Hansel and Gretel (and other stories of Cannibalism)

The folk tale of Hansel and Gretel revolves around the contant fear of starvation experienced by peasants at the time of this story's creation.  This story conforms with the social problem of famine and the self-centered attitude of Hansel and Gretel's parents.  Wilhelm Grimm changed the maternal presence to a stepmother because he couldn't bear to pen a story where a biological mother would sacrifice her own children so that she could survive.  Most of the variations allow the father to be rehabilitated, while his maternal counterpart retains her sense of selfishness and cruelty. 

Hansel and Gretel and The Juniper Tree (aka My Mother Slew Me; My Father Ate Me) "give us high melodrama - abandonment, treachery, betrayal, and joyous reunions" Mollie Whuppie and Tom Thumb "offer comic relief in the form of spunky adventurers who use their wits to turn the tables on adversaries with daunting powers." (pg. 183)  I loved the story of Little Thumbling because it allowed the weakest, most sickly child to overcome his disabilities and save the remaining six children.  The main character used his brains to outwit the Ogre, who inadvertently kills HIS daughters rather than the boys.

Now, to the readings that described the various "Posts".  It did clarify "Postmodernism" and made "Postcolonialism" easy to understand, yet I am still confused on "Poststructuralism".  According to "The Bedford Glossary", the goal of poststructuralist theorists "is to understand what controls interpretation and meaning in all possible systems of signification." (pg. 402)  What exactly does that mean?  And how does it differ from Structuralism?

Anyway, I really enjoyed learning about Postcolonialism and how it developed.

My "Has-Been Life" in 1850.

I start this blog saying "has-been", because at my current age (45), I would have already given birth to seven or eight children, losing one or two to disease or accident (the infant mortality rate in 1850 was 22%).  I probably wouldn't even be around, as the average age for a woman in 1850 was 39.5 years of age.  So...if I'm still around, I'm living in a state in its infancy (Texas became a state in 1845), and I'm probably teaching my grandchildren how to sew and preserve food.  I will never have the experience of using a sewing machine, riding a bicycle, or learning the conveniences of plastic, as these were all invented after 1850.  My skirts will continue to widen at the bottom with with invention of the crinoline (just look at prom pics from the 1980s and you'll know what I'm talking about), and I'll fret over my grandchildren migrating to the big cities to work in the new industries being developed thanks to the combustible engine. 


I will have never worked outside the home, nor would I have wanted to.  My children and grandchildren will possess this desire thanks to women role models like Florence Nightengale. 

A Perfect World

Here is my list.  I can't help but think that we should leave the world alone.  God made it this way, and allows the problems to persist for a reason.  Anytime you change things, there are going to be implications.

1. The world would be void of greed and malice. Theft and war would no longer prevail.

2. All environments, both land and sea, would become sustainable, providing enough food for the masses.

3. There would be no such thing as a communicable disease.
 
4. A cure for cancer would become accessible to all.

5. There would be no such thing as pollutants. Every substance manufactured would have a secondary use after the first use is depleted.