Comparison of two short stories: Mrs. Pulaska by Christopher Burns and
My Good Fairy by Christopher Hope
Mrs. Pulaska and My Good Fairy are both stories in which a child describes a memory of a certain person. Both stories are written in the past tense "She had sought refuge among us" and "Nicomedus was a big giver". Both stories are also written in the first person, so the viewpoint is the same. In Mrs. Pulaska a child tells about Mrs. Pulaska's role in the community and how she differed so much from the normal people. In My good Fairy a child tells about Nicomedus, a generous person who actually is nobody. The narrator tells about his relation with this person and what kind of person Nicomedus was. In both the introductions the narrator is a child, in Mrs. Pulaska the narrator uses "my schoolfriends and me". The roles of these narrators are the same. They tell about what they know about the person in the story, and how they feel about them.
In Mrs. Pulaska the title person is the central character, everything said in the story refers to her. In My Good Fairy Nicomedus is the main character. Both may be seen as people outside of the community but they're portrayed in different ways. Mrs. Pulaska is someone people are afraid of "An emissary from an unknown world", this tells us people don't understand her. It's also someone people despise, she wears only black clothes and mittens, which suggest that she is mourning over someone, maybe her husband, but since the people in the town don't know they find the way she acts rather bizarre.
Nicomedus is a friend of the narrator; he was generous "a big giver" even though he looked poor. He was a servant of the people who lived in the house; he calls the child lord. He could make things appear out of nowhere and it was someone who was trusted. Nicomedus is not a real person. In the story the sentence "He'd wink or clap and suddenly something would appear" confirms this. It suggests he could be someone magical, or he had other powers, not something a normal person would do. Nicomedus was a very old and tiny person; he was already there when people entered the house.
The mother and daughter have a very distant relationship because her mother is ill and not capable to be there, the mother wishes she could be but is physically unable. “I only remember my mother walking one time. She walked me to kindergarten." (Fein). The daughter’s point of view of her mother changes by having a child herself. In the short story the son has a mother that is willing to be helpful and there for him, but he does not take the time to care and listen to his mother, and the mother begins to get fed up with how Alfred behaves. "Be quiet don't speak to me, you've disgraced me again and again."(Callaghan). Another difference is the maturity level the son is a teenager that left school and is a trouble maker. The daughter is an adult who is reflecting back on her childhood by the feeling of being cheated in life, but sees in the end her mother was the one who was truly being cheated. “I may never understand why some of us are cheated in life. I only know, from this perspective, that I am not the one who was.” (Fein). The differences in the essay and short story show how the children do not realize how much their mothers care and love
As it is clear these two versions of Cinderella are very similar but are still different versions. As Stephanie Gilmore said ¨Experiencing different cultures is one of the best things a human can do. It puts your whole world into
The Wizard of Oz is a classic a universally loved film. It’s full of adventure, symbolism, and has a feel good story. It’s interesting though to see some parallels the Wizard of Oz had with other well-known classic fairytales. One example, is the famous story of Alice in Wonderland. A classic in its own right, and a staple in nearly everyone’s film repertoire. The similarities between these two stories are numerous. Starting with the main heroines themselves. Both Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, have a young girl as their main character. Even the character’s appearances and lines are similar. Both sporting a blue dress, and describing their fantasies as curious. When Dorothy arrives in Oz she says, “What a curious place”.
Over centuries of children have been enjoying the classic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. The fanciful plots and the vivid details allow children to be entranced by characters and adventures that can only be found in these stories. One of the most beloved fairy tales, which both the Perrault and the Grimms have their own separate versions of, is Cinderella. Cinderella is able to show how both versions are able to feed off the same plots while personifying the century and social economic situation in which they have lived.
In Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues, “Porphyria’s Lover” and “My Last Duchess”, both portray women that are killed by their significant others. In “Porphyria’s Lover” her lover seems to be obsessed and not wanting to let her go, whereas in “My Last Duchess”, the speaker appears to be jealous by the woman. By having these two different deaths, why does Browning have the men commit these acts on the woman they love? Perhaps he wants to demonstrate and justify how these acts of crimes where done in the name of love or does he want us to acknowledge certain flaws that made them act on their crimes.
A lot of the fairy tale stories that we have seen as young adults and even as adults are original folk tale stories that have been modified and rewritten to accommodate our new cultures. Cinderella happens to be one of these stories that have been changed over the years. There are many different versions of Cinderella, an African Cinderella, a Hungarian Cinderella and even a Chinese version. All of the Cinderella’s are similar in plot, but the author dictates the story’s theme based on the people whom he is writing for which completely changes the story’s tone, mood and other elements. While Perrault's version stresses the values and materialistic worries of his middle-class audience, Grimm’s' focus is on the harsh realities of life associated with the peasant culture. Perrault’s and Grimm’s Cinderella’s have the same plot, but their writing style is different which completely modifies the tale.
