Cinderella Analysis

Many different versions of “Cinderella” exist, and each of them is slightly different. These differences help determine which is the most child friendly. After looking at several variants of “Cinderella,” the version by Charles Perrault is the most child-friendly, due to its mystical nature, lack of violence and blood, and forgiveness. The way that these plot elements are developed through the different variants of “Cinderella” allows Perrault’s version of the story to be seen as the most child-friendly.

Perrault’s “Cinderella” begins with a young maiden and a set of stepsisters who treat the maiden badly (Perrault 236). The young maiden, called “Cinderella,” responded with kindness to this harsh treatment (Perrault 237). Cinderella could
In Sexton’s “Cinderella,” a dove gives Cinderella whatever she wants, and at the end, the dove pecks out both of the stepsisters’ eyes, just like in the second source (Sexton 249-252). This violent act is not what young readers should take from stories, due to their impressionable minds. It would be even harsher to make the young readers scared of the magical dove from this story. Children should not be scared when reading a story like “Cinderella.” This is one of the reasons that this version, along with the similarly second source, should not be read to younger readers.

The second child-friendly plot element that “Cinderella” stories possess is a lack of violence and blood. It is imperative that young readers learn lessons through non-violence, in order to ensure that young readers are not scared or negatively affected psychologically. Young readers are impressionable, and therefore need to be kept away from negatively affecting material as much as possible. This is done in order to keep young readers engaged in the reading without any worries of the young reader being afraid of the text they are
Forgiveness teaches young readers to forgive and apologize for mistakes. This is an invaluable lesson for children to learn in order for them to become successful adults. It is this reason that forgiveness is one of the most important plot elements in “Cinderella” stories.

The first source demonstrates this with precision. In Perrault’s “Cinderella,” Cinderella showed the stepsisters “a thousand civilities,” even after they were cruel to her (Perrault 239). Then after the two stepsisters tried to falsely claim Cinderella’s slipper, she showed that she forgave them by marring “them to two great lords of the Court” (Perrault 240). Cinderella showed how to forgive even though her two stepsisters were cruel to her, which is a lesson that every young reader should learn. This is one of the reasons that this version of “Cinderella” is the most