Snow White Criticism

John Pizer’s criticism of Donald Barthelme’s Snow White talks about the origin story of Snow White and how this modern adaptation completely skews the classic tale. The concept of the “anti-fairy tale” is brought up as Pizer compares Barthelme’s tale to those that preceded his. Barthelme is derives influence from multiple sources which focus on the disenchantment of the iconic Disney princess. From these influences, a new and much more jaded version of Snow White appears in which the traditional morals associated with her character are inverted and satirized. Pizer’s claim centers around the disenchantment of these iconic princesses who embody society’s ideals. Through this, Pizer makes the claim that Barthelme’s Snow White perfectly captures
Barthelme evokes a metafiction within his novella in which the characters have a basic knowledge that they have a role to play in this greater story of Snow White. Pizer points out that Snow White acknowledges how she is viewed by society and the dwarves as nothing more but an object and therefore “dissatisified with her reduction” she acts in rebellion to the preconceived idea of who Snow White is (Pizer 342). This is shown as Barthelme merges two fictions together when Snow White lets her black hair down from the window and when she creates a four page long sexual poem. This concept of pure and innocent Snow White is considered Barthelme’s Snow White’s prison as it creates her character to be very flat. The disenchantment of this innocent Snow White that society clings to so much is brought out as a way to satirize societal values, but also as a way for Snow White to attempt to create a whole character with multiple dimensions when she is trapped with the flat values of innocence, purity, and chastity in a 3-Dimensional