A Very Grim Fairytale.

I have always enjoyed the Grimm’s brother’s fairytales and have longed loved Disney movies and story books. However, I was unaware at how much they alter the actual fairytale itself. In the Disney story and movie Snow White, the queen is Snow White’s step mother and wants to be the fairest of them all. In the Grimm fairytale, the queen is Snow White’s mother who is jealous of how beautiful her daughter is. In the Scottish version Silver-Tree and Gold-Tree, the queen is also Snow White’s mother. In Grimm’s fairytale and the Scottish version, the queen asks to have the heart of her daughter brought to her so she can eat it. I was frightened. I have learned through the textbook and familiarizing myself with the different cultural tales, that fairytales are not the happy stories about princesses riding off into the sunset with their charming prince. Reading the different versions of Snow White made me want to look up other fairytales that Disney had made into movies and see how grim (no pun intended) and gruesome they are.

In the Grimm and Scottish version, the fact that the mother wanted to eat Snow White’s heart and liver is very gruesome. I understand that there are sick people out there, but to think that a mother would be so jealous of her daughter that she not only would want her dead, but want to eat her most vital organ is scary. This heavily impacted my reaction. I could not imagine such an evil thought ever entering my mind, and I would never do that to anyone, not family, not a stranger, no one. In the Disney version, it is still scary to think that a stepmother would be so mean and evil as to be jealous and want to kill her step-daughter, but an actual blood mother wanting to do that is too much for me to handle.

A family I babysit for will not allow their children to watch Disney movies because they are based off of “unrealistic stories.” I used to disagree with the parents and labeled them as extremists. Now, while I probably will still allow my children to watch Disney movies and be familiar with what jealously can do to some people, I better understand why the parents monitor what they expose their children to. I most definitely will not read my children (both my students and blood children) the original and cultural versions of these popular fairytales, however, it was an insightful learning experience.