Skyler Hassler's Reading Journal

The reading journal of Skyler Hassler

[erste103-blog]

Parental Neglect

In my annotated bib I examined parental neglect and how it affects children. Specifically in the aspect such of self- esteem.  Generally speaking, lazier parenting, or parental neglect, can lead to several psychological issues I children. One being their self esteem. This is something that can be related back to Cinderella. Her father was never present, and her mother passed away. Leaving her with her step mother who genuinely abuses Cinderella everyday. This is something that can shed light on what shaped Cinderella’s character, which allows us to further understand why Cinderella would run away from a charming prince, or take other drastic measures as she did in the tale.

[mabig103-blog]

I completely agree on the fact that how you are raised and the types of parents you have can shape your personality and determine how you decide things. I am not sure if Cinderella acts in the classic way most children would in this situation but I would be interested in the analysis of her decisions.

[bajoh103-blog]

I started off with just documenting how the perception of childhood has changed over time, but pretty quickly I became interested in the effect of the destruction of childhood on the youth of an era. Reading this post makes me think of that breakdown of childhood, especially in the context of the industrial revolution and the time period of the brothers Grimm.

[skhas103-blog]

This reminds me of something I read online the other day about how someone’s mother basically taught him to compulsively lie to win. Now this person cannot stop lying and it has severely hurt him and he can’t maintain long term relationships with people. It truly is a shame that parents would do something like this to their children.

[trtay103-blog]

So. Many. Articles.

After finding countless unless articles on varying subjects slightly related to my topic I find myself exhausted. How many people spend their every waking moments devoted to writing these things? I found a 488 page article on the effects of makeup on mans understanding of beauty… like… Who writes that? This is indeed a struggle. I finally find myself citing experiments full of math. Including an equation  “N of beautiful people X percentage of opinion= amount of beauty”… How does one derive this? It is a strange world out there folks. 

[mabig103-blog]

I found a lot of the same issues when researching for my annotated bibliography. There were so many sources that I went through and I also saw the authors putting quantitative qualities on personalities, I still don’t understand how no matter how many times I reread.

[evsor103-blog]

This was an issue for me as well. However, I found that the more I really read and loved for the right articles, the better readings I found. I believe that because I spent this time and effort looking for articles, I was able to find the perfect ones for my topic. 

[aldarrow4-blog]

This is very true. I believe that the hardest part of writing the annotated bibliography was not the writing part. It was the wading through thousands of scientific articles looking for the right one.

[skhas103-blog]

This. This right here has been my Fall Break. I feel I have learned a lot of great new things I never would have learned, but oh man was it tiring.

[skhas103-blog]

The Dangers of Temptation

The temptation felt by Bluebeard’s newlywed wife was too much for her to handle, so she left her friends to open a mysterious door she was specifically instructed not to open by Bluebeard himself. “When she reached the door…she stopped to think for a moment about how her husband had forbidden her to enter, and she reflected on the harm that might come her way for being disobedient. But the temptation was so great that she was unable to resist it. She took the little key and, trembling, opened the door.” (Perrault 145). The thought that someone would give into temptation, knowing that there could be serious harm done unto them as a consequence can be seem inane, but Perrault expertly uses it as an example to warn people of the dangers of giving into your temptations caused by curiosity. This message carries over to all audiences, not just children, who have become the stereotypical audience of a fairy tale.

[aldarrow4-blog]

The Progression of Women’s Role in Marriage

Society is always looking to progress and change.  It needs to adapt to the changing times otherwise it will fall out of date and die.  One aspect which is constantly changing in our society is human rights.  Looking back at history, it is easy to tell that times were different and certain people were treated in different ways.  In writings, film, and many other forms of expression, one can observe the progression of society.  Many fairy-tales have modern and original versions that can act as a foot prints to what society was like at the time it was written.  Writings give us many of these clues including social norms, class structure and more background to compare to the society of today.  One short story, The “Blue-bearded Lover”, modernizes the story of “Bluebeard” severely altering many of the key elements including the moral of the story. The author of the revision, Joyce Carol Oats, successfully revamps the tale of “Bluebeard” by keeping the Bluebeard himself unchanged but modifying his wife to depict the progression of women’s roles in marriage.

