...An Analysis of the Symbolism in Brothers Grimm “Godfather Death” In literature, symbolism is used to suggest an underlying meaning in a story. In the story of “Godfather Death,” a quite ironic title, the Grimm brothers used a multitude of symbols to convey the story’s moral value. The Grimm brothers used seven symbols in this story. All of them play a part in conveying the message that death cannot be defied, death is constant, and death is fair. The father in this story searches for a godfather for his thirteenth child, a son. The first person he comes to is God. He sees God as unfair and biased toward poor people. He states he does not want him as the godfather because he feels God does not disperse wealth equally; this stems from him being poor and having twelve and now a thirteenth child. As the father comes across the Devil as his next choice, he discredits the Devil by saying “you trick men and lead them astray” (Grimm 12). To speculate on this, the father may have had an experience with the devil himself, or his beliefs may stem from biblical readings. The next possible suitor is Death. The father accepts Death as the god father; Death treats all people equally and does not discriminate. Poor and rich alike are taken without biases by Death. The father thinks this is Hunt 2 the one to be the godfather based on his own opinions of how good, evil, and death are represented. There are several noteworthy symbols in this story. To...
Words: 1204 - Pages: 5
...Composition 1 10/2/2012 Cinderella: Misunderstood Cinderella is a beloved and idolized character in. In the Grimm brothers story Ashputtle, like most other variants of the story, she is seen as a patient, virtuous, good-natured, obedient young girl who is devastated at the death of her mother, deprived of her father’s love, and ridiculed by her new family, but yet nonetheless is recognized for her inner beauty by the prince. What the Grimm brothers fail to examine in Ashputtle though is the point of view of her stepmother, and the reasoning behind her cruelness toward Cinderella. The role of the stepmother is typified in Ashputtle, as that of callous, cruel, and evil women whose only care is for her two daughters to be married to the prince and eventually become queen. But is Cinderella really so morally superior to her stepmother and stepsisters? In the Rossner text her stepmother reveals her to be filthy, lazy, and disobedient she is described as having a “foul mouth. She would not go to school. She would not dress decently for any occasion” (Rossner 619). She also states that Cinderella would “spend her waking time at home, sitting at the fire, poking at the cinders and getting covered with ash, which she did not mind in the least!” (Rossner 619). Revealing that Cinderella’s plight is of her own doing and her father and stepmother are simply doing their best to deal with her antics. Cinderella is portrayed as a patient and virtuous young girl in Ashputtle, her...
Words: 1031 - Pages: 5
...GODFATHER DEATH Brothers Grimm o Jakob Grimm (1786-1863) o Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) o educated o collected the stories (not authors) o stories called “Kinder und Hausmarchen” (Children’s & Household Stories) o stories embodied the fears & superstitions of the uneducated storytellers & their audiences o stories = enjoyed by children & adults o “Hansel & Gretel” o “Rapunzel” o “Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs” o “Godfather Death” “Godfather Death” • 1822 • from oral tradition • fairy tale o magical world o witches & goblins or fairies o by & for the uneducated I. EXPOSITION (setting the scene, background, introduces characters) • poor man w/12 children, worked night & day to feed them • 13th child comes along • goes out to a great highway to ask the 1st person he sees to be the boy’s godfather o GOD: • takes pity on man • promises happiness to child • refused b/c inequality – gives to the rich, lets poor go hungry • (lost faith) • “he turned from the Lord” o DEVIL: • too willing to make a deal • promises gold & pleasures • refused b/c equality but unfairness deceives & misleads humanity o DEATH: • accepted b/c equality – makes all men equal, takes rich/poor w/o distinction ...
Words: 605 - Pages: 3
...Grimm Vs. Disney “Then she was forced to put on the red-hot shoes, and dance until she dropped down dead,” (Grimm). The original Grimm stories are often forgotten as Disney takes its glory. Grimm stories show more of the truth in real life as Disney fills the story with false hopes and often misleads people to believe in happy endings. Disney is far more popular for their musical themes and happy endings. This, however, gives false belief and rips off the original stories by the Grimm Brothers which are more relatable standards from that point in time. Disney and Grimm's stories go back and forth, although Grimm gives more real life expectations, Grimm stories are better by the differences with Disney, and Disney ruined the Grimm stories. One...
