This summary provides an overview of the document in 3 sentences: This honors project examines how food functions symbolically in various versions of popular Western fairy tales such as "Hansel and Gretel," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Rapunzel," and "Snow White." The project begins by introducing the topic, providing definitions of key terms, and outlining the methodology. The author analyzes different versions of tales in relation to tale types and motifs related to food, consumption, gender, and social relationships to uncover new meanings and cultural insights. Tables were created as part of the research process to map and analyze how food is portrayed across versions of the selected fairy tales.

1. Feasting in Fairy Tales
A Seniors Honors Project Presented to the
Faculty of the Department of English,
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For a Bachelor of Arts with Honors
By
Shelby Giese
12 May 2014
Committee:
Cristina Bacchilega, Mentor
Glenn Man
Kristin McAndrews

2. Giese i
Acknowledgments
I would first like to thank Professor Glenn Man and Professor Cheryl Narusse for
pushing me to look into and apply for the Honors Program. If they had not recognized my
potential and urged me to challenge myself this project would never have crossed my
mind. Next, I greatly appreciate all of the time my mentor, Dr. Cristina Bacchilega, set
aside to have frequent discussions about all the ideas bouncing around in my head. Her
constant emails and encouragement kept me motivated, and her high standards enabled
me to tap into my full potential and blossom as a writer. Thank you Kristin McAndrews
for our interesting conversations about food studies, and for the numerous books I was
able to borrow. I am also thankful for my Honors 495 peers and professor, Dr. Lori
Yancura, for helping me shape my broad ideas into a narrow topic, and giving me some
much needed confidence when it comes to presenting in front of a room full of people.
Lastly, I’d like to thank my parents for listening to me complain about how stressed I was
over the course of this research.

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Abstract
Focusing on food in fairy tales provides insight into material conditions, food
trends, class and other power relations, and human behavior of the time period that the
tale began circulating. Literature is an important portal to understanding cultural
expectations and challenges, so by analyzing one (food) within the other (literature), a
multitude of overlooked information becomes available regarding individual and
collective human behavior. This project focuses on how food functions in various
versions of popular Western European fairy tales—commonly known as “Hansel and
Gretel,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Rapunzel,” and “Snow White”— and uses
contemporary film adaptations to demonstrate how fairy tales continue to permeate
mainstream culture.
Key Terms: cannibalism, consumption, cooking, fairy tales, food studies, sexuality

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements………………………………………………….…………….…….. i
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………...…….. ii
I. Introducing Food in Fairy Tales: Questions, Definitions, and Method…………... 5
II. Cannibalism and Cooking in an Enchanted Forest………………………..……...13
A. Background……………......................................................................................13
B. Hansel and Gretel” The Brothers Grimm (1819)………………............…….13
C. “Hop O’ my Thumb” Charles Perrault (1697)…………………….………...17
D. “Vasilissa the Beautiful” Post Wheeler (1912)……………………….………20
E. Henjel gwa Geuretel (2007)…………………………………………..…………23
III. Ingestion and Trickery in “Little RedRiding Hood”…………………...……….28
A. Background…………………………………………………………..……..28
B. “The Story of Grandmother” Paul Delarue (1885)……………....………29
C. “Little Red Hat” Christian Schneller (1867)……………………….……..33
D. “The Chinese Little Red Riding Hood” Isabelle C. Chang (1965)………36
E. Hard Candy (2005)…………………………………………………….……39
IV. Good versus Bad……………………………………………………………………43
A. Background……………………………………………………………….…43
B. “Rapunzel”: Giambattista Basile, Brothers Grimm, Marina Warner….44
C. “Snow White” Brothers Grimm (1884)……………………………………48
V. Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………..53
Appendix………………………………………………………………………………...57
Works Cited……………………………………………………………………..………75

