Blog 10

"Tower of Pisa: The Untold Story"

This cartoon by Bill Whitehead illustrates the "untold story" of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. This cartoon is showing the weight of the prince climbing up Rapunzel’s hair causing the tower to lean over. The prince’s weight would not cause the whole tower to lean, however, it would hurt Rapunzel’s head and could cause her to fall out of the tower because he weighs more than her. Having people climb into Rapunzel’s tower using her hair is not realistic at all. The weight of the people would cause her a lot of pain, it would probably pull her hair out, and she could be pulled out of her tower. This cartoon is somewhat similar to the fairy tale. Rapunzel looks like she is usually pictured with her long blond hair. And that hair is obviously being used to help people into the tower like in the fairy tale. What this cartoon references that is not in the fairy tale is the weight of the prince. Rapunzel does ask Mother Gothel how it is that she is heavier than the prince, however, the fact that Mother Gothel and the prince both weigh more than her does not come up. As I mentioned before, Rapunzel would be injured from people climbing her hair to get into the tower and the weight of either Mother Gothel or the prince would cause Rapunzel to fall out of the tower. This is a fairy tale though, so it can be expected that something magical like this would happen. But as an adult reading, a fairy tale meant for children you cannot help but analyze things like this.

https://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?catref=bwhn1878

Blog 9

 

“Bluebeard” and “Fitcher's Bird” are pretty similar. Bluebeard and the sorcerer both have a room in their houses where they keep the dead bodies of women. They both use their victim's curiosity against them. They give the girls the keys to the rooms but tell them they are not allowed to enter the rooms knowing that the girls will disobey them. They both had bewitched objects that could not be cleaned so that they knew when the girls entered the rooms. In "Bluebeard", his wife drops the key to the room in the blood on the floor and then she is unable to clean the key off. In "Fitcher's Bird", the girl drops the egg that the sorcerer gave her and is unable to clean the blood off it. “The Robber Bridegroom” is not very similar to the other two tales. The only thing that they all have in common is that the men in the stories murder women. “The Robber Bridegroom” is unique because the main character uses the finger of the girl she saw being killed as evidence and the story of what she saw against the murderers. “Fitcher's Bird” is unique because the youngest daughter saves herself and her sisters. Usually, a man would do the saving, but in this case, it was a girl. “Bluebeard” is unique because the wife is saved by her brothers. Usually, the damsel in distress is saved by her love interest but in this story, she is saved by her brothers. I liked “Fitcher's Bird” the most because the youngest sister outsmarts the sorcerer and saves herself and her older sisters. 

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Blog 8

The movie adaptation of the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" is actually pretty accurate. The movie does start with twenty-five minutes of filler to help make it longer and more entertaining. There are several songs in the movie that were definitely added to make the movie more fun and exciting. And the witch uses a magic staff to control Gretel and Hansel. But other than those two major differences the movie is pretty good. In both the movie and the fairy tale the family is facing starvation, but in the fairy tale, the mother wants to take the children into the forest and leave them there so that the father and her can survive. In the fairy tale, the stepmother and the father take the children into the forest to collect firewood and leave them there, but Hansel overhears their plan and makes a trail of stones so that he and Gretel can find their way back home. They are left in the woods a second time and Hansel makes a trail of bread crumbs but the trail is eaten by birds so they get lost. In the movie, Hansel and Gretel are sent to pick berries and Hansel makes a trail of cookie crumbs which is also eaten by birds. In both the movie and the fairy tale, the children get lost in the forest and find the witch’s house. In the fairy tale, the house is made of bread, the roof is cake, and the windows are pure sugar. In the movie, the house is made of gingerbread and candy. In both, the witch has poor eyesight, but a very good sense of smell. In the movie, Gretel wakes up at night and discovers the witch’s plan to bake them into gingerbread and the witch catches her. The witch then ties Hansel up with magic and puts him in a cage. In the fairy tale, the witch takes Hansel from his bed while he is sleeping and locks him in a pen. In both, the witch looks at Hansel’s finger to see if he is plump enough to eat, but Hansel tricks her by making her feel a bone instead of his finger. In the movie, the witch is baked into a gingerbread person, but in the fairy tale, Gretel pushes her into the oven and she burns to death. In both, Hansel and Gretel bring back treasure from the witch’s house, in the movie the witch’s magic staff turns into money, and in the fairy tale, they find treasure in chests in the house. In the movie, Hansel and Gretel are happily reunited with their mother, but in the fairy tale, their stepmother dies while they are gone and she wouldn’t have welcomed them home because she wanted them dead.

Blog 7

This political cartoon drawn by Andy Marlette illustrates the NSA phone surveillance scandal. The wolf is the Obama administration and Little Red Riding Hood is the Statue of Liberty. The wolf represents Obama and all of his employees and Little Red represents American citizens who are affected by the surveillance. The NSA was (is) spying on Americans by listening in on phone conversations and reading emails and text messages. This was very controversial because obviously, people want their privacy and people do not think the government should have the right to listen in and people do not want the government to listen in. 

I think that it is very interesting that the cartoonist chose to use “Little Red Riding Hood” as a theme for this cartoon. The wolf says one of the lines of the most famous dialogue from a fairy tale, “All the better to hear you with my dear!” This line fits perfectly with the political theme of the cartoon as he is talking to the Statue of Liberty (Americans). I like this cartoon. I think it is a very interesting way to portray this controversial topic. I think that most people do not realize that the NSA is not really listening to the details in conversations, they are just looking for keywords and specific words that might be about or hint at crimes or attacks that might take place. The NSA does not care about what average American citizens are talking about. But people do not think that the government should be allowed to listen in on private conversations.

https://www.commonsenseevaluation.com/2013/06/18/cartoon-of-the-day-the-big-bad-wolf/