Essay about The Many Versions of Cinderella

📌Category: Books, Literature, Tale
📌Words: 859
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 31 August 2021

Over the years, stories have been written to entertain a population or to try to send an important message. These very successful stories are often influenced by a variety of cultures and nations. Few stories have been altered as much as the story of Cinderella. There are three different versions of Cinderella: they are from the U.S, China, and Germany. In America, the story is called Cinderella and was written by Disney. In Germany it is called the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella and in China it goes by  the name of Yeh-Hsien. They all share the same plot but do have differing story details. These cultures as well as the influence of time altered the story of Cinderella because cultures tried to make the story relatable to them, the influence of time on the story.

The influences of time and culture changed the story of Cinderella because various countries or religions needed to use it to teach their ideals. In the Brother’s version of the Cinderella story, the author says,” The doves pecked the other eye from each one. And so they were punished for their wickedness and malice with blindness for the rest of their lives.” Meanwhile, in the American version of Cinderella, the author says,” And so Cinderella became the prince’s bride, and lived happily ever after - and the little pet mice lived in the palace and were happy ever after, too.” And in the Chinese version of Cinderella, the author says,”The step-mother and step-sister were shortly afterwards struck by flying stones, and died. The cave people were sorry for them and buried them in a stone-pit, which was called the Tomb of the Distressed Women.” As you can see, in the German and Chinese versions, the wicked stepmother and stepsisters of Cinderella were punished. In one story, they were blinded while in another story, they were pelted to death. Meanwhile in the American version, they do nott even mention anything about what happened to the stepmother and stepsisters. It also ends in a relatively positive tone, unlike the Brothers Grimm and Chinese versions. This comes to show us that the Germans, Americans, and the Chinese have differing views on childhood, magic, and justice. Looking at the American version, we can see that it has a positive and magical tone with it, indicating that their culture wants children to be taught lessons involving magic and positivity but not evil and injustice. Meanwhile, the German and Chinese versions have a very different take on the story of Cinderella. Instead of having the positive and mythical tone the American version has, the German version is very violent and focuses primarily on injustice. The Germans and the Chinese want to expose their children early on to the consequences of being evil and the power of justice. Ultimately, this leads us to believe that the story of Cinderella was influenced by cultures of the nations involved.

Second, the story of Cinderella was influenced by the need to modernize the story to make it more pertinent to Germans back in the 19th century and Americans in the 20th century. One of the oldest versions of Cinderella originated from China and contained a plot revolving around ancient Chinese culture and politics, as well as ancient traditions making it old and not at all understandable for children in the 19th or 20th centuries. For example, in the Chinese version of Cinderella,  the author says,”Among the people of the south there is a tradition that before the Ch’in and Han dynasties there was a cave master called Wu.” Just looking at this we can see that the Chinese version of Cinderella refers to ancient Chinese dynasties and kingdoms, something that a 19th century German would not understand at all and would not care about. Meanwhile, when we look at the German version of Cinderella, we can see that it is way newer and more understandable to the Westen world. For example, in the German version, the author writes,”It happened that one day the king announced a festival that was to last for three days and to which all the beautiful young ladies of the land were invited from whom his son might choose a bride. When the two stepsisters heard that they too had been asked to attend, they were in fine spirits. They called Cinderella and said: ``Comb our hair, brush our shoes, and fasten our buckles.” Accordingly, the German version of Cinderella is way more understandable to a 19th century German or American than the Chinese version of Cinderella. The German version of Cinderella contains items or terms that were used at that time, items such as shoes, buckles, and festival. Meanwhile, the American version of Cinderella was written in the 1950’s in America, a totally different time and place. Yet, the German and American versions of Cinderella are very comparable. For instance, in the American version, the author says,”Then into the magic coach she stepped, and whirled away to the ball. And such a ball! The king’s palace was ablaze with lights. There was music and laughter. And every lady in the land was dressed in her beautiful best.” Apart from the magical and wonderful tone of the American version of Cinderella, it has a lot of similarities in terms of language and items. This is due to American culture at that time embracing original fairy tales to tell their kids instead of changing it to fit with the 1950s. Overall, it is safe to say that the changing times had a huge effect on the story of Cinderella.

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