The predators of the innocence

Why are young children targeted by adults? What does their innocence have to do with it? The story of the Little snow-white is written by Brothers Grimms. The story Little Snow white, is of a young girl who gets targeted by her own stepmother. Due to Jealousy of her looks, and the constant chances of trying to kill Snow white in the woods. Snow white is gullible and easily swayed that she doesn’t fully understand the dangers around her. 

Snow-white at 7 years old isn’t fully aware of the harm that can come to her. She is just getting to know about life and at an age in which she is also developing and trying to understand her surroundings. In the story, Snow white is constantly talked about for her looks when the queen asks about beauty wanting to be known as the most beautiful. Mentioned in the story, “But Snow-white was growing up, and grew more and more beautiful; and when she was seven years old she was as beautiful as the day, and more beautiful than the queen herself”(Brother Grimms,1812,pg 218) . The sentence talks about a young child’s beautiful looks which seems nice but being said that she was more beautiful than the queen herself, seems very odd and disturbing. When she is young and being compared to someone who is older. As it’s told, hearing that Snow white was considered more beautiful than the queen herself, she was annoyed and didn’t much like the idea that someone was considered better looking than her, let alone a child. Due to that, the queen’s ultimate goal was to “get rid of her”, so that she only herself can be known as the most good looking around. At many times in the story the queen herself tries to kill Snow white, through many different types of ways. 

From what has been gathered the queen wants to kill Snow white and she has tried killing her, herself. In the instances that Snow white had almost died, she had somehow let it happen even after there were others that had warned her to be careful. In the text it states, “Beware of your step-mother, she will soon know that you are here; be sure to let no one come in”(Brothers Grimm,1812,pg 221). Throughout the story Snow white is constantly warned and to be more aware of who comes knocking on the door and “letting no one in”. One thing that is learned is that snow white did not listen to what was said about “letting no one” in. It’s the fact that Snow white let it slip out her mind at the moment, as well as being gullible, the queen was there tricking her in disguise and almost being successful each time. Rather different from the movie version at first she was afraid and hid herself from someone she didn’t know. Snow white was not easily drawn by such attention. It is seen that she is more aware but in the movie is older than in the Brothers Grimms version. She was more aware in the beginning but as dialogue proceeds she isn’t careful of the dangers of the people. She easily forgets the dangers, and the problem that is happening. Such dangers are very important to keep an eye on since it is very important. She clearly tries to be careful but lets her compassion for others come before her own safety. Snow white offers to help the dwarves to be able to stay and while in the brother Grimms version she is told to do the housework, in which she has no say at all. As Snow white states, “And if you let me stay I’ll keep house for you.I’ll wash and sew and sweep and cook…”.(Hand et al. 1937) Two different versions of how she gets to stay and how she is treated by the dwarves. Regulated into following whatever the dwarves wanted her to do. 

Snow white meets new people along the way which were the ones who had warned her to not open the door to anybody, since it was known that with the queen’s dislike towards Snow white, she was not going to be left alone until she died. When given full instructions on what not to do, it’s best to follow them since, by instances shown, Snow white had almost died by the hands of her stepmother. Another instance of a different character who as well did not listen to the warnings, or instruction given was “Little red cap” by Brothers grimm. The instruction given to her clearly was “ Set out before it gets hot, and when  you are going, walk nicely and quietly and do not run off the path , or you may fall and break the bottle, and then your grandmother will get nothing…”.  (Brothers Grimms,1812,pg 121) She was told clearly to not get distracted and to just head straight to her grandmother’s house, she was easily swayed and distracted later on and had almost led her to death Just like Snow white. Due to not following what they were told. Though the difference between such stories is that little red cap learns her lesson, and snow white doesn’t seem to understand. And as stated, “but Red-Cap thought to herself, ‘As long as I live, I will never by myself leave the path, to run into the wood, when my mother has forbidden me to do so”.(Brothers Grimm,1812,pg 124)The thought of not wanting to go through the situation, which harmed her and her grandmother. Little red-cap was gullible and swayed easily by someone who distracted her from her path that wanted to do harm to her. Opposite of Snow white in some ways does not understand the full complexity of the situation that she is in at all. Since she still somehow gets tricked by the queen.

Though it is shown that she is being targeted there is another instance of her being targeted by a different person in a different way that is also seen but isn’t really thought of when reading. Which is that a prince whose age is not known wants to have snow white. Though it happens in the story, it was sudden, a prince is in the forest and sees the body of Seven year old snow white, who is considered to be dead. The prince sees snow white and wants her to himself, unaware of how old the person is or why he wants her. What deeper purpose does he need her body for? The dwarves didn’t really want to give her body to a complete stranger but later on actually gave it to him. Which can seem very wrong in the eyes of someone who is wanting to read the story. When speaking about snow white he refers to it in a way that doesn’t regard her as a person. As suggested, “Let me have it as a gift, for I cannot live without seeing snow white. I will honour and prize her as my dearest possession.”(Brothers Grimm,1812,pg 226)  Talks about wanting snow white for him to gaze upon. Which later on snow white wakes up after her supposed death. The “king’s son”  soon proposed to that of the princess, stating “You are with me, and told her what has happened, and said, “I love you more than everything in the world; come with me to my father’s palace, you shall be my wife”(Brothers Grimm,1812, pg 226). It’s a fact that is constantly repeated that Snow white is only seven years old when the proposal was given to her in which she accepts. It shows how vulnerable she is and how easily she is tricked by adults. She doesn’t have the mentality of stranger danger even after going through death and how bad people can be. As well as not learning that she should be more aware of the dangers. Snow white stepmother still did not feel at peace knowing that Snow white was alive. In some way wanting to do her some harm. Snow white views the world with her innocent mind in which she doesn’t really see what’s wrong.

In conclusion, Snow white is gullible and easily swayed that she doesn’t fully understand the dangers around her. Snow white is very young, I know that but it doesn’t change the fact that she doesn’t learn from what has occurred to her. Snow white as a person is very susceptible to the situation, and so it becomes an issue. Someone of her age shouldn’t be going through such an issue and should be able to grow in mind that but even so she has to be more careful as to who  she lets into her life, than just purely accepting. As reading it, it breaks one’s own childhood and sees what hidden things are actually being referred to while reading.She may have had a “happy ending”, but considering what she went through such an ending is questionable. 

Citations

Grimm. (n.d.). Snow-White Fairy Tale. Grimm. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/snow-white 

Video player: Disney+. Stream Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Nat Geo. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.disneyplus.com/en-gb/video/b78cf857-4cbb-492f-9fe6-0d56b7e3791a 

Grimm. (n.d.). Little red riding hood fairy tale. Grimm. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.grimmstories.com/en/grimm_fairy-tales/little_red_cap