Free Essay About Us14-Sw-491-734 - Special Topics In Social Work-Fairy Tale/Children

Introduction: My favorite hobbies are gaming, movies, animals/pets. I am at MSU to study social work. I am in the MSW program. One thing that I’d like others to know about me is that I love animals of all kind. I have a Russian Tortoise, three freshwater aquariums. I also have 2 min pins or miniature pinchers which are a cross between a German pinscher Italian greyhound and dachshund.
The Monster Under My Bed: The monster that lives under my bed is about two feet tall and looks like a short, squat goblin with bat wings that fold against its back. When it comes out, it can grow to over 6 feet tall and its wings easily reach from one wall to the other wall of any sized bedroom. Even though it is tall, it never stands up straight so looks shorter than it is, standing hunched over. Its skin is a dark, brownish green but when the moon is full you see how its skin shimmers with different colors including blue, orange, red, deep purple and just a touch of dark yellow. Its legs and arms are spindly, long and thin ending in webbed hands and feet with dulled claws that can pinch you, leaving bruises you can still see in the morning. Even though grownups can’t see the monster, they can see the bruises so they will ask you how you got them. Pinching is common to a lot of monsters, which is why grownups think children are clumsy. It has two small horns are not noticeable when it’s dark out, especially if you are half asleep.
The monster has the face of a fairy, like a boy who looks like he’s always waiting to cause trouble. His eyes match the color of his skin and look like a mix of all the darker colors of the rainbow, no pinks, pastels, or soft looking colors. It doesn’t like anyone looking at it directly, and if you do its eyes will glow dark orange-red. When its eyes glow this means trouble since it can paralyze you until you can’t escape to your parent’s room. It can’t cross into a parent’s room since adults don’t believe in it and can’t see it. Its teeth are small almost like baby teeth. Its face is smooth and pale almost like marble, but when it is angry its face darkens until it is a copper color. This is another dangerous sign which could lead to it pinching you until you are bruised all over.
The monsters name is Gonderel, which is important to know since if you know its name you become its master and can tell it not to hurt you. It doesn’t come out in daylight since light can hurt it and it can be sent away by turning the bedroom lights on. The closet or bathroom light is not bright enough to make it disappear and nightlights just make its skin shimmer even more. When the lights are on it is forced to go back to the place it comes from so it is safe to look under the bed or get something that has rolled underneath it since the monster won’t be there.
At first my monster conveys evil, threat and the intent to do harm. After a while, when no longer afraid of it except when it becomes angry, it seems more like it is mischievous. Until I know that it won’t truly hurt me, I feel fearful and am terrorized when I wake up from a bad dream and see it but can’t more to get away. When I realize it won’t hurt me except for the bruises, which I can prevent by not making it angry, I am not as afraid of it. However, I am still watchful since I don’t know what monsters are truly capable of doing. Sometimes I feel sorry for the monster since it can be forced away just by flicking on lights and has to stay under my bed at night, which is away from wherever it usually lives. I also feel bad because adults don’t believe it exists and, because of this, cannot see it, and it has no power over them.
The monster’s worst parts are that it can be easily angered and when angry may pinch me all over or mess up my room which I get blamed for the next day. I have to straighten up my room and am grounded for the rest of the day when the monster loses its temper and throws my clothes and toys all over the place.. It also likes to make me cry since this makes it feel like it can control me. It laughs whenever I cry or when I am terrified of it because I can’t move to escape.
One of the monsters best parts is its face since when it’s not angry and in a good mood when I focus on its pleasant face (ignoring the horns), I can block out its other scary features. It also likes to have fun when it is in a good mood and tells me stories and fairy tales that make me smile and forget bad dreams. The monster likes to play tricks on my brother, sometimes leaving his toys and clothes thrown around his room so he gets grounded the next day which makes me laugh. It does this when I am in a bad mood and tells me happy stories when I am sad which makes me think it is not really evil after all. When it is not under my bed, the monster lives in Emeric Asketel, a place which is always dark or just barely light during the daytime. It is covered with rocks, sand and caves, where the monsters usually sleep. They sleep during the daytime since this is when it is less dark. My monsters name is Gonderel.
Favorite Fairy Tale: My favorite fairy tale when I was growing up was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. My parents used to read this to me when I was young and when I learned to read, I would always read it when I was upset to make me feel better. I don’t know who wrote the book I read, but it was a Disney book. My favorite part of the fairy tale was when the Prince kisses Snow White, and she wakes up.
