In building our discussion of the Cinderella narrative, it is useful to know the parts of that narrative. Here is the Persecuted Heroine.
If there is time, we will watch (or start to watch) parts of another type of Persecuted Heroine film. While I hope you enjoy this film, it is not only for enjoyment. I want you to "read" it like you would read an essay. To help you do this, please use this chat page so we can discuss as a group while we watch.
Assignment:
Read and Respond to Young's "Insights to a Cinderella Story"
Write your responses below as replies to this post (extra points for responding to classmates' posts).
After reading the article Insight from a Cinderella Story, I have a deeper comprehension about the film Ever After. In fect, each role in the film represents a part of our life. Such as the stepmother represents our capacity to treat ourselves badly, one of the stepsister represents our vain qualities and self-importance and so on. But the point impressed me most is that the heroine can accept the stepmother and unfair life without any complaint may becauce she has no memory of her mother, so she has no idea about how a good mother should behave like. This makes me think about a perennial news always happen in China: child abuse. Why most of the children choose to keep silence after being maltreated by the teachers in the kindergartens? I think the reason is the same as the heroine. The pure children don't know how a kind and employable teacher should be like, so the only thing they can do is follow what teachers say. However, as a famous saying goes "every coin has two sides", this simple thought makes a large number of children hurt physically, but also helps people who like the heroine in the film conquer and accept the great change in their lives mentally. Thus, it's hard to judge whether it's beneficial or harmful. --By Christmas
ReplyDeleteI can quite agree with you that some kids tolerate child abuse may because they do not know what a normal like. They have never seen other's life, and their experience is limited. In addition, they may think their suffering is because of their wrong behaviors. ---By Catherine
DeleteI have the same felling with you when watching the stepmother yield " you can't leave me here!'
DeleteI thought she will smile and be happy for owning the whole property
I agree with your idea, and I think it is important to defend our right to live a good life.---By Li Zhao
DeleteIt is true that many children tolerate the Bullying, and I think the reason is teacher and parents never care about it, they see it like a normal thing
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ReplyDeleteYoung's "Insights to a Cinderella Story" told me a lot of meaningful symbolic details that I have never thought of. There are 2 points that I want to talk about.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, there is a scene that after the father suddenly died, the stepmother runs to his dead body and burst into tears. At first I just thought she was pretending to be sad, as she barely know him, and people wouldn’t cry at a person they don’t know. However, her expression made me believe her sad was true. But I didn’t understand why she was so sad at that time. Young’s explanation perfectly deal with my question. He said the stepmother was taken to a completely new place, and the husband who she could only rely on died in a sudden. That let her scared and despair. I agree with his idea, if I suddenly lost my parents who I always depend on, I would cry bitterly and have no idea about what to do next.
Secondly, Young said stepmother permit Cinderella to go to the ball if she complete all the chores on time which suggested we” represent our capacity to treat ourselves badly -- and cheat ourselves out of radiant opportunities by postponing the enjoyment of life.” I can’t entirely agree with that. I do not think it is cheat. Actually, it is self-discipline. We push our enjoyment later to get a “radiant opportunity” or improve ourselves. If we don’t know that and just do what we want to enjoy first, we would have a very hard time at our work’s deadline. In my opinion this kind of self-discipline behavior is quite necessary.
BY----Catherine
I had the same feeling as you when I saw the stepmother burst into tears beside her new husband's body.From the explanation of the author I realized that it is because of the unknown future she has to face. Besides, the heroine looks like her father, she may remind the stepmother of her short marridge. I think it can be one of the reaasons why the stepmother hates our heroine.
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DeleteIt is wrong to judge a person bad but no reasons. It must have something to explain this person’s behavior. Like Cinderella’s stepmother, It is well- known that this woman is evil. After understanding her situation, the stepmother's stern behavior has some legitimacy. She loses her husband and has to raise three girls. It is hard for a woman. No wonder she vents her dissatisfaction by mistreating Cinderella.
ReplyDeleteSomething in this story has underlying meaning. Parents are like the harbor of children. Losing true parents means losing an inner sense of safety and self-acceptance. The fairy godmother implies that everyone has their potential to accept themselves. Maybe you are awful now, but you can believe you are amazing one day. One of the stepsisters wants to win the Prince's favor. This step-sister may represent our vain qualities and self-importance. Some people always want power, and they want others surrender. In Chinese history, many ministers wanted to usurp the throne. The vain quality is one of the evil sources.
