Grimm And Aschenputtel By The Brothers Grimm

Every little girls must have dreamt of becoming a princess and marrying a prince just like Cinderella story. All the beautiful dresses, shoes, a magical gold carriage and a handsome prince in Cinderella story are fascinating enough for girls to give full play to their imagination. However, as growing up and having a more complicated perspective, now, the different sides of Cinderella story are recognized, which is rather much darker than a mere children’s story filled with surprises and magics. Cinderella stories reveal social norms and the values people had when the stories were created. Both “Aschenputtel” by the Brothers Grimm and “Tam and Cam” by Vo Van Thang and Jim Larson share the theme of the fail of blended family, violence and gender

In both stories, the main characters’ mothers are already dead, and their fathers have a second wife who has her own daughter. Stepmothers and stepsisters are portrayed as villains who do “their utmost to torment” Cinderella figures who are not biologically related to them (183). While their stepfamily members are malevolent in both stories, their biological parents have quite different roles. Aschenputtel’s father is still alive after her mother passes away, but he does almost nothing; he does not stop or prevent stepmother and stepsisters from intimidating and distressing her, and even he does not recognize her at the party, thinking “it cannot surely be Aschenputtel” (185). On the other hand, even after death, Aschenputtel’s mother turns into a tree or brings magical power to protect and support Aschenputtel whenever she is picked on by her stepsisters and stepmother. In Tam and Cam, Tam’s both parents are already dead, which makes her absolutely all alone in the world, but instead of her dead parents, Buddha knows her good nature and support

Women’s lives in both stories are usually dedicated to a domestic life; Cinderella figures are often burdened with loads of chores, and stepmothers and stepsisters enjoy pretty dresses, accessories and parties. They do not pursue a career or dream about having a different life but stay as a housewife or wait for a proposal from a suitor. On the contrary, men in the stories, the prince and the king hold a fair and a festival to actively find a prospective bride and at last, find Aschenputtel and Tam by having them try the beautiful shoe on. Compared to men’s lives, women’s lives and status seem like they are easily decided or swayed by their suitors; they become wives of the prince and the king from daughters of a farmer or a ordinary man. However, although Aschenputtel and Tam are both limited to gender roles, Tam is more conative and independent within gender roles in changing her life and making her way out of miserably living with her stepfamily than Aschenputtel is. Aschenputtel only leans on her outer beauty to attract the prince, and her story ends as soon as the prince saves her by the marriage. However, in Tam and Cam, even after Tam gets killed by her stepmother, Tam does not quit devoting herself to regain the king and trying to overcome her tragic death as she repeats reincarnations in different forms of lives. Eventually she comes back in a human body with greater beauty and succeeds in taking