Ruth Heller's The Korean Cinderella

We all know Cinderella, the girl whose step- mother and sisters were horrendous to her. In the end she gets the prince, of course. These tales don’t follow that same story line. Their personalities, royal future, their father figure, and the magic in the stories all differ. These four Cinderella tales are Aschenputtel, The Twelve Months: A Slave Legend, The Algonquin Cinderella, and Tam and Cam. Each has different elements that can be compared, but they also have elements that can be contrasted. Breaking down the comparisons and contrasts, Aschenputtel and The Twelve Months: A Slave Legend will be compared and contrasted, whereas, the Algonquin Cinderella and Tam and Cam will be compared and contrasted.

Cinderella is a story that is known to be the best fairy tale in the world. There are more than 700 different versions of Cinderella in the world. Throughout history, "Cinderella" is a story that is interpreted by different countries such as; Europe, North and South America, and Asia. Although the name, clothes, and other details alter in each story, the theme remains the same. In each story, there is an outward transformation of "Cinderbottom" to "Cinderella." In the French "Cinderella" by Charles Perrault, the Native American "Oochigeasw" by an unknown author, and "A Chinese "Cinderella" by Tuan Ch'eng-shih, all of them show the transformation of Cinderella from "rags to rich" because of her kind heart and dedication

Our culture is full of fairy tales. Girls are taught at a young age about Prince Charming and happy endings while boys are taught to be the girls’ heroes. They are taught these dreams and desires through fairytales and movies. These fairy tales started out as entertaining stories, but as they were handed down from one generation to the next, they slowly became more than that. They became bedtime stories for children, and as such, they have great importance because they teach children how to be in the world. One such fairy tale I want to focus on is Cinderella.

Lin Lan’s “Cinderella” is a classic fairy tale that depicts the life of a poor, young girl named Beauty in the hands of her wicked stepmother and stepsister. The story leads one to believe a moral lesson is portrayed as how in the end evil never prospers. Beauty is rewarded in many different forms for being the innocent protagonist, while the stepmother and stepsister are chastened for their heinous deeds. As children are the main targeted audience for fairytales, it would seem evident to create a character of good standing morals and virtue; however, there are multiple instances that contradict Beauty’s faultless character.

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.

"Cinderella" is perhaps the most recognized fairy tale in history, one of the few that spans across generations and cultures. Every prominent culture in the world tells some similar version of this story of a poor girl going from rags to riches; over 700 versions have been accounted for worldwide. In America, numerous authors have penned their own version of the classic folktale. One of these is Tanith Lee, a prolific writer of stories for young adults. Lee cleverly found a way to include all of the traditional elements of the classic "Cinderella" tale, but added a new twist: Cinderella, or the character similar to her in this story, had malicious intentions for the prince, and her purpose throughout the tale was a malevolent one: revenge.

The story that most of us know as “Cinderella” actually has a lot of different versions. These different versions contain several elements that are similar, but yet even more elements that differ from one another. The three main difference between all the different versions of this story are the characters, how others treat the main character, and the setting in which these stories take place.

In Perry Nodelman’s The Pleasure of Children’s Literature, he introduces the idea of reading against a text. This involves paying attention to a piece of writing for racist, sexist, or stereotypical assumptions. Most of the time these assumptions, or absences, are blindly accepted by the reader, as they are so common in society. A reader may think that racist or sexist assumptions would immediately stand out to them as offensive writing, but not realize that they are present in all kinds of literature. A prime example of this would be the classic Walt Disney's fairytale Cinderella.

Chinese Cinderella is a very sad story where a little, unwanted girl is being abused every day. The novel Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah is depressing. The main character, Adeline, is always being treated the wrong way, this story could not be more sad.

Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah is a heart-rendering autobiographical novel. Throughout the text, Adeline describes her cruel family and the trauma she was confronted with at school, trying to satisfy her heartless father with educational achievements. Together we relive the childhood life of Adeline through her words and hear, what it feels like to be a rejected and unloved daughter. Furthermore, Adeline owns a special quality that helps her to handle the cruelty of her upbringing and rise above many obstacles. Adeline has been always resilient. She is very strong and tackles everything that comes her way. By being friendless and having a pet duck as a friend, she distracts herself from her coldblooded reality.

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.

There are certain similarities in two variants of the story. Main characters are the same and basic plot is repeated in two versions with slight differences. Cinderella is a classical story, which exists, in many different cultures and countries. It reflects the story of poor girls who suffers different privations but finds the way out from different situations and becomes happy. The story about Cinderella is a story of hope and many people are fond of this story. It does not lose its popularity with the flow of time and light changes in the plot and depiction of the characters only reflect cultural and historical differences. The story of Cinderella passes

There are many things one has learned from the experience, although the twelve versions of Cinderella are similar to each other but yet in some way they are different, which make it

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

The book Chinese Cinderella, written by Adeline Yen Mah has four main themes. They are: family & relationships, abandonment & loneliness, self-esteem and history. The author Adeline Yen Mah, also wrote the book Falling Leaves but Chinese Cinderella was written for younger audiences. Chinese Cinderella is actually an autobiography, not a fairy tale. Adeline (the protagonist) has to work for her dreams, not by wishing from a fairy godmother. This book was set in the 1900’s (1941-1952). At that time WW2 was happening making Adeline’s life harder. The moral of this book would be that no matter your circumstances, you can work hard and achieve your dreams. This book is really captivating and it tells the reader not to underestimate anyone. That’s why I think this is an amazing book for everyone to read.