We all suffer setbacks but we must have our allies, such as teachers, friends, and family. They give us strength to face challenges. Except for allies, we must believe ourselves. Like Cinderella, she is faithful to her dreams, and never gives in to this tough life. She is considered servant by others, however, she doesn’t think herself as servant. She has great self-affirmation and confidence. It is not surprising that she gets all she wants. We should have a light-hearted spirit. It makes life easier and happier.
Cinderella is a simple story, but it teaches me a lot. I think every fairy tales have their own connotations. They just wait for us to discover.
BY---Aria
I agree with you. We can connect our life to this movie. Cinderella get terrible treatment from her stepmother and stepsister, but she get good treatment from her friend and servant. It is same in our life, when we feel grievance we will turn to our friends and our parents. After they comfort us, our mood will become better and we will be more stronger. BY---Rita
DeleteAfter reading this article I learned so many things. What is the most important is that we should find the similarity between the film and the real world. We should learn something from films to make ourselves stronger. Here are three things I want to talk about.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I want to talk about the roles in the film. We can see that every role in the film can be found in the real world. Even if we have not met some kinds of people we also can learn the relationship among people in advance. On one hand, the atrocious stepmother and the vain stepsister often make Cinderella a servant to treat and give her unfair life. On the other hand, the mentor and other helpers give Cinderela hope to face what is going on in the future. They are all people around Cinderella and make Cinderella learn so much.
Secondly,I want to talk about the transformation of Cinderella. She was hopeless when her father passed away. However, when she found that there were some people who would company and help her forever she become strong. She did not complain about the unfair life and heavy housework at all.At last, she got the guide of the mentor and she became mature.
Thirdly, I want to talk about the noble quality of Cinderella. She has noble temperament so when she wear the beautiful dress everybody think she is a lady.For another thing, she has a optimistic attitude. She can stand and wait when she suffer from the unfair life. She still has her own dream and believe it will come true.
From what has been discussed above we may safely draw a conclusion that life is a play. When we see a film it can resonates us sometimes. We need to explore more connection and learn from the details. Only in this way can we have a deep understanding of life in film.
BY--Tammy Song Lingling
Yes, I have the feeling with you. Life is a play. We should seek the details that life tells us and learn from them.
Deleteyeah！the film like a mirror, and we can find our reflection in it.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, I learned many things under the surface of the easy story. Although the movie “Ever After” is based on fairy tale “Cinderella”, it is a little different from the fairy tale. In the fairy tale, when Cinderella is in trouble she will turned to the fairy godmother, and the fairy godmother always can help her solve problem perfectly. However，in the movie “Ever After, there is no fairy godmother. So it is more believable.
ReplyDeleteThe heroine has many good qualities, such as brave and warmhearted. She is positive towards her tough life. When she face problems she solved by herself. She even helped others when they are in trouble. When she saw the old servant was locked in cage and sent to other country, she stand out and persuade the prince to let the old servant go. When she saw the prince was bullied by many people, she saved his life. She is such a unique woman so she leaves a deep impression on the prince.
Then let me talk about her family. When she was little she was a princess of her father. However, after her father died her stepmother regard her as a servant. She has to do chores every day. Even though she is in such a bad situation, she never lose her dreams. She likes nature and knowledge. Compared to her evil stepmother and selfish stepsister, she is so beautiful inside and outside .
In a word, I learned to be a strong girl from the heroine. Whatever the difficulties I come across, I should keep positive and find ways to solve them.
BY---Rita
I agree with you that this is a different story. And heroine is brave and strong, as a result, she is more attractive and actual. It seems that all the fairy tales tell us to learn from good guys, and bad guys must gain punishment. In a nutshell, we surely should learn from the heroine.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading the film review by Young, I'm surprised that he analyses so many details of movie from psychology. On the one hand, he binds the roles and human's own psychology together. For example, the heroine's parents represent sense of safety and self-acceptance, the helper represents inner wisdom, the stepsister represents vain qualities and self-important, the stepmother represents inner critics... On the other hand, he analyses the meanings of some objects in movie such as dresses and the revelations of the movie plots to us. As a result, we can understand this movie more deeply in a microcosmic perspective.
ReplyDeleteWe can find out there are many differences between class tale and movie obviously. And I think the bigest difference is the character of heroine. Unlike the class tale, the heroine in movie is just like a boy, strong, smart and brave. She can still be positive and hopeful when facing persecution, and dare to fight for love even though she was thought as low status. Besides, the plots are also quite different. For example, there is no godmother, no animal friends in the movie, the heroine gets her freedom by herself not prince, finally the heroine knocks her stepmother and stepsister in return instead of being so kind to forgive them. These changes make the movie more close to reality and actual, so the inspirations of the movie can be more easily accepted by audiences.
