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.