1. America’s “Cinderella” by Jane Yolen
By Group 16

2. Yolen’s Thesis
Yolen’s Thesis embodies the idea that the american cinderella has been so heavily commercialized and customized that it has now taken a divergent path from communicating the original story as a restoration of class and power. Instead, at least in the US, it is now simply continuing along a path that has lead to the commercial destruction of the story’s heart and soul portraying only a fairly helpless woman who is elvated to an elite by no effort or work of her own but instead is carried there on the backs of characters who are much more capable than she is.

3. Strong Claim
Yes, we agree with Jane Yolen’s main claim that says that America’s Cinderella is not to acculturate the readers, instead it is to fit the standards of the market in order to be able to sell a large quantity of books. Throughout her article she makes many statements that say that many parts of Cinderella have been accommodated to fit the market, and that the original version of the fairy tale is still the version that is mostly unread.
Do we agree with this? We believe that maybe it is not ok for the fairy tale to be changed so much only to be able to sell many books, but authors have to make a living somehow. Not only this, but American kids like this fairy tale it is what they have been used to and what they have been taught since they were babies.

4. How she supports her thesis
She uses examples such as the mice or the animals in general from Disney’s version, notably when discussing the scene in which her dress is torn to shreds by her sisters. She points that Cinderella herself did nothing to prevent it or to make it but instead it was the result of everyone elses actions that crafted the dress and her passivity that lead to it’s destruction.

5. How she supports her Thesis
On the mass marketing scale she compares the changes made in the past to story content, which seemed to have had a meaningful change, to what she now calls “gimmicks” more in the story telling than changes in the story. Claiming that these commercialized stories are directly responsible for the simplification of the tale.

6. Original Cinderella Posterdc
In this 1950’s advertisement of the “Cinderella” movie, you can see how they use the tail in a way to appeal to the American audience. It describes it as a love story that depicts happiness, love , and laughter. It does not show us the original meaning of the fairy tale “the persecuted heroine”. This is an example of commercializing the tale.

7. Supporting the Thesis cont.
“All the folk tales have been gutted. But none so changed, I believe, as "Cinderella." For the sake of Happy Ever After, the mass-market books have brought forward a good, malleable, forgiving little girl and put her in Cinderella's slippers. However, in most of the Cinderella tales there is no forgiveness in the heroine's heart. No mercy. Just justice.”
Like with the cap’o rushes she compares and contrasts a strong hardy cinderella determined and active in her life with the modern one who is rather bland and passive.
Here Yolen describes how the mass media has gutted and changed the true meaning of the Cinderella tale for the masses. In order to better give a good fantasy with a “Happily Ever After” ending.

8. Supporting the Thesis
“She suffered a sea change, a sea change aggravated by social conditions.” Yolen means:
That in many ways, after the story was made literary, the character was changed from the original tale, she was changed for the audience to project upon. In which the audience here is americans. A tale which is commercialized to catch our generations attention.
Which is why we project or interpret the tale as a rise to riches as opposed to the original Return to riches.

9. Looking back at what we’ve discussed in class...
Cinderella itself is a tale which has became so popularized with the American population and has became an icon or THE princess fairy tale. As stated in the article, "In 1949, Walt Disney's film Cinderella burst onto the American scene. The story in the mass market has not been the same since." We've discussed how in the Disney theme parks the castle is seen as Cinderella's & she is also depicted as the so called "leader".

10. While looking for pictures for our presentation I found it interesting that when googling "1800s woman victorian gown", half way down the page was the picture of a blonde with the typical Cinderella gown with a side description on the side that said "THE princess gown". This is yet another example of how the ideal princess or woman at the time had to look a certain way or as in the Cinderella tale, fit a certain shoe. From the glass slipper to the ridiculously tight corsets, we see that a woman had to fit a certain shape to be that "perfect" woman.

11. Another thing that was mentioned in the article was "The mass-market American "Cinderellas" have presented the majority of American children with the wrong dream." But what is the wrong dream? Whether this message was done intentionally or maybe just the outcome of the mass marketed Cinderella tale. The message that is being projected to children is to be that “passive princess” or “insipid beauty waiting… for Prince Charming”, in other words being a bland person and waiting for things to come to you or depending on someone else will be what will be alow you to suceede or achieve such goals and dreams.