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I. Introducing Foodin Fairy Tales:Questions, Definitions, and Method
The most obvious ways in which fairy tales are integrated into daily lives today in
the USA are through children’s storybooks read before bedtime and in kindergarten
classes, the film industry, and princess-themed birthday parties. But the power of fairy
tales is not limited to childhood as several media and cultural forms pay tribute to the
genre. Most notable would be the Disney Empire, which has expertly commodified the
fairy tale into global amusement parks (Disneyland and Disneyworld) that lure visitors
with the promise of transporting them to the most magical place in the world, where
“dreams really do come true.” Many adults have memories of watching the happily-ever-
after endings in Disney films where “classic” tales such as “Snow White” were
transformed through extreme editing in preparation for their movie debut; and many have
worn a costume commemorating the fairy-tale characters that these films promote. Fairy
tales have become so part of the ordinary that their extraordinary characteristics are
commodified while the oldest versions endure more revisions and sanitation.
More recently in contemporary times, tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood”
have been reconstructed into films like Hard Candy (2005), Red Riding Hood (2011), and
even into television commercials promoting Cheerios. Within the past five years
television shows like ABC’s Once Upon A Time and NBC’s Grimm have aired that are
influenced by and pay tribute to classic fairy tales. On Pintrest, a website filled with
projects and interests, there are 137 pins (uploads or posts) dedicated to fairy tale inspired
art, demonstrating how fairy tale elements are creatively incorporated by the community.
ABC has also created an interactive website, Re-Enchantment, which allows consumers
to access several versions of tales, to explore fairy-tale origins and historical information

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through interviews and commentaries, and to experience different art forms portraying
fairy tales. Fairy tales are embedded throughout our daily lives as adaptations that
maintain identifiable core concepts of the tale, or reproduce iconic moments or images in
fairy tales. A red poisoned apple in a film or commercial instantly conjures associations
with “Snow White,” a red cloak or a wolf with “Little Red Riding Hood,” and a
delectable gingerbread house in the middle of a forest with “Hansel and Gretel.”
Like mainstream culture, scholars also have a fascination with fairy tales; and the
academic study of fairy tales, which ranges from investigations of origins to sexual
implications, has resulted in the institutionalization of fairy-tale studies since the 1980s.
However, while the iconic fairy-tale images of food and consumption I just mentioned
suggest that there is much to gain by studying food in fairy tales, this is not an aspect of
the tales that has been deeply explored. My interest in thinking about food in literature
coupled with the fascination of Western fairy tales motivates this research and study.
With scholars pointing out that food in literature is not something that should be
overlooked; I have found that this area of scholarship has been developing as a field.
Gaye Poole, an expert in food and performance, suggests that “because food is so
embedded in life … and therefore may be taken for granted—the multiplicity of
meanings generated by its inclusion may not always be fully conscious” (qtd. in Aoyama
7). Focusing on food provides insight into material conditions, food trends, class and
other power relations, as well as into human behavior. According to the historian John C.
Super in the journal article “Food and History,” “food is the ideal cultural symbol that
allows historians to uncover hidden levels of meaning in social relationships” (165).
Literature is also an important portal to understanding cultural expectations and

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challenges, so by analyzing one (food) within the other (literature), a multitude of
overlooked information becomes available regarding individual and collective human
behavior. To provide a rather extreme example, cases of famine in the 16th and 17th
centuries led families in Europe to participate in the extremes of child abandonment or
even cannibalistic consumption of family members who could not make a contribution
(Tatar, Hard Facts 140). These historic incidents may have been embellished in the well-
known tale “Hansel and Gretel,” where the children are abandoned in a forest and preyed
upon by an evil witch. In addition, bread serves as a prominent food source in the tale,
and is a reflection of the historical realities of this time period, thus demonstrating the
correlation between food, literature, and society.
Given the way food functions more generally in society as a means of
socialization and acculturation, it is not surprising that within the past twenty years there
have been numerous explorations of the importance of food in children’s literature. In the
article “Gingerbread Wishes and Candy(land) Dreams: The Lure of Food in Cautionary
Tales of Consumption,” scholar Susan Honeyman discusses how food is used as a form
of manipulation and barter in children’s literature and how it also illustrates cultural
expectations and challenges. Published in 2009, Critical Approaches to Food in
Children’s Literature contains a range of articles that examine food and its uses in
relation to Global/Multicultural/Postcolonial perspectives by scholars such as Jacqueline
M. Labbe, Holly Blackford, and Robert M. Kachur. Even though there are numerous
available texts on food in children’s literature, the specific genre of fairy tales has
received little attention in regards to food analysis. Why is this, when fairy tales are such
an integral part of childhood and parenthood? Fairy tales “capture psychic realities so

