Cinderella is a book that speaks of the hardships that Cinderella as the character goes through the hands of her stepmother and sisters. It talks on how she overcame these tribulations ending as a princess. This paper will discuss a quote from this story that particularly interests me. It will give the reasons as to why the quote is interesting. It will also give a personal story of my life.
The quote that will be discussed in this paper is “Cinderella did the best that she could, but they rewarded her only with curses. When they were ready, they said with scorn, “Cinderella, wouldn’t you like to go to the ball?” “Oh, yes. But how can I go? I don’t have a dress” (Jacob & Grimm 28).
Discussion
This quote interests me in that it reflects on many persons in stepfamilies who go through the same undermining treatment if not worse. These persons have no one to turn to and the one person they expect help or redress from is nowhere close to offering this help. They feel so helpless that they resign to fate, and come to accept all their tribulations as a normal occurrence.
They are so much resigned that they only expect the worst. When it is not forthcoming, they tend to think something is amiss. They also fear raising concerns about the humiliating things they have to endure for fear of what tribulations this would bring.
From the quote, we see Cinderella though facing a lot of difficulties would dare not raise this with her father. She feared he would scold her though she was his own blood. This contravenes natural law, which dictates that one should care and protect his sibling just like animals protect their young one.
This is seen in most stepfamilies where one marries and the spouse mistreats the children while favoring their own. In these cases, the spouse turns the husband or wife against their children. They do this out of fear or jealous of the affection the spouse accords their children. In most cases, the spouse has no say in the demeaning treatment the children undergo lest hell is raised.
They are mostly held ransom with threats of being left or accused of favoring their own. Others are just blinded by love and wish away all the terrible things happening in their families, hoping things would change for the better.
A personal story relating to this quote can be pinned on my brother’s life after he took a second wife. This happened after the death of his wife. He saw the need of a companion and a mother for his children.
He married a woman who he met during his group’s meeting with widows and widowers. This group was helping people who had lost their spouses come to terms with it and get the strength to live. He found solace in this woman (a mother of one), and she was the perfect replacement of his late wife, and a mother figure for his children.
He took her as a wife, and though his children were skeptical at first they took her in as a mother. It was not until a year passed that she started to fault his children and reprimanded them for minor mistakes. She got cold on them and would beat them any time they would be at fault or on suspicion.
With her child, she never laid a finger on and would get the best of things. On the other hand, she denied my brother’s children even the gifts they would get. Once, when my brother was away on business, she denied the children food. After some time, the teachers noticed the children’s decline in their school performance. My brother was then summoned by the school administration.
This was when he realized the torments his children were facing. He was hurt, and since he was not ready to leave his wife, he pleaded for a meeting with a counselor to try work on the problem. They are now on their third month of counseling and things are getting better in the family.
Works Cited
Jacob & Grimm, Wilhelm. Kinder- und Hausmärchen. Berlin: Realschulbuchhandlung, 1998. Print.