Past vs. Present Snow White: From Grimm to Addonizio Anonymous College

Being a princess is every little girl’s dream from the charming princes to the beautiful and elegant dresses. As the girl gets older, that dream slowly dies out but not completely. A tiny part of that dream is still there until she learns the true meaning behind these princess characters. Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves by the Grimm Brothers mocks the nature of women by turning them into mere sexual objects. Ever After, by Kim Addonizio, jumps to the opposite side of the spectrum by making Snow White into a God-like character. In both cases, however, the female figure is there for the sake of giving men some sort of purpose.

Grimm’s Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves depicts Snow White as this fragile, infantilized character who has little agency and can’t seem to make proper decisions. She is chased out of the castle and finds her way to the home of seven male dwarves; they tell her what she needs to do in order to stay hidden and alive. When she disobeys, the consequences are great. This shows the authoritative figure that men have over women. It also reflects the useless nature of women and how they can’t do anything; they need men in order to get a job done right. Grimm uses her character to set an example of how women...