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persistent and widespread that they have held the attention of a community over a long
time” (Tatar, Hard Facts xvi); so wouldn’t the study of food in these narratives be a
potentially rewarding area of scrutiny? Not only do fairy tales allow us to escape present
situations into a fictional reality full of enchantment and magic, they do so by bringing to
life wishes of a house made of candy along with fears of being eaten by a wolf.
But what am I calling a fairy tale? While the genre is volatile and fluid and may
be difficult to establish a definitive definition of “fairy tale,” it is important before I go
any further to establish a set of parameters specific to this research. Fairy tales evolved
from folktales that, it is generally agreed upon by folklorists, are fictional oral narratives
“that have survived for significant periods of time in popular tradition by being passed on,
from storyteller to storyteller, both spatially across cultures and communities, and
temporally from generation to generation” (Teverson 12). Folktales typically describe an
aspect of a group’s traditions, whether it is their knowledge, beliefs, aspirations, or
aspects of everyday life. Not only do folktales entertain, they educate and caution
audiences about acceptable behaviors and social expectations. A subgenre of folktales is
the fairy tale, which starting in the sixteenth century “appropriated oral folktales and
created new ones to reflect upon rituals, customs, habits, and ethics, and simultaneously
to serve as a civilizing agent” by instilling a moral lesson that often represented
aristocratic or middle-class values (Zipes, Happily Ever After 3). Scholars like Andrew
Teverson and Jack Zipes agree that, unlike the folktale, fairy tales contain an element of
magic such as the enchanting spells of a witch or a talking animal, and that typically in
fairy tales crossing a threshold (enchanted forest) transports the characters and reader
from the ordinary to the extraordinary, which is however not experienced as such in the

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world of the tale. Magic is the most defining element of a fairy tale, but magical beings
and events are approached in a matter-of-fact way; normal rules and rationality do not
apply—thus demanding that the audience suspend disbelief. Through the use of magic,
fairy tales address latent longings, hopes, fears, and anxieties of the common person in an
imaginative way, which makes the tales adaptable and appealing across cultures and
generations. As a genre, fairy tales are extremely versatile. There is a wide range of
stories that have been classified by some scholars as fairy tales, such as Lewis Carol’s
Alice in Wonderland. Although many tales do not appear superficially to be a fairy tale,
they all take advantage of one important aspect of fairy tales: the acceptance of
extraordinary and unbelievable qualities as real life by the characters and audience.
In addition to magic and suspension of disbelief, other characteristics of the fairy
tale depend on its history. Due to the versatility of fairy tales and their circulation in
many versions, we could say that they are anonymously authored and collectively owned,
with prominent writers such as Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm serving more as
adaptors or collectors who shaped oral narratives into popularized printed texts. During
this process, many features were edited or deleted. One aspect of fairy tales that is
commonly overlooked is that they originally were intended to entertain adult audiences,
which means that the earliest printed tales—before they became part of children’s
literature—are much more violent, and sexual than the ones most people are familiar with
today. However, some scholars argue that these unedited tales are the stories that most
accurately reflect the desires and fears of the communities they emerged from.
My study will examine tales that maintain their grotesque and not-for-children-
only features and focus on food and consumption in them. Most of the versions of the

10. Giese 10
tales I will analyze are of German, French, and Italian origins, and were recorded
between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. They are also tales that continue to
permeate contemporary popular culture, especially as films, and so my analysis extends
into present-day adaptations as well. And because of my focus on food and consumption,
I discuss specific tale types and motifs.
Tale types, as a concept and research tool in folklore studies, will be used to
organize two sections of this research. The term “tale type” is related to the ever-evolving
Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) index—a classification system for folk and fairy tales.
According to the entry on tale types by Hans-Jörg Uther in the Greenwood Encyclopedia
of Folk and Fairy Tales, tales belonging to a tale type contain similar content, parallel
narrative structures, and specific combinations of motifs that retained consistency over
time and space (938). Antti Aarne, a Finnish folklorist, developed the numeric system to
organize his catalogue of the subgenres of folktales such as animal tales, ordinary tales,
tales of magic, and anecdotes and jests (Uther 939). For the purpose of this project, tale
types refer to recurrent components, whether they are plot structures, character
relationships, or clusters of motifs. For example, based on recurrent components, scholars
agree that a number of stories are versions of “Hansel and Gretel” and can be grouped as
belonging to a tale type, ATU 327. It is important to note that the concept of “tale type”
is flexible; this flexibility allows users of the ATU system a degree of manipulation when
it comes to examining and grouping tales depending upon the author’s intent. Thus I will
consider a version of ATU 313H in relation to ATU 327 because they share significant
food- and consumption-related components. The final section of my thesis focuses on
“motifs” instead of tale types. Motifs are recurring elements and, specifically in folktales,

