Little Cinder Girl
The classic story of Cinderella that we all know is just one of more than a thousand versions of the story that have been written in different countries and by different cultures all over the world. No matter how many different ways it is written, no little girl can resist the story of Cinderella and finding true love with her prince. Every culture has a Cinderella story. From India, Russia, Vietnam, Norway, France, Slavic and even a Native American version. Each and every story relates to the culture in which it was written.The earliest version of the Cinderella tale comes from China. Tuan Ch'eng-shih wrote it down in the middle of the ninth century A.D. (850-60 Common Era). The tone of the story that Tuan Ch'eng-shih wrote implies that its readers and listeners were already well acquainted with the story by the time it was written down. The heroine of the Chinese tale is Yeh-shen. In the early version there is no fairy godmother, instead there is a magical fish that is Yeh-shen's helper. However, a golden shoe is used to identify Yeh-shen to the prince who wants to marry her. Cinderella finds her prince with glass slippers or boots and gets to the ball via nuts, fish, and even cows. There is one notable exception to
It has come to pass that the king is giving a grand ball in honor of his only son and that the prince will pick a bride from all the noble families in the country. I then came to the conclusion that Disney cleaned up the story very well. She had no problem putting it on and then produced the other gold shoe. After her family leaves for the ball she goes outside to the Hazel nut tree and where she cries to the tree to make her a lady fair. The language of the text gives the reader fluency, and ease of form. The prince having seen that the sisters could get their feet into the shoe carried them off to the palace. The little cinder girl has lost her mother and her father has remarried the vilest of women who brings the cruelest of stepsisters. The young daughter is made to get her sisters ready for the ball, all the while being teased that she is to dirty to go. This tale still follows the Cinderella format of goodness and kindness, and of the invisible one seeing past the scars to her true inner beauty. The international flavor of one of my favorite stories made me smile and enjoy the differences of the cultures I was reading about. It flows well and is beautifully written but it has a sadistic feel about it, and after reading this one story I went and researched other such stories and they all are close to this one. The only comfort she has is to sit under a hazel nut tree that she planted on her mother's grave. Every person can find a little bit of the Cinderella story in their own lives, regardless of their background, their situation or their country. I really enjoyed researching the different stories and realizing that they are not all nice and pretty of those of my childhood.
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