Senior Portfolio:Research Sample

AP Research Paper:
Influences of Fairy Tales in
Postmodern literature.

After more than hundreds of years ago, fairy tales and fable has been a source of allusions of several authors in numerous works of postmodern literature, especially in the late 1960’s on to the late 1980’s such as Tim O’Brien, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Angela Carter. The reasons for these writers to incorporate children’s stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Rumpelstilskin, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel into heavily valued novels and short stories. In theory the idea of Fairy tale conveys a contrast between the simplistic views of the world through a fairy tale perspective that can appeal to mainly children only to be applied to a much more elaborate viewpoint of the world. Often readers can be daring as to claim that the interpretation the reference of children stories to be the author’s purpose of drawing comparison of one genre’s conventions and motifs to parallel the ideas that mentions in the other narrative. When one hears “fairy tales”, instantly their mind connects it to evil, elderly grandmothers, witches, queens, innocent children being punished for their parents offenses, unexplored realms and places, as well as fairy grandmothers, trolls, and the constant idea of a happy conclusion. The author’s choice to adopt such works from earlier means as children’s stories create the concept of the moral of a fairy tale become the theme in a novel. Fairy tales being included most notably in post-modern literature in the 1960’s insists that many of them correlated to world events for example, In Tim O’Brien’s 1972 novel Going after Cacciato, and the narrative follows the protagonist, Paul Brennan in his tour during the Vietnam War. In the story, there are strong resonances of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. To one reader, the context of the Vietnam War coinciding with the idea of fairy tale creates an ironic picture of an old children’s classic applying to a grown man’s journey through the underground Vietcong tunnels. O’Brien’s familiarity with Carroll’s classic has the narrative retain a strong connection to surrealist elements when connected to the historical context. To one reader’s opinion, what O’Brien tries to touch on is the context to have an anomalous presence of a children’s tale to assume the overall tone in the current melancholic setting as a Vietnam battlefield.
Fairy tales combined with postmodernist literature is, according to How to Read Literature like a Professor’s Thomas Foster, creates an ironic picture “Whenever fairy tales and their simplistic worldview crop up in connection with our complicated and morally ambiguous world” (Foster, 62). The aspect that most postmodern literature of ten depicts the real life, the grim, cruel world that is prone to the loss of innocence or the absence of simplicity which forms a dichotomy between the dreamlike, environment that all fairy tales foster. The fairy tale often appeals to the childlike naïveté of all fairy tales that has a happy conclusion that subsequently attracts children respectively. Also, the creation of fairy tales like the ancient fables of Aesop gives children a “moral of the story” or the main idea that the story expresses is the lesson learned from the protagonist’s experience that often revolved on the human vices such as hubris, greed, and or vanity. In addition, the fairy tales also speak of how it rewards noble characters for their courage, kindness, or wit. The mixture between postmodern literature and fairy tales creates a sardonic tone through the rustic background that fairy tales and the complex, frank style that most post-modern texts. One example of this blend is present in the Roald Dahl’s 1969 book Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a story about the average an allegorical satire of such excess such as greed, gluttony, wrath, and pride. The story revolved around the tour, with each of the kids portraying a certain sin indulges in Willy Wonka’s treats and machinations only to fall victim in some creative woe. Moreover, the book has the owner portray a fiendish, satirical character that watches it happen, which has him assume the role of the devil. The idea that Dahl creates is the ironic connotation of children as sinful embodiments. In addition, the setting wherein this story takes places creates the idea that it is a harmless but strange environment, yet; many of the golden ticket holders (except Charlie) is deformed by their sin only to enhance the irony of their pleasure becoming their discomfort. With postmodernist author integration of fairy tales in their work, they have replaced the pastoral narrative with the fairy tale principle. In ones’ opinion, to compare and contrast a pastoral narrative to a fairy tale narrative they both possess the bucolic background including a moralistic commentary on the current life, or satirizing the follies and vices of man.
