Blog #2 Fairytales
Wow--great class today everyone!!!
In addition to your chosen fairy tale, please read Part I of fairy tales on ERES (It is only a few pages) and answer the following:
Based on Thompson's explanation of the qualities of oral folktales, what do you feel is gained by increasing replacement of this form of art and entertainment by TV? What do you suppose underlies the apparent human need to tell stories, given that storytelling is practiced in every culture known?
Next, summarize your chosen fairy tale so the rest of the class can get the gist of what it was about (how it differes from what we normally think of as Cinderella) and also post your response/reaction etc.
Also, read your peers' responses to Blog #1 (Elbow) and be prepared to post a response to two or more of them.
See you tomorrow in Phelps 1529.
posted by DrEmmerling at 4:05 PM
21 Comments:
Thompson emphasizes that folktales are transmitted with the goal of passing on a story of antiquity with accuracy, simultaneously passing down the social instruction and values the tales contain. This makes them unsuitable for a quickly changing society with readily available entertainment in a number of ways. Most basically, they would soon become boring. A tale that might be communicated after dinner over the course of several days could easily be told in a short TV movie, if not a 24-minute television program. Once a folktale has been orally communicated, it can be communicated again and again, as the listener could find enjoyment in the way their family member cleverly modifies the story with each retelling, how a new storyteller recasts the tale, or how they themselves can faithfully transmit the story while making it their own. Modern television and film, with the exceptions of the few pieces a viewer might find to be of spectacular quality or complexity, is good for only one viewing, so the viewer must have many more narratives than the stable of folktales can provide, in order to stay entertained. On a less superficial level, the focus that folktales have on passing on traditional messages and social values can prevent them from remaining relevant when the conditions in a society change too much for the original values to help people lead orderly or pleasant lives, or if people simply decide that they would like to lead a different kind of life. Television and similar media can comment on any change in culture very quickly, and instruct people on how to live in light of these changes.
Personally, I would postulate that the narrative form is fundamental to human beings' attempt to understand their life and the world they live it in. Crafting and repeating stories that have a beginning and an end is the most critical method of learning, understanding, and keeping one's own life in a narrative boundary so as to retain sanity.
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm's Ashputtle:
The Grimm Brother's version of Cinderella is much like the familiar Cinderella, in that spends much of the story cleaning for and serving her stepsisters, and ends up happily married to a prince. In this telling, the polarization of good and evil, represented by Cinderalla and the villains of the story, the stepmother and stepsister. While the Cinderella Americans are familiar with is gifted with finery and transportation simply because she obedient and suffering, Ashputtle is rewarded for her own proactive virtuous behavior. Instead of asking for gems and fine clothes, as her stepsisters do, she merely asks for a tree branch, which she then plants at her mother's grave, which she constantly mourns at. This tree becomes the home of doves which provide Ashputtle with help and the fine clothes and gold slippers which she wears to the prince's ball. The stepmother in this telling is evil enough to not only constantly try to make Ashputtle's chores harder, but to also encourage her daughters to cut off parts of their feet, in order to wear Ashputtle's gold slipper. While Ashputtle does live happily ever after, her stepsisters, already missing pieces of their feet, are blinded by the same doves that assisted Ashputtle.
TV has made it easier for more people to see the same things. People are offered an opportunity to see and hear a wide variety of stories that is hard to obtain through oral folktales (where someone has to know the story). Also many different versions can be presented instead of the classic Native American story or African story etc. that is only known by its own people. Telling stories seems to be a natural process becuase you people always share there thoughts and feelings which are expressed through words. Stories are a form of entertainment that was possible many years ago without technology which has continued to make it a easy and cheap form of entertainment.
I read the Disney version of Cinderella which is the story that people usually think of. There is a girl with two ugly stepsisters and they make her do all the chores. All the women are invited to a Ball hosted by the prince but Cinderella's sisters did not want her to go. Her fairy godmother came to the rescue and she went to the Ball. At midnight she had to leave because the magic (her dress and carriage etc.) would wear off. She left a glass slipper which the prince found. He went to every house looking for the girl who fit the glass slipper. Cinderella finally escaped from her room (with the help from the mice) and tried on the slipper. They lived happily ever after. The story was exactly how i think of Cinderella because i watched Disney's Cinderella movie growing up. It will be interesting to hear about the different versions
Thru the use of folktales in entertainment alot is gained because old stories are told in different ways and we are in a way taught about practices in other cultures.
I believe that the need for storytelling is that people use it as a way to spend time with the family and share special stories, such as Cinderella. I believe stories are also a way to pass down traditions orally.
The fairy tale version of Cinderella that I read was the Disney version. I think that manby have heard this version. It begins with Cinderella, two evil step sisters, and an evil step mother. Everyone is invited to the ball, but the evil step sisters make it impossible for Cinderella to go, until her fairy god mother transformed her. She went to the ball and spent al night with the prince, but at midnight when the clock stroke midnight she ran off before the prince could see what she truely looked like. The next day the prince goes on a search for this mystery woman and he finally finds her by placing a glass slipper on her, and they lived happily ever after.
