Comparing Two Versions Of Cinderella

Fairy Folk Tales are the most popular types of literature. The tale is an orally transmitted tradition by generations through the time; some events are changed to fit reality and society. Folk fairy tales deal with the dualism of the good and the evil. They are basing on a conflict between the good and the evil forces. The conclusion comes from aspirations of the human desire to achieve the justices. There are no known authors and sources for ancient literature. We have many versions of the story; they are credited by many authors later. Each tale is very like some other culture’s tale. Each culture has own tales, but all the tales are similar and different in some points. This essay will compare between two

Throughout the years there have been many versions of the classic tale, “Cinderella.” From European style all the way to Disney. However, they are all based on the same ancient story. Step mother, step sisters, Cinderella marries the love of her life, you get the idea. Yet, each individual story has its own unique touch to make it stand out just a little bit more than the previous story. The two Cinderella stories that I’m going to be comparing are two Disney films. The first one I am going to discuss was released in early spring of 1950, called “Cinderella”. The second story is a remake called, “Another Cinderella Story” released in 2008. Both films based on the same story line, yet completely different.

A lot of the fairy tale stories that we have seen as young adults and even as adults are original folk tale stories that have been modified and rewritten to accommodate our new cultures. Cinderella happens to be one of these stories that have been changed over the years. There are many different versions of Cinderella, an African Cinderella, a Hungarian Cinderella and even a Chinese version. All of the Cinderella’s are similar in plot, but the author dictates the story’s theme based on the people whom he is writing for which completely changes the story’s tone, mood and other elements. While Perrault's version stresses the values and materialistic worries of his middle-class audience, Grimm’s' focus is on the harsh realities of life

When most people think of the movie, "Cinderella';, they think of the animated Disney version with the little mice and the happy ending where Cinderella marries the prince and they live happily ever after. While the movie "Ever After'; is based on "Cinderella';, it is not animated, but still has many of the same characteristics as the Disney version. Of course it is not exactly the same, and since it is not animated there are many differences.

The central focus of this unit is to identify the elements of stories and how their themes may relate to each other in a variety of ways. Students will be guided in a variety of comparison and contrasting activities in order to gain understanding of main ideas, characters, and cultural themes across similar fairy tales from different cultures. This unit focuses on three different versions of Cinderella from different cultures. I chose to focus on the common elements of the fairy tales and the cultural differences because this was something the students were struggling with previously.

The Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella is a written down oral story that people passed down from generation to generation, meant to teach a lesson about piety and good behavior. Before the Grimm Brothers ever wrote it down, the story had been told several times by memory. It is thus not surprising that the descriptions of certain events in the story, such as the way Cinderella went to the Ball, are lacking in details. It is obvious that these parts of the story are unimportant to the overall message of the story. Instead, it focuses on the piety of Cinderella and the wickedness of the step-sisters. Through the events of the story, it becomes obvious that the goodness of Cinderella is justly rewarded, and that

Jane Yolen discusses the variations in Cinderella throughout history in America’s “Cinderella” Yolen began a career in publications as an editor and later became a professional writer, winning numerous awards and publishing over seventy novels. Yolen observes that the European Cinderella and the Asian Cinderella possess more strength than the helpless modern Cinderella. She attributes this evolution to cultural incorporations and mass market’s reproductions of the tale. American interpretations of Cinderella result in a lasting change to a dependent heroine. Yolen reveals many people are familiar with the changed Cinderella and not the former Cinderella. In Jane Yolen’s essay, America’s “Cinderella”, she denounces the debasement of women in today’s society by comparing the past Cinderella to modern Cinderella, characterizing Cinderella as reliant, and criticizing the example of Walt Disney’s Cinderella.

Adults realize that despite Cinderella’s charismatic traits, Cinderella’s behaviour in Perrault’s tale is not acceptable for today’s modern western woman.