Combining the movie and the article, I learn that sometimes we meet problems, maybe not as serious as heroine, and we may feel self-abased and lonely. However, if we can be self-affirmation and keeping faith and diligent seeking, maybe we would get help and prize finally, that's what the fairy tale tells me. In addition, I also learn more academic knowledge about psychology and movie from the review. And I realize that we should think about more insights when we read or watch movie, so that we could gain more understanding and knowledge.
Zora Zhao
I agree with you. I also feel that we should be positive as possible and believe that we can overcome all the difficulties with the help of our friends who will always company us. Just keep faith.
DeleteI think the movie “Ever after” has a deep meaning behind its surface. It is a movie about a poor girl, her step mother and a prince. We can find the similarity between the character and us. The movie shows us a realistic story between prince and Cinderella instead of a fairy tale.
ReplyDeleteThe step mother had little time to stay with her husband and step daughter before her husband died. So there is no love between step mother and Cinderella. But I think it is evil of the step mother to mistreat Cinderella.
The losing of mother would cause the lack of confidence and sense of safety. As for Cinderella, she had no memory of her mother. She could only know her mother from others’ words. However, despite she lost her mother, she is an optimistic and brave girl. I think we should learn to be a tough people as Cinderella.
Cinderella worked as a servant. His step mother and sister did not respect her. However, Cinderella never lost the hope of life. She grew up as an optimistic and brave girl. Moreover, she got along well with other workers in their home. She can find comfort from them.
In the film, Cinderella could not dream that the miracle would happen. She used to her wisdom to resolve the dilemma.
I think Cinderella restrained her painful emotion. She always thought of her father but she live by herself independently.
In every one’s mind, there is a bad aspect to treat others cruelly. In other word, there is a step mother who represents harshness in our body.
When facing temptation, we can become someone as the step sister. We would think highly of ourselves and try every means to satisfy our demand.
I believe we all need friends to support us. No matter where we are, we would feel strong when we think of our friends.
In my opinion, even though Cinderella is a beautiful girl, she also needed to dress up. But it is her inner elegance making her charming.
It is unfortunate for Cinderella to have a wicked step family. But in this terrible situation, she could find real friends and feel the warmth from good people. Just as the saying goes, every coin has two sides.
I suggest we should learn to keep a hopeful spirit as Cinderella. Whatever difficulties we meet, we should keep our goal in mind.
I think we should rely on ourselves to solve the problem. As Cinderella, she found her missing half by her own effort.
In conclusion, we can get sympathetic response from the characters in the movie
By Li Zhao(Leo).
I learned something from this article. Young’s “Insights to a Cinderella Story” told me some symbolic details. Now I will talk about something what I think.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, while watching the movie of Cinderella, I think Cinderella's stepmother is an evil woman. But after reading this article, I know in fact Cinderella's stepmother has its own difficulties. As is said in this article, “Her only connection to this life was the man who has now abandoned her. It is helpful to realize that the stepmother's stern behavior has some legitimacy. She is in a tough situation as a single mother with a household to run, and three girls to raise.” It is hard for a woman. So we cannot from one side to judge a person.
Besides, Cinderella is not stepmother’s own child, her stepdaughter. Then stepmother vents her own feelings on Cinderella. Ask her to do a lot of housework, such as washing, ironing, scrubbing, dusting, and cooking. I think stepmother cannot love their children like to love Cinderella. These chores run her ragged. Although Cinderella’s stepmother and two stepsisters treated Cinderella like a servant and be laughed at by two stepsisters, Cinderella has an optimistic attitude and she never thinks herself as a servant. She would not want to give in to those who questioned her. Her stepmother does not love her, but she loves herself, she goes to look for what her want. Others not love you; you need to double the love yourself. Others don't give you chance; you need to create your own opportunities. She is faithful to her dreams, keeping them secret, and waiting for one day her dream become strong. It reminds me that if you have a dream, you need to stick to your dream and make your dreams come true. Don't care about the people who doubt you. Be confident and believe in yourself. One day your dreams will come true and let others to notice of you. People used to think Cinderella was not a noble, but when she is in clothes that designate a well-born person, others believe her to be a true lady.
In addition, the Fairy Godmother appears when Cinderella needed help. Cinderella in the Fairy Godmother's helps put on the glass slippers and beautiful clothes, and then go to the party. I think friend and parents will help you when you need help.
By---Mikayla
I think what you said is right, even if the evil stepmother also has her lonely time and difficulty. Every person has many aspects. And the heroine could obtain happiness and freedom finally because she is always optimistic no matter what situation she is in. she has her dreams and tries her best to do things. I think we should learn from her.
