Cinderella Analysis
LeighAndria Young
Professor Jen Zellner
English 1001-025
31 August 2013
Cinderella Analysis When I read, I begin by skimming over the passage, looking for terms that stand out and grab my interest. This usually gives me a good idea of what will attract me in a passage and in what way it will. The key words that stood out to me in the first Cinderella passage were: once upon a time, girl, sad, beautiful and happily ever after. The author selected a more basic word choice, which led me to believe that this version of the Cinderella story was intended for a younger audience (i.e. children). As I read through the first piece I noticed that the story transitioned from each part of the story fairly quick as if to keep the attention of someone with a short attention span; this confirmed my thought that this was written for smaller children who just want to know what the story is about and how it ends almost right away. The second story, however, caught my interest more than the first in just the first sentence. This version of the Cinderella story seemed to take a very traditional story and approach it in a very non-traditional way by beginning “a rich man’s wife became sick, and when she felt her end drawing near…”. This was all I needed to read in order to be captivated. If I was unaware that Grimm stories were intended for little children I would assume that it was targeting a more mature audience by touching on such a sensitive topic like death in the intro; the word choice was even more advanced and specified (wept, pious, hazel bush, furthermore, etc.) . From skimming I noted that the length of the second version was much lengthier than that of the first and contradicts the idea of children having short attention spans that need to be tended to often. However, knowing that Grimm tales were cautionary tales, it makes sense that the length would be longer and the theme, much darker. I believe that the author made this version longer and darker to emphasize the
Professor Jen Zellner
English 1001-025
31 August 2013
Cinderella Analysis When I read, I begin by skimming over the passage, looking for terms that stand out and grab my interest. This usually gives me a good idea of what will attract me in a passage and in what way it will. The key words that stood out to me in the first Cinderella passage were: once upon a time, girl, sad, beautiful and happily ever after. The author selected a more basic word choice, which led me to believe that this version of the Cinderella story was intended for a younger audience (i.e. children). As I read through the first piece I noticed that the story transitioned from each part of the story fairly quick as if to keep the attention of someone with a short attention span; this confirmed my thought that this was written for smaller children who just want to know what the story is about and how it ends almost right away. The second story, however, caught my interest more than the first in just the first sentence. This version of the Cinderella story seemed to take a very traditional story and approach it in a very non-traditional way by beginning “a rich man’s wife became sick, and when she felt her end drawing near…”. This was all I needed to read in order to be captivated. If I was unaware that Grimm stories were intended for little children I would assume that it was targeting a more mature audience by touching on such a sensitive topic like death in the intro; the word choice was even more advanced and specified (wept, pious, hazel bush, furthermore, etc.) . From skimming I noted that the length of the second version was much lengthier than that of the first and contradicts the idea of children having short attention spans that need to be tended to often. However, knowing that Grimm tales were cautionary tales, it makes sense that the length would be longer and the theme, much darker. I believe that the author made this version longer and darker to emphasize the