Grimm's Fairy Tales: A Literary Analysis

As Joe’s excitement mounted to give rides on his newly purchased boat, his joy soon turned to dread as one of his beloved passengers tumbled into the water. The author, Horatio Alger Jr., of “Joe’s Reward” writes a story of a hero named Joe, who rescues a wealthy man’s niece that ends with an offer of a reward. The text consists of Joe’s actions that happen to drive the plot using specific events. Throughout the story, Horatio uses myth-like elements, such as a damsel in distress, a heroic act, and the hero receiving and turning down a reward, to assist the plot in moving forward.

The evolution of music can be viewed as a linear timeline of key, innovative composers who have far-reaching influences upon the musical continuum and perhaps epitomises the societal views which are relevant to their time period through their canonical pieces. As a result, in order to conduct a case study into any piece of music one must first realise said piece in regards to the concurrent political climate.

A hero's journey is a pattern of narrative identities that appears in many dramas, storytellings, myths, and psychological development. The journey consist of twelve different steps and in the story Beowulf we read about the magnificent and rough journey that Beowulf and this men accomplish. Many people question if Beowulf is considered a hero and if what he did was good. The journey that he embarked on, leads me to believe that Beowulf is a hero and always will be.

The concept of “The Hero’s Journey” plays a major role in nearly every piece of fiction humanity has created since its inception, from epic poems to blockbuster movies. In many ways, works of fiction and some pieces of nonfiction could not exist and would not make sense without the concept of a Hero’s Journey; it allows the reader to comprehend and follow the progression of characters over the course of the story. While Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road may not display most of the archetypal qualities found in classic Hero’s Journeys such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit or Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, it most clearly exemplifies the qualities of a Hero’s Journey through the Boy’s character in relation to the mentor, tests and enemies, and the

The novel, Beowulf, intertwines and twists many different motifs within its story. These include monsters, weapons, and feasting. One motif, storytelling, is woven throughout the tale, and has an essential role in Beowulf. With little or no access to the written word, storytelling was the ideal way to spread ideas for public consumption. Oral tales provide a view into Anglo Saxon beliefs, how their monarchy functioned, and their socio-political structure. These tales give modern historians and literary scholars concrete evidence to examine and understand Anglo Saxon life. In the day of Beowulf, storytelling functioned as principles to allow Anglo Saxon people to share and sculpt their future generations. Storytelling also played a large role in influencing civilians and leaders trust in others and each other. Stories could paint ideas and portraits of certain characteristics, even as either heroic or cowardly so as to manipulate civilians. In Beowulf, we learn the title character was widely respected. The stories of his triumph over the monsters spread throughout the land, affecting the other’s views on him as a loyal man and a hero through it all.

Archetypes are found in many stories. An archetype is a recurrent symbol, behavior, and even term found in in literature. For example, in the story “Cinderella”, one can relate the helpful fairy godmother to other stories, such as “Sleeping Beauty” and “Pocahontas”. These common ideas are also shown in the story “Ashputtle”. This story was about a young girl whose mother dies and later in the story, her father remarries a woman who had two daughters who treats Ashputtle terribly. Throughout the story of “Ashputtle”, many archetypes can be identified, but two in particular stand out, which are the person who remains good is rewarded and the people who are evil are punished, and some supernatural force that helps the main character achieve their goals.

The novel Anthem by Ayn Rand is a great example of dystopian literature. A dystopia is a society that is very bad in every aspect, or the opposite of a utopia. This book has many characteristics of a dystopian novel proving that Anthem is a true example of dystopia.

The story is about a young girl named Cinderella whose widowed father remarries but soon dies, leaving his daughter with the evil stepmother and her two daughters. The stepmother prefers her own daughters over Cinderella and has her perform all of the house chores. While Cinderella is kind, patient, and sweet, her stepsisters are cruel and selfish. Meanwhile, across the kingdom the King decides that his son the Prince should find a suitable bride and marry and so invites every eligible maiden in the kingdom to a fancy ball. Cinderella has no appropriate dress for the ball so her friends the mice namely Jaques and Gus, and the birds help her in making one, but the evil stepsisters tear apart the dress on the evening of the ball. “At this point, enter the Fairy Godmother, the pumpkin carriage, the royal ball, the stroke of midnight, the glass slipper, and the rest, as they say, is fairy tale

Fairytales have majorly altered throughout history in a variety of disturbing ways. Grimm’s fairytales were known as gruesome parables that spoke of harsh realities and were told to people of all ages. Disney is identified by their hopeful and imaginary stories aimed at the audience of children. The reasoning behind this stark contrast of fairy tales is for numerous diverse explanations.

There are two different versions of “Cinderella”; there is a Walt Disney version and another version by Anne Sexton. Both of these versions are the same, but they are told to the reader differently. In both versions of the story, the authors describe a girl who was enslaved by her evil stepmother and her step sisters, who has shown jealousy towards her. However, the most important part, about the two versions of the “Cinderella” story told by Disney and Sexton is that both have different elements that are comparable and contrasting. The elements that compare and contrast both versions of the story are the plot, characters, characterization, and conflict.

Sir Gawain is one of King Arthur’s knights. It is Christmas time in Camelot, the time of the year where knights return home and people celebrate their achievements as well as the birth of Jesus. Every year they have a dinner with the king that must begin with a story before eating. No one has a story to tell which causes the king to postpone the dinner until, all of a sudden, a green knight appeared. This story contains ideas known as the hero’s journey.

Foster claims that many authors chose to include allusions of fairy tales in their works, because these authors assume that their readers will understand allusions of fairy tales more than any other allusions, and create an irony of a situation in the literature. For instance, Foster details one author using allusion of fairy tales by “upends our expectations about the story of Bluebeard, or Puss-in-boots, or Little Red Riding Hood to make us see the sexism inherent in those stories” (Foster 60). Foster implies that there is vast amount of fairy tales for authors to incorporate them into their work. Additionally, Foster states that fairy tales are timeless, despite the “age-appropriateness” of the literature.

“If you don’t control your mind, someone else will,” according to the poet, John Allston (Midday Motivation). He explains that putting trust in a stranger is one of the most common ways in which a utopia is corrupted. Trust is a part of daily lives, so it is not surprising that the concept of trust is a key notion in stories. In the stories The Veldt and The Children’s Story, the authors Bradbury and Clavell, use trust to corrupt someone's utopia and create another's. The ideas of utopia are deepened through the comparisons and contrasts of other symbols and messages in the stories. Similarities and differences are shown in the texts The Veldt and The Children’s Story that represent the different ways utopia can be created and corrupted through

Many families have many traditions, but one tradition that is common among all households is that they read fairy tales to their children right before they put them to sleep. They do this to fill their minds with good positive thoughts and leave them with something to think about. Religion dictates the characteristics of familiar fairy tales as religion provides a moral and ethical framework for having a good life, an ideal goal parents want their children to have. On the whole, fairy tales are constantly changed to adhere to cultural or social beliefs that are deemed important by diverse people in a community.

Grimm uses the characters of Cinderella and Snow White to perpetuate the idea that women should lead quietly domestic lives. In Cinderella, Cinderella spent most of her time in a kitchen. She truly embodied a woman of the early 1900’s. She wasn’t allowed to do or go as she wanted to, like her step sisters but was forced to work. For Example, “There she had to do hard work from morning till night, got up before day break, carry water, light fires, cook and wash” (121). The ideal housewife of this time earned her training within homes centered around the principles preparing the woman to take her of the household. Cinderella was isolated from