I think that there are a couple of advantages of the fairly recent explosion of television as an integral part of our society. For one, many more people can be reached across the natioon. The old way of spreading stories, having them carried across continents and spread throughout centuries, is clearly no longer a real possibility. Another thing that is gained by the use of television is that stories that most likely would have been altered in some way, shape or form by the time it got to a large number of people. With television, it is much more difficult to alter a story because many more people are usually much more familiar with the stories because televisions are usually accessible to most households. Gaining access to stories from multiple cultures is also a distinct advantage of TV. Before days when there was television stories from other cultures would have been much more difficult to find because they would have to be translated most likely, and then it wold have to somehow make it a long way by word of mouth, which would take a long time. In a sense when one is able to learn more about different cultures, it in turn allows them to learn more about their own culture and therefore it lets them learn more about themself. Once you know yourself I think that it is easier to learn about other things.
I think that the human need to tell stories lies in many differnt areas. For one, humans tend to want to exist in a unified group rather than by themselves. Story telling makes this possible because they feel like part of a group when they are the possessor of a story know by only a select few. This is especially true when it is a good story which can be passed down. An very general example of this could be religion. For many people feeling like they are a part of a religion gives them a sense of direction and purpose in . Another need for story telling is to attempt to make sense of that which is not explainable. Using the example of religion again, all religions have a story for how the earth was created. Although most are different they all serve the same purpose, to provide an explanation of how we got here.
In the Native American Cinderella entitled "Oochigeaskw- The Rough-Faced Girl" a small girl named Oochigeaskw is tormented by her oldest sister. She becomes scarred, burned and abused by all of the physical torment and therefore is hideous to look at. In the town that she lives in there lives a sister and her invisible brother. Girls want to marry him, but are not allowed to unless they can prove they can see him which can only be proved by telling the sister of the invisible man what he is wearing. All the girls in the village fails. Finally Oochigeaskw tries and succeeds. She then becomes beautiful on the outside again and marries the invisible man.
I thought that this variant of the Cinderella story was very good. I liked it how in the end the Oochigeaskw's physical beauty returned to go along ith her inner beauty.
Since television and movies were invented the classic folk tale has been brought to life on the screen. I believe this is a good thing to do because it allows viewers to learn about stories they may have never heard if it weren't for the new forms of entertainment. Human are very social beings, and the form of lessons is far easier relayed if it comes in a social form. Young children especially are fond of stories, so fairytales with happy endings and lessons to be learned are eagerly greeted by children.
Probably the most well known version of Cinderella is the Disney classic. Every person has either read the story or seen the movie at some point in their life. It is the classic story of Cinderella, a young girl forced to live with and work for her "evil" stepmother and two stepsisters. The local Prince sends news that he is having a ball, Cinderella's step family forces her to work all day and night on their dresses that she is in no shape for the ball herself and is forced to stay at home. However her Fairy God Mother visits and magically turns a pumpkin into a Carriage and gives her an appropriate dress for the ball along with some glass slipers. At the ball Cinderella catches the eye of the Prince, however at midnight the spell wears off and Cinderella must leave as to make sure the prince doesn't see her turn back into a working girl. She does leave a glass sliper at the ball though and the Prince travels to all the houses in the land looking for the girl who's foot fits in the slipper. When he gets to Cinderella's house the stepsisters try to squeeze their feet in but cannot fit. The Prince was about to leave as Cinderella was locked upstairs by the stepmother, however her mice friends steel the key and unlock her just in time for her to run downstairs and try on the shoe. And in the end of course, Cinderella lives "happily ever after".
Oral folktales are part of our knowledge whether we learned them at school or as a family tradition. Thompson sees folktales as a form of entertainment in which people in the past engaged in hearing and listening to pass time. In the world we live in now, the TV has been created for humans to be entertained. Why continue using storytelling and writing when a visual can be created to depict the many stories. A key target is of course children who watch TV constantly and by creating an animated movie based on a folktale it will easily grab their attention.
Storytelling in the past was used to keep traditions alive through various generations. As the years go by the story may have changed but the message remains the same. These stories were told to basically keep people busy as there was not much entertainment. Now that we live in a world full of entertainment many of these traditions are beginning to fade and replaced by other means such as TV.
Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella is similar to the Disney version that most of us are familiar with. His ideas were actually used in the movie, however in the movie there is more added and minor details left out of Perrault’s story. Cinderella was a beautiful girl who lived with her father and her newly step-mother who had two daughters. Her step-mother treated her horribly as well as her step-sisters who were jealous of her beauty. Dressed in rags she did all the chores and was treated as a servant
Cinderella’s future would change when the king’s son gave a ball. Cinderella wished she could go but realized that it could never come true. Her fairy god mother however would make her dreams come true. With her magical powers she made it possible for her to go. There was of course a stipulation from the fairy god mother that she had to return before midnight or her dress would go back to rags and her carriage back to a pumpkin along with the mice, but that night she was back on time.