Words: 1241 - Pages: 5
...Godfather Death From a young age most children have heard or read fables, not just for entertainment, but also for life lessons that their elders want them to know. Symbolism in fables is not only a great way to keep readers and listeners interested, but also to teach a lesson in a not so literal and harsh manner. Symbolism is used to state an underlying meaning in a story. Readers and listeners learn the lessons from the mistakes made by the protagonist of the work. There is always a lesson to be learned in a fable, the lesson may not be clearly stated but the symbolism of the work makes the reader realize the lesson that is being portrayed. Fables often have characters that aren’t human but possess human traits. The Grimm Brothers perfectly included symbolism in the short story “Godfather Death.” A father had a thirteenth child, who he could not afford because he was already so poor to begin with. Thirteen is an unlucky number in a lot of cultures. This shows the symbolism right in the beginning of the story. The father of the thirteenth child chose death to be the godfather of that child; he chose death because death does not discriminate between rich and poor, religion, or race. The father surpassed God as the godfather because he doesn’t disperse of wealth evenly. The father also denied the Devil to be the godfather because the devil tricks men and leads them astray from the right things in life. Death ends up taking everyone in the end, this symbolizes that death is fair...
Words: 330 - Pages: 2
...Kirsten Yu – March 5th, 2014 Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny Context Response As I read this poem the first time through, I assumed that whoever was talking was a male. The reason I believe that it is a man retelling this is because the title of the poem says “Reading the Brothers Grimm to Jenny”. However, no matter the gender, it is someone that Jenny looks up to. It is evident in the line “you insist I have the golden key” that Jenny admires the author. However, the author believes that he hasn’t done a good job of preparing her for the future. The author believes that they’ve forced her in to thinking of a pleasant and fantasized world where nothing can go wrong. However, she will eventually have to understand that life is not so and has to face reality. The author understands that she has to “live with power and honour circumstance[s]”. Jenny’s heart is pure, and the author is afraid of how she will react when she is exposed to reality. She’s been penetrated with thoughts that life is perfect, and when mistakes are made, they are fixable. Some examples of tales that have been told to Jenny include: “birds speak the truth”, “beauty proves a royal mind”, and that “death is a small mistake, where [a] kiss revives”. At the end of his list of tales, he says “Jenny, we make just dreams out of our unjust lives”, which clearly means that we only make up fantasies to fulfill a bit of hope and happiness because we suffer through stressful lives. Overall, I...
Words: 763 - Pages: 4
...– and in particular, American popular culture – is undoubtedly one of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting. Throughout the twentieth century, people around the world have enjoyed film, music, animation, and written works by various authors and artists. One of the most famous and significant American entertainers of the lot has been Walt Disney, introducing millions of children and adults to his world of limitless (or so is widely believed) imagination and magic, from the earliest short cartoons produced in the 1920s, to full-length feature animations such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, to the numerous animations and live-actions films as well as Disneyland theme parks, all kept alive by the thriving Disney Company decades after the death of its founder. Disney’s legacy lives on in a variety of entertainment and consumer-oriented products, enthralling audiences the world over. Nevertheless, one type of art often precedes another, and among the most well known, classic...
