In Hans Christian Anderson’s 1830s fairy tale Thumbelina, the narrator brings Thumbelina or Tiny

In the short story “the White Heron” (1886), Sarah Jewett portrays a young little girl, Sylvia, bear the temptation of money and affection from the young man with mental struggle, and resolutely determined to protect the fairy of nature – a white heron. Through describing Sylvia’s authentic emotions and using of vivid theme colors and exquisite word choice, Jewett delivers the story like showing a lifelike 19-century country-life drama in front of the readers.

Many fairy tales are used to teach children lessons. “Little Red Riding Hood” provides a clear object lesson on why not to talk to strangers. However, fairy tales can be more subtle than that and teach less obvious (and violent) lessons. In “Beauty and the Beast”, by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, and “Little Thumbling”, by Charles Perrault, courage is one potential lesson that stands out. The title characters of both stories display courage through their actions, giving children an example to learn from. Of course, courage comes in more than one form, but the courage in these two stories shares many features. “Beauty and the Beast” and “Little Thumbling” present courage as an important virtue that helps both courageous people and others by helping or protecting them.

Most modern fairytales are expected to have happy endings and be appropriate for children, nonetheless, in past centuries most were gruesome. Consequently, fairytales have been modified throughout time. The stories “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and “The Summer and Winter Garden” by Jacob and Wilherm Grimm share similarities and differences. The two stories are distinct because of the peculiar year they have been written in. LePrince de Beaumont’s story is written in London of 1783 and Grimm’s in Germany of 1812. At the time, wealthy people in London, were educated and had nannies who would read to their children; whereas, in Germany, the Grimm brothers created their own interpretation into a short story.

Lennie Small is one of the main characters in the book. He is mentally disabled and has the mind of a child. Lennie is a misunderstood character who has good intentions but doesn’t understand the impact of his actions. The only character Lennie has a close relationship to George, who sees him as a burden blocking the way to his American dream.

In the familiar more traditional version, Cinderella is a poor maid girl that, with the help of fairy godmother, gets a chance to meet prince charming. They fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after, and then what? What is a happily ever after? Is this even a realistic thought? In the dark comedic poem Cinderella, Anne Sexton forces the reader to examine this question. Utilizing literary devices such as tone, imagery, and style, Sexton encourages the reader to think about how silly and unlikely a fairy tale ending actually is.

In the folktale “The Blue Beard” written by Charles Perrault, conforms to both Dworkin’s and Lurie’s representations of fairy tale heroines. Perrault states, “The fatal effects of curiosity, particularly female curiosity, have of course long seen the subject of report” (133). Andrea Dworkin author of “Women Hating” and Alison Lurie author of “Don’t Tell the Grown-Ups” explain their different views regarding the heroines in fairy tales.

Triumphant reward in spite of unjust punishment is a universal sentiment that transcends languages and cultures. There are thousands of folktales and fairy tales that are firmly rooted in individual cultures, yet the tale of Cinderella has been told through many centuries and throughout the far corners of the world. With thousands of versions of this classic tale in print worldwide, the tale is believed to have originated with the story of Rhodopis, a Greek slave girl who is married to an Egyptian King. The story of Rhodopis, which means rosy-cheeks, dates back to 7 BC and is attributed to a Greek geographer named Strabo. The Chinese variation of this fairy tale is named Yeh-hsien. The Chinese version is traceable to the year 860 and appears in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Duan Chengshi. Yeh-hsien is a young girl, motherless and in the control of her stepmother, who befriends a treasured fish. The jealous step-mother kills the fish, but it’s bones provide Yeh-hsien with magical powers, eventually enabling Yeh-hsien to escape the control of her step-mother for a royal life. The Story of the Black Cow which is found within the pages of Folk Tales from the Himalayas by John Murray, published in 1906, the child who is mistreated by a stepmother is a male and the role of savior is portrayed by a snake, with a cow serving as the moral of the story, faithfulness. These two versions of Cinderella carry many common threads that are

This modern fairy tale contains diverse characters but none of them are as important as the grandmother. In fact, through her narration the reader gets the basic