Cinderella went out again the next night but this time more beautiful than ever with glass slippers. She remained with the prince the rest of the night and also spotted her step-sisters nicely offering them lemons and oranges which they were grateful for. She spoke with the prince for the remainder of the night until she lost track of the time and as she was leaving she left one of her glass slippers. Moments later she was back in rags but had the other glass slipper with her.
A few days later the prince went on a search to marry the girl who could fit her foot in the slipper. Cinderella was of course given the opportunity. The step-sister were in shock when they found out that Cinderella had been the beautiful girl at the ball. They didn’t see her as their maid anymore but an actual princess who they admired. Cinderella forgave them for how she was treated and only asked for their love. Cinderella married the prince and her two step-sisters married two noblemen, all were to live in the palace.
I realized that many of the ideas go along with the Disney version. Disney however focused more on the evil step-mother and step-sisters. Perrault did not label them as evil and in the end the step sisters ended up living happily along Cinderella which was completely different in the Disney version.
In his article, Stith Thompson explains the value of the rich storytelling tradition. He places much emphasis on the entire process and experience of the oral diction of folktales, and tells of how the storyteller is very well respected. With today’s modern technology, the storytelling process has taken quite a turn from “traditional” times.
Recently, people have been using television as their main source of information and entertainment. However, with the prolific nature of television and new technologies, the traditional oral storytelling experience has been hindered.
To concede, television is widely used and can be an easy tool to pass stories on to a myriad of people. Yet, the viewing experience takes away from the traditional storytelling ways. First of all, there is a certain inherent special mood when people are seated in a circle listening to a storyteller. It is nearly impossible to create this same feeling with television. Furthermore, imagination is a major component in storytelling. Television erases this factor by providing images to substitute for the would-be listener’s mental picture of the characters and scenes. By eliminating these two major components of traditional storytelling, television is an unfair replacement for listening to a storyteller.
In the African version of “Cinderella”, titled “The Maiden, the Frog, and the Chief’s Son” is very similar to our familiar versions of the story. The maiden must perform chores incessantly such as pounding up fura and tuwo. Unlike the story that I remember, the maiden has a brother, whom she goes to visit when her stepmother will not feed her. Daily, the maiden visits a borrow-pit and feeds frogs. On the morning of the big Festival, the frog (the African story’s version of a fairy godmother) speaks to her and returns the good deeds that she has done for the frogs. The main frog swallows the maiden and vomits her up, looking beautiful and majestic. He also instructs the maiden to leave her golden shoe at the festival at the end of the night.
At the festival, the chief’s son takes a special interest in the maiden and stays with her for most of the night. When the night is through, the maiden returns to the frog, who vomits her back to her original unattractive state. The chief’s son finds the golden shoe, which ends up fitting the maiden. Before their marriage, the frogs vomit up many gifts for the maiden and told her specific instructions on how to act. One day, the maiden’s evil half-sister came, and the maiden relayed these bizarre directions to her, as she (the half-sister) wanted to be the queen of the tribe. The half-sister acted rudely (the way the maiden told her to) to all the people she encountered, and the Cheif’s son had her killed. When they returned the body to the half-sister’s house, the Chief’s son’s men found his real wife (the maiden) in the fireplace. In the end, the maiden lived “happily ever after” and had a well dug near her dwelling where the frogs could stay.
According to Thompson’s explanation not a lot is gained from switching the form of entertainment from story telling to television. Story telling brought people together during times of entertainment instead of people sitting in front of a television. Also, elders or people in authority passed on these oral traditions so people could learn about leadership and the way their ancestors lived in the past. Relationships build with story telling as in parents or grandparents and children. Story telling was also used to teach lessons in an overt way and television now sometimes does not provide the same teachings as the past.
Television prevents the story from being changed as it frequently was by storytellers who passed the story down. This will help the story retain it’s original message from the time it was recorded for the television or a movie.
Storytelling has been so prevalent according to Thompson to provide entertainment and teach lessons. I agree with Thompson because without technology the only thing to do is talk to other people and a story provides entertainment along with lessons about virtue and the past. Storytelling also teaches culture to the younger people listening to the story. It will be passed down and eventually changed again to go with the changing culture.