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they are recognized “characters, themes, concepts, and actions that can be in mix-and-
match combinations which are the building blocks of a narrative” (Conrad 645). For
example, some common motifs in “Hansel and Gretel” are parents abandon children,
birds eat a crumb trail, a house made of cake or bread appears, and a cannibal fattens up a
child—all elements that do not pertain to this tale type alone.
In the process of mapping and analyzing various versions of fairy tales, I will be
highlighting food in specific tale types as a key element and interpreting it through
different frameworks, focusing on gender associations, narrative structures, and social
relationships. Section I explains the motivating factors driving this project, and why the
creation of tables was a useful step in my research process. Sections II and III of my
thesis will focus on specific tale types—ATU 327: The Children and the Ogre and ATU
333: The Glutton— while section IV explores motifs across tale types that relate to food
and ingestion. The last section will contain my conclusions. My study, I hope, will
expand on current analyses of specific fairy-tale types by creating new portals of
investigation.
In order to call attention to food in various tale types, I first chose the stories I
wanted to focus on. Children’s literature has always been interesting to me, and when
taking a “Folklore and Oral Tradition” course taught by Dr. Cristina Bacchilega I was
reminded of my childhood fascination with fairy tales. Most of the chosen tales are of
Western European origin because I am focusing on printed texts produced by the writers I
grew up reading, like the Brothers Grimm, and on very popular tales such as “Hansel and
Gretel” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” An immense amount of research and academic
literature has been produced about these two familiar tales, as well as plethora of films

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that reproduce their core fairy-tale images. In addition to reading criticism, I read several
versions of each tale type and organized their key plot components, motifs, and images in
tale type-specific tables.
As previously mentioned, at the start of this project I read numerous versions of
tales from many different origins before deciding on the specific tales to focus on;
therefore, all of the tables (see Appendix) make references to more versions of the tales
than I discuss in my paper. The tables are useful for a variety of reasons. First, the tables
offer a quick summary of the tales and serve as an easily accessible reference when trying
to remember specific variations in the tales, instead of having to reread each tale. The
tables also assist with comparing and contrasting certain elements of the tales like who
the mother figure is and what incidents of cannibalism occurred. Also, by having
different versions side by side I was able to determine which stories had enough elements
to be analyzed through a food perspective.

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II. Cannibalism and Cooking in an Enchanted Forest
A. Background
Motifs ever-present in the tale type ATU 327 The Children and the Ogre include:
parents abandon children in a forest, two trails are made and one is eaten, an ogre or
witch’s house lures the children, there is a threat of cannibalism, and the villain is
defeated. Antecedents of the well-known German version include Giambattista Basile’s
“Ninnillo and Nennella” (1632-36) and “Finette the Cinder Girl” (1721) by Madame
d’Aulnoy, which have key elements such as the laying of a trail that the Brothers Grimm
retained. In some versions, the reason for child abandonment is stated as being an
extreme measure to escape a horrible famine. During the seventeenth century, widespread
famine could drive people to desperate acts of child abandonment or even partake in
survival cannibalism, a term coined by anthropologists to describe how an “anomalous
famine will yield examples of people driven to eat human flesh for want of anything else”
(Tatar, Off 192). A new understanding of this tale type emerges by examining the lack of
food in the beginning of the tale, as well as the presence of specific foods once the
children cross the threshold of the magical enchanted forest.
B. “Hansel and Gretel” The Brothers Grimm (1819)
Today, one of the most well-known versions of this tale type in Western society
would be the fifth-edition version of “Hansel and Gretel” collected and edited by the
Brothers Grimm, which was embellished to make the tales more palatable to a younger
audience. Even though the tale underwent heavy editing by Wilhelm from the first
recorded manuscript to the fifth edition that has become a worldwide favorite —including
transforming the mother into an uncaring stepmother in order to make the story more

