Six Impossible Things By Fiona Wood: A Literary Analysis

Have you ever wondered if there were other versions of Cinderella? Well there are, there isn’t just one version of Cinderella. Each version is a little bit different from each story because of the culture behind it. For example the “Cinderella” we know and love and the Ireland version the “Cinderlad”.The two cinderella stories, “Cinderlad” the Irish version and “Cinderella” the French version have both differences and similarities. Using the Motif “Damsel in distress” I can show that they are different & similar because of the culture they originated from and their social necessities.

The central focus of this unit is to identify the elements of stories and how their themes may relate to each other in a variety of ways. Students will be guided in a variety of comparison and contrasting activities in order to gain understanding of main ideas, characters, and cultural themes across similar fairy tales from different cultures. This unit focuses on three different versions of Cinderella from different cultures. I chose to focus on the common elements of the fairy tales and the cultural differences because this was something the students were struggling with previously.

Fairy tales make an important part of cultural prophecy, because they contain wisdom which is passed from parents to their children. They contain basic moral and ethical guidelines for children. Images and symbols used in fairy tales can help to judge about cultural, ethical, social and moral values popular in the contemporary society. Changes and similarities, which can be found in the popular fairy tale Cinderella by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, version of 1812 and the Disney version of Cinderella (2015), can help to realize the changes in cultures and historical epochs.

Our culture is full of fairy tales. Girls are taught at a young age about Prince Charming and happy endings while boys are taught to be the girls’ heroes. They are taught these dreams and desires through fairytales and movies. These fairy tales started out as entertaining stories, but as they were handed down from one generation to the next, they slowly became more than that. They became bedtime stories for children, and as such, they have great importance because they teach children how to be in the world. One such fairy tale I want to focus on is Cinderella.

In both “Cinderella Is Traditional and Straightforward, but Plenty Charming,” by Richard Lawson, and Madonna Kolbenschlag’s “A Feminist’s View of Cinderella,” the popular fairytale of a girl becoming a princess is discussed. Lessons of identity, rivalry, and grief are displayed through both the tale of Cinderella herself and the film. Even though both Lawson and Kolbenschlag address the lessons taught by the story of Cinderella, the extent as to which each author elaborates on if the morals of the story are convoluted or simply modest differ drastically.     Both pieces agree that Cinderella conveys moral lessons to children. Lawson expresses the belief that Cinderella emits simple and straightforward messages to both young girls and boys.

Cinderella’s story is undoubtedly the most popular fairy tale all over the world. Her fairy tale is one of the best read and emotion filled story that we all enjoyed as young and adults. In Elizabeth Pantajja’s analysis, Cinderella’s story still continues to evoke emotions but not as a love story but a contradiction of what we some of us believe. Pantajja chose Cinderella’s story to enlighten the readers that being good and piety are not the reason for Cinderella’s envious fairy tale. The author’s criticism and forthright analysis through her use of pathos, ethos, and logos made the readers doubt Cinderella’s character and question the real reason behind her marrying the prince. Pantajja claims that

In the familiar more traditional version, Cinderella is a poor maid girl that, with the help of fairy godmother, gets a chance to meet prince charming. They fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after, and then what? What is a happily ever after? Is this even a realistic thought? In the dark comedic poem Cinderella, Anne Sexton forces the reader to examine this question. Utilizing literary devices such as tone, imagery, and style, Sexton encourages the reader to think about how silly and unlikely a fairy tale ending actually is.

Difference Interpretations of Cinderella Transformations gives a new perspective on classic fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, but one in particular stuck out to me. In the story about “Cinderella” there are many similarities, but the differences are what shows the mark of a good writer. Every story Anne Sexton writes about in Transformations uses confessional pieces before the fairy tale to relate to her own life. In addition, “Cinderella” is a very well known story, but the most popular one is the Disney version which is the most pleasant interpretation. The Transformation’s version of Cinderella uses differences between the Brothers Grimm and Disney, outlines descriptive images, and also uses Anne Sexton’s confessional poetry throughout

The story of Cinderella has become a classic fairy tale, known around the world, and past down from generation to generation. Yet, over the years, the story has been rewritten to better relate to different cultures. While some things never change, authors still manage to convey different messages by making the story their own. This can be clearly seen when the Grimm brothers version of Cinderella is compared to Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella. While the core of the story does not change, the moral, tone, and “magical” aspects of the two stories are clearly shaped by the different cultures in which they were written in.

Many generations of children and adults are inspired by the fantasies of fairy tales. This effect has a greater influence on the little girls that base their childhood on these stories. However, Anne Sexton’s Cinderella expresses a story about the fictional character Cinderella through a woman’s point of view. The poem portrays the truth behind the traditional ideas of the classic fairy tale. Sexton’s uses humor to mock the original fairy tale to expose the truth that many people don’t recognize. Through Sexton’s alternative of the fairy tale, the reader can infer that Sexton’s poem resembles her life, and the life of many others. Sexton expresses herself in the escapism she pursued, and revealing the truth about what the media portrays of

Cinderella is a fairytale for children that displayed love, loss and miracles; however, when it is further analyzed, it has a deeper meaning. Cinderella is a story about a young girl who became a servant in her own home after her father remarried a malicious woman with two spoiled daughters. She was humiliated and abused yet she remained gentle and kind. She received help from her fairy godmother to go to the prince’s ball after her stepmother rejected her proposal. Cinderella and the Prince fell madly in love but she had to leave at twelve o’clock and forgot to tell him her name but she left her glass slipper behind. He sent his servants to find her and Cinderella was the only maiden in the kingdom to fit into the shoes. She

The Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella is a written down oral story that people passed down from generation to generation, meant to teach a lesson about piety and good behavior. Before the Grimm Brothers ever wrote it down, the story had been told several times by memory. It is thus not surprising that the descriptions of certain events in the story, such as the way Cinderella went to the Ball, are lacking in details. It is obvious that these parts of the story are unimportant to the overall message of the story. Instead, it focuses on the piety of Cinderella and the wickedness of the step-sisters. Through the events of the story, it becomes obvious that the goodness of Cinderella is justly rewarded, and that

The Prince stereotypes the role of women being in need of a destined lover. He is the one that identifies Cinderella as the one in the dress, though excluding behavior, her appearance dazzles him for two nights at the ball. Most importantly, he’s not the hero of the fairytale, but readers can interpret the fairy godmother as the savior of Cinderella’s demise. The role of magic comes in part with the acceptance of achieving the imagery of an elegant woman, impressing the Prince who gains interest in her. The

Throughout the years there have been several versions of Cinderella. All these versions of the fairy tale have distinct historical and cultural contexts. Reading the different versions, one can notice the impact culture has on the different versions. The writer uses the cultural context to relate the story to its own historical and cultural time. “ La Gatta Cenerentola” and “ The Hidden One” are two different versions of Cinderella that were created in different historical times. Although these two stories were influenced from the same story, they were also influenced by the historical time they were written in and by their culture, which creates two distinct versions.

Fairy tales are constantly changing as they are told overtime. The fairy tale of Cinderella has evolved drastically throughout the several versions of short stories, books, and films that have been released since the first story in1697. Since then, the stories have progressed, as well as the films, in a way that fit better for children. The Disney film versions of Cinderella have become increasingly popular in a way that many viewers have the idea of what a Cinderella story consists of. The existence of the theme of good and evil in this work, is very important to the overall story line and is important to fairy tales overall.