The Evolution and Significance of Fairy Tales

The Evolution and Significance of Fairy Tales

Brother's Grimm version of Snow White.

In the novel Boy, Snow, Bird, author Helen Oyeyemi retells the Snow White fairy tale with a book full of family secrets, lies, race, beauty and vanity. The book is based on the main character and narrator of the story Boy Novak who arrives in a small town in Massachusetts, leaving her old life in New York and starting anew. In Massachusetts she is introduced to Arturo Whitman, a local widower. They later marry and Boy becomes stepmother to Arturo’s daughter Snow. Boy, Snow, Bird draws us into the dark realm of America’s racial views. Like most fairy tales there is always a lesson to be taught. Through Oyeyemi’s creative fairy tale-like descriptions, she is able to explore the evolution of fairy tales and how they are still relevant in today’s society.

 

Oyeyemi does an amazing job at including fairy tale elements in her book. For example, she gives Boy wicked stepmother tendencies and uses a lot of examples of Snow White and many other princesses and folk tales. In the fairy tale Snow White, the wicked stepmother is jealous of her beauty and sends someone to kill Snow White. Later, she discovers that she is still alive living in a cottage. Disguising herself as an old woman, the queen brings a poisoned apple to Snow White and falls under a death-like sleep and can only be awaken by true love's kiss. Many of these fairy tales are based off the originals from the Brothers Grimm series. It turns out that the Brothers Grimm stories are a lot more gruesome than the Disney stories. In the Brothers Grimm version, Snow White ends up marrying the prince and oddly, the queen is invited to the wedding. When she arrives she is greeted at the ceremony with hot iron shoes that she is forced to wear all night, eventually dancing to her death. Using bits and pieces of this story, Oyeyemi re-writes this fairy tale into something more realistic. By Oyeyemi deciding to reimagine this classic fairy tale, she is able to incorporate major topics in this a story such as racism, colorism and white-passing families of mid century America.

The study of fairy tales simply does not always begin or end with a happily ever after. Fairy tales give us the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the social and cultural interference in our society. In Boy, Snow, Bird, Oyeyemi uses this tactic to portray to her audience the topics of racism, colorism and white passing groups using fairy tale-like language and descriptions. She uses words and phrases such as “If the shoe fits, she’s mine” “ evil stepmother” or "summon up a troop of fairy godmothers" to describe certain people or scenarios. Using this type of figurative language, she begins to unveil family secrets and lies by still incorporating fairy tale phrases to tell her stories.

In an interview with Marie Claire, interviewer Louisa Thomas had the opportunity to sit down with Oyeyemi and discuss the meaning and symbolism behind Boy Snow Bird. One of the questions asked during the interview was “Much of your work draws on fables and myths. This one takes inspiration from Snow White. What attracts you to these stories?” Oyeyemi answers by saying “ I always want to get inside the stories I like- sometimes because I want to rescue or defend characters. The structure of a fairy tale is so clear that you can think your way into the story and change it from within” (Thomas) She later goes on to say in the interview that the reason she did not want to give boy the stepmother archetype was because sometimes a villains purpose is too vague, one has to be able to analyze how they handle certain things throughout the story. When she read Snow White, she began to see Snow White’s stepmother as a woman who does not handle the duties of being a villain well and therefore decided to take this interpretation and place it upon the character of modern day woman. Oyeyemi is a major fan of fairy tales and in this interview, readers will see what goes through the authors thought process when writing her novels showing that Oyeyemi appreciates the ideas that fairy tales have to offer then puts a modern day twist to it.

Walt Disney's version of Snow White.

The overall evolution of fairy tales has been quite drastic. Fairy tales have now become more child friendly unlike old tales and fables that were created to frighten children.Fairy tales are more soft and have a delicate feel to them compared to older fairy tales that had more raw and gruesome detail to them. The ultimate purpose of fairy tales was to teach morals to children in a way that they will remember. Fairy tales are able to teach children right from wrong and that is why they are still relevant to this day.The relevance of fairy tales in today’s society have a lot to do with writers being able to give their own interpretation of them and then using the elements of fairy tales to create a perfect story. Oyeyemi is the perfect example of what it means to take fairy tales and pull apart certain elements to furthermore explain topics that are  important and relevant to her and society while using fairy tales and myths as her back bone for her writing.