What Is A Metaphor For The Adoption Of Children In Fairy Tales?

The 1812 fairy tale of “Hansel and Gretel” written by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is a fairytale that has been told for multiple generations to young children. This fairytale has become a classic throughout time. Over the last couple of years, the fairytale has emerged once again with several new film adaptation one of the most recent “ Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters” which geared towards a horror movie approach(Lecture notes 4/13/2017). Although the story of Hansel and Gretel may not be one of the best stories in relation to some questionable morals regarding the abandonment of the children and the killing of the witch, the story is left to interpretation. One of the reasons for its great popularity is that it teaches us many valuable
The system is a metaphor for the woods, the adoption or foster home is a metaphor for the witch’s home. Similarly to how Hansel and Gretel get lost in the woods a child can get lost in the system once abandoned at the time the child moves around the system a lot before arriving at a specific home where they stay. At this point, the child has arrived at the home a metaphor for the witch’s home. Here the child learns of independence, perseverance and hope alike Gretel from the tale does. Taking a look at the tale “Hansel and Gretel we can see that at the beginning of the tale Gretel is a fragile and scared soul, she needs her brother at every moment. But once her brother is taken from her and she has to do on her own, we see her character develop in the witch’s home. Here she learns to be independent for she can no longer rely on her brother. Gretel has hope that she will find a way to get out of the witches home and with perseverance, they escape the witch and she now guides the way home as an independent girl. Now we can apply this to the journey of a child in a home. Most children come into the home as frightened, fragile children, but once I the home they learn to be independent and rely on themselves for comfort and survival. The child during their journey here they all learn to have hope and to persevere through tough situations like when families don't work out for them. Now once the child is out of the home he/she too has learned and grown. The tale of “Hansel and Gretel” can here symbolise growth. As Zipes mentions. “What is significant, however is not so much the representation of abandonment, but the joyous overcoming of abandonment...” (Zipes, 59) What is important in the tale is not that the children were abandoned but it is about how they learned to grow and once they did the joy the felt was beyond words. This is a story that should be read to children especially children in this