Cinderella Reflection

I had often heard that no one is ever too old for fairy tales. When I started with this course, I realized I might be telling the same to someone, soon enough. As a child, you cannot not love fairy tales! There are so many things that just cling onto you and manage to make a place in your memories. I still remember that Cinderella taught me to believe, to believe that dreams that you wish entirely from your heart do come true. But growing up, we tend to forget how much these tales meant to us. I never thought I would be re reading some of my favorite fairy tales until I started with Writing 39B. But, somethings changed. I do not quite feel the fantasy part of Cinderella. I see the realities. I see what’s wrong with Cinderella. Every week’s

Honestly, I did not know that there were so many versions of Cinderella. After the readings, I gained a different insight into Cinderella. Therefore, this week was very crucial as it helped me look at Cinderella with a different pair of eyes and this new vision motivated me to formulate the thesis for my RA. The “surprise” element in week 2 was indeed quite surprising! This was again something different but it eventually turned out to be a fun assignment as completing someone else’s story helped me fish out some ideas from other stories and learn to make an ongoing story interesting. Week 3 was again particularly important as it helped me analyze Cinderella in depth. “Cinderella for sure is a classic, but peeling off each layer successively reveals key issues with gender roles and stereotypes.” I was able to recognize the social issues with Cinderella for the first time. I realized that “marriage” was thought of an “ultimate goal of life”, I learned about the place of women at their homes, and of course, the overrated importance of beauty. (Jakhanwal, 2,3) I analyzed its audience and while doing so, I realized that wait, wouldn 't young girls be an important audience for this story? It was after focusing on the readings did I think that “In today’s age, where diseases such as anorexia are prevalent, it cannot be denied that this morally seems unquestionably appropriate for girls,

The research that I did for the RA as really helped me comprehend Cinderella in another way. I found interesting facts such as “The number of references to men’s physical appearance ranges from 0 to 35 per story, whereas the range of women is 0 to 114.” (Lori, Liz) and the different patterns of the portrayal of women which leads to an argument “Whom are we to believe? Andrea Dworkin, who contends that fairy tales perpetuate gender stereotypes, or Alison Lurie, who asserts that they unsettle gender roles?” Well, “It depends.” (Tatar, xiv). Finally, I was able to assert that fairy tales are meant not only for children but also for adults and in some cases for particularly girls. This research also helped me examine some stories in the current age which are “breaking through” the “stereotypes”. Therefore, by writing the RA I have indeed adopt new means to view