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child-friendly— there are “certain ‘primordial images,’ brother and sister as a pair,
witch, witch’s house, and the woods [that] are constantly used” (Zipes, Happily 46).
Previously, scholars including Zipes and Maria Tatar have explored the core meaning of
child abandonment in this tale. What happens to our understanding of the tale when the
presence or lack of food is shifted to the center-stage of analysis?
Starting with a literal reading of the tale, it becomes apparent that bread is the
main food source during this time and in this region. The Grimm Brothers began
collecting fairy tales in 1806 in order to preserve Germany stories from the domination of
French culture as a result of French invasion. As a result, the first manuscript of “Hansel
and Gretel” was transcribed by Wilhelm after his future wife, Henriette Dorothea
(Dortchen) told him the story. Within the first paragraph of the tale, the Brothers Grimm
justify the need to abandon the children because “in time of famine, there wasn’t even
enough bread to go around” (Hallett and Karasek 111). Aside from the few berries
Hansel and Gretel pick in the forest, no other source of food is mentioned except for
bread, consequently the famine leads to the lack of the only form of sustenance for this
poor family. Susan Honeyman, a scholar whose research focuses on childhood studies
and folklore, describes bread as being “a polyvalent object on which life, death and
dreams depend…[that] becomes a cultural object in impoverished societies,” so the lack
of bread in “Hansel and Gretel” is a believable and significant occurrence (197). A piece
of bread serves as the noonday meal for the children while they’re in the forest, and they
are given an even smaller piece the second time around. Bread is not only a form of
nourishment, but serves as a connection to civilization when Hansel strews crumbs on the
ground in hopes of creating a path to follow home. Unfortunately, the thousands of birds

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that symbolize betrayal, that dwell in the forest eat the path, leaving Hansel and Gretel
stranded and hungry.
Once the children cross the threshold of the forest into a magical realm, an
embellished form of bread appears. In this luminal space, they come across a “house
made of bread, and the roof was made of cake and the windows of sparkling sugar,” and
after the witch appears she earns the children’s trust with a “fine meal of milk and
pancakes, sugar, apples, and nuts” (Hallett and Karasek 114). For the first time in the tale,
Hansel and Gretel are presented with more than enough to eat. Then, the witch reflects on
how tasty a feast the children will be while admiring their plump red cheeks. Once the
witch’s intentions to eat Hansel are revealed, he continues to be served the best food,
while Gretel is made to work and survives on crayfish shells. The story comes full circle
towards the end, with the (fake) intention of baking bread, which results in the witch
being baked instead of Gretel.
Consumption is power, whether that consumption is the act of eating, or the use of
a person or land for a political purpose. In “Hansel and Gretel,” the adults in the story
hold all the power, while the children are helplessly dependent. An imbalance of power
results in deprivation of nourishment—physically and psychologically—for Hansel and
Gretel. At home, they are fed practically nothing because the bread is hoarded by the
working adults; as for psychological nourishment, the cold-hearted stepmother acts
aggressively towards the children as their father weakly fades into the background. The
only love Hansel and Gretel receive is the love they give each other. All power is in the
hands of the stepmother; she has cast a spell over her husband that makes him agree to
neglect his children, and she controls the rations of bread, therefore, the livelihood of the

16. Giese 16
family. Hunger can bring out the worst in people, and the lack of food can push people to
the extreme. The stepmother, concerned with her own well being, shows her true, selfish
colors when she rather abandon Hansel and Gretel before she allows herself to starve.
Although the children “were too hungry to sleep,” Hansel’s sensibilities are still intact, so
he is able to concoct a plan to find his way home with pebbles (Hallett and Karasek 111).
Furthermore, in contrast to the stepmother, Gretel is not overtaken by greed or selfishness
in the face of hunger, illustrated by her sharing her bread with her brother.
Even though Hansel and Gretel enter a magical realm, they do not escape the evil
influence of their stepmother. Many scholars have called attention to the parallel between
the stepmother and the witch, and Maria Tatar—an American academic whose expertise
lies in children’s literature—suggests “the stepmom who fails to nurture the children and
who drives them from home reemerges in the woods as a false provider, as a
cannibalistic-fiend masquerading as a magnanimous mother” (Hard Facts 72). One
indication of this mother-witch inversion is the repetition of calling Gretel “lazybones,”
first by the stepmother and then by the witch. Also, the witch portrays herself as a kind,
old woman by providing not only a delectable house of sweets, but also a delicious feast
for Hansel and Gretel; however, in reality she can hardly contain herself from salivating
over the smell of human flesh because “the cannibal seeks human bodies to eat, and the
desire for flesh generates escalating desires” (Root 9). Like the stepmother, the witch is
more concerned about her next meal rather than providing for the children. Although the
witch spends time fattening up only Hansel, her escalating desire for flesh pushes her to
try to consume Gretel as well. Unfortunately for the witch, this greediness clouds her
better judgment, allowing Gretel to deceive and defeat the cannibalistic witch.

