Rapunzel Vs The Root Of The Matter

Fairy tales are a part of childhood. They go back through time depicting magical images of happy children, love stories, beauty, wealth and perfection. Authors, movie and film creators, artists and more draw beautiful images for people to remember and pass on through time. Many times the ugliness of the villains and the horrors that come into play throughout a fairy tale are often not as advertised. However, after careful analysis it is very clear that both authors of the original “Rapunzel” and its retell “The Root of The Matter” by Gregory Frost do not shy away from these evil aspects through their tales, while still capturing the magical moments that make a fairy tale memorable. The Root of the Matter fits the Rapunzel tradition with both

In the original fairy tale “Rapunzel” it states, “She decided to do all that she could to protect the girl. Therefore, she used her magical powers to create a high silver tower in the middle of the forest, and this tower did not have a door through which one could enter and exit, but it did have a small window toward the top”( Schulz 485). And from the fairy tale “Root of The Matter” it states that, “We live on three floors at the top of the lighthouse; the rest is bricked up. For companionship now I have screening gulls and a wide plain of ocean that glistens day and night. Sometimes objects float by, far away. They never come close. Never. I’m the only means available for coming or going in this tower” (Frost 399). Both girls had long beautiful braided hair by which the mothers were able to climb up to see and take care of their daughters. Both the fairy and Mother Gothel ask rapunzel to let down her her hair whenever they needed to go up or down. In the original fairy tale “Rapunzel” it states, “When she stood at the bottom of the tower, she would always say, “Rapunzel, let your hair down so I can climb up” (Schulz 486). In the retelling “The Root of The Matter” it states, “Whenever she wants to go out, Mother Gothel touches me and says into my ear, “Rapunzel, let down your hair now” (Frost 399). This shows that the only one who

One of the biggest differences is how the two fairy tales begin. In the original fairy tale “Rapunzel” it started off as a love story. “Two young people who were in love with one another were finally able to become man and wife after they had overcome some objections to their relationship by their relatives. They were extremely delighted by this and lived together like two happy doves” (Schulz 484). On the contrary, the beginning of the “Root of The Matter” begins with the tragic memory of being molested as a child by a father. It states, “That being at the core of the wretched life i’d abandoned, it didn't make much sense that i'd ever go back again. Nice, liver-spotted daddy seated on the far side of the cranberry sauce that's lumped in its bowl like somebody's heart, is the same daddy who hoisted my slick pink bottom bubbles and spread me with his thumbs and tore out the childhood in me” (Frost 394). The theme of being molested continues throughout the tale of the “Root of The Matter”, when it refers to Mother Gothel and the way that she bathed rapunzel her whole life. “Mother gothel lathered me as she has done since I was a child. She spends a great deal of time washing between my legs, and I've always let her. It felt so rapturous. Now, though the sensations the same. I've no desire to let her enjoy me- that is what she does, why