On Fairy Tales

I visited some friends yesterday, and the conversation turned to fairy tales, since my friend has a 2 1/2-yr-old daughter. She tells her daughter "clean" fairy tales. For example, in "Little Red Riding Hood," the grandmother doesn't get eaten, instead she locks the door so the wolf can't come in. It's true that the fairy tales of old are incredibly violent, include strange torture, and are sorely lacking in strong, independent women.

On the other hand, these stories are part of our common experience. Consider meeting someone who has never seen the Wizard of Oz or someone like Phoebe on Friends who doesn't know the Old Yeller dies at the end. It's important to know the true story, so that you can talk about it and share it with others. In fact, these common stories are useful for me in teaching, since many of them are told in my students' native languages. Since the students already know the storyline and the characters and objects that will appear, it's a good way for them to learn English vocabulary in a fun way. (I did this in pronunciation with advanced learners with "The Tortoise and the Hare," which all of them had heard, but it was a great discussion about pronunciation and difference between a "hare" and a "rabbit."

My Grama told me all the real stories (and I turned out fine, btw). She had the best books, and lots of them. My favorites were Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel had really nice illustrations, especially of the witch, and I think I also liked that it was a bit disturbingly intriguing. For example, the idea that the witch was going to eat Hansel and that they killed the witch by tricking her and pushing in the oven carried some intrigue, since it's a strange Sylvia Plath way to die. But the witch was really the best character. Hansel and Gretel were blonde with pointy noses, and I know they were supposed to be protagonists, but I always liked the witches. This one was drawn particularly well, with green skin, the color of a green olive, and she had a huge mop of long, straight, stringy white hair, and her size was quite daunting compared to the children.



I've always held a soft-spot for villains, and witches in particular. From Disney, my favorite is Maleficent (which means "evil-doer") from Sleeping Beauty. But really Maleficent, or her traditional counterpart really isn't so bad, and she is pretty weak actually. The fairy's magic always prevails. Another favorite is the Queen in Snow White. She is so purely evil, self-absorbed, and clinically crazy that she must've existed. When I heard the command to the Huntsman to put Snow White's heart in a box, it gave my stomach a turn, but it's still more mundane than recent horror flicks. Anyway, the Huntsman lets Snow White get away, so the slight horror of wondering if he would really go through with it, goes away quickly. The queen, however, is still a looming threat, and I suppose we were supposed to get the message: "Don't take food from strangers, but living with seven little men is okay."

-MsLin