17. Giese 17
` Despite the fact that Gretel has no dialogue in the tale, she is the character that
undergoes the most change and maturation. In the beginning she appears as a fragile girl
who needs Hansel’s constant soothing reassurance. However, once the children pass
through the threshold of the forest, Gretel acquires more agency as she “broke out a
whole round windowpane and sat on the ground to enjoy it” (Hallett and Karasek 114).
For the first time in the tale, she is content with her surroundings and is able to personally
satisfy her hunger. Under the witch’s instruction, Gretel is appointed the female-
associated task of cooking meals to fatten up her brother. Why is Hansel not cooking to
fatten up Gretel? It is because of patriarchal gender associations with food; men are to eat
and eat well, while women are to be in the kitchen serving up the food. In this particular
situation, cooking can be seen as an oppressive activity since every meal is one step
closer to her brother’s death; the joy of appeasing a loved one’s appetite is replaced by
the grief of fulfilling the villain’s cannibalistic desires. However, this experience elicits a
transformation within Gretel because the “acquisition of such knowledge [preparing
food/dish] marks a new stage of maturity and strength for girl(s) involved” (Rosenbaum
298). During this ordeal, Gretel finds an inner-strength and taps into her cunning
capabilities in order to lure the witch into the oven. Gretel is the heroine of the tale and is
able to free her brother as “the wicked witch burned miserably to death” (Hallett and
Karasek 115).
C. “Hop O’ my Thumb” Charles Perrault (1697)
Perrault’s version preceded the Brothers Grimm’s and contains a “matter-of-fact
acceptance of how commonplace the death of children had become in early modern
France” (Altmann and Vos 113). Similar to the Grimms’ version, a terrible famine has

18. Giese 18
struck the land, and rather than witness their children starve to death, the parents
solemnly agree to abandon their children in the forest. Although there is a path of
breadcrumbs, the image of bread—for the most part—is absent in Perrault’s version and
is replaced by the image of meat. Meat first appears in excess after the children are
abandoned and a debt is repaid, allowing the woodcutter’s wife to go to the butcher’s.
The image then transforms from animal meat to human flesh once the children arrive at
the house of a cannibalistic ogre, who eats babies and has the ability to smell fresh meat.
The ogre makes several references that allude to how the children are on par with animal
meat, such as “thinking of slaughtering at this hour?” and “I like my game well hung”
(Hallett and Karasek 108). “Slaughtering” and “game” are terms typically associated with
hunting animals like deer, not little boys. This language helps establish the ogre as a
beastly character who is hungry for human flesh, in opposition to the ogre’s wife, a
nurturing mother who attempts to hide the children and is overjoyed to cook supper for
the boys. Some fairy-tale experts, like Maria Tatar, argue that monsters can be
“hyperbolic representations of the selfish parents”; therefore, the woodcutter— the one
who instigated the abandonment of his sons—reemerges in the magical realm as the ogre
threatening the boys’ lives (Off 196). In addition, the ogre’s wife tries to protect the boys,
but inevitably, like the mother, the man’s authority outweighs her maternal instincts as
well. Perrault’s version adheres to the gender roles of this time period, while the Grimms’
version, as previously mentioned, disregards these roles as they persist in the nineteenth
century by portraying women as the dominant figures in the tale.
A reoccurring element in both tales collected by Perrault and the Brothers Grimm
is the worry of being eaten by wild animals. In “Hansel and Gretel,” the father dwells on

19. Giese 19
how “the wild beasts will come and tear them to pieces,” while Perrault mentions “they
heard the howling of wolves who had come to devour them” (Hallet and Karasek 107 and
111). The fear of being eaten not only foreshadows upcoming events, but also creates an
immense amount of irony in both tales. Today, many people have heard some variation of
this tale type and are therefore aware of the impending threat of cannibalism by some
type of monster in the forest. The audience’s knowledge of upcoming events creates
dramatic irony because the characters are concerned with wild animals, when in fact the
children should be mindful of deceitful, human-like creatures eating them up. Further in
the tale, the fear of being devoured by a wolf is replaced with the fear of being consumed
by a witch or ogre, who—ironically—initially seemed like a savior from the dangerous
creatures that dwell in the forest. The little boys in Perrault’s version naively believe the
ogre’s house is safer than remaining in the forest with the wolves “because the ogre
might take pity on us;” the ogre is humanized by the boys who assume he possess pity
and compassion (Hallett and Karasek 107). However, like the Grimms’ witch, the ogre is
the dangerous cannibalizing creature lurking in the forest; greedy for human flesh he
cannot even make it through the night without having the urge to slit the throats of “the
little lambs” (Hallet and Karasek 109). The word choice used to describe the boys as
“little lambs” also reiterates the ironic reversal of the beast from wolf to ogre.
Traditionally, wolves can be associated with the hunting and killing of lambs, cows, and
other herds, but in this case the ogre is the one to hunt (by smelling them out) and
(attempt to) kill a flock of boys. So, the worry of wolves in the beginning of the tale
foreshadows the threat of cannibalism by a different kind of fiend.

