This week we have left behind our princesses and little girls in red hoods off to visit their grandmothers, and moved on to the story of Hansel and Gretel, yet another classic fairy tale from my childhood. The image above is the cover of the first version of the book I read as a child. What made this story so special and different for me was it was one of the first times I was exposed to the idea of the girl coming to the rescue instead of the boy.
In the world of fairy tales, the female heroine actually performing the defining act of heroism is pretty rare. It is much more common to see the character saving the day be a male, while the female serves as his reward for doing so. Gretel is completely refreshing in this sense. She saves Hansel, her brother, not because she will gain marriage to a prince or riches or some kind of magical item. She saves Hansel simply because he is her brother and in danger from the witch.
Even more impressive, is Gretel begins the story a frightened girl dependent on her brother to lead. Her character's progression is nicely summed up by Marcia R. Lieberman in the essay, "Some Day My Prince Will Come: Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale", where Ms. Lieberman states: "Gretel does perform the decisive action at the end, but for the first half of the story she is the frightened little sister, looking to her brother for comfort and help."
This was an awesome and powerful lesson to teach children (especially girls) reading fairy tales. ANYONE can be the hero - even the girl! And you do not need to start out as the hero; Gretel didn't. She adapted and grew as the situations around her changed.
There may not have been princesses and castles and magic spells in this fairy tale, but it was spell binding to me nonetheless.
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