Words: 25499 - Pages: 102
...Good Triumphs Evil: Cinderella Cinderella, as told by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in Household Tales, is a tale most of us are familiar with. Most know the version of the tale as told in the Disney classic animated film. However, when told by the Grimm brothers it is a bit more elaborate and quite unlike the Disney version. Yet it is a tale I can relate to, as I’m sure many others can as well. I find the moral of the story the authors were trying to get across is that good will triumph evil, even in what seems to be the most impossible of situations. It all began with Cinderella suffering the death of her mother, who was quickly replace by an evil stepmother and her two daughters. They tell her cruel things and force her to do the household cleaning as “He who wants to eat bread must earn it; out with the kitchen-wench.” With that one sentence they have explicitly made it clear they feel she is beneath them and if she wants to eat she will earn her keep and meals. They take all of her possessions and give her, mock her, and even taunt her. She is forced to work in kitchen from the morning to nighttime, force her to sleep in the ashes by the fireplace. She has been reduced to nothing. She has nothing and is made to feel as though she is nothing, even to her father. The ways I can relate to her aren’t the exact same circumstances, but similar nonetheless. At one point I was in a relationship that was very abusive. I was to do all the cooking, all the cleaning, and under no circumstance...
Words: 795 - Pages: 4
...this band of brothers could reach goals far beyond the ones they could reach as individuals. Compassion The Lion and the Mouse An Aesop’s Fable Compassion has always been a virtue most of us like to think we practice. But there are those who choose not to share compassion with others no matter how much they need it. After a small mouse disturbs a sleeping lion, the mouse is threatened with certain death. As a consequence of convincing the lion that he, a tiny mouse, could someday save his life, the lion set the mouse free. By releasing the lion from a net a few days later, the mouse proved the he could, after all, save the lion’s life. The compassion the lion had for the mouse proves that compassion is a trait that will not only make you feel good, but could save your life. Presson 2 Commitment Two Frogs in the Milk An Aesop Fable There is no better way to illustrate a person’s commitment to something important or relevant then to test their commitment in a life-or-death situation. The two frogs involved in this story, found themselves in their own life-or-death...
Words: 903 - Pages: 4
...Nhkahsdsahkjdsakjxkasbxkajsbkjbxkajsbxakjb jbaskbkj j snka sjka s kaa a s asa sa s sa s a sas sa as as as as sa sds d sd sdThe following morning, the family treks into the woods. Hansel takes a slice of bread and leaves a trail of bread crumbs to follow home. However, after they are once again abandoned, the children find that birds have eaten the crumbs and they are lost in the woods. After days of wandering, they follow a beautiful white bird to a clearing in the woods and discover a large cottage built of gingerbread and cakes, with window panes of clear sugar. Hungry and tired, the children begin to eat the rooftop of the candy house, when the door opens and a "very old woman" emerges and lures them inside, with the promise of soft beds and delicious food. They comply, unaware that their hostess is a wicked witch who waylays children to cook and eat them. The next morning, the witch locks Hansel in an iron cage in the garden and forces Gretel into becoming a slave. The witch feeds Hansel regularly to fatten him up, but Hansel cleverly offers a bone he found in the cage (presumably a bone from the witch's previous captive) and the witch feels it, thinking it is his finger. Due to her blindness, she is fooled into thinking Hansel is still too thin to eat. After weeks of this, the witch grows impatient and decides to eat Hansel, "be he fat or lean." She prepares the oven for Hansel, but decides she is hungry enough to eat Gretel, too. She coaxes Gretel to the open the...
Words: 1628 - Pages: 7
...What effects exactly do fairy tales have on children? In some stories, how come it is okay to get away with murder and still be the good guy? In “The Struggle For Meaning,” Bruno Bettelheim explains the psychoanalytical effect of fairy tales on children going through changes and struggles of growing up. Bettelheim provides analysis on how fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel offer children with support such as getting rid of separation anxiety and death anxiety, thematically prevalent in many stories. Separation anxiety is the natural unease a child feels when separated from a parental figure and death anxiety is the fear of death and detachment. While Bettelheim successfully describes how fairy tales provide a way for children to subconsciously battle their inner anxieties, more can be said about these developmental effects through the story of Hansel and Gretel. Bettelheim delves into the psychoanalytical aspect of fairy tales and their impact on the growth of children. He first introduces our innate desire to find meaning in life and the role fairy tales play in the lives of children as they attempt to understand this meaning and the world around them. Bettelheim suggests that “literature carries information best” (324), especially fairy tales which “stimulate imagination [and] help to develop intellect and clarify emotions” (325). Fairy tales enrich development subconsciously in children when they are most developmentally vulnerable and, as a result, assess real life situations...