The perpetual motif of the unknown setting that mostly plays against the characters also applies in the spectrum of postmodern fantasy texts. If one reader refers to such archetypal texts such as Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel, they both cover the protagonist or protagonists falling into a world that is foreign to them. On the subject such novels like Going After Cacciato and The Gingerbread Man wherein the mere allusions of the certain geographical details that connects the variable narrative to the original story such as a substantial amount of forests and wild woodlands as well as tunnels. One narrative that relates to the idea of the unwelcoming setting is one of T.C. Boyle’s 1986 collections of Greasy Lake & Other Stories The main story of Greasy Lake. Apart from the allusions of the narrative creates the metaphor of the Vietnam War, it also covers the idea of a group of morally impaired teenagers, who are from well off families head off to a land which is described as terrain that has had the vegetation bombarded by napalm. The event of the group of privileged, dissolute teenagers fall into trouble, their only key of escape that is literally the key to the car that gets lost in the grass, causing the group to fall into danger and afterwards are traumatized to even think of continuing on with the night, The lesson here learned is the realization of their innocence as opposed to the life that attempted to create about them. The To the reader, on the topic of such allusions of fairy tales used in the novel, Boyle approaches the idea of the setting affecting his characters. In one instance, they are wealthy teenagers that masquerade as these “greasers” that they seem to idolize and pose as a dangerous bunch. Unitl after a death experience their static characters suddenly are affected to portray the opposite in which they are troubled by their actions they did and their consequences.

One interesting thing about postmodern/fairy tale integration is the idea of abandoning the implication that role of children in postmodern/fairy tale canon do not possess as much innocence as most genres in literature in spite of the inclusion of the fairy tale genre. Moreover, fairy tale motifs often carries the idea that children are often ignorant to the harms of others, Hence having them be more naive to the people they interact with. In addition, the cliché that women and children are helpless and defenseless is in the sort. One interesting aspect in the fairy tale customs is the constant convention of the older characters, meaning the children’s parents ironically are their antagonists. Throughout the fairy tale stories that has been published, the most notable stories “Rapunzel” and “Rumpelstilskin” exhibits parents that has had lapses in judgment, only to have their daughters pay for their wrongdoings. This narrative of the damsel in distress is one of the most generic story between father and daughter, In response to the author’s familiarity of the fairy tale narrative, such as authors like Angela Carter and Robert Coover becomes flexible to incorporate classical fairy tales into their styles of writing in order to create an variation of the archetypal version. In Robert Coover’s 1972 short story The Gingerbread House; it follows a modern adaptation of the classic in which the narrative follows the two matured, wealthy couple that are suppose to portray the original lost children Hansel and Gretal. Coover’s choice to retain the original plot and setting implies the author purpose of incorporating that to be the central idea of people lost in an environment that is foreign to them. Coover’s original plot that he tries to create is the situational irony of the wealthy and powerful of a capitalist society falling into unchartered water wherein they are now powerless and their lavish possessions are no longer important since they are insignificant for their survival.
The parallel between the two stories is one theme is apply to the other books overall meaning, along with the archetype’s implications of the children being relevant to their counterparts. For example, the idea of the original lost children being innocent to the world they came into in H&G, translates to be the couples’ ignorance of the world around them in the The Gingerbread House. The theme or moral of the story of Hansel and Gretel is the children’s perseverance over their trials while Coover’s version is an allegory that satirizes government’s indifference from the outside world that has the woods play as a metaphor to the common world. Though the two stories have their different meanings, they both possess the same themes such as the slow development of their characters from their innocent outlooks into their more broad and self-sufficient characters as well as both stories includes the two characters having knowledge of their surroundings. The original story of Hansel and Gretel constant resonance of virtue is ironic depending on hoe the readers deconstruct the story. For example, the idea of two children suddenly trying to find refuge in a home made entirely out of sweets falls under the children’s motive to take the candy for themselves, which displays greed in the children’s judgment. Furthermore, the scene wherein Hansel and Gretel forces the witch into the oven’s fire, killing her disbands the idea of purity from their character when they have committed murder. Form that experience, one reader can speculate that this has affected the picture of innocence that Hansel and Gretel both embodied. In addition, according to Foster’s input on irony between the original fairy tales and their adaptations in the chapter “Hanseldee and Greteldum”, is that children’s books and fairy tales tend to have the use of prior text in the variable versions , drive a great deal of fiction and poetry (62).
