Fairy Tales

After reading “The Classic Fairy Tales” and finishing up our Fairy Tales unit I began to think about my childhood experiences with the fairy tales that we talked about in class. As a child I remember constantly watching the Disney versions of these traditional tales, but I never knew that most of them were indeed an adaptation of the Brother’s Grimm edition. The Disney revisions were obviously geared towards an adolescent age group so it is understandable that most of the fairy tales lost a lot of gruesome reality. The Brother’s Grimm stories contained the classic points of fairy tales such as magic, a battle of good and evil, mostly happy endings, deep love/marriage, having the main character resolve a serious conflict, the saving elements, a battle of youth versus old, etc… All of these points usually show up in our traditional fairy tales, but what separates Grimm’s and Disney’s is that not everything always works out how it should. There a twists and turns in the Brother Grimm’s stories that make them stand apart from all other fairy tales.
After reading a section in the book, what I found to be most helpful and also interesting was sharing our personal ideas with our small groups. Having someone record our ideas as well as answering questions was an effective way of always having our ideas documented. There were numerous times in our group discussions when we related back to our original ideas, adding on to them, and also dissecting them for a deeper meaning. This unit did not necessarily provoke me to do any outside research other than watching Snow White on You Tube. Using resources is one of the most crucial skills that all teachers and future teachers should develop. In this technology advanced time, practically everything you could imagine is at our dispense including the internet resources, books, articles, hands on activities, teacher chat rooms, etc…
When we were assigned to find the differences between Grimm’s and Disney’s Snow White versions the best way for me to contrast the two was to be exposed to both. So I went online and was able to watch the entire Disney film of Snow White. Having the Grimm version in my mind I was able to easily distinguish differences between the two. A great assignment or activity that could be incorporated into this lesson would be reading the Brother’s Grimm version in small groups or individually and then as a whole watch the Disney version in class. The Disney films run a little over an hour which is plenty of time for the students to watch and take notes all at the same time. As a class, the students could make a chart or circle graph that illustrates the similarities and differences of the two stories. This activity would work well with younger students between 1st and 3rd grade.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the Fairy Tales Unit. It brought back many positive memories that I have with classic fairy tales. This unit also made me rethink how those traditional stories effected my childhood education and what activities I remembered that I enjoyed. I look forward to sharing these activities with my future classroom and hopefully they will gain the same appreciation that I have for these classic fairy tales.

Snow White Differences

When comparing the Brother’s Grimm Snow White to Walt Disney’s version there are many subtle differences that change the overall theme of the story. The Brother’s Grimm version takes a much more dark and ominous path while Walt Disney’s is much more pleasant and happily ever after. Overall the two versions both involve the saving element of the story, a battle of youth versus old, and the empowering story of good overcoming evil.
When explaining Snow White’s true beauty the Brother’s Grimm explained her as white as snow, red as blood, and black as ebony. Disney’s version involved all except for red as blood. Instead they said red as a rose. This subtle difference shows how maturation of the audience each story is attempting to appeal to.
Multiple differences occurred when involving the portrayal and the overall demise of the Queen as well. In Disney, the Queen had Snow White dress in rags to hide her beauty, where as in the original, the Queen secretly grew extremely envious and resentful of Snow White, and soon ordered a huntsman to kill her and bring back her lungs and liver. In the film, the huntsman takes a pig’s heart as proof of Snow White’s death. To stay clear of the Queen’s wrath Snow White ran into the forest and hid in a cottage she stumbled across. In Disney, the animals of the forest led Snow White to the cottage.
When the dwarfs arrive home from the mines in the film, they believe that a monster of dragon has entered their home and taken refuge. So they decide to go into the cottage with their pick-axes and slay the creature. In the Brother’s Grimm version the dwarfs find Snow White asleep in bed and decide not to wake her because she is so beautiful.
In the end of the story, the Queen/ Witch is forced to put on a pair of red hot iron shoes and forced to dance till she dropped dead. This was obviously much too graphic for the Disney version, so they decided to end the Queen’s wrath by making her run of a cliff. The overall story differences where quite surprising to me, especially how the Queen dies.
When comparing both versions of Snow White, the accustomed fairy tales symbols are usually included such as magic, a battle between good and evil, marriage, true love, the saving element, and youth versus old. Incorporating all of these components gives you the overall theme of Snow White. So overall the theme of the story would have to be that true love conquers all. When your heart is full of envy and not pride you will be eaten up by your own deformities. Just like the Queen, she could not stand anyone to be better than herself, and that element alone ultimately lead the Queen to her death.