20. Giese 20
Unlike the Grimms’ version, Charles Perrault’s tale focuses on the image of meat
and flesh instead of bread. The fear of being eaten by a wild animal is present in both
versions of the tale, and language is used as a tool to intensify the threat of cannibalism
and the powerlessness of children.
D. “Vasilissa the Beautiful” Post Wheeler (1912)
As a version of Baba Yaga, “Vasilissa the Beautiful” is a Russian fairy tale that
pertains to the tale type ATU 313H: the child escapes the witch. Although the parallels
between “Vasilissa the Beautiful” and the two tales previously discussed are not as
apparent as the connections between the Grimms’ and Perrault’s versions, there are
certain motifs that make it possible to treat this as a related tale type and to analyze the
Russian tale as an applicable version. These motifs include a child meeting a witch in a
forest, abuse from a stepmother, and the threat of being eaten. Also, there are parallels
between the female character, Vasilissa, and Gretel when it comes to gender roles and
expectations. Unlike the versions redacted by the Brothers Grimm and Perrault, a famine
does not serve as the catalyst for the child’s abandonment and subsequent contact with a
cannibalistic villain; instead, it is more like a personal vendetta that sends Vasilissa to
Baba Yaga’s house. The stepmother despises Vasilissa for her beauty—a beauty that is
described with food-related language such as cheeks of blood and milk—and attempts to
find several ways to facilitate Vasilissa being devoured by Baba Yaga.
Baba Yaga, which translates to grandmother witch, is a dominant figure in
Russian folklore. She lives in a hut that sits on hen's legs, where the walls are made of
human bones with skulls on top. The gate around the hut has hinges made from the bones
of human feet and whose locks were jawbones set with sharp teeth. Needless to say, Baba

21. Giese 21
Yaga is a fearful creature that flies not on a traditional broomstick, but in a mortar and
uses the pestle as a rudder. If the description of her house does not make it clear, Baba
Yaga eats people as one eats chickens, and she revels in the taste of human flesh just as
much as she enjoys using bones to decorate. Like the ogre in “Hop O’ My Thumb,” Baba
Yaga is able to smell out the fresh meat of children, and cackles, “Foo! Foo! I smell a
smell that is Russian” (Wheeler). Although Baba Yaga is a powerful and fearful
cannibal, she cannot be in the presence of people who are blessed, which is how Vasilissa
escapes.
Like Gretel, Vasilissa is assigned the task of cooking meals by Baba Yaga. On
three separate occasions, Vasilissa cooks a supper that is portrayed as a feast, complete
with honey, kvass, and red wine. The first meal, there was enough cooked meat for three
strong men; the second, enough meat for four strong men; and the third time, there was
enough meat for five strong men. Why does each meal have an increase for how many
strong men it can feed? Compared to Gretel, Vasilissa gains a bit more domestic
knowledge with every meal she prepares, which contributes to her strength as a maturing
female. Each night, Baba Yaga ate every tidbit of the food, bones and all—not a
breadcrumb was wasted—while Vasilissa receives a small amount of cabbage soup, a
crust of bread, and a morsel of suckling pig, but the love and nurturing between her and
her doll is enough to sustain her life with meager quantities of food.
Many scholars have associated overeating with immorality and gluttony with bad
behavior, and these are characteristics that Baba Yaga exudes. Kara Keeling and Scott
Pollard, two scholars in the study of food in children’s literature, argue “eating too
much—or sometimes wanting to eat at all—stands as a marker for the child’s inherent