Charles Perrault’s version of “Cinderella” is the basic story we all know and very similar to Disney’s “Cinderella.” The main character, Cinderella, gets her name from sitting on the cinder blocks by the fireplace in her spare time. She is oppressed by her jealous stepmother and is looked down upon and made fun of by her stepsisters. Her father remains alive throughout the fairy tale but is “under is wife’s thumb.” While Cinderella’s stepsisters get the best of everything, she wears rags and lives in the attic. The two stepsisters are invited to a ball thrown at the palace by the Prince and Cinderella willingly helps them do their hair and prepare their outfits. As they leave for the ball Cinderella begins to cry and her fairy godmother comes to help her get ready for the ball. After she is dressed in fine clothes, glass slippers and all, she is off to the ball in her pumpkin carriage and is greeted there by the Prince himself. No one at the ball can take their eyes off of Cinderella and she sat in the seat of honor next to the Prince. She left before the stroke of twelve and made it home to later talk to her stepsisters about the beautiful princess at the ball. She, as well as her stepsisters, returned to the ball the next night. This time Cinderella lost track of time while with the Prince. She ran out of the ball as the clock struck twelve and lost one of her glass slippers, which the Prince picked up. A few days later the Prince had every girl in the kingdom try on the glass slipper as well as Cinderella. It fit perfectly and she pulled out the matching slipper. Her fairy godmother came and dressed her in even more beautiful clothes to go to the palace. A few days later she and the Prince were married and Cinderella invited her stepsisters to live in the palace and marry noblemen.
One of the main differences in Perrault’s “Cinderella” is Cinderella’s attitude toward her stepsisters and stepmother. Cinderella would never dare to treat her stepsisters the way they treat her or tell her father she should be treated how her stepsisters are. Another difference is her father is still alive and obeying his new wife’s wishes. In other versions he is the person she thinks of for advice and for the hope of a better future. The father proves to be a weak man and has little role in Perault’s version.
-lauren young
A feel a lot is both gained and lost by replacing the art of folktales with television. The world has become a rapid moving society that constantly requires change. Everything is sped up. Because of this, many people would much rather sit down and watch a 30 min T.V. show than listen to a story that may take hours if not days to tell. People (especially Americans) in this world have become increasingly impatient. They have lost their imagination and therefore require constant activity and a picture put in front of them. T.V. allows people the ability to basically not think. Everything is put right in front of you. This is also the downside of T.V. Unlike folktales a television show does not change each time is replayed. There may be different episodes, but no matter how many times you play a single episode it will always be the same. This takes away the art of creativity that you find in telling folktales. Folktales allow the listener to develop their own ideas and images. They can then add in their own changes. Folktales also preserve the idea of tradition. It brings villages, families, communities together and can help to educate them on their heritage while having a good time. People need interaction and expansion. T.V. allows people to stay alone and doesn't help the mind grow. By communicating oral folktales people can learn and develop a deeper imagination which can be a great tool later in life.
The Chinese "Cinderella" is the oldest known record of the story. It has the same basic story line as the Disney version, with a few changes. Yeh-hsien (Cinderella) lived with her step-mother, step-sister and father. When her father passed her step-mother made her work constaly giving her hard, dangerous chores. One day Yeh-hsien found a fish with red fins and golden eyes. She kept it and fed it until finally she had to put it in a pond outside because it was too big for a bowl. She would visit the fish and it would show itself, but only for her. One day the step-mother disguised herself as Yeh-hsien and killed the fish. She ate it and burried the bones. Yeh-hsien disocverd the truth and du up the bones to find that any wish she made over them came true. While at a cave festival she was spotted by her step-sister and ran dropping a golden shoe. The shoe was sold to T`o-han a king and when he found Yeh-hsien he took her as his chief wife. He also took the fish bones and abused them until one day they no longer worked. He buried them on the shore where they washed away with the tide. T`o-han was overthrown by a mutiny, and Yeh-hsien's step mother and step-sister were killed by birds. Their deaths were mourned and men would pray over their graves for women. Yeh-hsien's fate however, was no discussed.
Having fairytales retold on TV is a great way to get the same story to everybody around the world. When the story is told through generations it seems to get lost in translation, and it is only represented in that culture. Watching a fairytale on TV is universal and the story doesn’t change, it isn’t improved or destroyed over the years, it’s permanent. As children we can all go back to our Disney movies and reference the same story. We feel the need to retail these stories because it is part of our culture. It involves history and experiences that we as humans are happy to share with others. Stories told over and over again bring a sense of imagination and whimsy in our sometimes boring lives.
Jakob an Wilhelm Grimm’s Ashputtle is a different variation of the Disney fairytale that we all grew up on. Similar to the story we know Ashputtle went to live with her stepmother and her two evil stepsisters who made her clean and do chores for them. She is given the name Ashputtle because she has to sleep in a pile of ashes next to the fireplace. The biggest difference of the story is that there is no fairy godmother who has a distinctive part in the Disney version. She is helped by two doves that came from a tree that she planted from a hazel branch at her mother’s grave. She also shared three nights of going out and being with the prince, and on the third night she then lost her infamous slipper though in this story it is gold and not glass. It seems to be a darker version of the story because the evil stepmother is willing to let her two daughters cut their big toe and heel off just so their foot can fit in the shoe. Another darker avent happened at the end of the story when the two doves that had help Ashputtle before pecked the eyes out of her two stepsisters at her wedding to the prince.
