ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS FOR SNOW WHITE

Ariko Kawabata

The following assignments are suggested by Ariko Kawabata, Assistant Professor of English Literature, Aichi Prefectural University in Nagoya-city, Japan.

ASSIGNMENTS

Consider the historical background of 19th century Germany when the Grimm Brothers collected and retold the fairy tales for the children and the household. Their stories, like other cultural products, could not stand without influences from the ideas of the time, but they also positively worked as a moral agent for children. Take "Snow White" (and/or "Little Red Riding Hood") as an example and discuss your analysis of the dominant ideology of the time and the influence on children. Whose (class/gender/ethnicity) interest did these stories serve? What kind of value system did they help to establish?

Consider the existence of a patriarchy system behind the Grimm Brothers' "Snow White" and "Little Red Riding Hood". Find evidences from the texts and answer the questions below.

1. The figure of FATHER is absent from both texts. What are the substitutes for the paternal figure in these stories? What are the characters, objects, or images that represent the male voice/value? How do they work in the stories?
   
2. Analyze these stories as a journey of female identity quest (which, of course, ends in failure). How and why did it fail?
   
3. From the view point of male values, what aspects of female imagery do Snow White and her stepmother each represent? Are they just antagonistic, or is there any female accomplice between them?
   
4. From the paternal point of view, what does the stepmother's attempt to kill Snow White mean? And what does her last cruel destiny symbolize?
   

Compare and contrast "Snow White" and the stepmother-daughter stories from Japanese folk tales such as Hachikazuki-Hime (or other examples from non-western cultures). Though they are concerned about female relationship under the patriarchal societies, there might be some differences. What are they? Analyze the differences between the western and the oriental stories, and consider the possible cultural factors that cause them.

Use the first-person narrative and re-write the story of "Snow White" from the point view of the stepmother / one of seven dwarves / the prince. Use the first-person narrative and re-write the story of "Little Red Riding Hood" from the point view of the mother / the wolf / the grandmother / the hunter.