Traditional Fairy Tales: Cinderella by Barbara McClintock
If I could, I am sure I would have watched the Disney version of Cinderella on repeat if I was ever allowed.
This little attachment to my early childhood made me very excited to have to read three different Cinderella tales.
I knew there had been other versions of Cinderella, but I don't think I quite realized the vast number of Cinderella stories from all over the world that exist.
This particular picture book, Cinderella by Barbara McClintock, captures the fairy-tale essence from the very start.
The cover shows Cinderella wearing a gorgeous ball gown and adorned with flowers in her hair doing a ballet leap down the stairs as she flees at the stroke of midnight (a feat that only those in a fairy tales could actually accomplish without injuring themselves).
Even the title page that has a picture of the glass slipper conveys the art of an illuminated manuscript with the fancy lettering and winding embellishments that shows this story is of traditional lore; this traditional sense continues throughout the fairy tale with the pictures and even the beige scroll-like paper.
One thing that struck me was that the lavish pictures were imitating the style, court, and dress of Louis XIV of France and his noblemen and ladies.
Because he created the Palace of Versailles, he enticed his noblemen to come and partake of the ornate new palace while he, as the king, was able to keep a close eye on their doings. His very reign set up an extravagance that represented absolute power, while forsaking the people's true needs.
I was about to start analyzing this detail and ask what it was saying about the society that it was portraying in contrast with the rags of Cinderella (yes I was an English and History major in college. That's what I did: analyze everything), but then I found a little blurb in the back of the book that explained that McClintock had based the story off of a seventeenth-century French version.
Suddenly things became clear. I gained a new appreciation for this book as the text and the images work together to show that this was a Cinderella version based off of a French version. Interestingly enough, this is also the version that Disney used: the version that involves a glass slipper at the end.
Though I admit that the pictures are beautiful and convey the story as the timeless story that it is, one small detail that worried me a bit was the portrayal of the step-sisters.
The older sister, who is described as "the meaner of the two" is presented as a very large heavy set lady; the younger one is very tall and skinny. Cinderella on the other hand, is small and petit with a very tiny waist.
Yes, I understand that there should be distinction between the good Cinderella and the mean step-sisters, but it really bothers me that the distinctions are created by body type.
I know it is an evil of today where girls are surrounded by images of tiny waisted women, and so many girls believe that they must be like that or they are not beautiful.
While I believe people should be healthy, not everyone can achieve a size zero. God made us all different. And we are all perfectly and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).
Sorry for my little soap box. I'll get down now.
Back to the book: it would be encouraging to see children's books and movies that had characters in leading roles that were not necessarily perfectly proportioned and the characters who were asymmetrical not to be put into roles of the evil character.
Besides that glitch, the story of the forsaken girl who falls in love with the prince because of her fairy-god mother works beautifully with the elegant and detailed pictures. One can get lost in the world that the pictures open up for us to explore. For these reasons, I recommend this picture book.
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