Grimm's Fairy Tales Day 1

Many of Grimm’s Fairy Tales have become classic children’s stories for a couple of reasons. The first one is that they do have an overlaying moral to them. In the Frog Prince it is to keep your word, in Little Red Riding Hood it is to not talk to strangers, or in Snow White it is that jealousy is evil. They can teach children or even the adults reading certain life lessons. Although the Disney versions of many of these stories have been made less graphic and violent in order to make them more suitable for children. Another reason that these stories are so popular and have become famous is the classic nature of the damsel in distress or the innocent maiden that is saved by the handsome prince, they fall in love and live happily ever after. Examples are The Frog Prince, 12 Brothers, Briar Rose and Snow White. Again Disney has made this even more of the perfect story line, but the original Grimm Fairy Tales often have a happy ending as well. However, in the originals the evil character seems to have a much more violent death, like in Snow White or The Juniper Tree. This idea of this fairy tale blueprint makes the gender roles as if women need to be saved by men and when this happens it is happily ever after. I think that it is this story line that makes little girls strive for this perfect life when they grow up. Although I think these ideals are changing now because of the rights that women have now and the promotion of women having their own profession. This shift may be more apparent to me however because my Dad is actually the one who stayed home with me and my brother while my Mom worked the most.
Overall I picked up on a few similarities between all of the stories that we could talk about in class that I found interesting. Many stories characters are limited to the King and Queen or Prince/Princess and millers. I am curious of this because it seems as though these represent the class system, royalty vs. the working class, but why a miller? Also in both Briar Rose and the Frog Prince a frog was a source of knowledge. Why a frog? Also in Juniper Tree and Snow White there were scenes with blood on snow. Is this representative of good vs. evil or violence? Or is it simply a representation of the beauty of pale skin and red lips? Also there are apples? Why apples?