-J. Karmelich
Thompson explains how storytelling through an oral and written medium looses its antiquity over time. In the past, bards used to go from town to town passing on their story. Today we have different mediums to deliver a story to an audience such as television. Just like having someone tells you a story, television demonstrates the same characteristics when telling a folk tale, such as entertaining an audience and evoking emotion. However, unlike traditional story telling, TV gains its authenticity. Such televisions programs and external mediums (videos, DVDs, and perhaps video games) are distributed throughout a large audience. This form of medium usually cannot be change and the audience itself can get the same emotional response from that of an actual person telling a story.
Throughout the course of history, the narrative has been established throughout different societies. Stories in general entertain, educate, inform, and even establish an emotional bond between the medium of the story to the audience. Stories through word of mouth, books, and recently radio and television are key mediums that help send the story to an audience and allow them to gain these responses.
In Saxton’s Cinderella poem, Cinderella’s mother is taken from her and her dad remarries to an evil person with two daughters. She becomes the maid for the two. There is a white dove which grants her wishes, and Cinderella asks to go the ball. At the ball she dances with a prince, and then departs suddenly, leaving her gold slipper. The prince then goes to Cinderella’s house where the two sisters cut off their toe and heel just to fit into the slipper, but their plan failed. Then Cinderella put it on and her and the prince lived happily ever after, but not before the dove pecked out the two stepsister’s eyes. This version is different than the story that I am accustomed to, which happens to be the Disney version, the only version of this story I have seen. I wasn’t expecting so much violence in this, especially that is was a poem. I was particularly amused by the dove.
Although the traditional way of telling a folktale(orally) is just that, old and traditional, it is seemingly a more interesting way and entertaining way to tell a story. It seems that once a story is passed on like the childhood game of telephone, each storyteller adds their own edge and twist which makes the story that much more interesting. Even though this seems like an amazing way to tell and retell a story, it can take years and years to get to a main point and maybe might become boring because of people's lack of interest in telling it over and over again. Whereas with television, the media can tweak the story with their personal choices of data and then make it into a film which for a few hours can maybe sum of years and years of oral folktelling. Either way, I feel that oral folktelling is far more interesting because nothing is " always right" and everything is open for interpretation. Everyone can be creative thinkers and open up their mind to new strategies whereas if it was a film or a television show, although it could be interesting, it lacks the magic of maybe having a different scenario which is the bonus of oral folktelling. I feel that increased communication skills can be gained from oral storytelling because people know in a sense what interests other people so they add their own piece of magic and pizazz to the story which makes it much more interesting than watching tv, which although is extremely entertaining at times, does have an end sometime or another. Storytelling is also an extremely great way to pass down traditions and beliefs from generation to generation, which makes it that much more intriguing.
I read the piece by Tanith Lee, When the Clock Strikes. It is an extremely different approach to the retelling of the traditional fairytell of Cinderella. Here, the story is told in a condecending tone with the girl who is " Cinderella" as being a witch. She practices black magic with her mother so as to Satanically destroy her royal family. This leads to her mother having to commit suicide as to save her daughter from being condemned as a witch while simultaneously giving her daughter the responsibilities of seeking vengeance on her greedy and bloodthirsty royal family. By the mother committing suicide, it leaves the daughter motherless and the husband, widowed. This then leads the story to become a bit more similar to the traditional views of Cinderella where a stepmother and stepsisters come into the family. Although these step-relatives were quite different in the beginning because they were very nice to the daughter, it was Cinderella who shunned them and kept them out of her life.Her main focus was pleasing her mom's last wishes of seeking revenge on her murderous and ruthless royal relatives. Eventually the plot thickens and it leads to a ball where she dances with the prince much like in the traditional story, although each time the clock ticks, it leads closer and closer to midnight, closer and closer to the time of death. Then she leaves a glass slipper, but it does have a negative connotation. This story is different in that it is dark and dreary yet is similar to the traditional views of a princess who is lacking something.
There are several advantages that can be gained by using TV as a tool to tell the folk tales. First of all, people can inform the stories in anywhere in the world. People from different places can get along with each other from learning different cultural traditions and myths and retell the stories that they have already heard in TV. The story can be altered gradually if only one person is telling the story to another because each person could have different understanding of the stories or add more thoughts and opinions to it. However, if various people in the world share the same story at the same time from the TV, there are fewer possibilities that the one story change to whole different story.
People like to share their stories and thoughts with others and learn from different types of life styles and traditions. Story telling can be very entertain and fun with family members or group of friends. Storytelling was also way of passing down one’s cultural expectations and manners to next generation orally.
