Modern day fairy tale connections Part One

Persepolis:

This book has  a scene that coincides with the Grimm's tale called The Children Who Played at Slaughtering. The author Marjane gets her childhood playmates together to attack another child by poking his eyes out with nails. The children believe this is justified since the child's father is a guard that persecutes people that are against the current regime. They want to punish him for his fathers crime and are stopped by Marjanes  mother who gets to them before they can cause any really harm. In the fairytale, the children believe that slaughtering one of their playmates is justified since they saw the adults slaughtering their livestock. The children believe that by mimicking the adults behavior that makes it "ok" for them to play at slaughtering without any dire consequences.

Mirror Mirror the  movie:

The story of Snow White is retold in this epic movie starring Julia Roberts as the Queen. The movie starts with the introduction of dark magic, which is fought by the King who disappears, that is not the case in the fairytale where he actually dies. The mirror on the wall is a reflection of the Queen's inner self and there is no magical being like the one in the fairytale. Snow White is decidedly shown in a comical aspect. The Prince is stripped off of his clothing by the bandits who also happen to be the dwarves. The dwarves take Snow White in when she escapes from the Queen but hesitantly and there is no mention of any caves in the movies. The apple which kills Snow White in the fairytale isn't seen until the very end when the Queen is an old woman, not by choice but the price she pays for all of her spells and magic. Snow White sees rights through the Queens last attempt at killing her and reminds the Queen not to forget the grand scheme of things and her place in it. The Queen does not die in the end like in the fairytale but becomes a shriveled old woman who has lost all her beauty and the kingdom. Snow White is seen as very smart which is conveyed in the movie when she sees right through the last conniving trick of the already defeated Queen.

 

Various Endings

Clever Hans:

Is a formula tale that always begins in a similar fashion. It can be considered a cumulative tale because the beginning is always the same. The tale can also be considered a cautionary tale because it warns the reader that one should think for themselves or they will end up like Hans with no bride.

How some children played at slaughtering:

This is a cautionary tale that has a hidden warning. The warning is aimed at the parents specifically in reference to the things they might do in front of their children that lead to death and chaos. In the first part the child picked the apple which was a sign that he was innocent of the slaughter and that the child's intentions was not malicious. The second part led to the death of a whole family. The mother was not able to control her emotions and loses all her children  in the process of killing one. 

Maiden without hands: 

This is a fairytale and a religious one. It tells the reader that you should trust in God. You should never expect anything for nothing from random strangers that you do not know. The parents are only seen in the beginning and then the whole story revolves around the daughter. The daughter is punished for the sins of her parents when the devil tries to ruin her marriage. God intervenes and protects her while her husband is searching for her.

Freddie and Katy:

This is a cautionary tale that has omissions in it. The omission would be the rape of the wife. In the end the transition of her whole personality shows a 180 degree change because of that incident. The husband deserts her in her time of need and the parson is shown as the devil yet she is considered the devil. Her behavior is very childish and contrary before she gets raped. After the incident the whole story is flipped.

Beckons

Life has defeated you.
   Death had beckoned once before
 Consider death as the ultimate peace
  Your naiveté has led you down this road.
   Isolated from all the most because of this pillar of strength you convey.
   You walked the road.

The apple fell from the tree
    Trust me it was as far as one would like to dream.
     Being a statistic or case study
     Is not what I had in mind.
     Yet the apple is pretty close to the tree.

Yet i disappoint myself.
     I ....... I do it all the time!
    I am not that much different then you
    I had hoped to be much better.
    Alas, it has not passed
   
     What am I suppose to do?
      Frustration makes me remember.......
       How life had defeated your dream once true.

Cinderella (The French Version)

Who would have thought that they were so many versions of all the fairytales we heard as a child? I for one always thought that Disney was the authentic and only version. Boy was I wrong!

Today I will be discussing the French version of Cinderella.

In this version the father is completely ruled by his new wife and doesn't  defend Cinderella against his new family. Cinderella is exceedingly good natured and this is displayed when she helps her step-sisters get ready for the ball. In this version, Cinderella actually has a fairy God mother and the step sisters are mentioned more often as her tormentors then her step-mother. The step-sisters actually ask for Cinderella's' forgiveness when they find out that she is the mysterious girl from the ball. Cinderella not only shares her fruits at the ball  but also her good fortune, by bringing her sisters to the palace with her, and getting them married to the gentlemen in the court.

Throny labyrinth

To be in a world of our own making,
                     feelings of self -reproach haunt me.

Perfection is constantly sought,
               have achieved what ?

