Week 11

Oscar Wilde is an Irish author whose three most popular stories are not necessarily geared toward younger audiences like most other fairy tales, because his stories are much more grim and realistic than traditional fairy tales and all feature death. 

The Happy Prince is about a statue of a rich prince whom had died and was made into a statue that commemorated his wealth. Over the years, he had seen the true reality of his people- them being poor and struggling- and it made him feel really upset. One day, a bird, whom lost its way from the group trying to fondle love, took a break and rested under the statue, whom then asked to have his jewels stripped from himself and given to those whom needed it most throughout his village. The concept of death was shown here because the bird had died and the statue was later torn down and rebuilt. 

The Selfish Giant was about a mean giant whom lived in a large castle with beautiful garden. One day he went to visit his friend for a couple of years and came back to see a handful of kids playing in the garden. He became upset and and chased off the children but afterwards his garden started to become droopy and made him remorseful. he invited the kids back to play and his garden came back to life. The concept of death was shown in this story by an interaction that he had with a young boy struggling to get into a tree, who then died and revealed himself to be a Jesus.

The Nighttangle and the Rose is about a young male gardener who is looking for a red rose to impress the love of his life. He meets a tree who exchanges his own life for a rose, which he has waiting for the gardener. When the gardener wakes up and finds the rose, he presents it to his potential mate and is rejected because it  had came too late and had already been outdone by a gifted necklace. This tale has a much more graphic concept of death because it illustrates sacrifice/suicide.

Week 10 

There were two main difference that I found between Jewish fairy tales and European fairy tales. One is that while in European fairy tales there characters consist of at least 1 out of 9 character facet,  while Jewish fairy tales have a range of characters but is always includes the Rabbi in some way. For example, the "princesses" in Cinderella and Rapunzel both features a damsel in distress character and a charming prince, where as A Dispute in Sign Language and The Rabbi and the Inquisitor both feature a Rabbi. This being a common theme in fairy tales also adds more of a religious feeling to all of the fairy tales, thus emphasizing the  audience's general understanding and appreciation for the culture and their norms. This is backed up by the fact that the Rabbi is then viewed as an important figure regardless of its role in within the story. Constantly hearing of tales where the Rabbi is always present might also passively be conveying the message that the Rabbi knows all and he is the best person to come to for advice and guidance because he has seen all things. The other difference I noted was that European fairy tales are mostly centered around romantic endings- enforcing the idea that love is the only way to a happy ending- however, Jewish fairy tales have rather humorous endings and aren't necessarily as enriched on the pushing the romantic themes nearly as frequently as European fairy tales. These stories instead push more of a moral agenda within their stories. Jewish fairy tales also don't always include some element of magic- which is actually another major difference from European fairy tales and emphasize using wit to outsmart opponents.

Week 6 (MAKE-UP)

Cinderella is a story about a young girl who is mistreated by her step-mother and is denied the opportunity to go to the local ball. Her fairy godmother appears and gives her everything she needs to be the most dazzling guest and gives her a curfew of midnight before her magic dissipates. When the time comes, she leaves behind a glass slipper, which the prince uses to find her after the mall and marry her. In Pretty Woman, there is a wealthy bachelor, with a history of failed affairs, who hires a hooker to escort him for a week and ends up falling in love with her. In this story, the fairy godmother turns out to be the hotel manager who is primarily concerned with keeping a good look for prospective clients. 

In both stories, we see this reoccurring concept of a rags to riches love, which is why both stories are highly favored. However, realistically the chances of this happening are very slim for multiple reasons. For one, people of different classes don't really mingle in the same area so it would be really hard for two people of different class to interact for a long enough period of time for them to consider dating. Even if they did hook-up, they would eventually run into the next major obstacle, which would be that society would not allow a relationship like that to foster. Marriage nowadays is viewed as a business arrangement, therefore most people are in higher economical classes would not indulge in a relationship with those of lower classes because it would only bring further harm their business. Aside from marriage, I do think the rags to riches story line is achievable but merely based off of hard work and networking amongst the right people but I would not suggest banking on falling in love with someone rich.

Week 7 MAKE UP (April 2 & 4)

Fairytales are typically geared toward children as much more than a means of entertainment- they often are used to deliver life lessons to children but have also been utilized as a model for children to look up to. In two stores, Hansel & Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood.

In Hansel & Gretel, two children are abandoned in the woods by their step-mother and poor father and must find a way to navigate to safety on their own. The psychoanalytic perspective of this story is grounded in Freud's psychosexual stages. Within the story, it becomes clear that these children must have not completed the oral stage- the first of Freud's psychosexual stages. This was exemplified by their oral fixation throughout the story. Due to lack of consistent feeding, these children became stuck on this phase and then during their journey through the woods, they act on these strong impulses that are driven by this oral fixation, like their inability to control themselves from devouring the witch's house.