Words: 979 - Pages: 4
...The original Snow White is a centuries old, German fable titled Sneewittchen. It gained notoriety after its publication in the first edition of The Brothers Grimm collection “Grimms' Fairy Tales”. Many believe the character of Snow White was based on the life of Margarete von Waldeck, a German countess born to Philip IV in 1533. When Margaretewas 16 she was forced by her stepmother, Katharina of Hatzfeld to move away to Wildungen in Brussels. There, Margarete fell in love with a prince who would later become Phillip II of Spain. Margarete’s father and stepmother disapproved of the relationship as it was ‘politically inconvenient’. Margarete died at the age of 21 after being poisoned. Margarete's father owned several copper mines that used...
Words: 1597 - Pages: 7
...A fairy tale (pronounced /ˈfeəriˌteɪl/) is a type of short story that typically features European folkloric fantasy characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, mermaids, or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends (which generally involve belief in the veracity of the events described)[1] and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. In less technical contexts, the term is also used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness, as in "fairy tale ending" (a happy ending)[2] or "fairy tale romance" (though not all fairy tales end happily). Colloquially, a "fairy tale" or "fairy story" can also mean any farfetched story or tall tale; it's used especially of any story that not only isn't true, but couldn't possibly be true. In cultures where demons and witches are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, where the narrative is perceived both by teller and hearers as being grounded in historical truth. However, unlike legends and epics, they usually do not contain more than superficial references to religion and actual places, people, and events; they take place once upon a time rather than in actual times.[3] Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form. The history of the fairy tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, the evidence of literary works at least indicates that fairy tales have existed...
Words: 401 - Pages: 2
...Carmen Paulino EN 101- “Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Writing prompt #3 As children we are all taught that our prince charming will come for us in a horse carriage with white horses, but is this true? Or is this just a way of looking forward to life? We are taught to value love and that love will come to us but does it come to everyone? We have come to believe in love but does it even exist? In the fairytale “Cinderella”, Cinderella, being a filthy maid who has suffered a lot and still manages to have hope in a better tomorrow, is one of the dominant gender roles which surface in the fairytale. The Prince is the other dominant gender role who is enchanted by Cinderella’s beauty and falls in love with her in a manner of “love at first sight”. He falls in love with her and searches to find her after she is gone. He didn’t care what family Cinderella came from or the live she has had, he wanted her. Cinderella and the Prince depict an idealization of love in just the plain idea that love actually exists and will eventually come to us. Their story tells us that regardless of anything love will overcome every obstacle like their love did with Cinderella’s stepsisters and mother. Also, the idea that love is blind and that looks nor way of life matters to two people who are in love. The prince didn’t care that Cinderella was a maid or that her clothes was dirty when he found her. It also makes us idealize that at some point in life our perfect match will come and we...
Words: 399 - Pages: 2
...Part 1 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first full-length cel animated feature film and the earliest in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The story was adapted by storyboard artists Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Merrill De Maris, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Ted Sears and Webb Smith. David Hand was the supervising director. That was the ending scene of the movie that the prince is giving Snow White the “Kiss of True a Love” for waking up Snow White. This is because Snow White has ate the poisoned apple and the Prince was in ordered to kiss Snow White to revive her. The Prince succeed. Part 2 A week later and now, they are having their leisure on the beach. Unfortunately,the witch is finding some herb at seaside.because she want to recover her beautiful look,but negligent witch saw Snow White. She get very fury. Part 3 After witch ask the magic mirror The face appear on the mirror is snow white. Then, the witch start planing a plane to kill snow white. Finally, the witch get an idea which is make a call to her best friend that is joker. Part 4 Joker get a call from witch. Part 5 Snow white and prince hand in hand to take a walk at the small town, from their action could feel very romantic. Part 6 Now joker appear at the town, he purposely closing with snow white and hiding at the back of...
Words: 476 - Pages: 2
