The Brothers Grimm Fairytales

Rapunzel, Cinderella, Hansel and Grethel, and The Frog King
By: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html

Summary

The story I will be summarizing is Rapunzel, which is my favorite out of all the Brothers Grimm fairytales. There was a man and woman who were expecting their first child; they lived next door to a witch. The woman grew to crave the rapunzel the witch grew in her garden and thought she would surely die if she could not have some. So, the husband would steal some for her to eat and then one day he got caught. The witch declared that if he wanted to keep taking rapunzel then he would have to give her his firstborn child when they were born. The man agreed. When the baby was born, the witch took her and named her Rapunzel. When Rapunzel came of age, the witch locked her in a tower and came to visit her often. Rapunzel would let her long hair down out the window and the witch would climb it. One day when the witch came, a prince witnessed her climbing Rapunzel's hair and he decided that he would do it. So after the witch left, he climbed her hair, Rapunzel was surprised, but she and the prince soon fell in love. The rest of the story progresses and rapunzel has all of her hair cut off by the witch, the prince has his eyes pricked out by thorns when he falls from the tower and he and rapunzel only meet each other and live happily ever after years later after the prince has wandered blindly and aimlessly in the desert.

Who would benefit from reading this story?

This is a classic fairytale and one of my favorites despite being a little graphic. I think anyone would benefit from reading this story because it teaches good morals in a way that is easy for people to understand.

What problems do you see this book potentially causing?

As I mentioned above, the story gets a little graphic/violent in a place or two. The witch is particularly cruel and this might disturb some younger readers.

What was your reaction?

I LOVE the story of Rapunzel, and I love it so much because I can identify with it. This is because of Rapunzel's long hair. I have really long hair and when I was in high school, it was even longer than it is now. Rapunzel was one of the nicknames that my friends had given me.