I read the original version of this story which was written by the Grimm Brothers and was surprised at how different it was from the Disney version. In the Grimm version, instead of telling the hunter to bring back Snow Whites heart after he kills her, the Wicked Queen wants Snow Whites lungs and liver which she boils and eats. In both stories, the huntsman can’t kill Snow White and sends her off to hide, killing an animal instead. In the older version it takes three try’s to kill Snow White. After disguising herself as an old peddler woman, The Wicked Queen first tempts Snow White into accepting a bodice lace and laces her up so tight she cannot breathe. When the dwarves find her they loosen the lace, and she wakes up. The second time the Wicked Queen talks Snow White into buying a beautiful comb that is covered in poison. When the Dwarves find Snow White looking as if she is dead, they remove the comb and again she wakes up. It isn’t until the last attempt that the Wicked Queen uses a poison apple convincing Snow White to eat the red half by eating the white half to show her it’s not poison. Only the red half was poisoned so Snow White again collapses and this time the dwarves think she is dead until she starts to breathe a little.
The most striking difference between the two versions of the story is that, in the end, the Prince has Snow White carried off in her glass coffin by servants after convincing the dwarves that he will care for her. She awakes when one of the servants stumbles and jars the glass coffin causing part of the poison apple to dislodge form her throat. The Wicked Queen, hearing from her mirror that there is a queen more beautiful than her and not knowing it is Snow White, goes to the wedding and can’t move from shock when she realizes who the beautiful queen is. The Wicked Queen is forced to put on iron shoes that have been heated in hot coals and dance until she dies. In the Disney version, the Wicked Queen tries to crush the dwarves with a bolder she loosens from a cliff but lightning strikes the cliff causing it to fall away killing the Wicked Queen. Snow White and the Prince take over her castle.
When considering the Grimm Brother’s version of the story of Cinderella, entitled Ashputtel, as it compares to the modern day movie Ever After, there are a number of differences that become evident. First, although there are two stepsisters, one of them shows Danielle (the movie’s Cinderella), some compassion and kindness whereas in the Grimm version both treat her terribly. In the Grimm version, Ashputtel and the Prince do not meet until the first night of the ball, when she wins his heart dressed up as a princess in a gorgeous gown of silver and gold. After she escapes from him so he won’t know who she is, the Prince asks her father about her but they see Ashputtel asleep in the ashes as usual and no one suspects the beautiful princess from the ball and she could be one and the same. In the movie, Daniel meets the Prince when he is fleeing his family who is trying to force him into an arranged marriage. Daniel throws apples at him and insults him thinking he stole their horse, but after realizing who he is, begs for mercy, which he grants, giving her silver coins to buy her silence. It is not love-at-first-sight as in the fairy tale. In the movie it is the Prince who dresses up, in this version as a woman, and is not recognized by Daniel when she provides a defense for the servants in an attempt to buy back a servant her step mother sold to pay taxes. In the story, there is no evidence that Ashputtel speaks to the prince or that he falls in love with her over anything other than beauty. In the movie while Daniel is beautiful, the Prince also falls for her due to her intelligence, commitment to doing the right thing, compassion and spirit.
In the movie, one of the stepsisters is trying on a gown for the ball that had belonged to Danielle’s mother. In an attempt to cover this up, her step mother agrees to let Danielle go to the ball. This is different from Ashputtel, since in the fairy tale, the stepmother responds to Ashputtel’s begging to be allowed to go to the ball by giving her impossible tasks and then when she summons birds to help her succeed both times her Stepmother still refuses to let Ashputtel go as promised.
The main difference between these two versions of the Cinderella story has to do with independence. In Ashputtel, the main character is somewhat helpless, turning to others to help her, for example when she turns to her mother’s spirit represented by the birds who help her and grant her every wish. In the movie, the main character makes things happen when something is important to her or she feels it is the right thing to do. In the fairy tale, the Prince rescues the Cinderella character who makes no effort to correct him when he mistakes the owner of the slipper for first one then the other of her evil stepsisters. He takes them off to be his bride and is only stopped when a bird comes to him to let him know he is wrong. In the move, the Cinderella character is more headstrong than Ashputtel. While she may look like she’s compliant with her family’s demands, she seems to be driven to control her own life, rescuing herself from her terrible circumstances and the Prince from gypsies.