The short story “There was Once” by Margaret Atwood is humorous. It attempts to change the stereotypical fairy tale stories that the young girls are so used to hearing. In today’s society most women recognize being beautiful as being good and reversely being unattractive is being bad. It also attempts to show what the perfect image for girls to have while they are growing up through fairy tale stories such as Cinderella. The message that is being emphasized on this short story is that of the importance of physical appearance within children stories where the main character is always beautiful and good. The characters in the story seem to be a middle aged man and a critical woman that constantly questions the narrative of the story.
The story starts with the first speaker telling the story of Cinderella. “There was once a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest.”. Another character in the story criticizes every possible solution proposed by the narrator. It is important for readers to question a writing to get more depth inside the story.
I really enjoyed reading this short story because it made me smile and think about all those stereotypes that exist in our society today.
I’m interested to know what in the story led you to believe that the storyteller is a middle-aged man and the questioner is a woman (the “critical” is obvious!)? I drew similar conclusions, but I think for our discussion, it would be good to pinpoint where we get these ideas and how we observe and interpret even without realizing or trying to.
Do you think that the stereotypes are specific to American society? Western culture? are they global? some combination?
Well, the narrator himself said “I am a middle aged—” and the other character in the story referred him as “Mister Nosy Parker”. So I interpreted that as the character being a middle aged man. As for the questioner she had this feministic side of her. She says how she is so tried of negative female images and how women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models. Who would know these well other than women themselves.
In society today certain images and stereotypes are reflected on women everywhere mostly by the help various forms of media, including television, magazines and ads. Nowadays it is not specific to American society only. We can see other cultures also adopting to this idea that women should look a certain way to be beautiful. They feel pressured to have hard bodies, silky hair, sparkling white teeth and abs of steel. (Smiles).