DeleteAfter reading the article by Young, I believe that the film"Ever After" is different from the story about Cinderella we read before more. I agree with the author that the filmmaker make the story become true and has education significance. First every person in the film may represent different quality and emotion we all have or meet.Such as the stepmother represent something bad. But as the author said the stepmother also has a lonely time. We should look at a person or thing from many aspects.
ReplyDeleteThe heroine give me a deep impression, although she loss her father when she was a little girl and she did not grow with love, even she was being treated as a servant. She still has her dream and good qualities, she is brave, kind and knowledgeable, she relies on her own efforts to get her happiness. Due to a book she and prince meet and know about each other, finally she give a hand to prince. All she did makes the prince feel she is different from the other girls he knew before. Without the godmother, she gets the freedom and happiness by herself, it is genuine and believable.
In my view, the film and the article tell us no matter what situation we are in, we should keep optimistic attitude and make great efforts to face and solve anything. Then I believe everything will be better.
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article Insights from a Cinderella Story, I have learnt a lot about personal qualities and reading method. I have never thought of reading an article as an inner life. Everyone can be a “Cinderella” and suffer many difficulties like stepmother and stepsister. However, “Cinderella” is uncountable, real princess is countable. Whether we can change into a real princess depends on our own decisions and our personal qualities. When we trap into dilemma, we may meet our helpers. Not all of us can seize the opportunity and make changes. Prince is the missing half of princess. Our inner lives are about making changes, finding the missing half of our personal qualities and complete ourselves.
ReplyDeleteEver After---A Cinderella Story is realer than a fairy tale. There is no magic and unbelievable. All the events happening bases on reality. The stepmother was still evil but her behavior had some legitimacy. The prince did not marry with the girl who he never talked with, they had met before the ball. Cinderella did not just wait for help and doing nothing. She fought for herself. Magic is made by her efforts. “No pain, no gain.” If you have a dream, try your best and make it, never waiting for others’ help.
A fairy tale always has a beautiful wish but reality is not a fairy tale. We must realize it. It is useful to read an article as an inner life. Because different articles have different thoughts and it needs us to think deeper and wider.
Monica. Tang
interesting comment
DeleteArt imitates life. Plots and characters in films or television programs are always symbolize something in real life. This “Insight from ever after a Cinderella story” talks about the symbolism in this unusual adapted work.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, there is no mythic quality in there but showed real human nature. Human nature has many aspects. Although stepmother symbolizes envy, sometimes she likes a victim. Cinderella is kind but not tender. We can call her a bookish and also a heroine.
Then, this film show many inner thoughts. When you come across bereavement or something bad, you can grieve but do not always be a negative person. It is important to realize that we have allies can pick up us. Learn to cope with troublesome issues, choose to maintain an optimistic and hold onto dreams in heart. It called adulthood.
Pass through the appearance and see the essence. You can see more.
Candice Pan
Fairy tales are mostly simple stories that are greatly based on imagination, but why they can have such strong liveliness that makes them last for centuries without being forgotten? This question had puzzled me for a long time until this time I watched ever after and read the article In insights from the Cinderella story.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, In the movie Ever after, The heroine is a 21st-century fairy tale character. she was no longer helpless and lacking strengths like the old Cindarella in the old style fairy-tale, instead, she is independent and has her own philosophy toward life and other things. Her quality shapes her as a unique and brilliant little lady and be admired by the prince. While It is also not hard to understand in old days Women have low social status and were deprived of many rights and abilities, and were widely regarded as weaker side, therefore, in the old Cinderella story, she looks simply doesn't do anything but wins the prince's heart because of her beauty, innocence and golden heart.
Comparing these two different Cindarellas in two similar stories, it will be improper to roughly give good comments on one and criticise the other one. After all it's not the differences make the beautiful stories last for centuries but the similarities do. Both Cindarellas are models of the true, the good and the beautiful, which are the qualities been admired and praised by human society for thousands of years. Therefore, no matter how simple the stories are and how they are changed with the time, as long as the beauty of human’s heart in there, these stories will be remembered and loved.
I hold the same idea with you. It confused me a long time that why fairytales are always in vogue. Maybe different people in different ages can see the diferent thought in it. Children see the princess dream and adults learn how to go thourgh the life.