In Little Red Riding Hood, a young girl is sent on her way to deliver goods to her grandmother's house and is manipulated to by the neighborhood wolf. The psychoanalytic perspective of this story is grounded in Erikson's Stages of Development. Within the story it becomes clear that the young girl is within her industry v. inferiority stage- the fourth of eight stages. This is demonstrated by her adventure alone where she begins to show that she can function independently and away from her parents. 

Week 9 (April 8 - 12)

I read Rachel Reitz blog for this class and was truly impressed by her work. In her most recent post, regarding Freud's Concepts in Fairy Tales, Racheal discussed how the id, ego and superego were demonstrated within two fairy tales, Little Thumbling and Hansel and Gretel. I found this to be really interesting because this concept was particularly challenging for me to understand but the way Rachel broke it down in her blog, made it easier for me to find similar themes in other stories as well and allowed me to advance my understanding on the concept. In her second most recent post, I really enjoyed how she connected her favorite Kenyan tale of "The Monkey & The Shark" with the concepts that he taught to the class. This blog not only showed her understanding of the material, but allowed readers the opportunity to see who she is as a person. Speaking of, in one of her earlier blogs, she mentioned that she was really interested in The Little Mermaid, so I have attached a picture to go along with her openness of character. Lastly, her reflection on Cinderella & Pretty Woman are different from the perspective that I had on the connection between the two stories, however it was refreshing to hear such an optimistic viewpoint on the scenario. Throughout Rachel's blog, I admired her detail, her genuine emotional connections to the material and her imagery, all of which makes reading her blog very entertaining. I would highly recommend also checking out Rachel's blog, by following the link here.

Week 8 ( Mar 25 - 29)

This week, we had a guest presentation from Dr. Ochieng' K'Olewe- a Kenyan storyteller. I really enjoyed this presentation because the stories were new stories to me and they were relevant to the information that he was trying to teach to the class. This put in perspective for me, just how convenient storytelling could be for parents and village elders who are trying to convey a particular message to young children and even young adults. I don't feel as though I would see any type of connection between the hardships I have faced in my life and the fairy tales that I was exposed to as a youth; However, I can imagine had I grown up in a community, such as the one Dr. K'Olewe, that I would have made a lot less error because I would have more applicable stories to refer to. 

I feel like an important factor of what makes Kenyan storytelling so unique is the fact that every time the story is told, the storyteller claims ownership and can tweak the story to fit the message THEY want to send. Second most important factor would have to be the fact that the events, characters and implicit messages are constantly being modernized so the same story can be made relevant to people of  all ages and in different time periods. Aside from these two factors, Kenyan stories are also different from the other stories that we've read about because they also don't necessarily have a set structure to them (whereas the fairy tales we've read in class include certain motifs and functions) and these stories would be a lot harder to classify.

Week 5 (Feb 25 - Mar 1)

In "Sonne", Snow White is portrayed as a dominant, promiscuous bad-ass, who needed more R-rated methods of poisoning. On the other hand, in all the "Snow White" versions listed in Maria Tatar's book as well as they Disney version, she is more naïve and plays more into society's expectations of women. Similarly, they all have a character being poisoned and placed in a coffin to be admired, and ends with the character awakening.

In The Young Slave, the niece of Baron is put under a spell at birth and before she is cursed to die, her mother places her in a glass coffin to spare her. Eventually the mother dies and the wife of the Baron eventually finds her and makes her into a slave. When the Baron overhears the story recollection of the slave, she is hidden for several days and then asked to recall her story yet again to an entire banquet of people which eventually runs the wife off.

In the Brother's Grimm edition of Snow White, the stepmother tries to kill Snow White three times, but each time the dwarfs come home and undo the damage. Finally she is given a poisonous apple that causes her to die before anyone can try to help her. When the dwarfs come home, they build a glass coffin for her, where she sat until the prince demanded to house her. However, the jolting getting from up top of the mountain caused the bitten apple piece to fall out of her throat causing her to wake up yet again.  When she awoke she instantly fell in love with her Prince and they got married, at which the invited stepmother attended and was forced to walk over hot coal in iron shoes until she died.

In Lasair Gheug, the King of Ireland's Daughter, the daughter is framed by her step mother for three crimes. Her dad cuts off one finger for each crime committed and sends her into the woods with two poaches of currency.  While in the woods, she ran into twelve cats and a one-eyed cat, whom had been put under a spell by the leader cat's step mother. The daughter is able to manipulate the twelve cats using the currency she was given and therefore the leader cat decided she would be allowed to stay for supper. After the spell was loosened, the two got married and had three unchristened children. Meanwhile the stepmother send twelve of her maids to deliver a spell-filled box for the daughter and her kids. Anxiously, she opened the box alone and therefore only killed herself. The Prince's second-wife brings the "Snow White" back to life and she tells her story which rekindles the relationship between her and her father.

My favorite version of Snow White is The Young Slave because it tells a more complete story as to where the biological mother is and has a more realistic ending- instead of the step mother dying or any other mythical alternative, she simply is cast away due to shame and embarrassment. I honestly felt that this might also be teaching children that there are alternative ways to deal with problems aside from stooping down to the other person's level.