

The commonly used saying, “they lived happily ever after,” originates from early fairy tales. Fairy tales are stories that feature fanciful characters that convey a moral to teach children lessons and values that they will keep for the rest of their lives. The original story of “Cinderella” by the Grimm Brothers and the later Disney version Cinderella (1950) are both descriptions of a legendary fairy tale of a kind and gentle girl who overcomes the rancor of her stepmother and stepsisters and ultimately finds a happy ending. Although both stories have the same plot, the overall messages that they deliver are different.

In Peggy Orenstein’s article, “What’s wrong with Cinderella?”, she analyzes the obsessions young girls have for stereotypical feminine products and toys, such as princesses and the color pink. Orenstein claims that such obsessions have negative effects on girls as they grow into women, restricting them into playing a specific role in adulthood. Although the author expresses much bias, she effectively supports her claims through her positions as a feminists and parent.

Have you ever had a dark and gloomy day? Imagine having that feeling every single day. The Grimm’s Cinderella was written in 1812. 1812 was one of the harshest years for America. An event that formed it was the war against Great Britain and the United States. Not only was there a war, but there was also a series of disastrous harvests. Taxes got higher, and more than twenty people who were involved with a Luddite Act were hung. In 1812, there was also the only assassination of a prime minister, who was shot dead in the House of Commons. The Grimm Brothers have put the dark times of 1812 into their stories. Some of their stories contain violence, child abuse, and wicked mothers. They came up with these types of stories after their father died, and when they struggled out of school. That gave them enough time to research and put together a collection of folk tales. Now you can see why the Grimm’s Cinderella was dark and gloomy. Although the plot stayed the same, over the years, the story did get lighter. Disney’s Cinderella came out in 1950. In 1950, learning information was not by fear, but by engaging happiness. Disney’s Cinderella transforms the Grimm’s Cinderella into a happier atmosphere. While some similarities between Disney’s Cinderella and Grimm’s Cinderella are noticeable, the differences are pronounced, especially when referring to the slippers, her father, and the ball.

The family dynamics in Max Apple’s “Stepdaughters” and Amy Tan’s “A Pair of Tickets” displays some of the issues that parents, stepparents and teenagers may or may not experience. A mother’s relationship with her children has a very unique connection, especially when it comes our daughters. Being a mother or stepmother is a problematical and rewarding experience: nevertheless, a mother’s love is unconditional. How do you except someone for his or her choices on being different? Is it easier for a step-parent to see things more clearly that the biological parent? Every family has its issues. When it’s a blended family with mothers, fathers, stepchildren and other family member, those issues can become more complex to understand.

In the Grimm version, there is also extra punishment for the stepmother as well. The stepmother now has to tend to her daughters and provide special care for them now because they cannot walk. She talked her daughters into cutting parts of their feet off because “ When you are queen you will no longer have to go on foot” (Grimm.) Therefore, they cannot walk anymore and

A fairytale that almost everyone knows is Cinderella. Cinderella is about a young girl whose father decides to remarry after her mother dies. The women who he remarries is evil with two evil daughters. As Cinderella's father is out of town for various things the evil step-mom makes Cinderella do all the chores. They treat her like a servant rather than someone apart of the family. Since Cinderella has no friends she becomes friends with animals who help her complete her daily chores. One day they receive an invitation to a ball. Cinderella is allowed to go if she completes a set of chores but Cinderella ends up staying home while her stepmother and stepsisters go to the ball. Cinderella's fairy godmother shows up and makes her beautiful (changes her dress, etc) but says she has to be home at midnight because her beautiful dress will disappear and she'll go back to her old self. She goes to the ball and the prince falls in love with her but she has to leave at the strike of midnight. As she is running out of the ball she loses one of her glass slippers. The prince searches town for Cinderella. He then finally finds her and they live happily ever after.

What people see is not necessarily all they get; there are more significant aspects that encompass what people use, hear, or see, besides the obvious messages employed throughout popular culture. It is not uncommon to find hidden messages within our culture today, especially in the context of movies. One movie in particular, the newest Cinderella, is full of these hidden messages. Besides the common message that is employed throughout Cinderella over and over again, the message to “have courage and be kind”, there are several hidden meanings that are often not discovered by viewers. These messages include “being a light” when surrounded on all sides by darkness, believing in the unbelievable, recognizing the fact that parent’s greatly influence their children, and seeing that it is okay to want a happily ever after kind of love.

The main challenges in the original “Cinderella” were from the mean stepmother and the ugly stepsisters. Cinderella’s father remarries after her mother dies, and when her father dies, the stepmother becomes wicked and nasty, forcing Cinderella to do all the dirty chores, such as cleaning out the cinders.This is congruent to the stories of Pear Blossom and Cindy Ellie,

In today’s society, divorce is on the rise and has been for the past few decades. As the rate increases, so does the rate of remarriage. If there is a child whose biological parents divorce and remarry, the increase of stepfamilies occurs as well. This concept is the concept of what the reading this week connects to in the stepfamilies chapter of Floyd and Morman’s (2014) book. This chapter has truly spoken to me as a child of a remarriage by the age of 8 and 14and how difficult it was growing up dealing with two different stepfamilies. Reading this chapter this week gave me some more insight into how I have communicated within my stepfamilies.

Bruno Bettelheim is an educator and therapist who wrote the “Struggle for Meaning”. In Bettelheim’s paper he discusses how children grow throw their experiences that their childhood literature brings them. Some of the main points are a child’s psychological problems, finding a deeper meaning to life, and keeping a reader entrained. Bettelheim’s points can be seen in Brothers Grimm’s “Cinderella”.

The two stories of “Cinderella” are “Tam and Cam”; and “The twelve Months: A Slav legend adapted by Alexander Chodzko. These stories have similar ways in portraying the hard working Cinderella including her suffering, but they are different in Cinderella’s motive of rescue one tale use violence if necessary; the other just more of a genuine resourceful approach. This means this character isn’t relying on a prince charming to be her rescue, so this makes the concept different from the other because “Tam and Cam” Cinderella lives forever happy with her lover, while “The twelve Months: A Slav legend adapted lives by herself and then a farmer she likes shows up. These tales went for a more sophisticated setting, each displaying the peasant overcoming the struggle; in which she is set free from all of her hurting. Throughout each story Cinderella is taking and caring she always seemed to get the short end of the stick. But, when the odds back fired on the step-sisters and step-mother the karma was naturally set upon to benefit Cinderella in her favor “Tam and Cam” or set in motion by her as payback to get even with her rival characters of a family in “The twelve Months: A Slav legend adapted lives.

Remarkably throughout all of history, females have encountered the issue of oppression while any form of power is ripped away from them. The concept is plainly indicated within countless fairytales, much like Cinderella as it is narrated from the female perspective. When examining and using the feminist lens for the folk tale of Cinderella, numerous power relationships were clearly viewed. In other words, the relationships correspond with both gender, and how the individual is portrayed. At the beginning of the story’s context, the power connection between Cinderella and her step-mother is rather obvious. In addition, the constant power relationships among male and females within the general public greatly influences Cinderella. Therefore every

In “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja makes a claim that the Grimms’ version of “Cinderella” provides reasons that Cinderella may not have been so fortunate due to her being “good and pious.” One main point that she discusses within the article is the mother/daughter relationship Cinderella shares with her deceased mother, in comparison to the mother/daughter relationship shared between the stepmother and stepsisters. Panttaja argues that the mothers in each relationship are both motivated by the same thing, “to ensure a future of power and prestige for their daughter” (Panttaja). Panttaja continues to identify how both mothers’ motives are similar, but her argument falters when she attempts to bring Cinderella’s