DeleteThis story is similliar with Cinderella, but there are some definetely diference between these two stories:there is no godmother in this story, and it is more realistic and closer to our lives. Fortulately,the heroine never gave up her dream, she just stick to it, and tolerate with the suffers happened to her. In tne end , she found his true love and lived a happy life.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Young wrote a great film review of the film "Ever After - A Cinderella Story". After reading his article I know that this movie departs from the familiar story in significant details, while maintaining the spirit of the original. There are some plots such as the death of father, the step mother’s persecution, meeting a prince as same as the original story. However there are still some new creations. In classical Cinderella story, Cinderella's step mother is evil. Nobody likes the stepmother at all. But in this movie, There is no magic. Everything happened based on the reality. we know the reason why the stepmother behaved in that way. She has been treated strictly by her mother when she was young. As for the helper and fight, Cinderella is helped by a fairy garden mother. But in this movie, the heroine did not wait for others’ help. She fought by herself. She used her intelligent brain not only to make her out of the bad situation, but also to save the prince’s life. I think we should learn the hopeful spirit from heroine. Also, when difficulties come, we should try to solve it by ourselves.
ReplyDelete"Insights from a Cinderella story" is a good analysis. Jonathan Young looks for meanings lurking beneath the surface in this movie and he analyses the plots in detail. He has made a comparison between the classical Cinderella story and the Ever After-A Cinderella Story. I think it's a good way to analyze two things by comparing.
Vincent
The authors talked a lot about the symbolism of Cinderella’s story in humanity aspect. All characters’ behavior is reasonable. What a reasonable story! But why will such story appear in Europe rather than China? Stories in ancient China are like high-class women love poor scholars. In my point of view, high-class characters represent power and money in real world. In ancient China, poor scholars think they are rich in knowledge and they know it is also difficult to get power and money in this way as well because of the old examination system. What’s more, the writers in ancient China are usually poor scholars. As a result, they imagine that some high-class women fall in love with them so that they can get power and money and enter into high-class immediately. On the contrary, in western countries, marriage is almost the only way for women to change their fates and being knights is the only way for men to enter into high class. Men cannot marry to ideal women and get what they want I a second. So literature shows yearning for life. All of problems will be solved when you marry to high-class men.
ReplyDeleteResponse to Young's "Insights to a Cinderella Story"
ReplyDeleteWhen having read “ ‘Young’s’ Insights to Cinderella Story ”, I have a lot of thoughts floating in my mind. I want to divide my thoughts in two main parts.
The first part is related to the movie Ever After and the classic version. Ever After has broken stereotypes in my mind. For example, I always think a prince must be noble, correctitude and exalted, but this version show us an easygoing, aggressive and independent prince. I had held a stereotype to stepmother due to the classic Cinderella version without thinking the reason, and it’s like the stepmother just born in this way ---- being a mean and despiteful woman. However, I learn about the reason in this version: a single woman with two daughters follows and trusts a man coming to a new place, but the man leave her alone. Sometimes we consider things in our own angle instead of others. That’s why we only can see thing what we think it should be, but bot the way it actually is.
The second part comes deeper. The article teaches me a new method to watch a movie --- read it. As the article tells, the Cinderella story teaches us how to cope our dream. The different characters stand for different qualities we have naturally or people in our life. We all have a inner nobility, which can explain Cinderella puts on a good dress when meeting the prince. Actually, nobility has no connection with cloth, power, fame and fortunate. It’s humanity. Cinderella never considers herself as a servant and a weaker. She is a fighter. She doesn’t disobey her stepmother because she has no concept how a good mother should be. She sees to the hard treatment from stepmother and difficulties in her own way. According to the article, Cinderella got her husband without help of the fairy Godmother (there is no fairy godmother). There is no benefit with repeating without sowing in this version. If we want to get something, then we must do something to pay for it. After all, no pains no gains.
We should learn from Cinderella, for she can live well in such a difficult situation. But I think Cinderella's destiny is changed by the prince but not by herself. As for this way, we shouldn't learn from her. There is a saying goes no pains, no gains. We should work hard to get our achievement not relying on others.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great adaptation, same story but different details and different principle. The fairy tale told you that be a girl with a kind heart then everyone will help you to achieve your dream. The film have a more realistic truth, only you can help yourself. It's a true principle that pain with gain, you can't rely on others when you in a bad condition. The most important thing about this movie is we are Cinderella. We are normal people in a poor condition, like Cinderella. We have many unreasonable requests from others like Cinderella. We suffer from the taunt from some people like Cinderella.We also have a wonderful dream like Cinderella. We work hard for the dream like Cinderella. The reality is very cruel, but we never give up, like Cinderella never give up. It's a classic American dream movie, but we can't denied that we are the people the movie want to encourage. The thing we want to get is not the thing we have,but it doesn't matter, I'm walking, and I know I'm walking.
ReplyDeleteFrom Philip Hu ID:987804