The two stories have the same stories but the different characters often provide the irony depending on their situation or physical differences.
The topic of innocence is often apparent in the novel wherein if it is not little children wandering in the woods to create a sense of vulnerability between the characters. It is the idea of their innocence when they are born into situations in which they were not involved. To regress to the motif of daughters and children being thrown into other people’s custody ( Rumpelstilskin , Rapunzel ) or to be held captive by an evil grandmother and made to toil for the rest of one life. One story that correlates to this motif is one of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 1969 collection of short stories of Innocent Erendira in Innocent Erendira and other Tragic Stories where it follows the heroine, Erendira as she is exploited by her evil grandmother and is put out into prostitution after she burns the grandmother’s house down by accident. The story portrays the common fairy tale customs of the evil grandmother, grandaunts, or elderly witches manipulates the mostly innocent female daughters often the motives being jealousy for the youth and spirit of the young girl. And in Erendira’s case, her grandmother’s idea to sell her granddaughter’s body out to the towns that they drift into. Gabriel Garcia Marques creates the elements of a fairy tale to create a grimmer sinister story, almost in a way to include the postmodernist theme of innocence dying quickly in the life of the heroine. During the reader’s experience in the short story, he/she sees the subtle classical tale themes of the old torturing the young, the victimized youth, and the loss of the youth’s innocence wherein it was at the choice of Marquez to incorporate in the story. In many variations of fairy tales in a post modern world, the canons of the fairy tale universe coexisting with the norms of a postmodern literature gives the reader either an allegorical tone to portray they known world as the roles in a fairy tale’s perspective. The whole short story retains the original customs of the elderly being the antagonizing factor in the child’s life. The subtle allusions in Innocent Erendira adopts the main convention of a children’s fairy tales in which the young, innocent girl is forced to work off dues for her grandmother in demeaning ways. This narrative can parallel the story of Cinderella, which includes the evil grandmother denying the youthful girl of her innocence in the easiest way possible to sell her off as a prostitute. In most postmodern literature, the alterations of the classical texts do not always
mean the post-modernist writer to be copying the plot but to be applying the conventions of the old children’s tales to their story, like the modern story adjusting itself into the fairy tale version.

One story that draws from this technique is in the Jeanette Walls’ memoir The Glass Castle; wherein the plot’s narrative portrays contains the original motifs of a classical fairy tale. The conventions of a dark fairy tale such as the author’s siblings portraying the naïve, victimized children that is gullible to their intemperate, underachieving father, the children are constantly being put in mortal danger by their father, and also the “evil grandmother” motif also makes it’s appearance in the book. Throughout the autobiography, the father constantly talks about him building a glass castle wherein the nomadic family, will live in the future. The book being a postmodern memoir of the author constructs as fairy tale narrative in which the author creates either to set a romantic theme of one’s early life in her father’s tyranny and an unusual childhood that has her exposed to such things as addiction, guns, racism, neglect alcoholism and child molestation. The main themes that the memoir addressed is the gradual ascension from innocence into responsibility, the children’s overcoming the obstacles of their father’s follies and nonsense as well as the cliché of the happy conclusion in the end. The premise that the memoir revolves around is the father’s idea of the glass castle, a transparent fortress in the middle of the southwestern deserts of Arizona, that the protagonist’s father, believe will be the family’s house that he will build. In the earlier stages of the book, the children accepts the idea as a true plan of the father, as well as them believing that their father is the most intelligent person they know, but like the glass castle, it becomes the metaphor of the dream of constructing a transparent palace is hard to see. In addition to the subtle irony of the dream of the glass castle not being so clear after all. In retrospect, Wall’s choice to incorporate the themes of a archetypal classical children’s tale sets the ides of being a dramatic plot device that has the readers assume that the children in the story should evoke sympathy from their readers instead of the their parents.

