Snow Whit

ory by: y Whipple

ration by: very Sellers

One afternoon, after a long day of mining for jewels, the six other dwarfs and I returned to our small, cozy cottage in the woods to get a restful night. When we got there, we realized that something wasn't right. Everything had been touched. Someone had eaten off of each of our plates and nibbled off of each of our pieces of bread. Someone had drunk out of all of our cups. Someone has been sitting in our chairs.

“Who is sleeping in my bed?” Happy asked.

“Someone has been lying in all of our beds!” Grumpy yelled.

“It is a little girl.” Sneezy said as he stood next to Happy’s bed.

Just as he said that the beautiful little girl woke up from her sleep looking confused and scared. She told us that her name was Snow White and that she was the princess and that her stepmother tried to kill her. She said that her stepmother was jealous of her beauty and wanted her to be dead. The queen wanted to be the fairest of them all and didn’t want Snow White standing in the way.

“Can I live here with you?” She pleaded as she began to cry. “I have nowhere else to go.”

We discussed this for a few minutes and finally told her, “You can stay with us but you have to cook for us and clean for us and do all of the chores.”

“Of course I will. Thank you so much!” She exclaimed as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

The next morning before we went to work we warned her not to open the door for anyone because we did not want her to be found by the queen. After another long day of work we came home to find the princess lying on the floor of the cottage with lace wrapped tightly around her waist. Her face was purple due to her lack of oxygen.

"Hand me the scissors!” Yelled Dopey. When he got the scissors, he cut the lace off of the girl.

When she was able to talk we asked her what happened.

“A very nice old woman came to the door and was selling clothing and wanted me to try this lace for her. She seemed trustworthy so I let her in but when she was tying the lace onto my waist she pulled it as tight as it would go and then she ran out of the cottage with a grin on her face.” She told us.

Once again we warned her of the dangers of the queen and to not let anyone in.

We went to work the next day and when we came back, of course, Snow White had let the old women back into the cottage. We found her lying unconscious on the floor with a comb stuck in her hair. We finally realized that the comb was poisoned and we detangled it from her long, black, beautiful hair. She finally revived and was able to tell us all about how the old woman tried to kill her.

“For the last time, That old woman is the queen and she is trying to kill you!” Grumpy yelled.

Again, we woke up and went to work and we told Snow White to not let ANYONE into the cottage. Did she listen? Of course not. When we returned we found her lying on the floor. She was dead. We tried everything we could to revive her. Nothing worked. She was dead. We put her in a glass box and mourned her for days.

One morning as we were all eating breakfast, we heard a knock on the door.

“I am the prince!” A man called from the other side of the door. “ I have come for Snow White. I will protect her for the rest of my life.”

We pitied the man so we gave him the box. We knew that he would take really good care of the beautiful Snow White.

We helped him carry her back to his castle. While we were walking through the forest, Dopey tripped over a rock which caused us to drop the glass box. The lid came off and Snow White fell on the ground. When she fell, the bite of the poisonous apple that she had taken fell out of her mouth. In an instant she was awake.

The prince told her that she would be safe with him. She smiled from ear to ear. She was so happy to finally be safe from the queen and then her and the prince rode happily into the sunset on his big, beautiful white horse.

Fairy Tales: What Are They Really Teaching?

Luke Stembridge

When we talk about fairy tales we generally think of cute stories that teach our children right from wrong. While that may be what is popular today, that certainly isn’t how they were written originally. The original tales are much darker than we are originally taught.

Though we have always seen Rumpelstiltskin as a conniving character, I feel few have ever heard the real story behind him. A girl needs to make gold from straw, an impossible task. While she desperately tries to figure out how to do it, little Rumpelstiltskin comes along and says that he will spin the straw into gold in exchange for her necklace. This deal happens every night until the girl has nothing to give. In exchange for more gold, she has to give up her First born child.

I also feel the need to point out that in the sleeping beauty a witch cursed a child because she wasn’t invited to the baby shower.

Even the heroes aren’t all good. In the original tale of little red riding hood, the wolf eats both little red and her grandmother. However, there is a hunter who hears the commotion and goes to find the wolf sleeping. While the wolf sleeps, he cuts open the wolf’s stomach and frees the two victims. He then fills the wolf’s stomach with rocks so that he falls over and dies.

All in all, I think that fairy tales are terrifying, and are a terrible way to teach children. We should move to fables instead, they’re mostly peaceful, and thus teach kids to be more peaceful in turn.

Why We Need More Parables, and Less Fairy-Tales

Audrey Browning

Fairy tales are a key component in how children learn right and wrong. The problem is that fairy tales teach children unrealistic ideas of the world. To solve this problem, as a society we should focus more on parables, or stories that focus on a moral or lesson, for three main reasons.

Parables teach a lesson that can be applied to one’s life. Think about stories like the Tortoise and the Hare or the Fox and the Grapes. These stories share lessons on how to act in life. Think about the classic story of the Ants and the Grasshopper. The Grasshopper spends his summer playing while the Ants work, storing food. When the winter comes the Grasshopper has no food and he understands why the Ants worked so hard throughout the year. This story teaches kids to work hard at a consistent rate which translates to school and the real world. On top of this, in fables the solution is earned by the protagonist instead of being gifted by a stronger, usually magical entity. In Little Red Riding Hood, the lumberjack comes onto the scene and is able to kill the wolf. Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t work to fix the problem, the problem is just solved for her. Because this idea is so widely spread throughout fairy tales children are being taught that not having a strong work ethic is okay.

Last but not least, unrealistic violence is shown in fairy tales that isn’t present in parables. Think about the story of the three little pigs and the big bad wolf. In the story the pigs are personified and then eaten. In what world is this a good image to expose to children? Let’s go back to Little Red Riding Hood. Grandparents play an extremely important role in our society, obviously a story about a wolf eating a grandmother shouldn’t be so widespread. The carnage that takes place across fairy tales is extreme and graphic, why are we trying to filter what children are exposed to but letting fairy tales slide through the cracks.

In conclusion, parables are a far more educational, moral, and age appropriate way to entertain and teach children and they should take priority to the alternative.