Chapter 14 Homework Dahls Wit Teaching Suggestion The Four Variants

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Chapter 14

Fairy Tales: A Closer Look at “Cinderella”

CHAPTER SUMMARY

This chapter assumes that fairy tale literature is rooted in a deep cultural content: the tales often reveal our assumptions

about (for instance) right and wrong, life and death, love and hatred, cleverness and deceit. Scratch the surface and the

assumptions are there to investigate—or not. Students may dispute the premise of this chapter that fairy tales are

freighted with meaning. A tale could be, well, just a tale. “Why read so much into them? They’re just stories for kids,

right?” No, they aren’t, and the chapter itself, with its variants of “Cinderella” and its multiple analyses, stands as an

argument that there’s more than meets the eye to these old stories. The chapter opens with a structural analysis of

“Cinderella”—the elements common to multiple variants, and is followed by both an homage to fairy tale literature by

A Girl, a Shoe, a Prince: The Endlessly Evolving “Cinderella”(p. 478)

Linda Holmes

UMMARY

Linda Holmes perfectly expresses the family resemblance of the hundreds of variants of “Cinderella” when she writes

that “[t]here’s very little that’s common to every variant of [Cinderella], but in general, you have a mistreated young

woman, forced to do menial work, either cast out or unloved by her family.” Holmes then proceeds with her structural

analysis, which students can use to guide their reading of the variants.

TEACHING S

UGGESTION

Ask students to read the variants of “Cinderella” in the chapter and then to choose one variant and “map” its structure.

That is, students should not the tale’s basic plot moves: what happens, who does what to whom, how tensions are

ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. The colloquial expression is loosely used to describe any story in which an underdog wins a contest: school

sports team, political candidate, movies, books, etc. While “[t]here’s very little that’s common to every variant

2. The animating idea: In a class-stratified society, the only way a poor girl can rise above her class and be

recognized as a person with distinct talents is to disguise herself. The prince is fooled, falls in love with her,

and that love endures.

What Great Books Do for Children (p. 480)

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

UMMARY

In this excerpt, Schlesinger shares his earliest impressions of being read to by his mother and reading himself—and his

strong opinions on the value of classic children’s literature. His core assertion: “I fear that such an initiation into a

larger world would be much condemned today. For these were all tales filled with cruelty and violence, mutilation and

TEACHING S

UGGESTION

Schlesinger directly questions the usefulness of modern stories for children. Discuss his assault on modern children’s

literature. He hakes a firm, even extreme position. Present this in class: ask a student to read key passages aloud. And

then let the debate begin! Should children’s story avoid violence? She they reinforce sexual or class stereotypes?

An Introduction to Fairy Tales (p. 482)

Maria Tatar

UMMARY

Tatar is a folklorist who has devoted her career to a close study of folk tales. This selection is an excerpt of her

introduction to her annotated fairy tale collection (2002). Tatar’s general introduction serves students well, setting tales

TEACHING S

UGGESTION

According to Tatar, deep desires and profound anxieties make their way into folk tales because the tales are

“repositories of a collective cultural consciousness and unconscious.” Tatar is claiming that folk tales reflect our lives

back to us. Ask students how could that be when, in the tales, witches cast spells and children get eaten? That doesn’t

happen in real life. What is her point here?

Four Variants of “Cinderella”(p. 484)

“Cinderella”—Charles Perrault (p. 484)

Ashputtle—Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (p. 488)

A Chinese “Cinderella”—Tuan Ch’êng-shih (p. 492)

When the Clock Strikes—Tanith Lee (p. 494)

UMMARY

Perrault “cleansed” his version of “Cinderella” for the French court. He purged the vindictive violence in the Grimm

version. The Chinese version will be unfamiliar to students and offers a fascinating example of the tale’s adaptability

to different cultural settings. Roald Dahl’s poem is both wicked and funny. It’s a ”commentary” version of

“Cinderella” that requires our full understanding of the classic tale if we are to appreciate Dahl’s wit.

