Snow White – Brothers Grimm

(From what I recall) Walt Disney never brought Snow White’s mother into the picture so the whole scene in Grimm’s version where the mother pricks her finger and looks at the snow outside causing her mother to create this perfect baby image in her head .She wished “If only I could have a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window frame”, which is why she soon gave birth to just that. Unfortunately she dies short after childbirth (go figure), and the father remarries an evil women that had a magic mirror. This mirror is very symbolic when it comes to identifying this tale of Miss Snow White. Another small difference between Disney and Grimm’s version is what the Queen asks of her horsemen. In Grimm’s version of this tale the Queen asks for her huntsmen to kill Snow White and bring back her lungs and liver for proof of her death. Disney’s Queen asks her huntsmen to bring back Snow White’s heart for evidence. Both stories have the magic mirror reviling the truth of where Snow White really is which makes the Queen very angry. Another difference between the versions is the amount of times the Evil Witch in Disney, and the disguised Queen in Grimm, tries to kill Snow White. Disney has the Evil Witch bringing Snow White a “magical apple” that would grate her wishes with a single bite which strikes her dead as can be there in the cottage with the Dwarfs.

Grimm has the Queen attempting to kill Snow White herself, disguised as a poor women she goes to the Dwarfs cottage to sell Staylaces, Snow White being the dumb bitch that she is, lets her in to try Staylaces on. When the Queen is behind Snow White she tightens her up so tightly that she passes out cold on the floor. The Seven Dwarfs come to her rescue and she is back to life. The second time the Queen has to attempt to kill Miss White was with a poisonous comb, and as the story goes, the “poor women” is selling combs and she lets her in the cottage to test them out. The Dwarfs come home to “dead” Snow White, pull the comb from her hair and saves her life….Once Again!! The third time that the queen has to come slay “the fairest of them all” she is determined that this is the last time, so she creates a poisonous apple that will kill Snow White instantly. The Seven Dwarfs return home to see the infamous Miss White staged as usual on the floor in the middle of their cottage. This time they were not able to save her life so they buried her in a glass casket to show the world her beauty. The day the Prince arrived he demanded to have her as his wife and his men carried her glass casket away, as they were on their journey home they tripped on something causing them to drop her casket which lodged the poisonous apple out of the back of her throat bringing her back to life. And the most surprising thing to me that Grimm added in was the iron shoes that killed the Queen at the wedding. I mean, what a way to go out, dancing to death.

Meghan Burdett

January 22, 2014

            Hey y’all! My name is Meghan Burdett. I am a sophomore here at Chico State and I am studying liberal studies. I plan to become a multi-subject elementary school teacher. I came to Chico as a Business major but was only doing that because my parents convinced me that that is where the money was and I needed to be in the money. I was hating life in all of those classes and knew all along that I wanted to become a teacher, so I switched my major and hopped on board to become a teacher. I am very excited to open all these new doors and to learn from others.

To me a good reader is someone that takes their time reading the words written on the page and can comprehend the information. I think that it is important to be able to understand the information that you are reading even if that means that you have to reread it once or twice. For me personally I have to read quit slow and out loud to fully grasp the concept that the author is trying to portray. This is one thing I will confidently support my students in doing when it comes to reading with my own classroom because I can relate so personally. I believe that good readers will read the new information in a place where they can fully concentrate, I also believe that good readers would look up unknown information if they stubble upon during their readings. If you skip over the things that you do not know just to make the reading go by quicker then you would have missed out on important information and missed out on an opportunity to inform ourselves.

A positive reading experience that I have had lately was over the summer when I would go to the local Starbucks every day at lunch and read a book under the tree. One day this homeless man came up to me and asked me what I was reading about. Once I had told him he sat down next to me because he wanted me to go into detail. We ended up having coffee together and meeting up to talk about my book for the next few days. Then he eventually stopped coming and I had to come back to college but it was an awesome way to connect with a random stranger.

Outside of school my reading is always leisure. If I choose to pick up a book, it is because I judged the book by its cover and it caught my attention. I like to read books that I can relate to. I do not find myself curled up reading a book about mythical creatures or dragons. If I read for school it is because it is mandatory or I truly feel like I can learn from it. My reading for school consists of PDF files, Blackboard learn, e-mails from the teachers, news articles, or other students work. Where the outside reading connects with the inside in when I do anything online related with my life which is quite often. I read news articles online, yahoo mail and Facebook status at least once a day.

I really enjoyed the article by Williams. I liked to his opinion on different types of readers. I really can take away from this article “we can also remind them that reading is often pleasurable can be inside and outside of school.” I really think this is something that teachers are tending to forget to stress on their kids. Most teachers leave it up to the English teacher to do their job but reading is so much more than the language in which it is written in. It is a form of art with words in a way someone can express themselves and we can learn from one another through reading.