The fairytale I chose was very similar to the Cinderella story that we have always heard of in the past. In the new version of Cinderella story "Gudgekin Thistle Girl", John Gardner talks about a girl named Gudgekin who lives with her stepmother. To satisfy her stepmother, Gudgekin had to leave the house early in the morning and gather thistles all day long. Even though her days were tiring and painful from heavy work, she worked harder each day and never lost her pretty smile on her face. One day Gudgekin met queen of the fairies while colleting the thistles in the yard as usual. The queen offered her as much thistles as she wants and she took her to the kingdom’s royal ball. Everyone at the royal ball was aware of Gudgekin’s beauty and kindness, even the prince of the kingdom fall in love with her at once when he saw her and decided to marry her. Nevertheless her stepmother attempted to disguise to Gudgekin and took her luck away from her, at the end the price and Gudgekin promised their love to each other.
One of the main points Thompson makes is the differences between modern stories and orally passed down folktales. In folktales, one tries to be as close to the original as possible, while in modern stories, the author strives for something original. He also points out that transcribed versions of oral folktales tend to lose certain nuances.
Some of the things gained from television would be the realization of how much in common everybody has with each other. In the days of oral tradition, I doubt people of different countries knew how similar their tales were to each other. However, with the introduction of a worldwide media system, different people can understand there are more things alike then different.
Some of the reasons why humans need to tell stories include the need to communicate and be part of a greater whole. By telling stories, humans can tell about their values, hopes and dreams. It also is a means of wish fulfillment. It is a chance to become someone extraordinary that could fight countless battles, be beautiful enough to capture the attention of a prince and to hope that good will truly triumph over evil.
Oochigeaskw- The Rough-Faced Girl (A Native American Cinderella)
Once there was a lodge that was built beside a lake. In it lived someone (“Invisible One”) that was invisible to all but his sister. Everyone in the village nearby knew whichever girl could see him would marry him.
The test that was given to the girls was simply this: everyday in the evening, the Invisible One’s sister would walk with any girl that would come down the path near the lake. As soon as she saw her brother, she would ask the girls: “Do you see my brother?” after their responses of “yes”, she would then ask “Do you see him?”, “What is his sled string?”, and finally “What is his bowstring?” After their incorrect answers, they would stay at the Invisible One’s wigwam but see nothing for the whole day.
In the village, lived an old widower with his three daughters. The youngest had health problems and was very small and weak. The oldest daughter would bully the youngest and burn her hands and feet with hot cinders (thus the name Oochigeaskw or the Rough-faced girl). The middle, however was kinder.
The two elder sisters tried to take the test and failed.
Wanting to see if she could see the Invisible One herself, Oochigeaskw dressed herself as finely as possible. She exchanged her usual rags with a dress made of sheets of birch bark that was decorated with marks in a popular ancient style and made herself a petticoat, a loose gown, a cap, a handkerchief and her father’s old moccasins.
After discouragement from her sisters and her village, she finally reached the Invisible One’s sister and was kindly received since the Invisible One’s sister knew better than to judge by appearances. The sister than asked her the three questions to which Oochigeaskw replied with the right answers, “I do indeed- and he is wonderful,” the rainbow and the Spirit’s Road (a.k.a. the Milky Way) respectively.
Knowing the girl told the truth, the Invisible One’s sister took the girl home with her and bathed her. As she did, all the disfigurements fell from her body and she emerged more beautiful than anyone else. Then, the sister gave the little girl a wedding garment and the Invisible One and Oochigeaskw get married.
Uhhh..a rather long summary, but some of the things that differs in this version is that the Cinderella here starts off disfigured. Also, unlike some other versions, she actually makes her own clothes. There is also no mention of a wicked stepmother or a fairy godmother. This Cinderella also isn’t haunted by her mother’s death. Slippers don’t play as crucial a role in this version, but is still present through her father’s moccasins. An element of the fairy godmother also exists though the Invisible One’s sister since she is the one that changes Oochigeaskw into someone beautiful (and gives her the wedding dress).
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Before history, people learned the past from a story-teller since they were very limited in their resources. After the printing press appeared, people learned history with the books. Nowadays, we think TV is the most efficient way to tell stories since we can see facial expressions and gestures.
Telling stories are necessary to learn the past or the fill in the time of the leisure and facial expressions and gestures makes it more easier to be understood rather than just reading written words.
I read Tanith Lee's "When the Clock Strikes."
Cinderella's mother was a witch and She was a surviving member of the princely house. The Duke employed assassins to destroy those who are in line before him. Cinderella's mother was scared of him and married a wealthy merchant. She bore a daughter and the daughter and the mother swore allegiance to Satanas and practiced witchcraft against the Duke. The merchant witnessed it before the Duke died. Cinderella's mother comitted a suicide since she was found out to be a witch. The merchant married a woman who has two daughters. The step mother and step sisters of Cinderella hated her since she looked like she had a mental disease. The merchant's family was invited to a banquet. When Cinderella arrived, she drew everybody's attention since she was so beautiful. The prince, the Duke's son, went toward the girl and danced with her. Almost midnight, when the prince drew her to the terrace, Cinderella cursed the prince there. The girl dissappeared at the twelfth stroke of a clock.