[maran103-blog]

The idea of the retelling showing a footprint of the times if a very interesting idea. With all of the retelling i have read this seems to hold very true. It would be interesting to see what the original author would think of the retelling.

[skhas103-blog]

I really like the bit about how older writings are the footprints of modern society and how we can use them to see how humanity has evolved over time. I also read the, “Blue-bearded Lover,” and agree with your point completely. It really does show how Bluebeard would be written in our modern time period.

[mabig103-blog]

Into the Woods: Typical Cinderella?

In Into the Woods we get a classical representation of the typical Cinderella as told in Grimm’s version of the tale. There is a common girl who is covered in ash being mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, fairly typical. She continues on to sneak out to the festival and every night steals away and hides from the prince. Everything goes as is expected until the third night of the festival where she gets stuck on the stairs of the palace and we are finally able to see the thoughts upon her decision. We know in this version that she purposefully left her shoe for the prince to find because of her own uncertainties. This addition to the regular story line allows us to see into Cinderella’s mind and have a better feel for the character. Although she is still the same in many ways I believe this retelling gives us a better sense of who Cinderella is.

[mahof103-blog]

I also agree; we can see what Cinderella and most modern women stand for.  They have more of a choice of how to deal with their lives and aren’t simply either running away from their problems or latching on to a prince that will set her life up with royals and riches.

[kemcc103-blog]

I thought the same thing after seeing this adaptation. Letting viewers hear Cinderella’s thought process is unique and helpful

[courtneymelvinuaenglish103-blog]

I agree and I think this adds more depth to the fairytale as a whole. The movie portrays Cinderella in a much better light than the original Grimm’s brother story. Even at the end of the movie when it turns out the Prince is still seeing other women after they are married, Cinderella leaves him. This is very different from the “happily ever after” ending we see in the story.

[beachhbummerr-blog1]

I totally agree that the director did an amazing job with adding dept to the characters. Into the woods is my favorite movie because of the dept it adds to the characters. 

[skhas103-blog]

I thought the same thing when watching the movie. It was a nice addition that I believe helped strengthen the overall story by adding a little more depth.

[skhas103-blog]

Bluebeard vs. Fables

In the world of Fables, created by Bill Willingham, fairy tales are real. Following their exile from the “Homelands,” the fairy tale characters, known as fables, struggle to fit into a modern Manhattan, where they must live their lives protecting who they really are. The story follows Bigby, better known as the Big Bad Wolf, on his investigation to find Snow White’s missing sister, Rose Red. One of the main suspects in the case is the infamous Bluebeard, who was known to tempt his wives with access to a forbidden room and kill them if they entered. Willingham does a fantastic job in showing how Bluebeard’s dreadful past catches up with him and draws him as the center of attention in a case that we later find out he had no part of, however Willingham fails to capture the dangers of temptation that has become synonymous with the tale of Bluebeard.

[beachhbummerr-blog1]

Mean Girls

At some point in time we all, I included, have felt extremely threatened by the superiority of another person, but we must understand that to act upon our natural instincts to get rid the superior being is immoral and incorrect. Although Snow white was treated poorly and extremely unfairly by her step mother, despite being “the fairest of them all,” I don’t believe she was in right to make the wicked queen dance in the heated iron slippers until her death. I was always told to never fight fire with fire, you only end up with a bigger fire. The outcome of the wicked queen’s death after is left up to the reader to decide, as the story ends with her death, but the fact that Snow White essentially killed the queen poses the question; was Snow White as bad as the Queen?

