[1] Mohawk writer Beth Brant is on a mission, a mission to redeem the reputations of Powhatan princess Pocahontas and Cherokee Beloved Woman Nancy Ward. Touted as "good friends" of the whiteman in white legend because of actions complicit with white welfare, these two famous Native American women are simultaneously scorned as "traitors" to their race. In "Grandmothers of a New World" (1988, 1994), Brant joins with such other redeemers as Hanay Geiogamah and Monique Mojica in combating white "history" about and white "adoption" of such influential Native American women. For mixed-race lesbian Brant -- whose missionary writing career literally began at the late age of forty with a dramatic highway meeting with and call by Eagle -- Pocahontas…
Different versions of Little Red Riding Hood have been retold throughout written history. Each retelling was written in a culture of its own, which holds its own philosophies on each of the continuing main ideas in each version. One integral philosophy is their principles of femininity. Because so much time had past from the original work to the time of the newer retelling, the newer version had to be rewritten to tell a different tale, distinguishing the principles of femininity that the two cultures contrasted. Two versions that contrast very well are Brother Grimms Little Red Cap and Tanith Lees Wolfland. They offer different positions of femininity, one representing the innocence of the earlier 19th century, the other representing the dominance of the late 20th century.…
Ellen Granny in the story “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall, by Katherine Anne Porter” is an old lady that has been in some way deceived or disappointed in every love relationship of her life. Her past lover George, husband john, daughter Cornelia, and God all did an injustice by what porter refers to as “Jilting”. This unending cycle of wrongdoing caused Granny to be a mixture of strength, bitterness, and Ultimate fear as she faces her last moment in life.…
In James Poniewozik's the “The Princess Paradox”, he presents an article on modern fairy tales providing strong feminist themes backed with evidence from recent films depicting these tails. While his point that women should be princess like, strong, as well as independent is clearly stated, his erratic sequence of evidence and casual tone takes away from his overall credibility. With unorganized evidence and a hard to read tone it is difficult to take the article seriously.…
Thesis: “Snow White is full of rigid gender stereotypes; we deserve a fresh re-telling of this story which makes the protagonist a full being, an active agent with volition, and a complex person rather than a passive, child-like toy of witches and brave princes.”…
Fairy tales are often significant for enhancing imagination and different perspectives in the readers. Fairy tales are symbolic in our history and may currently still be present in our society. Fairy Tales also allow us to analyze the emotion of the characters and compare that to our culture as well as our own daily life. In “Snow White and her Wicked Stepmother” and the classic “Snow White” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm both focus intently on how envy, competition, hard-work, and mother daughter relationships and how that is still applied in our world today. The classic “Snow White” allows the reader to focus specifically on how the dwarves are emblematic toward the American dream and toward the common working man…
Fairytales. When we hear or see that calming word, we automatically think of beautiful expensive ball gowns, charming handsome Princes, pumpkins turning into carriages, and the infamous ending of true loves first kiss. When growing up, many of us had these wonderful tales read to us before bed or at school with all of our friends. Fairytales, having been around for centuries, sends all kinds of important moral messages from being a child to facing the ‘beautiful’ world of adulthood. Growing up and being placed in the adult world, we come to terms that fairytales aren’t the classic stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Briar Rose, or Cinderella that we all know and love, its much more than that. We are surrounded by Fairytales, almost as if they…
In a land where seven leagues boots and malicious witches exist, Sophie believes, as the eldest sister, her life will not amount to much adventure while her younger sisters will go off to seek their fortune. In true fairy tale tradition, an act of villainy, cursed into an old lady by a witch, spins the heroine into her journey where a magical donor appears in the form of a fire demon, who will exchange his help for hers, and eventually ends in “marriage”, in which Sophie and a melodramatic wizard decide to continue to live together. Events and actions that may appear to be out of place are actually justified after an understanding of the fairy tale structure. Furthermore, without the background knowledge of common fairy tale motifs, Sophie’s hangups, including the insecurity generated from her position as the eldest, do not appear to be justified. Also, the Feminist perspective is extremely informative on how Jones mitigates the damages of negative portrayals of women.…
On a different note, in order to understand how this fairy tale was capable of assisting children with the issues of growing up during the time, one must first note children's circumstances in the 17th century. First, children were not viewed as having any special needs and therefore there was no established system of education for these children. Consequently there were no books written specifically for them. Eventually, fairy tales evolved as a means of educating children. Little Red Riding Hood was directed at young girls of the time. These young ladies were always taught to be beautiful, hard working, obedient, and silent. In turn, the idealized female of high society is also well-mannered and graceful. Little Red was clearly beautiful, considering she was incessantly doted upon by her mother and grandmother. Little Red was instructed to stay on the path, not talk to strangers, and bring her ailing grandmother the cakes; she wandered off the path, talked to the wolf, and as a consequence caused the death of her grandmother and herself. Consequently, these aspects of the story help to establish the need for obedience in a child's life, as well as establishing the concept of strangers being dangerous. These are both familial and social problems children often…
