Reference no: EM133641080

Instruction:

For the Learning Journal Entry itself, please reflect on the process of creating your Fractured Fairy Tale What were the successes and challenges of this project? What inspired you about this work? How did it deepen your understanding of the ideas and content we're exploring in this class?

Peer 1:

For my creative project, I took a different approach to the Cinderella story, using it to delve into the idea of class warfare. I created a poster and wrote a letter to the villagers, addressing the ongoing class struggles in our community. The poster called for a boycott of the ball, citing recent events like the increasing cost of living.

The biggest challenge I encountered was developing a storyline that captured the essence of the class disparities I wanted to highlight. I found inspiration in the paradox of a grand ball attended by ordinary villagers, juxtaposed with the challenging lives led by individuals like Cinderella in our everyday reality. The stark contrast between the opulence of palace life and the struggles of town residents also fueled my creative vision, drawing parallels to the evident divide between the rich and the poor, a phenomenon still observable today, as seen in events like the Met Gala.

In translating this narrative into a poster, I wrote a story where Cinderella takes on a proactive role, urging others to boycott the ball and participate in a march. This decision granted agency to characters traditionally portrayed as passive, like Cinderella and the townspeople.

The theme of class division is subtly woven into the background of Cinderella's tale. It resonates as a timeless reflection of the challenges faced by many in their everyday lives. Engaging in this creative project deepened my understanding of how fairy tales can be a powerful lens through which we view and discuss real-life issues.

Peer 2:

For my fractured fairy tale, I created a jukebox musical about the Evil Queen's perspective of Snow White, as commentary on society's perception of women's emotions. A jukebox musical is a musical that is written using pre-existing, popular songs rather than original music.

When reading stories, I naturally tend to relate the plot lines and characters to the lyrics of songs I know. This is what inspired me to jukebox musical. Since I explored the concept of female emotionality and the societal stereotypes that come with it, I related a majority of the plot lines back to female artists that I love.

The successes of this project involved the relatability of the songs to the plot of the fractured story. I feel that the chosen songs perfectly capture the story, and enrich the experience of its main character. However, it was sometimes a struggle to find these songs. Some songs I naturally thought of when thinking of the Evil Queen's perspective of the story, but others required quite a bit of search. The process of finding a song to represent a plot line involves deep critical and creative thinking, and at times it was quite the undertaking. The process definitely deepened my understanding of the course content, as it forced me to look at connections between the Grimms' stories and modern-day storytelling through music. It shows how the concepts that the Grimms portrayed many years ago are still portrayed in modern art. Furthermore, through fracturing the fairy tale and looking at traditional stories through new perspectives, it broadened my perception of what messages the Grimms were portraying. In class, we viewed how Snow White represents American ideals and the patriarchy - it is interesting to see how, through focusing on new characters, we can explore new commentary and discourse such as society's perception of women's emotions.

(I attached the PowerPoint)

Peer 3:

For my Fractured Fairy Tale, the popular fairy tale that I chose to fracture was Jack and the Beanstalk. I created a short story where I oriented the narrative of the fairy tale to depict the story of Colonization where Jack represented the European colonizers and the Giants represented the victims of such heinous actions. In the story, Jack "discovered" the riches of the land of the Giants; one that's far away, and in the end, invites mankind to follow him up the beanstalk to seize the Giants' land and their valuables. Some of the success that I had on this project was the initial planning and creative work that went into fracturing the Beanstalk. I also had success in writing most of the story itself. However, the greatest challenge in this project that I believe I overcame was writing the story to specifically depict colonization without using blatant terms such as colonization or displacing. Nevertheless, I believe that I crafted the ending of the story to drive the point of colonization so that it should be clearly representative of its horrors. What inspired me about this work is how I've always been a great fan of Jack and the Beanstalk and it's magical and fantastic world. I took the opportunity to include new aspects to the story not depicted before, enabling a broader and richer world. I also wanted to reframe the idea that Giants are always malevolent and evil creatures. I found that the duality between the Colonizers' perception of their victim and their victims' true nature was one that I wanted to explore and represent through the Giants given how they are almost always initially perceived as monsters. This project deepened my understanding of fairy tales and much of the content being explored in this class. I was able to attempt to build upon a magical world myself and create meaning in characters and narrative. It was rewarding to create meaning in illustrating such a tragic story in a narrative that fit the mold so perfectly; the Giant's being perceived as horrible creatures with incredible riches of which humanity wishes to rid them of.