[mabig103-blog]

This is very interesting as most of the stories I hear about Snow White end where she has nothing to do with the queen’s undoing. In this version I think it could be argued that she had hatred in her heart and acted at cruelly as the queen.

[xxxxly333-deactivated20181030]

This is a very interesting ideal that much of society looks over, by creating a hero, they overlook any despicable actions the hero has committed. In modern society, we need to look at the entire being of a person before deciding whether they are truly good or bad.

[skhas103-blog]

I really like the question you bring up here. It definitely is a very extreme response to what the Queen did to Snow White and I really don’t think that is the fate the Queen deserved.

[aldarrow4-blog]

Curiosity Kills Much More than the Cat

As a little child, there is no other time of the year like the Christmas season. Starting in October, a brigade of holiday ads hype-up children as if their diets consisted solely of sugar. I remember making a list and counting down the hours to Christmas morning to see what surprises were under the tree.  Except there was one problem. I could not wait for the “right time” to open the presents. I needed to know now.  I remember sneaking down to the tree in the wee hours on Christmas morning, long before my parents would be awake. I carefully felt the packages and shook them listening to the contents jingle around inside.  When I was done, I knew the identity of many of the hidden treasures under the tree. Sun light peeked its way into the living room as my family came together to unwrap the gifts.  The usual ecstasy of finally revealing the numerous surprises was gone and replaced by emptiness.  I had given into my temptation and lost out on one of the most joyous occasions of the year.  My irresistible urge to discover the many secrets hidden under the veil of wrapping paper and the tale of Bluebeard by Charles Perrault go hand in hand explaining the dangers of being too inquisitive.  This gruesome tale is an accurate warning of giving into the temptations of something one can’t have and the terrible consequences associated with it.

[mahof103-blog]

I totally agree with what you have written.  Although I never opened Christmas presents before the “right time” I have told a friend who wanted to mail me a gift to wait until I get back because it would be more meaningful to open it in their presence than away at college.

[skhas103-blog]

I know this feeling all too well. Nothing can explain the emptiness I felt on the first Christmas I knew what I was getting. Growing up blows.

[skhas103-blog]

Jeffrey Dahmer: The Modern Bluebeard

A major trait keeping Bluebeard and Jeffrey Dahmer together is that they both died a brutal death. Calling back upon Perrault’s edition of the tale, Bluebeard was just about to claim the life of his bride, when the bride’s brothers storm the castle and, “[plunge] their swords through his body and [leave] him for dead,” (147). Being left for dead while bleeding out is a very slow and painful death. It is safe to assume that Bluebeard suffered for every second of his justified demise. It is also referenced in the Brothers Grimm version, the bridegroom and his companions were, “seized… and turned…. over to the authorities,” where they, “were executed for their dreadful deeds,” (154). Although their executions were not explicitly described, the men were more than likely to be killed with the breaking wheel. The breaking wheel was a form of capital punishment used in Germany well into the 19th century, where a person was tied to a wagon wheel and beaten to the point of breaking their limbs and left for dead. The longest recorded survival time after being “broken” is three days. With this information, it can be assured that the bridegroom and his gang suffered through their demise. Although he did not suffer, Jeffrey Dahmer still died a very brutal death. After being left alone with two other prisoners, Jesse Anderson and Christopher Scarver, for twenty minutes, Dahmer was found dead alongside fellow prisoner, Jesse Anderson, by the hands of Christopher Scarver. Scarver reportedly, “crushed Dahmer’s skull and fatally [beat] Anderson with a metal bar from the prison weight room,” which is, in my opinion, the most brutal of the three deaths I have talked about (Jeffrey). The disturbing fact around Dahmer’s death is that the guards had allegedly allowed it happen. There is no form of capital punishment in the state of Wisconsin and the guards, along with the majority of the country, believed Dahmer should be killed for his crimes, so when the situation arose, the guards supposedly turned a blind eye and allowed the slaughter.