In the fifth stanza, Sexton begins to tell the tale "Cinderella." ... In this stanza, Sexton describes the stepsisters as "pretty enough /but with hearts like blackjacks." ... Sexton too, was a very beautiful woman, but her difficult life and resulting depression turned her heart into stone. ... This is a deviation from the Brothers Grimm tale. ... Again, this is a deviation from the Brothers Grimm version of the tale in which the stepmother "orders" the stepsister to cut off her toe, telling her "you are queen, you"ll never have to go on foot." in which Since she uses the stepsisters as s...

• Word Count: 1110
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Fantasy is included in almost all fairy tales, for fantasy is "the fiction of the hearts desire" (Pringle 8). Fairy tales also reveal "the yearning of the human heart for a kinder world, a better self, a whole experience, a sense of truly belonging" (Pringle 8). ... In Sexton's "Cinderella," Cinderella's mother tells her to "Be devout. ... Cinderella's kind heart forgives them and asks "them to be friends" (Sierra 14). ... She tells her to break the gourd when she gets home and "the house is filled with all sorts of riches" (Offodile 192). ...

• Word Count: 2226
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

This is a narrative poem which means that it tells a story. ... Unlike in traditional fairy tales, there is no happy ending. ... Unlike in traditional fairy tales, there is no happy ending to this tale. ... It could be humorous, light-hearted, comic or a feminist poem making serious points about male and female expectations of each other. ... This adds to the light hearted feel to the poem. ...

• Word Count: 839
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The story of "Anansi and the Sky God", originating in West Africa, tells of a spider named "Anansi" who spun a web that reached the sky. ... Bata places his soul into the flower of an acacia tree and tells Anpu to find the flower after he is dead and to put it in water. ... In Ireland the belief in Fairy Tales lies deep within the hearts of those who practice "The Ancient Oral Faery Tradition of Ireland" or Faery Wicca. ... If you asked a Faery Wiccan to show you a faery, they"d tell you to look at the trees, the grass, the stars, moon, and sun. ... So, who believes in Fairy Tales? ...

• Word Count: 1506
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

The Arabian Nights can and is considered the first ever fairy tale of the Islamic world. ... At the sadness that overtakes his heart he makes off for his brother's palace in search of solace. ... After much refusal and with a heavy heart the vizier agrees and marries Sherezade to king Shahrayar. ... Now to the point of this essay, what can the Arabian Nights tell you about Islam? ... Also in many of the tales a man is harmed, killed, or severed due to a woman. ...

• Word Count: 1006
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Briar Rose Book Review Briar Rose by Jane Yolen is a heart-wrenching story of Sleeping Beauty intertwined with the horrors of World War II. The novel contains all the elements of the classic Sleeping Beauty: the castle, thorns, princess, and a tale of death and awakening from eternal sleep. Yolen compared a story that fictitiously occurred during World War II with Sleeping Beauty, which allowed one of the main characters, Gitl Mandelstein, to indirectly tell her horrifying experiences during the war. ... After a trip to Poland to speak with Josef, Becca figured out that the fairy ta...

• Word Count: 809
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

For instance, a new character is introduced into the Fairy Tale. ... She is mute until the end of the story when she learns the name of Rumpelstiltzkin as his pet raven hears him say it and he tells her, hence she saves the day. ... "When you"re good and smart and kind of heart, there's nothing you can't win." ... The art of fairy tales have been around for centuries. ... Rumpelstiltzkin is one of those fairy tales that does in fact hold a deeper meaning, a meaning that varies between the tales interpretation. ...

• Word Count: 1774
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Nevertheless, since the tale displays all these characteristics of what a folk tale is, it is therefore a prominent example of one. ... Rip exclaims, "I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and everything is changed, and I"m changed, and I cant tell whats my name, or who I am!" ... The truth tells all, and Rip needs to find his true self. ... "Rip Van Winkle" establishes all the elements that can claim it to be a folk tale of the 18th Century. ... Rip is a hero in everyone's heart. ...

• Word Count: 1111
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Nevertheless, since the tale displays all these characteristics of what a folk tale is, it is therefore a prominent example of one. ... Rip exclaims, "I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and everything is changed, and I"m changed, and I cant tell whats my name, or who I am!" ... The truth tells all, and Rip needs to find his true self. ... "Rip Van Winkle" establishes all the elements that can claim it to be a folk tale of the 18th Century. ... Rip is a hero in everyone's heart. ...

• Word Count: 1050
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In The Frog Prince such social aspects manage to show themselves throughout the tale. ... When the princess refuses to allow the frog to sleep in her bed and instead tells him to stay in the corner and he tries to convince her to let him up, he does so by threatening to tell her father of her misdeeds. ... Among the most famous of Grimm's tales is Cinderella. The tale begins with a rich man whose wife is sick. ... Shortly after her mothers passing, her father remarried and took on a wife with two stepdaughters who though fair on the outside were ugly at heart. ...

• Word Count: 3053
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

She is an attractive looking fairy who lives in a land that most fairy tale creatures reside yet her home is as unique as her breed of living beings. ... The birds sing to their hearts content and fill the air with such harmony, as they sit perched high above the land on one particular elm tree. ... A hammock made of spider lace was gently swinging in the breeze and judging by the compactness of this bed you could tell that the fairy lived alone. ...

• Word Count: 726
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

This is the view Fairytales give the reader and it is evident that childhood tales help to shape the listener or reader. ... Fairytales have been passed down through the ages, originating from the old oral Folk tales. ... It is this beauty that they use to enchant the heart of their Prince Charming allowing him therefore to take his place as their hero and rescuer. ... In all three tales the major theme of the female character is passivity. ... In the tale of Rapunzel the recurring theme is present. ...

• Word Count: 3110
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

Anne Sexton's "Cinderella" is a fairy tale poem about the life of Cinderella. ... A nursemaid, someone who cleans and takes care of children, is described as "luscious and sweet," she "captures the oldests son's heart" meaning she makes her way into a wealthy family by her beauty. ... Sexton then starts to tell the story of a Cinderella, whose mother dies when she is younger. Her mother tells her to be devout and good and in return she will "smile down from Heaven in the seam of a cloud.... The two sisters, cut parts of their feet off to fit into th...

• Word Count: 900
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School