Alex Gaines Essay 2 Plan by Alex Gaines

Introduction

alexbg1 — 2025-10-20 03:32:32 UTC

The word "grief" has a heaviness to it that is impossible to ignore. It encapsulates one of the most difficult human experiences: having to witness the death of loved one and subsequently attempting to "move on" without them in your life. Grief is a deeply nauseating feeling with an intense impact on the way one behaves while experiencing it; in that sense, it's especially fascinating that Charles Perrault's classic tale "Cinderella" beings with a reference to a little girl's mother dying, and it's never brought up again. Perrault only very briefly notes that a woman's "new husband’s first wife had given him a daughter of his own before she died" (Perrault 43). This is the sole reference to a deeply foundational experience for the story's protagonist in the tale's entirety. Even so, if you'd ask most casual "Cinderella" readers the heroine's greatest struggle, they would very likely say the abuse she experienced at the hands of her stepmother. This isn't a rare cultural occurrence, either. Many popular fairytales include a dead parent or other form of grief that is essentially glossed over by the author, with few words directed towards the exact impact of such an experience on the main characters. It's easy to question if Cinderella - and other fairytales - examine grief within the story's themes and narrative at all. In this essay, I will explore the way grief is explored - blatantly and more subtly - in "Cinderella" and Trung Le Nguyen's "The Magic Fish," exploring the complex connections between grief and the world of fairytales overall.

Topic 1: Grief in Cinderella

alexbg1 — 2025-10-20 03:36:34 UTC

analyze how insane it is that the mom's death is only mentioned once
explain: does cinderella experience grief at all?
- note cinderella's (and her father's) reactions to her abuse as a result of the absence of her mother - "The poor girl bore everything patiently and dared not complain to her father because he would have lost his temper with her"
what did perrault intend with the lack of acknowledged grief
- examine how grief is often an internal experience, its lack of acknowledgment is an accurate representation of how grief affects people

Topic 2 - Grief in The Magic Fish

alexbg1 — 2025-10-20 03:39:02 UTC

the magic fish BLATANTLY shows grief - describe frame of mother crying during phone call
- does this work more effectively or less effectively than perrault's? possibly explain
also note meta-ness of fairy tales being used as a comfort to combat grief with the story helen's aunt tells her
compare how grief affects families in both cinderella and magic fish - parent vs child reactions

counterargument

alexbg1 — 2025-10-20 03:44:13 UTC

Grief is not represented in Cinderella or many other tales at all - aka "you're reading too much into it"

Response: the well-developed character of cinderella including her insecurities implies a deep concentration from Perrault on the way SOMETHING - likely grief - must have affected her character
give more examples from magic fish about how grief is DIRECTLY connected to storytelling and character development

conclusion

alexbg1 — 2025-10-20 03:48:55 UTC

restate claim: the existence of grief and its impact in fairytales - especially Cinderella and those explored in The Magic Fish - is undeniable, and suggests the overwhelming impact grief has on the human experience, even in more magical, fictional worlds
grief in modern media - it's more directly explored as people are more comfortable exploring emotions on a bigger scale these days