Analysis of a Text

Don't Bet On The Prince

This is a book I have read in research for my essay. It contains a series of essays and fairy tales that have been written since the 1960s, when the feminist movement started. Published in 1987 and edited by Jack Zipes, this famous author compiled these texts together to demonstrate how recent male and female writers have reflected on and re constructed traditional fairy tales, which have clear, sexist gender roles; showing the male to be dominant in the stories, with the women as props to the plot.

With authors referenced such as Joanna Russ, Tanith Lee and Jane Yolen, this book gives examples of how we can adapt old literature to create a new outlook on the world. It is targeted at people who are interested in an alternative fairy tale, who question what has caused such different, sexist expectations from both genders and an alternative view on the traditional values of society.

The text is organised into a series of chapters, ordered from feminist fairy tales for young and old readers (parts 1 and 2) to the criticising essays. This makes the book flow nicely and easy to read as it shows you examples of the feminist fairy tales first before taking you to criticise them.

The author of this text is mainly analysing the opinions of others and inputing his own thoughts to compare with others; he can tell that some of the writers might not consider themselves a feminist, despite every author demonstrating similar views of feminism to each other. Saying this, it is mainly in the introduction that Zipes gives his input to the other authors work, allowing the readers to form their own opinions of the works as they read the book.

I have personally found this book useful to depict and form opinions on, because some clear statements are presented in an easy to read format, which has allowed me to understand Zipes's opinion and add my own points to it. It has been interesting to see alternative fairy tales, particularly the interpretation of Snow White from 1972. This interpretation shows Snow White standing up for what she wants, to be with her friends, rather than become a princess as the Queen would have granted. Minus the Queen's death at the end, this story would be a much better one to read to children compared to the Disney version, since it demonstrates empowerment to good people.

In conclusion, I believe this is a good book to read to gain an alternative view on fairy tales. Compared to 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' by Brother's Grimm, these stories are generally much more child-friendly and empowering to women, with analysis at the end of the book describing how feminist values are not present in old stories such as the Grimm tales.

A lot of references are used, whole previously written texts even, which means Zipes must have done some good research into writing this book, and that is why I trust the opinions that are stated in the text.