TEACHING S

UGGESTION

The four variants lend themselves to a comparative analysis. Students will read several analyses by experts later in the

chapter. To start, ask them to read the variants and then compare and contrast them based solely on their own reactions.

There will be time enough for students to absorb, and respond to, the opinions of commentators like Bettelheim and

Zipes. For now, to start, encourage them to read and compare by their own lights.

Four (Brief) Analyses of “Cinderella”(p. 504)

A Netherworld of Smut (p. 504)

Bruno Bettelheim

Wealth, Beauty, and Revenge (p. 504)

Rob Baum

The Coding of Black and White (p. 505)

Dorothy Hurley

Sexist Values and a Puritan Ethos (p. 505)

Jack Zipes

UMMARY

Behrens and Rosen have excerpted core arguments from these critiques of “Cinderella”—just enough material for

students to get the main gist and, possibly, be jolted. Bettelhem: “Cinderella” is a tale of psychological debasement.

Baum: “Cinderella” is fundamentally sexist. Hurley: “Cinderella” reinforces racial stereotypes. Zipes: “Cinderella”

does “nothing more than reinforce sexist values and a Puritan ethos that serves a society which fosters competition and

achievement for survival.”

TEACHING S

UGGESTION

There are enough explosive claims in these brief excerpts to challenge any student. Invite the class to organize itself

into four groups based on which of these brief arguments especially appeals to them—or revolts tem. Invite debate in

the groups, again reminding students of the academic context in which their discussions are taking place. Students

should make no claim about the analytical pieces or about “Cinderella” without evidence and sound reasoning.

Cinderella’s Stepsisters (p. 506)

Toni Morrison

UMMARY

The Nobel laureate implores young women at the Barnard graduation to treat one another with more kindness and

understanding than Cinderella’s stepsisters showed Cinderella. Morrison observes how common it is for women n the

modern world to treat one another in a “masculine” manner based in power, violence, and competition. Her message

to the Barnard graduates: Don’t do it. Find a way to nurture as well as to compete.

TEACHING S

UGGESTION

Morrison is working off the Grimm version of the tale, which students should read before reading this piece since the

Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior (p. 508)

Elisabeth Panttaja

UMMARY

In this selection, Panttaja upends the conventional reading of “Cinderella” by arguing that it is not sweetness and piety

that earn her the eventual hand of the prince in marriage but rather her reliance on her deceased mother who, from

beyond the grave, competes with the stepmother in a high-stakes game and wins. Both mothers have the same goals,

and both use the same crafty strategies. Panttaja claims Cinderella and her deceased mother are as cutthroat and crafty

as the stepmother and stepsisters.

TEACHING S

UGGESTION

Those raised on the Disney version of “Cinderella” are going to be surprised by, and possibly resistant to, Panttaja’s

reading of the tale. This selection will likely spark debate. Instructors may want to play devil’s advocate, hiding their

own response to the tale while defending Panttaja’s. If students disagree, they are obliged to back up their positions—

with evidence and logic.

ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. In fairy tales, the opening scene “sets forth the problem which it will then go on to solve”

2. Before she died, Cinderella’s mother asked that she be good and pious. She dies but looks down on her

daughter from heaven. The daughter does follow the mother’s advice, which positions her to win in the end

3. Cinderella’s mother is a power center in the story that opposes the stepmother’s power center. Both

4. Cinderella commits “a string of subversive acts: she disobeys the stepmother, enlists forbidden helpers, uses

What’s Wrong with Cinderella? (p. 511)

Peggy Orenstein

UMMARY

A feminist, Orenstein assumed that when it came to raising her own children she would take an enlightened view of

fairy tales, especially the ones that en coded stereotypical roles for girls and women. Her daughter loved “princess

culture,” however, and provided the motivation for Orenstein to write both this essay and a book on the same topic.

TEACHING S

UGGESTION

Ask students to research different aspects of “princess culture.” Possibilities: economics, psychology, gender identity,

and child rearing. In class, students can report on findings as the instructor takes notes on the board. Each contribution