Each generation needs their own version of the Cinderella story. A part of me sees this a completely normal while the other part of me screams false expectations, hopes, and dreams. Then again maybe we need to believe that such a world exists in order to function in our everyday life. Needless to say, a version of Cinderella repeats for every generation because every generation thinks that they are the first to do something, and this thinking allows them to leave some kind of a mark on the world. In this sense, the Cinderella expectation is culture. I think that's the primary need that it meets. Take Disney's Frozen for example. If I wanted to, I think that I could argue that much of Frozen is based on the Cinderella masterplot. Yes, sure Queen Elsa is saved by her sister Anna, but who saves Anna? A man -- Hans perhaps? Therefore, even though we are given a new outlook, the skeletal plot still remains. It's a Cinderella story for this generation. It's simply something that's in now, but as I type this, I wonder how many people will remember Frozen 10 years from now, 20 years from now, etc.? We will forever remember the Cinderella story. Why? We will forever remember the original Cinderella story because it's rooted in our culture; it's rooted in the American Dream. It's a story of hope, and so we retell these versions of the same story in order to keep that culture and hope alive for generations to come. Times change, but cultural principals and potentials don't.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
The Classics Repeat
Truth be told, Cinderella is an all-time classic for the Western Culture. Many little girls, at one point or another, dreamed of a marrying a prince and living a better life. So much of this theme is tied to our American Culture, to the whole Western culture. If anything, Cinderella highlights that classic boundary of social class and appearance. Sadly, much of our culture is based on this exact expectation, and I would argue that this is the primary reason that the Cinderella template, or as Abbott would phrase it, the masterplot repeats.
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In my undergraduate fairy tales class, I give the students an article about female acculturation through fairy tales, which talks about just what you suggest - that at some point we're all supposed to dream of marrying a prince. But, of course, why should we? What purpose does it serve to perpetuate these ideas through continuous retelling of stories like Cinderella?
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