The Frog King

The Frog King or Iron Heinrich is about a young princess, who is so beautiful that the sun itself is jealous of her. She drops her favorite golden ball down a well and the only way she can get it back is through a frog. She makes a promise to the frog that if he gets her golden ball he can be her companion and playmate, but she attempts to go against her promise and doesn't want him to be her companion.  The father of the girl says that she must honor her promise but she doesn’t. She throws the frog against her wall and he turn into a prince. Once she realized he is a prince she The Frog King or Iron Heinrich is about a young princess, who is so beautiful that the sun itself is jealous of her. She drops her favorite golden ball down a well and the only way she can get it back is through a frog. She makes a promise to the frog that if he gets her golden ball he can be her companion and playmate, but she attempts to go against her promise and doesn’t want him to be her companion.  The father of the girl says that she must honor her promise but she doesn’t. She throws the frog against her wall and he turn into a prince. Once she realized he is a prince she obeys her promise and marries the prince who was put under a spell by a witch.

                Cupid and Psych is a story of another beautiful princess, who also has so much beauty that people are jealous of her. In this story instead of the prince being jealous of her the goddess Venus is jealous of her. She sends her son Cupid to make her fall in love with a monster and make her life miserable. Instead cupid makes Psych destined to fall in love with himself. Psych never marries and goes to live with what everyone thinks is a monster. When she gets there her husband gives her everything she wants and she is very happy, the only condition is she can’t see him. She visits with her sisters and they convince her that she need to see her husband she see if he is a monster and if he is she must kill him. When she sneaks in to see her husband she finds that he is beautiful but she accidentally wakes him up and he leaves her. Psych then goes to Venus and Venus makes her does chores that are seemingly impossible. Each times she gets help from the gods though and she does them. The last task though Psych looks into a box that she wasn’t supposed to look in and falls asleep.  Cupid comes and saves her and they become husband and wife forever.  

These two stories both deal with a princess who was the youngest and the most beautiful girl ever. They also both deal with loving a “beast” though. In both stores the princess wouldn’t accept love from a “monster” or frog. Psych was going to kill Cupid if he wasn’t cupid even though he was very nice to her and the princess in The Frog King threw the frog against the wall to kill him. It is showing how a beautiful girl needs someone pretty, and that monsters aren’t good enough for them. In the end of each story they find their prince or Cupid and get married and love each other dearly, only knowing that they are both handsome. obeys her promise and marries the prince who was put under a spell by a witch.

                Cupid and Psych is a story of another beautiful princess, who also has so much beauty that people are jealous of her. In this story instead of the prince being jealous of her the goddess Venus is jealous of her. She sends her son Cupid to make her fall in love with a monster and make her life miserable. Instead cupid makes Psych destined to fall in love with himself. Psych never marries and goes to live with what everyone thinks is a monster. When she gets there her husband gives her everything she wants and she is very happy, the only condition is she can’t see him. She visits with her sisters and they convince her that she need to see her husband she see if he is a monster and if he is she must kill him. When she sneaks in to see her husband she finds that he is beautiful but she accidentally wakes him up and he leaves her. Psych then goes to Venus and Venus makes her does chores that are seemingly impossible. Each times she gets help from the gods though and she does them. The last task though Psych looks into a box that she wasn’t supposed to look in and falls asleep.  Cupid comes and saves her and they become husband and wife forever.  

These two stories both deal with a princess who was the youngest and the most beautiful girl ever. They also both deal with loving a “beast” though. In both stores the princess wouldn’t accept love from a “monster” or frog. Psych was going to kill Cupid if he wasn’t cupid even though he was very nice to her and the princess in The Frog King threw the frog against the wall to kill him. It is showing how a beautiful girl needs someone pretty, and that monsters aren’t good enough for them. In the end of each story they find their prince or Cupid and get married and love each other dearly, only knowing that they are both handsome.

Little Red Riding Hood

Little red riding hood by John Darkow

This cartoon is playing off of the little red riding hood fairy tale. I think that it is a cleaver cartoon. It shows the wolf holding a gun that is smoking and little red riding hood dead on the ground. The police officers say that “he claims she was skipping around in a threatening way carrying a suspicious package and wearing a hoodie”. This is amusing somewhat to the viewer because everyone knows the tale of little red riding hood, and she is portrayed as an innocent little girl. Little red riding hood is delivering food to her sick grandmother and is very young. The wolf eats her grandmother and tried to eat the little girl as well but in the end the little girl out smarts the wolf and defeats him. In this cartoon little red riding hood is said to be intimidating and the wolf is implying he felt threatened by her and that’s why he killed her. That is absurd. Little red riding hood is an innocent little girl. The wolf is saying that the most innocent girl looks suspicious for doing normal things, like skipping and wearing a hoodie. This is a political cartoon because it is showing how someone is claiming little red riding hood is dangerous on nonsense accusations. Because someone is wearing a hoodie it doesn’t make them a gangster or dangerous… hoodies are worne by many people and just because she was carrying a “package” it doesn’t make her dangerous either. I liked this cartoon and I think that it was very clever.

http://theweek.com/section/cartoon/52/226292/social-issues

Anne Sexton v. Grimm Brothers

The Grimm version of Snow White and Anne Sextons version of Snow White have some similarities and differences. In both the plot of the story is essentially the same, the evil queen tries to have Snow White killed, Snow White survives, she lives with dwarfs, falls asleep, and is awakened by a prince. Anne Sexton’s version is very blunt and direct with her interpretation of Snow White, as where the Grimm brothers weren't as direct and left things more for interpretation.

                Right from the begging Anne Sexton refers to Snow White as a virgin, and unsoiled. Anne Sexton from the beginning is saying that Snow White is pure because she is a virgin. In the Grimm version the reader has to interpret that on their own. Anne Sexton also says that the stepmother is “eaten by age”. She then describes the stepmother as having brown spots on her hands and whisker on her lip. She is making the stepmother sound like an old woman and adds some amusement in it as well by making the stepmother animal like. There is no guessing as to why the stepmother is jealous of Snow White.. it’s because Snow White is prettier than she is and she doesn't like that so she wants Snow White dead. Anne Sexton also refers to Snow White as a “dumb bunny”. Once again this shows how blunt Anne Sexton is. Everyone who reads the take thinks that is dumb that Snow White falls for the evil queens tricks three times but Anne Sexton clearly writes it in her poem and makes it amusing for the reader.

Anne Sexton also adds pop culture into her poem… that was the big thing when she wrote this. Anne Sexton writes things like “she was full of life like soda pop” and “red-hot roller skates”. Descriptions like this were simply the norm when she wrote this poem so it made sense for her to write them. The Grimm version does not have any hints of pop culture in it whatsoever. The pop culture part of the story is part of the zeitgeist in Anne Sextons version.

The key difference I would say between the two versions is the ending of Snow White. In the Grimm version the evil stepmother died and Snow White and the prince lived happily ever after. Anne Sexton however ends her poem with Snow White “referring to her mirror as women do”. This ending is different because Anne Sexton is saying that Snow White is going to be just like her stepmother. Meaning she is going to get jealous when she ages and try to have her daughter killed so she stays the prettiest girl. Grimm would never have that ending because that’s now how typical fairy tales end, the princess stays fair and good and lives happily with the prince.

I liked reading Anne Sextons version of Snow White. I thought it was very amusing and interesting to see how she interpreted Snow White. I thought it was funny how blunt she was and I liked her twist at the end, it was different. It gave me a different view on Snow White and I think other people should read her version too.