
The last readings we looked at in class were Charles Perrault’s The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods and Margaret Atwood’s There Was Once and how varying Atwood’s piece is compared to traditional fairy tales similar to Perrault’s. Charles chooses to focus his writing to mirror that of fairy tales written ages ago even and laying the groundwork for many common stereotypes we see in fairy tales today. Margaret decides to tackle a different style by looking towards more modern and feminist ideals rather than that of fairy tales. It becomes quickly apparent which story is more enticing to read considering Margaret’s piece doesn’t even get beyond that of the first line. Considering all of this, let’s dive in and compare our two choices and see which one is better.

Starting us off is Charles Perrault’s The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, where the fairy tale follows that of the average story arc with this genre. The very beginning starts when the queen finds, “her wishes were fulfilled, and in due course she gave birth to a daughter” (page 1). This of course sets the whole story up considerable just about every fairy tale involves a prince and a princess and therefore this couldn’t have even started without the birth of a princess. The next part is with the christening that of course involves godmothers bestowing gifts on the baby and one pessimist putting a curse on her. The gifts were also some of the most common ones to expect from these tales where the princess will be beautiful, kind, graceful, etc. while the curse was the well-known ‘die by a prick of a spindle’ all because they forgot to give this fairy a golden casket. The only difference begins here where a single fairy sees this pessimist and purposefully goes last to nullify as much of the curse as she can which makes the curse put her asleep for a hundred years until she is awakened by a prince’s kiss. This of course is only a slight change as to how sleeping beauty falls asleep and for how long compared to that of the Disney story we all grew up with. All the way to the end, this story can be called a cookie cutter style fairy tale where it doesn’t deviate from what most others in this genre have done which also makes it the best story to compare to that of this next story.

In Margaret Atwood’s There Was Once, the writer decides to follow a different path than that of the average fairy tale by making her story have more modern and feminist themes. The entire story has two narrators constantly going back and forth about how the story should be written with one voice trying to follow the story like the average fairy tale while the other constantly interrupts to change any little problem that they can find. For instance, at the beginning of the story the second narrator says, “Poor is relative. She lived in a house, didn’t she?... Then socio-economically speaking, she was not poor.” (page 1). With these lines, we see the second narrator taking on the modern views of wealth to where they refuse to call this girl poor all because she lives in a house with a fireplace which makes it seemingly impossible to be poor if she has a fireplace in her home. The next topic the narrator tackles is the girl’s overall beauty where he says, “Stop right there, I think we can cut the beautiful, don’t you? Women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can’t you make her, well, more average?” (Page 1). This time the narrator takes a feminist stance where they decide to freak out over the fact of calling someone beautiful because lord help us all if we find some people in this world to look better physically than others. Also, because this narrator keeps on interrupting the first narrator, this story is getting nowhere because the second narrator keeps on trying to fix any little problem they find with the story to not offend anyone and make it fit their own personal agenda. This point is clearly seen in the end of the story where narrator two takes over again and says, “Stuff it, Mister Nosy Parker. Nobody asked you to stick in your oar, or whatever you want to call that thing. This is between the two of us. Go on.” (page 2). It’s at this point the second narrator won’t even let the first narrator argue their opinion of the viewpoint of step-parents, because narrator two doesn’t want the other narrator to be able to tell the story they want to but rather in a way that fits with narrator two. In the end, there’s nothing more to this story than the second narrator forcing their agenda on the first narrator at every single possible area making it impossible for them to even get beyond the first paragraph.

Looking at the two stories, it’s obvious how far There was Once departs from the average fairy tale. First, the story doesn’t even truly start and it all just turns into bickering about race, class, and other things people talk about nowadays. Second, the story has two narrators as opposed to any other fairy tale which usually only has a single narrator in The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods where the story progresses and we only have a single narrator telling us what is going on. Finally, the biggest difference between the two stories is the viewpoints with Atwood’s piece going for more modern and feminist ideas that make it extremely hard to make a fairy tale, and Perrault’s story where he goes for the average viewpoint of fairy tales which also makes it easier for him to get his story across in comparison to the other one.

In the end, it is easy to see how Atwood’s piece fell apart when trying to put a twist on the fairy tale genre considering she never got past the first paragraph in her story. Then again, it shouldn’t be too shocking her story failed considering how you almost need a lack of modern and feminist ideals in these stories for them to even be told properly making the odds certainly not in her favor. This should be a good reminder for those in the future who try to change up the fairy tale genre a little too much. Because in the end, a modern feminist fairy tale will not even begin to compare to even the most average of the stories from the fairy tale genre.