The prince tried to find her with the shoe that the girl had left, but nobody fit the shoe. Finally, the merchant confessed to the prince that his daughter might have been that girl. The prince leapt from his chair and ran to the merchant's house. However, he was slain by the intriguers.
Folktales has been around for a long time and it is practiced in every culture. However, I feel like the art of folktales has been taken over by television in our modern industrialist society today. Today, people use television as a source of entertainment because people do not really have time to sit down for hours to listen to a fairytale. got so big that she had to take the Anyhow, I believe that watching television does not require any kind of thinking or imagination, therefore, knowledge cannot be gain from watching television. If there is already a picture and a visual in front of you there is no need for thinking. Moreover, it requires less time to watch TV because hours of fairytale story can be told through television in one episode. Unlike television, when folktales are told it involves more imagination and thinking. Using imagination, you can draw a picture in your mind of what the story is about which makes the story more interesting. Moreover, fairytales to some culture is a tradition. Folktale are usually preserved and passed down through generations and generations, therefore, a fairytale cannot be forgotten. When a story is told people can retell the same story over and over again, therefore, folktales become altered and changed depending on how the story teller wants to reconstruct the story.
The Chinese "Cinderalla" is one of the oldest Cinderalla story ever written. The story begins with a cave-master named Wu. He had two wives, but one them died. Moreover, Wu had daughter with the wife that passed. Her name was Yeh-Hsien. She was very smart and skilled girl since she was very good at making pottery on wheel. Wu had a really strong relationship with Yeh-Hsien, but a few years later he had also passed away. After Wu died, the only person to take care of her was her stepmother and she was very hard on Yeh-hsien. She constantly made her do dangerous chores. One day, Yeh-hsien found a fish with red fin and golden eyes and she brought it home and fed the fish with her leftover dinner. Each day, the fish grew bigger and bigger forcing Yeh-Hsien to toss the fish into a pond. Every now and then, Yeh-hsien would go back to visit the fish with left-over food. Moreover, the fish would not pop is head out for anyone expect for Yeh-hsien. One day Yeh-hsien's stepmother saw what was happening, so she decided to trick Yeh-Hsien by sending her far away to get water. Meanwhile, she changes into Yeh's clothes, pretending to be like her so she can go out to the pond and kill the fish. She did and brought the fish home and ate it. Yeh-hsien came back the next day and noticed that the fish was missing, so she begans to cry. Suddenly an old man with long hair comes down from the sky and tells Yeh-hsien what the stepmother had done and advises her to get the fish bones back. The old man told her to pray for whatever she wanted and she will get it. Therefore, she prayed for gold, pearls, dresses, and food. And it all came true.
When the cave-festival came around, Yeh-hsien went with her new golden shoes. However, the step sister became jealous and Yeh-hsien hurried and ran off. While running, Yeh-hsien lost one of her shoe which was picked up by people of the cave. The people who found the golden shoe sold it to the ruler of T'o-han. Later, the ruler told all the women to try it on in order to tell where it came from, but the shoe was too small for all the women who had tried it on. One day, the king found Yeh-hsien while searching for cave-men who had stolen the shoes and made her put on the shoe. The shoe slipped on to her foot perfectly and then he took Yeh-hsien and the fish bones back to his country. After returning to the country, the king made Yeh-hsien his chief wife. Shorty afterwards, the stepmother and stepsister was killed by flying stones. The king knew about the fish bone and got greedy with it and got anything he wished for. One day, the wishes dissappeared and praying for gold and pearls did not work anymore, so the king buried the fish-bones offshore and one night they were washed away.
With this new replacement of folktales in art and graphics on television, the folktales gain greater listeners, for they will appeal to a larger audience. With the ever changing public, one needs to find alternatives in presenting information. For the more creative artsy people presenting a folktale in various forms of art or poetry would please. Thompson writes “Poets write epics, and novelist novels." (524) for an audience that likes updated and fresh news, broadcasting on TV would be suitable. Television also has the other crowd that just wants to be entertained by actors with "cinemas and theaters [bringing] their stories directly to the ear and eye through the voices and gestures of actors." (524) if there are more ways to get folktales out in the open, there is a greater chance of attaining new groups to learn about them.
Thompson compares the spreading of folktales to the spreading of secrets by children. "The childhood game comes to mind in which one child whispers a sentence into the ear of another..." (522) this comparison underlies the great fact about society that society will always have gossip. People simply can not keep secrets, and with the exposure of secrets comes twisting of actual facts and truths. But this is only one small fraction to the spreading of folktales. Thompson also makes a good point by saying "the teller of a folktale is proud of his ability to hand on that which he has received. He usually desires to impress his readers or hearers with the fact that he is bringing them something that has the stamp of good authority, that the tale was heard from some great story teller…” (524) so another prime example would be a person searching for fame. Thompson clearly states that not only do the re-tellers want to impress their audience, but they want them to remember them and pass on their good reputation. I believe in every society there is any every growing need to spread gossip or to become well known.
