Cinderella Analyzed Essay

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Anne Saxton – Cinderella Analyzed We have all heard or come across the fairy tale of Cinderella at one point in our lives. Mostly it is the retold Wald Disney version filled with a wonderfully magical world, fairy godmothers, pumpkins and mice as well as truly warm and deep love. These tales leave one with the wish to make them our reality. The protagonist, Cinderella, who is very humble, hardworking and kind, lives with the stepmother and stepsisters in her family home. She is treated unfairly and is given the job of maid after the re-marriage of the father. Through the help of her fairy godmother, she goes to a royal ball where she meets her happy ever after husband, the prince. This picture however is comically, sarcastically and somewhat darkly flipped on its head by Anne Saxton. She introduces the reader to her poem with a bit of everyday life when the narrator talks about the milkman, the cleaner, the nursemaid and the plumber. These have all gone from zero to opulence in four seconds. The desire for fortunate events as well their positive probability is kindled in the reader. The use of “That story” is elegantly sewn in. Firstly, by using ‘that story’ in the introduction stanzas , the realism presented as ‘these things happen to others’ and therefore ‘might happen to you’ is injected from the start. It instills the reader with wishful thinking. And secondly it sets a rhythm for the poem. The tale as told by an anonymous narrator, keeps its sequence order similarly to the original Grimm’s fairy tale. Anne Sexton lightens the mood comically by using similes such as: “walked around looking like Al Jolson” (32) and “He began to feel like a shoe salesman” (91). Also, she wittily uses symbolism such as: “from diapers to Dior” (9) and “From mops to Bonwit Teller” (20), to depict the economic gap leap. Using hip-hop slang: “for keeps” (78) is further smile food.
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