The text “There Was Once” by Margaret Atwood, certainly reminded me of our regular folktale Cinderella. But, was quickly intervened with the second speaker who had a lot of thoughts and opinions to share. The story began with the repetitive line “There Was Once” and soon got interrupted by the second speaker. The first speaker was beginning to tell a story similar to our Cinderella tale by stating that there was once a girl who was beautiful and poor, whom also had a wicked stepmother. But the second speaker quickly disagreed by saying if she was poor then how do they have a house and fireplace. Which I agreed upon, because if someone was poor I consider them to have absolutely nothing. The storyteller took into consideration of what the speaker said and changed her story by saying “There was once a middle-class girl”. As the speaker began to continue the rest of the story, the second speaker proceeded to cut in and give constructive criticism in my eyes. The second speaker was basically trying to break the formal story of Cinderella by it always being a white, beautiful, and poor girl. But rather be more realistic in a sense. Instead of keeping up with the regular story of her being “beautiful” why not cut that out and make the character more average and less intimidating. So once again, the first speaker decided to change it up and be more truthful by saying “There was once a girl who was a little overweight and whose front teeth stuck out” but the second speaker didn’t mean for the first speaker to change the story into making fun of someone. The second speaker continued to interrupt by asking what color is the girl? And that she’s tired of this continuous dominant culture. I conclude that the author Margaret Atwood was trying to imply that we should all try to change up the story sometimes. That not every folktale or story should always be based on the “normal” or “expected” way people believe it should be. Furthermore, that it’s not always about beauty, looks, ethnicity, and financial status. And that we should encourage our kids, teens and other women to uplift and inspire each other, rather than to degrade and humiliate each other.

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