Edmond Mbiaka True

or geographic origins does not define all that he or she is or will be.

     In the movie “Cinderella,” Cinderella is a maid to an evil stepmother and two very heartless and obnoxious stepsisters. The only reason that Cinderella still puts up with their orders is an example of the Behavioral perspective. The Behavioral Perspective puts emphasis on learning by experience with rewards and punishments. She knows that if she does not do the chores, she will be punished or thrown out of the household. She does not have anywhere to go because her mother and father have passed away. Because Cinderella is a genuinely kind human being who wishes to please, she usually does not stick up for herself against the others in the household. She is used to taking on the brunt of

“How is one to know and define oneself? From the inside- within a context that is self-defined, from a grounding in a community… or from the

From the works: “Notes from Underground” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, the reader sees that two people, by trying to become their own individual person, can be alienated from society for different reasons. If we are to allow people to become an individual, it is crucial we stop seeing people as part of a group’s

In her article, “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja illustrates the important role of parents in a childhood. She talks about the importance the mother plays in all versions of Cinderella as well as evidence showing what lack of parenthood does to children. Panttaja claims by way of the Grimms Brothers version of Cinderella and how each mother wants to guarantee a bright and happy future for their daughters by marrying them off to the prince. The similarities between the wanting of Cinderella and the stepsisters married- and doing anything to get it- contradicts the idea that Cinderella and her mother were morally superior, or different at all, from the stepmother and sisters.

The Disney version of the story, Cinderella, illustrates a different moral than that of the original story. This story believes an ideal child should do what they are told and follow directions and in the end they will reap the rewards. In this story, Cinderella’s mother dies and her father remarries to a woman who has two daughters. While the daughters are pampered, Cinderella must work to keep the house from falling into disrepair. She befriends the animals and they help her to get ready to go to the ball by finishing her chores and making her a dress. When the evil stepsisters discover the dress they become furious because the mice used trimming from their clothing when making the dress. In revenge, the stepsisters rip the dress, leaving Cinderella out of options and out of hope. Just as Cinderella is about to give up, her fairy godmother appears and with a wave of magic creates a dress and turns a pumpkin and the mice into a horse and carriage. The only problem is that everything will turn back to what it was beforehand at midnight. Cinderella and the Prince fall in love at the ball but she must quickly leave because the

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

In "Cinderella" by Charles Perrault, the story depicts an imaginative fairytale through the hardships of a mistreated daughter and the magic of a fairy; in essence, Cinderella demonstrates that focusing on materialism is more important and more effective other than working up the path to majesty. Cinderella is a character who is often mistreated by her stepmother and god sisters. Bearing unsuitable personalities, they treat her harshly, leaving all of the chores to her. However, she admits that her tattered clothes are not worthy of a formal event, and continues to be belittled by her stepsisters. Portrayed with low self-esteem and insecurity, she does not respond harshly to their cruel insults. As a result, the main character relies on

One hidden message employed throughout Cinderella is that people should be a light within the darkness. Although Cinderella was surrounded by people who constantly treated her with rudeness, she resorted to treating them with kindness. Towards the end of the movie, she even showed forgiveness towards her stepsisters and stepmom, and she told them that she forgave them. Cinderella showed that no matter how bad people treated her, or what rude things people told her, she could overcome the evilness by always showing kindness, gratitude, and love towards every person. She proved today that just one person showing these positive characteristics, could

Cinderella is innocent just as the child, and this allows the child to not feel guilt about his jealous judgements towards siblings. Cinderella’s story helps the child realize how terrible things could be for them and to appreciate how lucky they are instead of looking at the negative side of their life.

The men in “Cinderella” also value women for their beauty. The prince has a ball for all the maidens in the land to find his future wife, which “amounts to a beauty contest” (Lieberman 386) for a new trophy wife. While some argue that Cinderella’s rebellion of going against her stepmother’s instructions of staying home shows that the story has feminist qualities, the prince weakens her achievement when he chooses her only because of her beauty as “girls win the prize if they are the fairest of them all” (Lieberman 385). Her need for independence is transformed into the prince’s need for a pretty wife, making her again an object in her family. Once integrated into the prince’s family, Cinderella goes from the maid of her family to the smiling porcelain doll next to the prince as the “first job of a fairy tale princess is to be beautiful” (Röhrich 110). This gives the impression that the only way

Cinderella held on to what her mother had told her and put up with everything her step- family was making her do. Cinderella always did what she was supposed to do, not once did she stop short of finishing or try to fight back. Cinderella kept her faith and believed that what her mother had told her was the truth and that life would get better. Eventually life did get better. By keeping her faith Cinderella was able to get all her chores done and get dressed for the ball, with the help from some creatures. If Cinderella wouldn’t have kept her faith she wouldn’t have dance with the prince and the prince wouldn’t have fallen in love with her. Cinderella wasn’t self-centered and believed if she was a good person she would be rewarded and in the end, she was able to live happily ever after with her prince. The exact opposite can be said about the step-sisters. The two sisters were awful people telling Cinderella to do their dirty work. When the prince came looking for the owner of the shoe the two girls would have done anything to fit the shoe. Anything is exactly what they did, one sister cut off her toe and another cut off her heel. The girls “hearts were foul and black” (Grimm 117), because of this they couldn’t have a truly happy life. In the end the two sisters had their eyes pecked out by birds. Cinderella found the deeper meaning to her life by being a self-less person and the sisters did not because of

Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She

With the power the step-mother has obtained, she utilizes it in order to oppress Cinderella as she is forced to become a maid within her own place of dwelling. For this reason, it causes Cinderella to become apart of an inferior level. Cinderella continues to stay passive and an inactive contributor within her life. Not resorting to the chance of rebelling or escaping the unfortunate situation. But even so, some may insist upon her attempting to break free as a form of escaping, yet she does not use it for instead she choses to wait in order to be saved. In view of that, Cinderella is presented as a goodhearted, but submissive character in need of rescuing. Above all, both the step-mother and Cinderella are seen as stereotypical characters. In fact the step-mother is showcased to hold great power, thus being a vision of dark evil ways. Much less, Cinderella and her character is not endowed with any power whatsoever, thus being looked upon as a good hearts and beautiful person inside and out. Accordingly this represents the message of female characters and power relationships between them. Being that those with power are seen as evil, while on the other hand those who have no power are meant to be good. Therefore a happy ending is give to those powerless, instead of female individuals with

The tale works to improve the man’s image, as a fair and a wise father; or a prince who is the savior of hopeless girl. The hopeless girl expresses a kind and a simple girl; otherwise, the woman mirrors a wicked, jealous, and ugly character. That is clear in these two-fairy tales. While Cinderella and Tam were little kids, they lost their mothers. At this point, each of them her suffering and the painful journey begins. Cinderella lives in her father’s house with a stepmother and