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Thien Vo
Professor Marshall
English 1302
27 November 2015
“Cinderella” and “The Tonto Woman” are stories that reflect the truth about women who
were abused by others and do not have enough power to stand up for their rights. “Cinderella”
was written by Charles Perrault and first published in 1697. This story is about a beautiful girl
who is treated as a servant by her stepmother and stepsisters, but with the help of her fairy
godmother, she finds a prince and lives happily ever after. “The Tonto Woman” was written by
Elmore Leonard and first published in 1998. This story is about the woman with the tattoo across
her face while being held a slave by Indians who is banished by her husband and society, but
Vega who is cattle thief came and helped them getting back together. Both stories have the same
plot elements such as the abused woman, the helper, the event (ball/ restaurant), the dress and
carriage, beauty, the husband/ prince. Despite these similarities, the details of each plot elements
of each story are totally different such as “Cinderella” has magic, while “The Tonto Woman”
does not.
In “Cinderella” story, the Godmother is a fairy that has magic. After seeing Cinderella’s
tear fall, her Godmother showed up to help her to go to the ball. She transformed a pumpkin
from the garden into a carriage, six mice into horses, a rat for the coachman, and six lizards for
six footmen. Lastly, she donned Cinderella in a beautiful dress that is gold and silver gown
embroidered in jewels and a pair of glass slippers. However, in “The Tonto Woman” story, the
Godfather is Ruben Vega who is a cattle thief. Vega saw a woman was taking a shower with the
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tattoo across her face; he came closer and wanted to talk to the women. The problem is her
husband banishes her to live in shame in a little house on his property that is far away from town.
After the conversation, Vega understood her situation and wanted to help her to stand up to her
husband.
In “Cinderella” story, the ball is the place that is inside the king’s palace. King often
banquets whenever they have something important to announce. The people that are invited to
the banquet by the King must be rich and they must dress in formal clothes to be inside the
palace. With the help from her Godmother, Cinderella was very beautiful in that gorgeous dress
which is gold and silver gown embroidered in jewels and made the best impression on the prince
at that night. The carriage that took Cinderella to the ball is transformed by her godmother’s
