Resilience In Tomie De Paola's Cinderella

When we were children, our parents used to read us fairy tales to sleep and we believed that everything was solved with magic. Two of the most appealing stories to children: Cinderella and Handsel and Grethel, are part of a collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, first published on 20 December 1812. In this essay, we are going to refer to Adelita, the Mexican version of Cinderella, written by Tomie de Paola in 2002 . By exploring three important themes, both tales teach us meaningful life lessons.

First, love and kindness prevailing against evil, is one of the most important themes we can find in both tales. Cinderella’s kind and loving personality can be seen at all times throughout the story, and she is rewarded for this at

The most common definition of resilience is: “positive adaptation despite adversity”. (Luthar, 2006). Cinderella never lets bad circumstances change her kind and loving nature. Despite her mother’s death and although she suffers injustice, she is able to cope with those situations and to keep her joy and polite manners, especially towards her hateful stepfamily. Despite being a victim of her stepmother’s humiliating words: “Look at you! So poorly dressed. I would be too embarrassed to have you in our company” (de Paola, 2002, p. 18), Adelita keeps cleaning, washing, pressing and doing the chores. Similarly, Hansel and Gretel first appear in the story as innocent, fragile children who, fortunately, are able to adapt themselves to the circumstances of abandonment and hardship and manage to become strong and resourceful in order to survive. We find evidence of this in the story when we read: “Grethel began to cry, and said, "How shall we ever get out of this wood? "But Hansel comforted her, saying, "Wait a little while longer, until the moon rises, and then we can easily find the way home." And when the full moon got up Hansel took his little sister by the hand, and followed the way where the flint stones shone like silver, and showed them the road.” (Grimm, 1812,

There is always someone, like Esperancita, who is there to help us. She takes care of Adelita when her mother dies and also helps her get to Javier’s party. Esperancita gave her “niña” the dress and the shawl. “Don’t cry mi pequeñita- my little one (...) I am here (...) I have come to help”. (de Paola, 2022, p. 20) In contrast to Adelita’s stepsisters, who compete for Javier’s affections, Hansel and Gretel show that unity makes strength. Together, they manage to escape from the witch and run back to their father to meet him again after a long time. Despite being mistreated and abandoned by their parents, they decide to forget all and come back home to them, to the only place where they feel safe. “Then they began to run, rushed into the parlour, and threw themselves round their father’s neck”. (Grimm, 1812,