Literary Analysis of The True Story of Hansel and Gretel Essay

Set in Poland during the German occupation, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel is told as a fairy tale, utilizing many of the elements that be common to fairy tales. This book reflects the Grimm brothers fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. However, in Murphys parable, Hansel and Gretel are two Jewish children who are abandoned by their get infra ones skin and stepmother in order to save them from the national socialists.Setting the tale in Nazi Germany creates an atmosphere of fear and anxiety, and establishes a set of circumstances in which it is accomplishable for people to act in ways that would be unacceptable under other circumstances. The stepmother is a good example of this. She is the force in the family it is she who decides that everyone in the family will have a better chance of survival, if they split up the children going off alone together and the parents going in another(prenominal) direction. Unlike the portrayal of the stepmother in the Grimm fairy tale, this stepmother is not wicked. She is strong willed and determined, solely not evil, although she is protecting herself and her husband by abandoning the children. Using the stepmother as the villain is common in fairy tales, according to Stone in her word Things Walt Disney Didnt Tell Us. She suggests that the woman of the family is nearly always chosen for the bump of the villain. But in Murphys drool, the stepmothers actions, while they may appear villainous at the outset, may be construed as courageous in the end, because she only abandons the children in order to save them. She also cares deeply about the childrens welfare, enough that she loses her life as a conclusion of attempting to find them. In this instance, Murphy is reminding us that the horrors of the time were so nifty th... ...s not asked to use logic and hence the emotional impact of the story is more direct and perhaps more potent. This book left me with a deeper sense of the horrors experienced by the Polish people, especially the Jews and the gypsies, at the manpower of the Germans, while illustrating the combination of hope and incredible resilience that kept them going. working CitedMurphy, Louise, (2013). The Real Story of Hansel and Gretel. Penguin Books.Stone, Kay (1975). Things Walt Disney Never Told Us. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol 88, No 347, Women and Folklore pp42-50, University of Illinois Press.Hansjorg, Hohr, (2000). high-power Aspects of Fairy Tales social and emotional competence through fairy tales. Norse Journal of Educational Research, Vol 44, No 1, Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and applied science