Corliss 1 Cinderella From Beauty to Bravery Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm now called The Brothers

Grimm wrote the first Cinderella story. The Brothers Grimm first translated this folktale from German into English before modern literature. The Brothers Grimm brought fairy tales to life in English literature. The original story has been rewritten and told many different ways over the years. The original Cinderella theme was about the beauty Cinderella brought to everything around her; however, Cinderella has been transformed into a brave girl. Cinderella is a story about a girl who is struggling against all odds and desiring to live a life of a beautiful girl who marries a prince. In the original Cinderella there was a rich man whos wife died and he did not have anyone to take care of his daughter, so he married a woman with two grown daughters. The stepmother was not kind and made Cinderella her slave. Cinderella was a hard worker and obeyed everything her stepmother asked. Cinderella dressed in rags because she was doing dirty work, but she was still much prettier than her evil stepsisters. One day the Kings son decided to have a ball so he could find his princess. The sisters made Cinderella work extra hard so they would be the prettiest girls at the ball. Cinderella wanted to go to the ball so bad that she begged her stepmother, but she refused. Cinderella shows up at the ball as the prettiest girl there and the prince asks her to dance. She left before midnight so her stepmother would not know she went to the ball. The last time Cinderella left the ball, she lost her slipper and the slipper was the only chance of the prince finding her. Finally, after many attempts the Prince found Cinderella and they were married. Nonny Hogrogian wrote another version of Cinderella in 1981. This version has the same meaning and conveys the same story line of Cinderellas beauty shining throughout all the rags. Hogrogian version offers different perspectives of how Cinderella arrived at the ball.

Corliss 2 Hogrogians illustrations can be described as dull and old fashion. The stepsisters dresses are bright and draw attention. Cinderellas clothes are dull, but her beauty is seen through her character and humbleness. Hogrogian does not stick to the original Cinderella known today. This version of Cinderella does not have a fairy godmother, but Cinderella goes to her mothers grave and is offered wishes because of the fig tree she planted. Cinderella goes there both days before the ball to have her wish granted. The Marica Brown version of Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper is the most known version today. The story has been changed from The Brothers Grimms version by removing the violence. In The Little Glass Slipper, Cinderella is a sweet young girl. She scoured the pots and scrubbed the stairs all day to make sure her fathers home was spotless. She treats her stepsisters kindly and does not complain. The stepsisters make fun of Cinderellas rags and gave her a nickname, Cinderseat (Brown). Cinderella never thought she was worthy to attend the ball. However, Cinderella wished so much that she could attend the ball, and the next moment her fairy godmother arrived. The fairy godmother transformed items collected by Cinderella to grant her wish to attend the ball. Cinderella is the most beautiful young girl there. Cinderella makes it back the first night on time, but looses track of time the second night. As she runs home, she looses one of her glass slippers. After searching far and wide for the slippers owner, the Prince finds that the glass slipper fits Cinderella. In the end they are happily married. The biggest difference in this version is Cinderellas sweetness and humility. She expresses no anger. Another difference is the fairy godmother presence. Browns version is less gruesome. In the Hogrogian version the stepsisters cut off toes and a heel to try to get the slipper to fit, but in Brown version that does not happen. Brown also does not have Cinderella blind her stepsisters for being rude to her, but she forgives and gives her sisters a home at the palace. The

Corliss 3 sisters end up marrying two great lords of the court. The main focus of Brownss Cinderella is the focus on her beauty and not her journey to allow her beauty to be shown to everyone. Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal by Paul Fleischman is another version of Cinderella. The authors note at the beginning of the book says, A chameleon changes color to match its surroundings. Stories do the same. The earliest recorded Cinderella tale is thought to date from ninth-century China (Flesichman). Fleischmans version does not once reference the girl as Cinderella because of the difference in meanings between languages. It shows that even though different cultures have different beliefs, appetites, and attire the same story line can be told. Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal represents a different country on each page. For example, when the young girl was free to go and searching for something to wear, items are taken from four different countries to make her beautiful outfit. The story line is the same to the most known version of Cinderella, but the differences allow the reader to see Cinderella in a different world. Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella by Tony Johnston and illustrated by James Warhola is a humorous version of Cinderella. The story has the same over all plot as the original Cinderella, but the difference is the story uses bigfoots as the characters. The story begins with the prince searching for a bride. The stepchild, Cinderella, is a bright mammoth, golden as a banana slug, with feet like log canoes (Johnston). A difference in this version is to win the princes heart the mammoth had to knock him off a log into the water. Another difference is the mammoths shoe was too large instead of being so small like in the other versions of the story. The Cinderella story has changed drastically over the years. It began as a girl that was beautiful and kind, but it transformed into funny or cultural based stories. Cinderella has even been turned into different modern films such as A Cinderella Story and Ever After. Despite all

Corliss 4 the differences between the versions of Cinderella the overall story line has stayed the same. Cinderella is kind and works extremely hard to make the people in her life happy. In the end, good things always come to ones who are patience and kind. In the fairy tale stories Cinderella has a huge heart and lots of wishful thinking. In the modern film versions Cinderella puts that wishful thinking to action and goes after what she desires, which is a better life style with the prince. These changes have been made to the story of Cinderella to stay up with cultural, so the story stays current with the youth of today.

Bibliography Brown, Marcia. Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper. New York: Charles Scribers Sons, 1954. Print. Fleischman, Paul, and Julie Paschkis. Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal: A Worldwide Cinderella. New York: Henry Hold and Company, 2007.

Corliss 5 Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Karl Grimm. "Cinderella." Grimm's Fairy Tales. Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm. M. A. Donahue & Company, 1920. 53. LitFinder. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. Hogrogian, Nonny. Cinderella. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1981. Print. Johnston, Tony, and James Warhola. Bigfoot Cinderrrrrella. New York: Putnam's Sons, 1998. Print.