Henry Hung (Partner: Lisbet Chino)

Would you agree that we live in a world where almost everyone puts their self-interest
first? Throughout history many young women have been taken advantage of and used for
people’s own goals and wants and never considers whether this is wrong or not. This type of
behavior and message can be seen throughout the fairy tale of Little Snow White from the
Brothers Grimm’s book. This message is talked about in Lisbet Chino’s paper where she talks
about Snow white’s naivety and innocence being targeted by people much older than her for their
own goals. I couldn’t agree more with what Lisbet was trying to tell the audience that such a
young girl’s childhood being filled with such filth is intolerable. Snow White’s own mother being
one of the people that proceeds to take advantage of her innocence and kindness for her own
selfish reasons without having a shred of thought for how Snow White feels. We will talk about
the two characters that were involved with Snow White personally in the fairy tale that Lisbet
touched heavily upon.

The first character we will talk about that took advantage of Snow White’s innocence and
pure kindness is her very own mother, the queen. Lisbet talks about the queen dressing up as
different people throughout the fairy tale and tricking Snow white into thinking that it was a
different person each time. Each attempt was successful because of Snow white’s innocence and
inability to properly comprehend the situations because she is still only a seven year old girl. I
agree very much with Lisbet’s constant mentioning of her age since that is a very important part
of the story which is to always consider her age throughout the entire story. She even mentions
her step mother briefly who tries to inform or teach Snow white the concept of “Stranger
Danger” because you can never know the true intentions of a random person that would like to
go inside a seven year old girl’s room. Lisbet proceeds to mention Snow White’s compassion
which I would say is the perfect word to describe her eagerness to let the stranger in besides
curiosity. Young children have many instinctual habits and compassion and curiosity are one of
the two most prominent ones since young children don’t have a proper moral compass built up so
they can only feel the emotions of others. The naivety of young children causes these emotions
leading them to be more susceptible to danger when left alone, and with Snow white being
mostly alone with her family not being there for her she has to learn herself.

The second character that Lisbet touches upon is the prince. I loved that she looked
outside of what was shown in the book and dove deeper into what it could really mean. She
again brings up that Snow white is indeed still seven years old throughout this entire story. The
age of the prince was never disclosed to the audience but we can assume he is of age to be
married and speak with proper diction and as Lisbet cited “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). A young man that would be of the same age as Snow White would not
have such diction. The prince only objectifies Snow White as a prized possession because of her
beauty and does not truly want to be with her. She is also only seven years old which identifies
the prince’s behavior as predatory and just outright immoral. Unfortunately snow white is most
likely set in a day and age where this would be deemed okay. I agree heavily with Lisbet’s
statements on how Snow white is only able to be taken advantage of and tricked by adults due to
her innocence and vulnerability because she is very young and still in the stages of childhood.

Overall I agree with the message that Lisbet is trying to portray and send to the audience
Snow White was very naive and innocent throughout the entire fairy tale. This leads to her being
gullible and easily taken advantage of by many people. The most disturbing part of this Fairy
Tale is definitely the fact that she is still seven years old. This also sends a message to the current
society that we live in because it still happens where young women or children in general are
being used for older people’s gains and it is terrible. No children should have such a ruined
childhood and should be able to grow up properly