Fairytales are one of the common understandings throughout the childhood of children in the United States. The Grimm’s Fairytales serve as a foundation to many of the stories that we grew up with. In the fairytales written by The Brothers Grimm, the role of women play the biggest part in each story; thus may be because that German women were the ones that were telling the stories or because the depiction of women in certain circumstances help get a lesson across. In these fairytales, women function as a mean to get a moral through to an audience. Woman are either portrayed as beautiful and naïve or beautiful and wicked. In the fairytales, not one woman is portrayed as just being mediocre. It is a women’s beauty that will help her attain what she wants or what she ultimately will be in life. It is a women’s duty, to be beautiful, passive, know how to clean and also be innocent, in order for her to live harmoniously throughout life.…
How would you feel if you knew that the story you have been told as a kid over and over again means something completely irrelevant to what you thought the story was about; because you 're about to find out. The story, “Hansel and Gretel”, has been a classic fairy tale for a very long time, and has been told over and over again. There are many different versions of this story, and it has been altered through many years of retelling it. There has been debate whether fairy tales have underlying meanings between the lines, or are just stories to entertain and pass along through generations. It is also wondered if the original tellers of the tales intentionally created meanings in the stories, or if that is just how they are interpreted after the centuries that fairy tales have been around. Either way, the interpretations that have been made about the meanings of fairy tales can be very applicable for a child 's development. Because of the modifications to the mother and the stream happened to “Hansel and Gretel”, the meanings and lessons behind the modern story have changed, and as a result, have become less effective.…
Little Red Riding Hood is a short story narrated in the third point of view about a girl walking alone in the forest and a bad wolf who is trying to eat her. The introduction of an animal as a character makes this story what is known in the literary world as a Fable. A little girl, who always wears a red cap, is told by her mother to take a basket full of food to her sick grandmother. She lives in the woods and the girl is told not to leave the path but go straight to granny’s house. On the way she’s accosted by a wolf who suggests she pick a bunch of flowers for her grandmother. While she is doing so, the wolf runs to the grandmother's house, devours her and lies down in her bed. This story clearly portrays the difference between the safety of a town and the danger of the forest.…
Fairy tales have been part of children’s culture for many years. They have been the favorite bed time stories and the doors to an alternate world of imagination. To some, fairy tales have been the key educational tool to teach children the values of life. To others they are parallel to our real lives and are therefore found to be relatable. Whichever the view is, fairy tales have been very significant in people’s lives and have ignited different opinions and views on the role that fairy tales play in children’s development. The well-known fairy tales that have been turned into the successful Disney movies originated from the collections of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson, along with other various writers. Their existence have depended on the media. Due to this reliance, fairy tales could be on the brink of extinction. Recently, in November of 2010, Disney has announced that they do not have any future plans to make movies based on fairy tales. It is argued that fairy tales are no longer appealing to children. The purpose of this essay is to explore how fairy tales are found to be favorable to children and are important in their lives.…
Fairy Tales tend to start off dark and progress to have a happy ending or, failing that, to teach a lesson. Angela Carter does an excellent job of this in her short story “The Werewolf”. This is her take on “Little Red Riding Hood”. This is not the classic spin on the original fairy tale however, in Angela’s take on it we will explore ageism, sexism, and greed.…
In the essay “The Uses of Enchantment,” Bruno Bettelheim expresses the idea that fairy tales display the struggles of life in the simplest ways, in which there is generally a humble hero who triumphs over an evil villain. By clearly presenting the hero and the villain, children are able to easily comprehend the essential idea of good and evil, but also adopt valuable character traits that the hero possesses, such as perseverance and positivity. Bettelheim also supports the idea that if one continues to persevere throughout life, they will have a happy and fulfilling existence as opposed to living a dreadful life by succumbing to fear or evil. Bettelheim’s concepts and ideas seem to be credible because fairy tales have shown to have a positive effect on children’s sense of morality. I learned from comic books, which feature characters and situations similar to those in fairy tales, to be humble, to make good choices, to decide what is right wrong from wrong, and to persevere.…