To revisit a story from childhood, as we are doing with Snow White, through a newfound critical lens raises a multitude of questions. First off, as many people have alluded to, I am not sure how in any circumstance the Grimm’s Snow White could be construed as a children’s story. It is gruesome, particularly the section in which the evil stepmother is eating “Snow White’s heart”. Additionally, the story was boring. I do not know what Disney saw in it that he thought would be worth turning into a film. In my opinion, the most compelling aspects of the Grimm’s tale were the description of beauty and the role of the prince.
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A central question of this class is does media shape culture or is it shaped by culture. In the case of the role of beauty, particularly female beauty, I believe that the Grimms’ Snow White takes an active role as culture shaper. When Snow White’s mother is wishing for a daughter she wishes only for her to be, “white as snow, red as blood, and with hair as black as the ravens”. She does not beg for Snow White to possess intelligence, or courage, or kindness — qualities that would serve her as a human being. This beauty, I suppose, is enough to counteract her utter stupidity. To quote the old adage, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”, but Snow White goes a step further and gets fooled a third time. The sole emotion this story elicited from me was annoyance that Snow White was so incompetent. Additionally, it is Snow White’s beauty that protects her from death twice: the first when the hunter cannot bring himself to kill her, the second when the prince spots her in the forest. The Grimms do nothing to make the reader care for her as an individual, as she is so static throughout the story. Each time she was on her deathbed I did not care because she was just so boring! The message that this story conveys to women is: be beautiful and everything will work out just fine.
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Additionally, I was struck by the minuscule role that the prince had in Grimm’s version of Snow White. He only comes in at the very end and, if I’m being candid, is beyond creepy. He wanted to carry Snow White’s lifeless corpse around with him. No matter how beautiful she may be, this is vile. However, he still takes a more active role than Snow White and is the one to save the day. Further, there is no mention of his beauty in the description, something the Grimms spent paragraphs on for the female characters. I am eager to compare the prince in this version with Disney’s prince.
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In conclusion, Snow White was not the story I remembered it to be. I agree with Giroux and Zipes that we must be diligent about checking the media our children are consuming, because the key takeaways from Snow White: beauty is everything and maybe one day your prince will come, are shallow and misguided. Mirror, mirror on the wall, Snow White is not interesting at all.
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