Twice-Told Tales

Canadian author Margaret Atwood is the writer of countless poems, essays, criticisms, short stories, and novels. The author of over a dozen novels, Atwood continually features female protagonists and covers themes pertaining to women. The Handmaid’s Tale deals with the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian theocracy that replaces the United States and returns to the suppression of women. Another one of Atwood’s novels, Alias Grace focuses on Grace Marks, a women convicted for double…

One of the most influential pieces of literature in history is The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales takes place in medieval England, a time full of religious pilgrimages and exploration. The Canterbury Tales is a revolutionary piece of literature, known for its satire and truthfulness. Chaucer begins the tale with a prologue that individually describes diverse characters. Chaucer created these characters to be authentic; they are boastful, mean spirited, reckless, and…

When Offred (The Handmaid’s Tale) connotes, “have been obliterated for her. I am only a shadow now, far back behind the glib shiny surface of this photograph. A shadow of a shadow, as dead mothers become. You can see it in her eyes: I am not there (Atwood 228),” her hopelessness is…

ABC airs two women kissing on a “family show” causes an uproar for family morals! Sounds like a headline for a great newspaper article, but the backlash for this episode has caused a lot of angry parents questioning the “morals” of showing an openly gay couple kissing as well as the LGBT community arguing that they were “misrepresented” on the show. Sunday April 17th, 2016 ABC aired the fifth seasons of the popular TV show Once Upon A Time’s episode “Ruby Slippers”. The show’s creators had…

Toni Morrison 's The Bluest Eye and Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale are novels that include many instances of violence in order to demonstrate how brutality informed the ideas and lives of their characters. The Bluest Eye introduces the character of Pecola Breedlove, a young girl whose life has been characterized by habitual exposure to violence. Pecola develops and maintains the idea that she is unworthy of better circumstances and the frequency of violence throughout her life foster…

From the fairy tales of princesses and dragons by Charles Perrault to the mysterious tales of Hansel and Gretel and Red Riding Hood by the Brothers Grimm children 's stories have taken many forms over the years. The question that is always asked today about children 's media is if parents should allow children to view certain media because of some possibly suggestive themes. When trying to protect children from suggestive themes some of the value of the story is lost and the moral of the story…

they will suffer the consequences. This is best demonstrated in numerous of Jacob and Wilhelm’s (the Grimm Brothers) princess-finds-prince tales, such as the fairytale of “The Frog Prince,” where a princess promises a frog to allow him to drink from her glass, and sit and sleep beside her for three days if he retrieved…

The Canterbury Tales: Nun The Canterbury Tales is one of the most famous stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer. It was written between the 13th and 14th century. The tale consists of a collection of stories that transition into one big piece of work. The Canterbury Tales is about a group of thirty pilgrims traveling to Canterbury also known presently as England. We experience many different tones from every pilgrim throughout the story. The stories told by these pilgrims are introduced…

Fairy God Medium: Gender roles through shifting adaptations of Cinderella Once upon a time, there lived a story told far and wide. This story goes by many names, but we best know it by the name Cinderella. The Cinderella story is a truly inter-medium story. Its basic structure can be found in books, comics, television shows, the news, and movies. A Cinderella story needs three features: a slipper, an ill treated heroin, and a fall from grace followed by the rise to a greater positon after some…

A fairy tale many of us know is Cinderella, but what many of us don’t know, is the drastic changes the fairy tale went through to become the story it is today. Focusing on the revised original tale from 1857, written by the Grimm Brothers, Cinderella is a darker, more realistic tale and the newer version of the tale, a movie produced by Disney in 1950, is more magical and happy. The two tales have similar story lines, but the Disney version has changed to fit a different audience compared to the…