When children watch versions of Cinderella in America, often times they find ways to relate to "faith" and Christian values associated with the good in the story. Christian parents also can surely use Christian values to explain the supernatural and to summarize the morals.
Cinderella is a classic fairy-tale, which deals with female maturation and often the death of family member. In Cinderella's' the main character has to deal with the death of her mother and the affects of having a new family with stepsisters. In Grimms tale the stepmother is extremely stereotyped as being the evil, vain and greedy woman who shows no love or affection for her stepdaughter because she was jealous of her. "They took away her beautiful clothes, dressed her in an old grey smock, and gave her some wooden shoes" (Tatar 117). Cinderella is a very strong character in this story who remains unchangeable in her attitude towards her family even though they mistreat her. There is also a supernatural, magical element to this story when Cinderella's "fairy godmother" is introduced. This element to the story could help give children a sense of God and the idea of a guardian angel watching over them.
This may possibly lead people to believe that a supernatural realm exists to award those characters with positive characteristics such as beauty, patience, kindness, obedience, or perhaps hard-work ethics. At the same time, those with characteristics that are viewed as negative such as ugliness, cruelty, disobedience, and laziness will be punished. For example, in Grimm's Cinderella the main character is portrayed as beautiful, good, hard working, and abused. Grimms version actually refers to "our lord" "If you are good and say your prayers our good lord will always be with you and I shall look down from heaven and always be with you"(Tatar 117) proving that as Americans we find ways to refer to Christian values to explain the magic.
