Short Story : My Fairy Godmother

In Perrault’s fairytale, as a reward for her patience and compassion in the face of suffering, Cinderella is sent a fairy godmother to grant all of her wishes. But Maitland’s Stepmother, lives in reality, and in her experience, such instances of divine intervention are hard to come by. While even she admits what she did was immoral, her reasoning behind why she did it was understandable: “All I wanted was for her to grow up… and realize that life was not a bed of roses and she had to take some responsibility for her own life…instead of waiting and waiting and waiting for something or someone to come shining out of the dark and force safety on her (Hallett and Karasek, "The Wicked Stepmother's Lament by Sara Maitland" 134).” Whereas Perrault’s Cinderella is rewarded for her innocence with a happy ending, Maitland’s Stepmother hold firmly to the conviction that Cinderella’s suffering will never end until she grows up and accepts that the world is not always a magical, wonderful, fair

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.

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.

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

When he writes “Saw Cinderella in a party dress” and “I threw my money and I ran away” (Flowers 20-22), the listener is able to see how some people would give up if they had to struggle with a family member, especially a significant other, or a mother, having a brain tumor. Since the lyrics are dark at this point, the listener is able to understand that the reason he “threw his money away” is because, the ending of the fairytale wasn’t perfect. In most fairy tales, there is a point where all hope seems lost, like when Cinderella lost her shoe and the prince couldn’t find her. Then, it all comes together to resolve and make the perfect ending like when the prince and Cinderella found each other and fell in love. In this fairytale, however, Flowers indicated that it seemed that this story wouldn’t have a perfect ending after all. Flowers also uses “Cinderella” to relate her story to the couple’s time urgency; Cinderella only had a certain amount of time left in her dress, just like how the mother only has a certain amount of time left before she passes. Throughout the story, the listener is able to fully understand how important it is to be ready for difficulties, especially ones that are unexpected and effect

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

Stories are surrounding us. Whether you're in school or at work or simply listening to somebody let you know about their day. We learn through stories. As humans we all share experiences through stories. We learn from ones experiences while they tell us the story of what happen to them. We learn about a 12 year old girl named Lisa Chavez. She tells us her story about the first time she has experienced racism. We also learn about a woman named Chimamanda Adiche's and she tells us about the dangers of a single story. While Chimamanda Adiche's tells us her story she explains to us why people have racist thoughts and it’s because of storytelling. Then we learn about Hampl’s piece about memoirs. He tells us what he thinks a memoir is and how true can a memoir be. Stories affect our everyday life, they affect how we see people and how we learn about things.

Even though Cinderella was being mistreated she remained kind-hearted and sweet and held out hope that she would one day find happiness. Perrault wrote, “And now her two sisters found her to be that fine, beautiful lady whom they had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet to beg pardon for all the ill- treatment they had made her undergo. Cinderella took them up, and, as she embraced them, cried: That she forgave them with all her heart, and desired them always to love her”. Even after gaining her prince and happy ending she still shows kindness and forgives her step-sisters. In the end Cinderella finds happiness with her Prince and good prevails over evil.

Cinderella was kind to her step mother and step sisters, and the truth found them out. She did not have to be nice to them, and she did not have to show mercy, but she did. Cinderella had the courage to forgive.

Each person in the world has heard of Cinderella, no matter what kind of version it may be. Cinderella is the one fairy tale story that has been popular and will always be the one tale that has to be told to children. Words and story lines might be twist and turn, but in the end the knowledge of the story will be learned in similar ways. As we all know when one story is told another is created, when one is at its best then another is at its worse. One version will always be better than another, but no matter what version it might be the story will be told.

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

Today's society contains stories that model the ideal life that each individual lives each day. Stories may shape our mind in creative and positive ways that may enlighten the road towards the future. They have been examples for us to survive by and thrive on for decades: in the past, and now, continuing in the future. People around the world have been told stories that may have influenced their lives in a unique way. Children long to be enlightened by stories that fill their young and fruitful minds, allowing thoughts and new ideas to be instilled. Throughout the worlds' cultures and literature, stories have influenced the actions and morals of man with their underlying