Cinderella’s story is undoubtedly the most popular fairy tale all over the world. Her fairy tale is one of the best read and emotion filled story that we all enjoyed as young and adults. In Elizabeth Pantajja’s analysis, Cinderella’s story still continues to evoke emotions but not as a love story but a contradiction of what we some of us believe. Pantajja chose Cinderella’s story to enlighten the readers that being good and piety are not the reason for Cinderella’s envious fairy tale. The author’s criticism and forthright analysis through her use of pathos, ethos, and logos made the readers doubt Cinderella’s character and question the real reason behind her marrying the prince. Pantajja claims that

Ashputtle and Cinderella have some differences and some similarities. In both stories the step mother is extremely mean. The stepmother doesn’t want Ashputtle nor Cinderella to be with the prince. She makes Cinderella and Ashputtle her slave basically. The stepmother is jealous of Cinderella and Ashputtle’s beauty so she tries to keep her away from the prince so her daughter’s can be with the prince instead.

The story of Cinderella has become a classic fairy tale, known around the world, and past down from generation to generation. Yet, over the years, the story has been rewritten to better relate to different cultures. While some things never change, authors still manage to convey different messages by making the story their own. This can be clearly seen when the Grimm brothers version of Cinderella is compared to Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella. While the core of the story does not change, the moral, tone, and “magical” aspects of the two stories are clearly shaped by the different cultures in which they were written in.

Everyone has surely heard of some version of a Cinderella story. These stories may be somewhat different, but overall, all of these stories tend to share certain themes. The themes are shared whether it be the 1950’s cartoon version of Cinderella or one of the modern movies that shows a “Cinderella story.” , A few of the main themes that are shared are love, good versus evil, and wealth. These themes are present in all of the Cinderella stories and through these stories, the themes also show reality by creating noticeable similarities in real life through the stories.

Difference Interpretations of Cinderella Transformations gives a new perspective on classic fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, but one in particular stuck out to me. In the story about “Cinderella” there are many similarities, but the differences are what shows the mark of a good writer. Every story Anne Sexton writes about in Transformations uses confessional pieces before the fairy tale to relate to her own life. In addition, “Cinderella” is a very well known story, but the most popular one is the Disney version which is the most pleasant interpretation. The Transformation’s version of Cinderella uses differences between the Brothers Grimm and Disney, outlines descriptive images, and also uses Anne Sexton’s confessional poetry throughout

“The Walt Disney Company is a powerful economic and cultural phenomenon known throughout the United States and the world as a provider of family entertainment (Maltin, 1, 308). Its media and entertainment holdings establish it as a central communicator in contemporary life. As such, it provides many of the first narratives children use to learn about the world” (Ward, 1). Disney has always been family oriented making it one of the main attractions of reading something Disney. They always have an innocent feeling to their stories, which makes it more appealing for children. But in Vietnamese fairytales a family oriented story may be somewhat gory or violent. “The stories from Vietnam tell us about their

When someone mentions the name “Cinderella”, the first thing that usually comes to our minds is the fairytale in which the fair maiden who works so hard yet it treated so poorly gains her “fairytale ending” with a wave of a magic wand. However, the fairytale of Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers has multiple differences in plot from the fairytale we all usually think of. The plot of the Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers, written in 1812, is that a young female’s mother passes away early in the story, departing with the message to Cinderella to remain “pious and good”. Cinderella remained true to this message given to her by her mother, and she showed this in her work ethic. Because Cinderella had remained pious and good, her mother, in return, watched over her in the form of the birds above her grave that gave Cinderella help and material things that she needed. In the end, Cinderella has her “happily ever after”, for when the prince held a festival to find a new bride, she was chosen due to her insurmountable beauty. The feminist lens critiques how females are commonly represented in texts, and how insufficient these representations are as a categorizing device. These representations of women often include them being passive and emotional—staying back while the men do the work. Cinderella relates to the feminist lens because she fits into the typical representations of women created by men. Feminist criticism is important to recognize because women are often falsely represented as helpless, thus needing a man to come to their rescue. It is common in literature to see helpless women, crying and begging for help instead of being able to work out their own problems and hardships. Others, however, may believe that it is still important to uphold the fundamentals of the feminist lens because it keeps the man in power, which they say is important in keeping the man the head of the household. Cinderella thoroughly represents the feminist lens because it shows how women in literature uphold the representations of passive and emotional, created by the man.