A Kiss To Wake The Sleeper Essay

Overall, I didn’t enjoy this story, even though I tend to like modern adaptations. For one thing, I liked the adaptation in Folk & Fairy Tales called Sleeping Beauty and the Airplane, it had a cute vibe to it. Anyway, there are a few reasons why I didn’t care for A Kiss to Wake the Sleeper. In short, the story was strange especially towards the end. In the beginning, I didn’t have any problems except for the fact I didn’t realize it was an adaptation until I saw ‘sleeper’ on page 413. To be honest, I didn’t see the title that would have clued me in that this was a Sleeping Beauty adaptation, but that’s not the point. However, one of my points is that the transition between talking about SCID to nuns and castles felt strange - it caught me off guard.

Maybe fairy tales work better when set in a forest or in the past; that’s where magic and mystic element appear.

In any case, our protagonist is kind of unusual; I’m not pertaining to the fact she is neither sleeping beauty or the prince that awakens sleeping beauty. I actually find that to be an interesting to bring in a random person to the Sleeping Beauty tale. Despite that, I’m discussing the part where she is observing the sleeper and she checks to see if the sleeper is developed in the hair department. I questioned to myself, “Who does that, especially since she doesn’t know the girl?” I managed to answer my own question by saying that she has been in a bubble all her life, she probably doesn’t know how people act in the real world. Checking people’s privates and development is not a part of societal rules. As the story progresses it isn’t that bad until the ending when the princes are trying to get to the castle. I don’t understand why the prince’s instinct after the sleeper didn’t wake up, was to assault her while she slept. That is the main problem for me with some of the Sleeping Beauty tales is the strong predatory and rapacious personality in the men that makes them rape the

sleeper. However, the part that upset me the most was the fact that the sleeper gives into what he was doing. As I read that part that started on page 421, I turned my head to the side in confusion and disgust. I couldn’t fathom this, then the protagonist seemed to be into it as well which added to my bewilderment. Another thing about these characters that had me raising a brow was the fact that the narrator appeared to be invisible to the sleeper and the prince. I don’t think it’ll be easy to have intercourse while a girl in a corner is getting pleasure from the act. I don’t know, the ending of this adaptation confused me and made me abandon reading the story at the absurdity of it. Maybe the author wanted the reader to feel the way I felt by making the sleeper wake up during the assault and all the other things that ticked me off.