Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Andersen's Fairy Tales

How do you make sense of the 7 chapters of "The Snow Queen"? Haunting and strange as the whole is, how does each fit into the journey of Kai and Gerda?

Another question: What is Andersen's view of childhood?

5 comments:

  1. The Snow Queen in my opinion is a strange story. Sometimes I felt as if I am reading a fairy-tale, and other times i felt like I was reading a book for adults.
    It seems like an extended version of hansel and Gretel, and the plot can be quite scary for youngsters.
    One such part is where Gerda is with the robber girl, and the robber girl si abusive to the bird. Also, the robber girl sleeps with a knife and this scares Gerda.
    There are two kinds of fairy-tales: those which are cute and those which are scary. Thiis si definetly a scary tale, and if it slightly creeped me out as an adult, I am sure it has scared many children over the years who read it, or those who were read to. I do not think I am going to use this tale as a bedtime story for my kids in the future.
    Based on this, Anderson may have viewed children in a different way that others view them. He may have seen kids as adults, which I guess was ok for that time period, where children had more responsibilities than they do today.

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  2. I think what joins the chapters in the story is the idea of the mirror created by the devil which resulted in everything looking horribly distorted. The mirror shattered and the fragments floated around; if it landed in someone's eye that person saw everything in a bad light and if it entered someone's heart "the heart became just like a lump of ice" (149). In the story, fragments of this mirror enter Kai's eye and heart and he therefore ceases to see the beauty in his and Gerta's childish pleasures and strays from home with the Snow Queen, who is evil yet he is not aware of this due to his distorted vision.
    Since this is a story for children (on one level, at least) I think that perhaps this concept of the mirror may be a way to explain to children why it is that some people are so negative, aggressive, antagonistic, etcetera. Children are innocent and loving and it is a harsh slap in the face when they begin to learn that not everyone will be as accepting and loving as they are, that some people seem to have a distorted eye and a heart of ice. This story is letting the children know that when they come across these people, as they surely will, they should not become annoyed or resentful and they should not allow it to alter their perceptions of the world as a good place; rather, they should have the understanding that these people have unfortunately "something" in their eye and heart which does not allow them to see the goodness, and to feel and express love and positive feelings, and they should use the power that they have as children to bring good cheer and happiness and light into the world and thaw out the icy hearts of the cynical. The Finn wife herself alludes to the power of the child, saying "I can't give her greater power than she already has," (178)and, indeed, Gerda does succeed in removing the fragment of ice from Kai's eye and thawing out his frozen heart so that they can be forever innocent and good and true, "grown up and yet children-children at heart" (184); childish hearts devoid of any iciness.

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  3. The fourth chapter, the prince and the princess, presents itself to me like an oasis in the desert, so to speak. This chapter is preempted by the tale of the young girl's kidnapping and confusion in a garden, and is followed- in quick succession- by another one. Amongst the other tales, this stands out as the least creepy. On its own, it is almost like a 'rags-to-riches' story: the young girl begins in distress and the world responds to her favorably. The raven befriends her, the prince and princess give her gold and all sorts of goodies, and the closing of the chapter leaves the reader with a sense of hope for the child. Even the raven's mourning only serves to illuminate her fortune; it illustrates how loved she is.
    The significance of this chapter is alluded to in her first encounter on entering the prince and princess's abode. "They are only dreams," tells the Raven of the shadow figures racing by her. She continues on to find the prince and princess slumbering in their respective flowers. From here until the end of the chapter, the princess experiences the stuff that dreams are made of. And that's what the chapter is about. It's about a child enduring pain and finding agency in a dream.

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  4. I think the last part of the seventh tale in relation to the "Hero's Journey" is where Kay and Gerda get their reward, and where they return to the known world and have a "transformation of consciousness". The reward that both Kay and Gerda recieve are maturity and experience, and knowledge of life it's struggles, and basically their own powers as children, and that of the adult world as well. They gain their freedom; Kay is able to be free from the Snow Queen though I don't believe he comes back as innocent as when he left, and in a sense Gerda is not innocent about life's horrors (though she still maintains what he discussed in class a "higher innocence"--even though she went through this crazy and at times scary journey she still returned back to her home pure in heart).
    Their "transformation of consciousness" occurs when they return home, but it is not the same home in which they lived before. In part of Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" when the hero returns home, they undergo this inner transformation, he also states that upon return the homeland can't remain or be (not physically) the same place. That they can't come home as the same person as well (does this make sense?)I believe this is true for Kay and Gerda, and Andersen possibly also believed this to be true because upon their return there were dramatic changes. I believe the grandmother died, so we have the adult figure of the home gone. The biggest transformation that both Kay and Gerda face is coming back as grown-ups and not as children. Whether this maturation is just a physical one or whether it is a mental or emotional one. Or possibly both?

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  5. Andersen romanticizes childhood, perpetuating that the ethos is responsible for the negative human qualities in a person. He idealizes that the natural state of humans is ultimately good, that their tendency towards faith can shield them from worldly corruption. He concludes that innocence is the only virtue powerful enough to bewitch evil, and given at birth, the individual determines whether or not they will discard or uphold their purity. I think this view to be misguided and an exaggeration on the true state of childhood. Granted, they have a form of innocence that may be unique to them, but that does not annul the natural human condition, which even in childhood manifests itself as wickedly and cruel as any "corrupt" worldly adult. The notation presented in the Emperor's new clothes, that society creates conventions only children can undermine, seems to conflict with the religious accreditment he prescribes in the snow queen. How can an institution born out of society be both a part of childhood salvation but not a corruptible convention? Although the Finn wife claims Gerda's power to overcome evil is the quality of her innocence, that since the rational Kay was corrupted, Andersen is really commenting on the powers of unquestioned faith.

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