Roses are red, violets are blue, Snow White has changed, everything’s new. This is a different beginning than the original story of Little Snow White by the Grimm Brothers and retold by the director Rupert Sanders, in the movie Snow White and the Huntsman. The original story portrays Snow White as a beautiful, but naive, young woman, leading up to her eating a poisoned apple from the evil queen. The evil queen has been jealous of Snow White after she has grown up and become more beautiful. Although in both the story and the movie, Snow White eats a poisoned apple, Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman is portrayed as more brave and courageous, even after she wakes up from the poisoned apple. In the end, both the story and the movie show that Snow White’s triumphs out rules all, no matter what is thrown at her, but the difference is in how. While there are many common motifs across the story and the movie; Gender roles have changed over time, as shown in the
The target audience for “ Life of a Fairy” is children between the ages of five through nine. The values to a child are color, creativity, and imaginative. The parents value their child to be happy and entertained. Life of a fairy is a book that can keep kids entertained and their imaginations running every time they pick up the book .
This modern fairy tale contains diverse characters but none of them is as important as the grandmother. Through her narration, the reader gets all the information needed to understand the story. Indeed, by telling her own story she provides the reader the familial context in which the story is set with her granddaughter and her daughter but even more important, she provides details on her own life which should teach and therefore protect her grand-daughter from men, and then save her to endure or experience her past griefs. This unnamed grand-mother is telling her life under a fairy tale form which exemplify two major properties of fairy tale, as mentioned by Marina Warner in “The Old Wives' Tale”: “Fairy tales exchange knowledge [through the moral] between an older [most of the time feminine] voice of experience and a younger audience”. As suggested in the text, fairy tales are a way to teach insights of life through simple stories directed to, most of the time, younger generations. Most of the time because fairy tales work on different levels of moral which are directed to categories of people, for instance in “Little Red Riding Hood” the moral ...
As I was brainstorming ideas for my children’s book, I tried to think of ways that I could relate my book back to Pudd’nhead Wilson. I remembered that when I was reading the part where Roxy switched the babies she mentions that “de angels” (Twain, 12) were going to look down upon and protect Chambers who was about to become Tom. When I saw, the word angels I immediately thought of Fairy Godmothers and I decided that the Roxy saw kind of herself as a fairy godmother for her son because she was doing what she thought was the best for her son at the time. I decided to make my children’s book about princesses switched by Pearle, the Fairy Godmother. I focused on the moral of honesty is the best policy because if Tom and Roxy, along with Tatiana
As the world has transformed and progressed throughout history, so have its stories and legends, namely the infamous tale of Cinderella. With countless versions and adaptations, numerous authors from around the world have written this beauty’s tale with their own twists and additions to it. And while many may have a unique or interesting way of telling her story, Anne Sexton and The Brother’s Grimm’s Cinderellas show the effects cultures from different time periods can have on a timeless tale, effects such as changing the story’s moral. While Sexton chooses to keep some elements of her version, such as the story, the same as the Brothers Grimm version, she changes the format and context, and adds her own commentary to transform the story’s
The Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault are both very well-known authors of fairytales. Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm are usually the most recognized in our society, but Perrault has his own version of many of the same tales. These authors have very different methods and styles of writing, as well as differences in morals of their stories. Here I will assess some of the differences between certain tales, as well as provide some background behind the authors.
'My Fair Lady' (1964) and 'Pretty Woman' (1990), both based on the 1938 film adaptation of the original 1913 stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, are both widely immensed blockbuster movies who have made it to the 'classics' list of movies that never get old, gaining infinite fame and success. The female audience swoon over the movies, wishing for a Prince Charming, a Henry Higgins, or a Edward Lewis to magically appear before them, for who wouldn't want to live the life of a woman who goes from rags to riches in a few days and falls madly in love with her savior? What woman wouldn't want to be swept away, rescued, and redeemed into heterosexual heaven? To be completely transformed into societies perfect image of what a woman
Over centuries, fairy tales were passed down by word of mouth to portray a story with a hidden meaning. As these fairy tales were passed on they traveled to different destinations and were modified to conform to other cultures. One example of this is the story of Grapnel. Most people are familiar with the Brothers Grimm version of Rapunzel; however, an earlier variant that comes from Italy was the forerunner to the Grimm version. The Italian version, Petrosinella, written by Giambattista Basile, is an example of how culture has an influence on literature. Although this is the case, both fairy tale versions portray jungian archetypes that are often misinterpreted by mainstream portrayals of these fairy tales.
The Grimm brothers wrote fairytales in a time period where women weren't looked up upon as much as men. They weren't held up to high expectations. Fairytale society was similar to real society.Fairytales had female and male characters that reflected society.Fairytales taught us lessons about growing up and and what was expected but you may not have noticed. Fairytales started making female characters helpless and make characters strong and heroic, which was an exact mirror of societal beliefs of this time period.