Food as a Force

Desperate times call for desperate measures. There is no other explanation for the unkindness invoked on two poor little children by their parents. The tale of Hansel and Gretel was first told during a time when famine was far from uncommon. Therefore, it quite obvious why it was the concept of famine and food that helped propel one of the Brothers Grimm versions, “Hansel and Gretel” and Charles Perrault’s “Little Thumbling”. However, after reading multiple versions of Hansel and Gretel, I’ve noticed that it wasn’t famine alone that shaped the tale. In fact the Brothers Grimm version “The Juniper Tree” and Joseph Jacobs “The Rose Tree” present the idea of the uncaring stepmother infamous with other fairy tales, and the cruelty and jealousy that comes with them. Like the tales of Snow White and Cinderella, the selfish stepmother conceives a plan with the attempt to bring down the hero, but as always the result of said plan is ultimately the death of the wicked person seeking revenge. This is not really the case in Charles Perrault’s “Little Thumbling”, instead the father who suggests his boys be taken out into the forest is not punished, but rewarded with a new position and the gold of an ogre. As important as parental figures, greed, and even witchcraft are to the tale, the most important idea, concept, item that helped shape the story of Hansel and Gretel was food.

The Classic Fairy Tales book discusses the importance of food in the introduction to Hansel and Gretel, “Food-its presence and its absence-shapes the social world of fairy tales in profound ways” (Tatar 179). Seemingly glutton children eating a house made of sweets and engulfing pancakes and stews, no doubt helped to show the struggles and strife faced by the young children in the stories. I would say that food definitely shaped the tale of Hansel and Gretel far more than in the other fairy tales we’ve read this semester, but nonetheless food was strongly present in the other tales and added to the story in some way or another. For example, in Delarue’s version of Little Red Riding Hood, Red eats her grandmother and drinks her blood, which was just the beginning of a series of missteps that Red took before finally escaping the Wolf. In “Donkeyskin” a version of Cinderella, the cake she makes which includes her ring helps the prince to find her after the whole village tries the ring on. Bread was the food of choice used in “The Frog Princess” and it was part of a test used by a father to see which of his daughter-in-laws was the best. Lastly, the iconic apple of the Snow White fairy tales unquestionably fashioned the tale, it was what led to her “coma” or sorts and was the reason for the evil queen’s short lived success story.

Food is or can be associated with family, friends, money, status, time, and culture. This just further proves why it was such a useful tool in propelling fairy tales. Ultimately the food shapes fairly tales as much as it shapes our day to day lives.

Time

Have you have uttered the words I wish I just had more time or there’s not

enough time in the day? Surely you have, we all have at some point or another.With

this week the clocks changing and being set back an hour, the hope by many is to gain

an extra hour of time, but will it really make any difference? No is the likely

answer because time is constantly shrinking as our days go on and our schedules

fill up. The concept of time varies from person to person, but in all reality are

the viewpoints really all that different?

According to Theory Toolbox, “we experience time in individual, often

idiosyncratic ways, but these experiences are also shaped by larger social

processes” (Bowman and Littlefield 111). I agree that we all do experience time

individually, but our concept of time is constantly being pulled backed and forth

between us and our place in society, whether it be school, work, family, etc. I

have my personal time, or at least what one could consider personal time, but that

is only when I am free of obligations to spend time at school or work. My time is

only a portion of what I have left after the rest of it has been occupied by

school, work, family, friends, and daily chores. I guess sleeping could probably

be considered “my time”, but in all reality the typical five to six hours a night

that I do get really don’t make me feel like free time or personal time, they are

more like intervals necessary for survival to make it through what the times of

tomorrow will bring. We all know what tomorrow will bring and that is waking up in

the morning or late afternoon, depending on age, to begin the rat race that is

called a day.

A day consists of 24 hours, but with a set portion set aside for sleeping, it’s

now down to around 16 hours. Society sets in place where, how, and when your time

should be spent, overall making it something that you, an individual, is not in

control of. For example, are kids at home between 8:00am and 3:00pm watching TV or

playing video games? No because society tells us that kids are supposed to be in

school learning during those times. How about that dreaded 9:00-5:00 time frame?

Well that is of course the typical work day, the time when people sit behind

cubicles or have business meetings or type so many words per minute on their

desktop. As these people all sit in their preset places they watch as the clocks

slowly tick by and wonder if they will have enough time to complete all that is

left in their day.

I think we like to hold on to the idea of having our own time, but aside from

sleep, time is ruled by everything we have to do for everyone else, not by us.

Most people find themselves in the same situations, days occupied by work or

school or family and just trying to get it all done. Our time is occupied and

therefore shaped by our surroundings and the experiences we have with the world

everyday. Basically, time has been neatly organized by the society we live in.