Apart from the classical customs of characterization and setting in children’s literature, the genre also retains the gender functions in the stories. In most, if not all children’s tales, had the perpetual damsel in danger and the male champion comes to rescue her from her tormenters and take her to be his wife “and live happily ever after”. The continual narrative of the man portrays the hero to save a vulnerable beauty or a harmless, little girl from certain danger or torment of other villain. Whether they are woodsmen or charming princes, the strong purpose that the stories try to make clear of men to have chivalrous qualities tp them. At the time, the children story of Bluebeard became the first anti-chivalrous character in a grim matter of fact narrative against the previous children stories about a murderous marquis and his young, unsuspecting wife.
In the canon of postmodernist texts, the archetypal tale of Bluebeard inspired allusions from such authors like Angela Carter and her collections of short stories, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. The main story, The Bloody Chamber, the new altered version of Bluebeard retains the original plot, about the reluctant bride of the French Marquis. The plot plays towards the romantic elements of the mysterious chamber, as well as the antagonist French Marquis, embodying the secretive qualities of Byronic Hero. Once again, the plot plays up to the majority of the short story until the near ending of the story wherein the young bride finds the grim secret of the Marquis and is about to be next victim. At the discretion of the author she has the grandaunt of the bride come to the rescue of her niece and kills the Marquis. That shift from the archetypal text gives hint of Carter’s purpose of applying that version of the gloomy children’s tale to bring the element of feminism between the author’s act to have the protagonist’s savior be a woman.
Apart to the original idea of men usually answering the call to be a hero; in this case, it was Carter’s initiative to add the grandaunt to save the narrative’s heroine. One reader can assert that Carter approach the original text and is aware of the time period wherein the story was published and for her to enrich the alternative ending to such a model account of Bluebeard is to lampoon the patriarchal society that created such a misogynistic story. The central proposal for the reason Carter chose to allude to such a classic in order to apply such a modern topic such as feminism in to the canon is to set the entire narrative of the children’s tale. Carter’s objective to embody as well as emphasize the extremely feminist qualities of their perceptions of males in that era, so it is Carter satirizing feminist writers, who are making fun of the fairy tale itself. In the collection of these short stories, Carter seems to provide a creative twist to the original stories such as Puss in Boots and Little Red Riding Hood.
Another instance that the canon of fairy tales that the plot has to be moved by some purpose of the story or a certain undertaking of which the character goes through in order to find the certain object or destination. This quest narrative is referred in Foster’s How to Read Literature like A Professor in the first chapter entitled, “Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not” wherein, he deconstructs the base of the plot in most literature. Notable archetypal works that comes to mind is the original text of Little Red Riding Hood and Faerie Queen, which are partial known for the idea scenes of quest narrative. If one finds such reference to the story of Little Red Riding Hood, a narrative about a girl off to deliver a basket of gifts to her grand mother. On that scene, the plot of the quest begins. The quest narrative in most classic stories follows such conventions of the norm of children’s tales such as; a vulnerable character, an intimidating setting, as well as an objective that the hypothetical protagonist want to accomplish.

Apart from the analysis of characters, what many readers find to be interesting is the customs of postmodernist authors to also incorporate the overall meaning from the classical fairy tale into their own texts. The idea of one allusion of any kind of literature, explaining the whole direction of a novel comes from T. Foster's How to Read Literature like A Professor in the chapter: Hanseldee and Gretaldum, in which he asserts the idea of how one may invoke the whole story simply by a single small reference (62). The presence of fairy tales in most postmodern literature produces a pattern between the two canons of literature. The period of literature in the 1970’s as well as the mid 1980’s, classical fairy tales seemed to have made their role in postmodern literature to enact as a literary device to create a juvenile setting and plot in the frame of the postmodern events or topics. These said events and topics often places these two texts in juxtaposition with each other the comparison and often what the writer does is they apply the allusions around the central meaning of the novel and integrate into the relative meaning. Many of the post-modern writers dwell on the allusions to fairy tales as well as children tales such as Tim O’Brien and Going after Cacciato , when according to Magic Realism, a web-site poses the whole idea of the integration of Alice in Wonderland into a Vietnam War battleground setting created a complex tone of meaning in itself only to gradually point the satire of the war through such an allusion.