The specific observation in Bettelheim psychologically oriented reading of the story that stroked me as insightful and relevant to “Little Snow White, by Brothers Grimm was,
“The readiness with which Snow White repeatedly permits herself to be tempted by the stepmother, despite the warnings of the dwarfs, suggests how close the stepmother’s temptations are to Snow White’s inner desires”
I also found this observation insightful to “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been” by Joyce Carol Oates.
Snow White desire for the material things set forth to her by the evil queen and wanting to be around people led her to her attempted murder three times. The shiny apple led her to be foolish, although being warned multiple times already that there was nothing good for her in the world. The look of how appetizing the apple looked and the evil stepmother who was disguised, words deceived her. Just like Connie. She loved attention, and unfortunately, she fell prey to evil because of the attention she was receiving from a guy, ignoring the previous warning signs.
4 thoughts on “Lynette Spears Discussion 14”
While they do share some similarities I think its worth noting that for Connie’s vanity was what made her a possible target unlike Snow white who was made victim due to someone else’s jealously who they themselves were extremely vain. Snow White was naive and was easily tricked since she didn’t have much real world experience unlike Connie who arguably had much more self awareness yet chose to believe the words of a stranger due to fear that her family would be hurt in the process. I personally believe that what sets them apart is simply one of them operated based on fear while the other was gullible and inexperienced.
Hi Lynette! thank you for your post. I agree with you, the interpretations of “Snow White” really have similarities to the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”. In both stories, the main character is a beautiful girl, and both discuss the materialistic desires that put them in danger. Another significant character in both stories is the mother, who in both stories is not a loving, and supportive parent (in “Snow White” the mom is even the evil role of the story). It’s funny how in both stories beauty was what led them to suffer and be “unwanted”.
Hello Lynette I found your observation to be interesting and I never made the connection to Connie in “Where Are you Going, Where Have You Been” By Joyce Carol Oates. Connie did everything in her power to be as eye catching as possible to get the max amount of attention. When she gets the attention she doesn’t care who it is from even if it was from some random person who drove into your driveway which should just scream that you’re in danger.
Hi Lynette! I was very intrigued by this reading and psychological analysis of the fairytale by Bruno Bettelheim. I do believe that there is a distinct difference between the motivation behind falling victim for temptation with these two readings. Connie did so coming from a place of narcissism and being a young girl looking for attention as you mentioned. She didn’t know better and didn’t see a danger until it was too late. While Snow White was just clueless in her naiveté and kept falling victim to the Quinn’s tricks despite the warnings of Dwarfs.