Cinderella has changed so little over time that it seems we’re still in the 1700’s reading Charles Perrault’s first edition. And yet it remains one of the most popular fairy tales read to

Fairytales, arguably some of the most historical forms of literature, have remained popular throughout the decades. Tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Frog King” and “The Swan Maiden,” were originally written between the mid-eighteenth century and mid-nineteenth century. Whether it is the fanciful love-story or the magical transformation which attracts and has kept attention throughout the decades, fairytales, specifically those in which either the protagonist or antagonist undergoes a physical change, teach an important lesson to readers. In this day and age, the media has put so much pressure on particularly young women to look a certain way; what seems to be missing is the idea that physical beauty does not necessarily parallel inner beauty. The theme of transformation in many fairytales serves to portray certain truths about

Margaret Atwood’s satirical poem, “There Was Once”, aims to disrupt the generic conventions of a traditional fairy tale. Atwood begins with the traditional opening of a fairy tale by writing, “there once was a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest” (Atwood 406). Atwood begins to dissect the aspects of a fairy tale by first calling out the normal backdrop, which is a forest. Then, she points out that the girl in the story was never poor to begin with since she lived in a house. Atwood questions why the protagonist must always be beautiful, pointing out the current problems surrounding women and body image. Atwood also complains about the fact that all of the female leads in fairy tales are white, possibly alluding to Hollywood’s constant whitewashing of films. She attacks the idea that the “evil stepmother” must always be evil and be a female, pointing out that if the stepmother had to be

From the first line, I felt sorry for the mouse, which was not like the others. First, he is much smaller in size than the average mouse. And he has huge ears, well, a perfect freak among his ordinary intelligent family. And secondly, he likes to read books and communicate with people. Small, least of all others, but so brave, sturdy, not afraid of ordinary mouse fears. And in love, strongly and truly in princess. Despereaux is ready to do anything to save his beloved, and everything turns out for him. Well, completely crazy, according to mouse standards!

Cinderella, by the Brothers Grimm, described the life of a maiden named Cinderella. Born to a loving family, Cinderella’s life had drastically changed when her ailing mother had perished from her disease. After the death of Cinderella’s mother, her father had married another woman, who had two daughters. Unfortunately, Cinderella’s step-mother and step-sisters were cruel to Cinderella, forcing her to wear rags and perform chores. Instead of voicing the abuse, Cinderella submissively endured the appalling treatment and had her value reduced to a servant. As years progressed, the king organized an extravagant ball for three days, designed to attract the prince to the maidens in the ball. Even though Cinderella desperately wanted to attend the ball, because of the cruelty of her step-sisters, Cinderella remained meek and was warned she would be severely punished if she didn’t sort the lentils. Rather than performing the task and arguing for her freedom, Cinderella wept and was helped by the pigeons. As the ball continued, the step-sisters were discontent with the completion of their tasks, so they resumed to mistreat Cinderella by requesting her to complete further preposterous tasks. However, the pigeons would resume assisting Cinderella, even advising her to shake the tree on her mother’s grave for the appropriate attire to attend the ball. Thanks to the pigeons and the tree, Cinderella attended the ball and established herself as the candidate of the prince’s affection,

In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that

Despite gender, living conditions or cultural backgrounds most people grow up reading or hearing stories of heroism and damsel in distress scenarios. Anne Sexton turns stereotypes on their head in her satirical poems of classic fairy tales, including Snow White and The Seven Dwarves and Cinderella. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves tells the tale of a young princess with hair as black as coal and skin as pale as snow, whose life is thrown into turmoil at the hands of her overbearing stepmother. Cinderella tells the story of a young girl who she spends her life is yearning for the prince’s ball, and similar to Snow White, Cinderella’s stepmother is influencing her life, however she is a positive character throughout the story. This sheds light on the stepmother in Snow White’s piece as despite the fact that Snow White’s stepmother clearly does inherently evil things, a re-reading demands a re-examination of why. It is throughout these tales’ where stepmothers are only trying to protect their children from the world around them, however in Snow White an outside motive, the beauty provided by the mirror and the pride manifested by poison, creates a barrier between the queen and her stepdaughter, thus giving her the title “Evil”.