The world does intrude you know.
you cant just survive on plain old love everlasting
Knights just don't exist anymore.....
No one puts their life, mortally in harms way for anyone.

Flesh, bones and sinew define me,
I am human just like you
Yet I have placed myself in a solitude
A dungeon of regrets ...........

Unconditional love is dream
No one ever deems anybody worth of that ..........
Some people are just meant to be alone.....................
Alone in a thorny  labyrinth of their own making
A maze that pricks ones body
and harms ones heart.

So many loves have gone and passed
Some persons are not worthy of that one true word
such a gift is only meant for a numbered few....................

At last the feeling is a sharp cut
breaks the organ of my heart.................
No discussions just one decision........................

Peace I had briefly felt ........................
Moments in time I have held
Gone like the sand through my hand
dry and wet ..........................
Until this shell is nevermore
and the thirst stay eternal .
Unquenchable.

Donkey Prince

The Donkey Prince

Four Elements from the Donkey Prince that are similar to other fairy tales:

Apple:

The magic apple is portrayed in Snow White as the means to kill her, which is used by the evil queen. In the Donkey Prince the apple is seen as a wedding gift given to the Queen by her father, the West Wind.  The apple is seen as a source of constant beauty and health for the Queen. Later on in the story, when the Donkey is fully grown, the Queen loses the apple and is on her deathbed which is the complete converse to the tale of Snow White who eats the apple and is close to death.

Donkey: 

The Queen is asked by the Brown Men of the Hills to take in their young child even though she does not give them the apple to break their curse. This is very similar to the Rapunzel fairytale where the Witch gets a child in exchange for her rapunzel. In this case the only similarity is the child. The Donkey prince will go back to its normal human form which is similar to the fairytale Beauty and the Beast. Even though he is adopted by the Queen, he is the heir of the throne. He is loved by the Queen and her husband, not abused or mistreated by either.

Daisy:

She is an orphan who lives with an old woman who makes her do straw plaiting. The straw is drawn from the story of Rumplestilskin. She is also like Beauty and her role is very similar to that of Beauty. Donkey’s curse is broken just like Beast’s by the love of Daisy. At the end of the story she marries the Prince and the Brown Men of the Hill all return to their true forms.

Wild man Hlajki:

They meet Hlajki while they are searching for the wild man that stole the Queens apple. They greet him courteously. They offer him the fare that they are supping on and are very friendly. That throws Hlajki totally off balance because he didn’t expect any friendliness.

At the end Hlajki, gets his reward at the end by becoming the leader of all Wild men. 

Journal Entries for German Fairytales Written in 2012

Fairytales:

The show "Once Upon a Time" is a show that I actually make the time for. It is a mixture of all the Fairy tales and authenticity is a question mark that ABC a subsidiary of Disney loves to disregard. There is a episode of  "Hansel and Gretal" that I would like to mention. Unlike the fairy tale there is no happy ending.  The children are sent to seek an apple from the Witch, who owns the sweets house, by another witch. There is no stepmother in the story and the father is a woodsman gathering wood. The evil queen, Snow White's step mother aka the second witch offers the children a home which is declined by the children and sends the witch into a rage. Her reprisal consists of finding the children's  father and cursing the family to search for each other for all eternity.

Hair:

Hair is considered a weapon of seduction and finesse in the fairytales. Rapunzal is seen as using her hair to bring her prince into the tower. In modern day hair is still considered one of the attributes of beauty. Women spend so much money on hair spray, gel, straightening irons and the list can go on and on. Lustrous long hair is considered a sign of great beauty. When I cut my hair a month ago, my grandmother and even some of my coworkers were upset, they were like "Why would you cut your hair?" At the same time people in our society to dye hair into a blonde hue because of the Disney versions of  these very fairytales. Regardless, of whether their skin tone is compatible with their hair color the majority are often seen highlighting that hair color. This proves that the desire to obtain that fairy like beauty is still in our society today.

Shoes:

Last month I went shoe shopping and I noticed right away shoes that look like ballet slippers. They reminded me of Cinderella and even though they were not made of glass, they were very dainty and flimsy looking. When I got the shoes, it just confirmed the obvious. One of the shoes were made all out of fur and cost me more then the other pair which had silver linings and designs on it. The fur apparently is more distinguished looking hence pricier but it reminded me of how it was mentioned n class that in some versions of Cinderella her slippers could have been made out of fur. This also could go back to the original story of "All Fur". The name of these shoes are called "footzey rolls". Cinderella should have gotten her shoes from that company and for sure she would not have lost them.