Social background and culture no doubt are the major factors affecting story elements. This paper will compare how social background and culture affect the way of expression in Western and Chinese children’s fantasy literature when two stories having the same elements, by comparing Cinderella and Ye Xian(葉限).
Ye Xian is a Chinese fairy tale written by Duan Chengshi(段成式) in Tang dynasty compilation Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang(酉陽雜俎). It is one of the oldest known variants of Cinderella, where Cinderella was published in 1812. When comparing Ye Xian and Cinderella we can easily found out that both are strikingly similar in themes and plots, although written in different era and country, they reflect a common theme: good people are rewarded, …show more content…
Ye had became a lowly servant her guileful stepmother and envious stepsister. Cinderella was forced to do all tiring and dangerous work for her stepsisters, and dress shabbily by her stepmother. Second,both got divine power help through animals. Ye’s fish bones and Cinderella’s blue birds would give anything she wanted, when they were seriously in need. Third, Both of them met the main male character in banquet (Ye met the king in the Spring Festival; Cinderella met the prince in the feast). Fourth, both leaved a slipper in banquet carelessly in hurry (Ye’s golden slipper; Cinderella’s glass slipper) which was nobody fit except their own, and that became their identities authentication method afterward. Fifth, both of them married to a noble, Ye married to a King and Cinderella married to a prince. Although the two protagonists, Cinderella and Ye Xian, faced similar ups and downs in their own stories, in different eras and countries, the authors way of expression could be highly …show more content…
Ye Xian was a Zhiguai xiaoshuo (志怪小說) in Tang dynasty in China, its language was simple and succinct. According to Robert Ford Campany this genre is written loosely in a relatively concise and non-rhyming form, only with a few narrations or description, and has a "clear and primary" focus anomalous things, about the moral of Buddhism or Taoism. Yet, Cinderella was written in the 19th century in Germany. Language used in the story was much vivider and rhetoric with repeated plots. Her stepmother had given Cinderella two similar problems, and Cinderella had solved them with similar solutions. The process of the prince finding Cinderella was also full of twists and turns. Repeated arrangement gradually developments the story to the climax, characters also been fully characterized this writing style. Cinderella was a much sophisticated literature than Ye Xian, with many comparing and contrasting in the story between Cinderella, her stepmother and
Ye Xian is a Chinese fairy tale written by Duan Chengshi(段成式) in Tang dynasty compilation Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang(酉陽雜俎). It is one of the oldest known variants of Cinderella, where Cinderella was published in 1812. When comparing Ye Xian and Cinderella we can easily found out that both are strikingly similar in themes and plots, although written in different era and country, they reflect a common theme: good people are rewarded, …show more content…
Ye had became a lowly servant her guileful stepmother and envious stepsister. Cinderella was forced to do all tiring and dangerous work for her stepsisters, and dress shabbily by her stepmother. Second,both got divine power help through animals. Ye’s fish bones and Cinderella’s blue birds would give anything she wanted, when they were seriously in need. Third, Both of them met the main male character in banquet (Ye met the king in the Spring Festival; Cinderella met the prince in the feast). Fourth, both leaved a slipper in banquet carelessly in hurry (Ye’s golden slipper; Cinderella’s glass slipper) which was nobody fit except their own, and that became their identities authentication method afterward. Fifth, both of them married to a noble, Ye married to a King and Cinderella married to a prince. Although the two protagonists, Cinderella and Ye Xian, faced similar ups and downs in their own stories, in different eras and countries, the authors way of expression could be highly …show more content…
Ye Xian was a Zhiguai xiaoshuo (志怪小說) in Tang dynasty in China, its language was simple and succinct. According to Robert Ford Campany this genre is written loosely in a relatively concise and non-rhyming form, only with a few narrations or description, and has a "clear and primary" focus anomalous things, about the moral of Buddhism or Taoism. Yet, Cinderella was written in the 19th century in Germany. Language used in the story was much vivider and rhetoric with repeated plots. Her stepmother had given Cinderella two similar problems, and Cinderella had solved them with similar solutions. The process of the prince finding Cinderella was also full of twists and turns. Repeated arrangement gradually developments the story to the climax, characters also been fully characterized this writing style. Cinderella was a much sophisticated literature than Ye Xian, with many comparing and contrasting in the story between Cinderella, her stepmother and