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Red Dress and Snow White Comparative Essay

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Red Dress and Snow White Comparative Essay
Comparative Essay

Fitting in is always an issue in the world of teenage girls and some girls have better outcomes than others. “Snow White” by Grace Hu is a story about a teenage girl named Mary who is an albino. Mary struggles to be accepted because of her scary white exterior. Also she has low self confidence from being teased by her peers. Mary also only has one true friend that begins to drift apart from her. Another story that deals with the issue of acceptance is the story “Red Dress”. “Red Dress” by Alice Munro is a story about a teenage girl entering her first year of high school. She fights to be accepted and decides to go to the school dance with her one friend Lonnie, despite her terrible clothes put together by her crazy mother. Acceptance in “Snow White” and “Red Dress” is affected by appearance, family influence, and being left out by their one true friend.

Both the protagonists in “Snow White” and “Red Dress” struggle with acceptance based on their appearance. The protagonist in “Snow White”, Mary, appearance as an albino affects her being accepted. An example of Mary’s appearance affecting her being accepted is when Mary reminisces of how when she was in elementary school kids used to tease her by chanting “Mary, Mary quite contrary, how’d you get so white and scary”. This shows that kids who didn’t understand her condition chose to tease her instead of trying to accept her for herself. Another example of how appearance affected Mary being accepted is when the boy at the party comes dressed up as Mary. The boy and his friend then continue to have more fun at Mary’s expense when the boy asks for a miller lite and his friend quips “you mean a miller white”. This shows rather than get to know Mary and see that she was a nice person, he and others decided to judge her solely based on her appearance and mock her by painting his face white, and wearing a Mr. Bubble shirt, obviously dressing up as Mary. The protagonist in “Red Dress” also struggles with

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