The Maiden, the Frog and the Chief’s Son (An African Cinderella) was about this man “who had two wives, and they each had a daughter.” (550) One of the man’s wives he loved, and so thus he loved the daughter from that wife. The other wife he hated, so he hated the other daughter as well. The wife he hates, dies, and so he gives the living wife the other daughter. That wife treats the daughter like a slave, constantly forcing her to “stir the tuwo, or pound the fura, or fetch the wood or the water.” (55) And she wasn’t even allowed to eat the things she made, she was given the scrapings. The unwanted daughter would then feed the scrapings to these frogs in the borrow-pit. One day one of the frogs was waiting for her, and he told the girl to come to this big Festival. She agreed, but when she went home was forced to do lots of chores assigned by her step mom. When she made it back to the borrow-pit the frog was disappointed she never came, but acted like her fairy godmother and began vomiting nice things for her to wear at the Festival. She went to the Festival and met the chief’s son, she talked to him, and when she had to leave she left her right golden shoe, which the frog had instructed her to do. So the chief’s son decided that he wanted to marry the girl he met, and went searching for her. He had finally found his future wife, that the evil step mom had tried to sabotage but it ends with the girl and the chief’s son getting married, and the girl had a well dug for her frogs.
The story was unusual only because of the many wives the characters seem to have. But they have the same themes as the Disney Cinderella tale. The story had an evil step mom figure, and the evil step sister. Also a big ball, but in this case the Festival. The Cinderella character had a fairy godmother in the form of a toad, which used to vomit to produce nice clothes and shoes for her. The Cinderella leaves a shoe just like the original Disney tale and the Prince, or in this case the chief’s son comes to find her. Some sort of conflict to find Cinderella but alas they end up happily ever after.
-Lauren Bale
Cinderella is a tale that has been made famous through literature and films, such as Disney's adaptation. The story teaches us to hope for all when all is lost. Anne Sexton (1928-1974) takes this story, infuses some modernization, and converts it to poetic form. All without losing its value or merit.
The first section (Lines 1-21) conveys "rags to riches" stories in a more modern sense. This sets up the modern twist to the story, and uses examples such as, "the plumber with twelve children / who wins the Irish Sweepstakes / From toilets to riches." (Line 2-5). The section continues on with four more modern instances of the transformation from opression/poverty to richeousness/wealth.
In lines 22 to 40 Sexton sets up the tale of Cinderella, and her lifestyle before her sudden fortune. Cinderella was forced in to become a maid after her mother had died, forcing her husband to remarry. This left Cinderella with two step-sisters, who were beautiful but truly ugly on the inside. Sexton also uses a reference (Line 33) to Al Jolson, an entertainer born in 1885 or 1886 that's common appearence featured blackface makeup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Jolson), in describing Cinderella's appearence during her "slavery" to her stepsisters. Cinderella's father gave her only a tiny twig on his return from town, and Cinderella in turn planted that at her mother's grave, which blossomed a tree and a white dove. (Line 35-38). This section of the story introduces Cinderella's misfortune and her treatment in her household.
Lines 41 through 63 setup the scene of the ball. Even at the ball Cinderella is to not let her go, citing her lack of clothes and ability to dance (Line 54). Distraught, Cinderella calls upon her white dove sitting above the tree for some way to possibly go to the ball. The dove responds bringing her a golden dress and slippers (Line 60). It is from here that Cinderella goes to the ball.
The fourth section (Lines 64-73) concerns Cinderella meeting the prince. Because Cinderella was dressed so beautifully, her mother and step-sisters did not recognize her and the prince took her hand and danced the night away. Every night she escaped, but on the third the prince set a trap. He had covered the stairway with wax, as to catch her shoe. And so it did, and thus the search was on.
The fifth section (Lines 74-94) deal with the search of the Prince for the owner of the shoe. Sexton uses some graphic language in describing the scene when the eldest step-sister attempts to put the shoe on. In lines 83-84 she tells that the step-sister's big toe had not fit, so she simply cut it off. The second step-sister (Line 88) cut off her heel in order to make the shoe fit. All that was left was Cinderella, and surely the slipper fit. The prince had found his love, and Cinderella had found her fortune.
The sixth section (Lines 95-105) sets the conclusion for the story. As expected, Cinderella and the prince get married and live happily ever after, much "like two dolls in a museum case" (Line 102). Thus ends this interpretation of Cinderella.
Sexton's interpretation of the story of Cinderella has both modern and dark twists. Words like "Irish Sweepstakes" and references to famous entertainers push the story into a more modern context, as to better convey the messages. The darkness expressed shows the utter desperation of the step-sisters to be Cinderella, even though they had opressed her for so many years. The combination of this makes this version of Cinderella more understandable and gives an increased focus on the hopelessness of the sisters.
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