Jack Zipes A Tiny Feast

All living things began from primordial beginnings. As the earth began to transform with time, so did the organisms upon it, starting from simple, and building upon themselves, as time went on. Each change was the branch-off into another direction, and each branch grew on its own with the common goal of wanting to remain. The evolution of the the fairy tale followed a similar path. Jack Zipes' paper The Cultural Evolution of Storytelling and Fairy Tales: Human Communication and Memetics, explores the origins of fairy tales, and how they evolved to be what they are today. .His article lays out a set of criteria derived from historical analyses of literature to clarify the nature of fairy tales. In the context of the literary work “A Tiny Feast” by Chris Adrian, the usage of Zipes' criteria clarifies that this story is in fact a fairy tale, one that has evolved , as its plot revolves …show more content…
Being both memorable and relatable, qualifies as a fairy tale according to Zipes' criteria. Although the story is set in America, the conflict presented is one that affects people throughout the world. The story conveys the emotions of those who have dealt and are dealing with the same thing. It takes the classic battle and develops a new villain, something that is contemporary. Moreover, it uses elements from today's postmodern genre, and the historical work A Midsummer’s Night Dream to portray this conflict. This pushes the idea that fairy tales are constantly evolving, and are typically more than one genre. Furthermore, the setting of the narrative seems to rest on another paradigm; the mind of a parent dealing with a child who has cancer. Although it is not a physical place, it seems to take the reader into a different body, experiencing how the parent feels. All these elements show how fairy tales are branching off, yet follow the criteria of a fairy