The traditional story of Cinderella begins with a beautiful, motherless young girl name Cinderella whose father gets married for the second time. His new wife is an arrogant and proud widow who has two daughters of her own, both vain and selfish like their mother. Immediately following the wedding, the wicked woman began to show her true colors. She could not bear the good qualities of her pretty stepdaughter, and even more so because they made her own daughters appear the less attractive. To punish Cinderella for this she made her wash dishes, scrub floors, and wait on her own daughters. She gave Cinderella a straw bed in the loft to sleep upon, while her daughter's slept in fine rooms and upon soft beds. The sisters wore fine gowns, while Cinderella was only allowed to wear shabby clothes, but even with that she still was a hundred times more beautiful then her evil stepsisters. Poor Cinderella bore all this very patiently, and wouldn't tell her father, because he always sided with his wife. So innocent, gentile hearted Cinderella was forced to bear an undeserved existence all because of her stepmother's resentment for her. It can almost be stated as a fact that everyone in the world has heard or seen the story of Cinderella. No matter where you go throughout the world, you can always find some version of the story. Tennessee Reed interpreted the story of Cinderella her own way in her poem entitled "Disney's Cinderella". .
In this poem I find the same similarities as the traditional story - a common term in sociology called the "Cinderella Complex", which is used to describe a situation where a person merely being herself can arouse a sense of inferiority in others that leads to resentment and hostility. The story of Reed's Cinderella symbolizes this type of relationship complex with an evil stepmother, and two evil "jealous" stepsisters who all secretly want to be Cinderella, and attempt to disguise their mental and physical inferiority by constantly, and brutally degrading her.