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/

Blog 6

       

There are very few similarities between "Cupid and Psyche" by Lucius Apuleius and "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich" by the Brothers Grimm. "Cupid and Psyche" is a greek tale that has greek deities in it and where a girl is punished for being too beautiful. "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich" is about a young girl who is forced to befriend a frog after he retrieves her toy from a well and he later turns into a prince. The plots of the stories are very different, however, they do begin and end the same way. "Cupid and Psyche" begins with a king and queen who have three daughters and the youngest one is the most beautiful. People come to see her because she is so pretty. "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich" starts with a king who has beautiful daughters and the youngest daughter was the most beautiful. The "sun itself" was amazed when it shined on her (Grimm 2). Another similarity is that the identity of the frog in "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich" is hidden because he has been changed into a frog by an evil queen. Cupid in "Cupid and Psyche" also hides his identity from Psyche, although he does so willingly. The only other similarity is that the princess and her prince in "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich" and Cupid and Psyche get married and live happily ever after. These similarities really are not that outstanding. Many tales end with happily ever afters. Evil witches changing men into beasts also isn’t uncommon. I think the time periods and the places where these stories were written really influence how similar they are. You can’t expect a story written in Germany in the 1800s to be that similar to a story written in ancient Greece. 

Blog 5

Unfortunately, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, the Disney adaptation of the Snow White fairy tale is very different from the original tale by the Grimm brothers. In the Grimm's fairy tales the princes never play a major role, they come in at the end and that's it. In Disney movies, the princes are always introduced pretty early and their characters are developed much more than in the original tales. In the Snow White movie, the prince is introduced very early and he even sings with Snow White. In the fairy tale, the prince comes in at the very end and he just happens to be in the forest where Snow White is lying in her coffin. Disney also developed the Dwarves characters much more than the Grimms did. In the movie, the dwarves all have names and those name correspond with their personalities. In the fairy tale, the dwarves aren't given names and they mostly save Snow White when her stepmother tries to kill her and they go to work. The dwarves in the fairy tale don't sing and dance and spend fifteen minutes learning how to clean themselves. One of the most major differences between the movie and the fairy tale is that the evil queen tries to kill Snow White not once, but three times. The queen tries to kill her by lacing her too tight, with a poisoned comb, and with a poisoned apple. The other major difference is that in the fairy tale the prince comes along and he thinks Snow White is so beautiful that he asks the dwarves if he can take her and her coffin home with him. When his servants are carrying the coffin they stumble and this causes the piece of apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat and she wakes up. In the movie, Snow White is awoken by the prince kissing her.

There are some similarities between the movie and the fairy tale, obviously, but there are definitely more differences. In both the movie and the tale, the queen commands a huntsman to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. The queen asks for the man to bring back organs as proof that Snow White is dead. However, the huntsman takes pity on Snow White and he allows her to escape and run away into the forest. In the fairy tale, the man brings back boar lungs and liver as proof and in the movie, the man brings back a pigs heart as proof. In both, the Dwarves warn Snow White not to talk to strangers and not to let anyone into the house. But the queen disguises herself as an old peddler and Snow White talks to her anyway. The movie only used one of the queen's methods for killing Snow White: the apple. And after she died the Dwarves in both the movie and the tale agreed that Snow White was too beautiful to be buried, so they made transparent coffins for Snow White.

Disney made changes to the storyline to make it more entertaining and to insert his beliefs into the movie. Disney took out the references to Christianity and added in songs and made the Dwarves into major characters. Snow White was made into the perfect housewife and she settled into her role very easily, until the prince came along to save her. Falling to your death is a gruesome way to die but Disney probably thought it was better than dancing in hot iron shoes until you drop dead. I think many of the changes were made because of the time period that the movie came out in.

Blog 4

I think it is possible for someone to reach riches through marriage, but I don’t think it is really possible to reach success through marriage. And magic isn’t going to help you reach success or riches unless you are a magician. It is definitely possible to become rich through marriage. People are always saying “I’ll just marry someone rich”, and people actually do that. Sometimes it’s older men looking got younger wives to hang off of their arm. Sometimes it’s older women looking for younger men. Sugar daddies literally pay people to keep them company, this isn’t marriage but it is an example of the idea, some people marry only for money or companionship. I think in some cases you might be able to reach success through marriage because maybe you were trying to start a business and your spouse had the funding or gave you the support you needed. But other than those cases success is achieved through hard work. Magic can’t help you reach either because it doesn’t exist. Magic always helps the main characters in fairy tales but that isn’t how real life works. We don’t usually get to meet princes that swoop us off our feet and into a life of splendor in a castle. It is possible for people to meet their prince or princess that swoops them off their feet, but not may are going to be rich or live in a castle. It is possible for people to reach riches through marriage and maybe reach success through marriage, however it is not very common.