22. Giese 22
viciousness,” but in this case this viciousness is applied to Baba Yaga (Critical
Approaches 94). Not only does Baba Yaga hoard her food, but also is upset that she
cannot eat Vasilissa because she has completed all of the tasks Baba Yaga assigned.
These events suggest child-like tendencies (not sharing and being upset for not getting
what she wants) in Baba Yaga that are purposeful, making Keeling and Pollard’s
argument applicable to this situation. In contrast to Baba Yaga’s evil character and
greediness for food, Vasilissa remembers to save some of her small meal to share with
the doll, who is a prominent figure in the tale. This action illustrates Vasilissa as the
moral, innocent character of the tale. By giving the doll a little bit to eat and drink, the
doll comes to life and assists Vasilissa with chores, and protects her from stumbling upon
Baba Yaga’s when she is out in the forest. The story displays Vasilissa’s compassion and
nurturing abilities through her actions of saving parts of her meal to share with the doll.
Through feeding the doll, Vasilissa is essentially empowering herself because the doll
offers support, comforts the girl, and magically performs all the tasks Baba Yaga asks.
Without the doll, Vasilissa would not complete her chores, and therefore would be eaten
up; so, it can be concluded that feeding the doll is more important that feeding herself,
which is why she saves parts of her meal. If the doll does not come alive, Vasilissa will
not live either, so there is no point of nourishing a body that is doomed.
Another correlation between “Vasilissa the Beautiful” and “Hansel and Gretel” is
the way the stepmother and stepsisters are eliminated. In “Hansel and Gretel” the witch,
who is the stepmother refigured, is burned to death in an oven by Gretel. Similarly, the
eyes of the skull that Vasilissa brings home to light a fire look upon her stepmother and
stepsisters, and they are burned to ashes. Just like the witch, the evil women are cooked.

23. Giese 23
The endings of these tales are a perfect example of the saying, “Eat or be eaten.”
Vasilissa and Gretel had an obvious choice, become the killer or be killed, although
Gretel was directly involved in the burning as opposed to Vasilissa who unknowingly
instigated it. The villains of both tales are burnt to a crisp, eliminating all traces of evil
and any notion of possible consumption by the heroines. This guarantees that the heroines
cannot succumb to practices similar to the ones of their oppressors because the girls
cannot ingest or inherit the evil tendencies of the witch/stepmother.
E. Henjel gwa Geuretel (2007)
As a Korean horror and fairy-tale film, Henjel gwa Gueretel, portrays several
images that can be associated with the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel.” In the film, a grown
man named Eun-soon becomes disoriented and lost in a labyrinth-like forest after a car
accident. A little girl comes upon him and leads him with a glowing light to “House of
Happy Children,” a dreamlike and well-lit adoption/foster home where she lives with her
brother and sister. Elements of magic in the film include the creation of food, specifically
sugary sweets, thanks to the children simply imagining its existence, as well as the
transformation of humans into dolls and trees. The three children were abused and have
abandonment issues; thus they developed a habit of punishing adults who are “bad” with
various forms of death such as turning them into an inanimate object, cooking them into a
stew, or pushing them into an oven. As the film progresses, Eun-soon becomes aware of
the trauma the children have undergone in this institution that hypothetically should keep
them safe. The “father” of the original home abused the orphaned children and starved
them literally by denying food and emotionally by not providing the tenderness and
nurturing that is crucial during the developmental stages of children, as well as to the

24. Giese 24
overall happiness of humans. The children, who are still looking for a good father figure
and do not wish to see him go, trap Eun-soon in the house, and it is only after burning a
book containing the story “Hansel and Gretel” (which the children have used as a model
for ridding themselves of their abuser and also for envisioning the perfect life that the
tale’s ending suggests) Eun-soon awakens from what appears to be an intense dream at
the site of his car accident.
Within the film, the relationship between food and power is emphasized. Since
the children were denied food by the abusive father figure, their imaginations fill the void
with the production of extravagant foods in their “dream” home. For every meal, the
children produce cakes, cookies, and other sweets as figments of their imagination, which
is one major magical element in the film. Sugar is a source of delight and emblem of
unreachable promises for the children. They associate sweets with the perfect
childhood—a reward for good manners and a display of parental love and appreciation.
Food is not only a necessity for the body to survive, but is also a way of nurturing loved
ones. A delicious home-cooked meal fills the belly as well as warms the heart, and
illustrates how the cook is concerned with the well-being of the consumers. There is a
certain comfort that comes with eating a meal around a table full of family, and it is this
loving feeling that the children are denied. The three children in the film are constantly
searching for an idealized, cookie-cutter, parental figure but cannot find one that meets
their standards created by Life Magazine and fairy-tale stories; therefore, they are left
with an emptiness that is compensated for by the over-consumption of sugar—a food that
we think children endlessly desire, but cannot survive on. On the one hand, sugar is like a
drug that is used to obscure the realities of the children and forget the longing they feel

25. Giese 25
for a stable, caring adult. On the other hand, sugar serves as a form of manipulation.
Traditionally, adults use sweets as a form of temptation and control over child behavior,
but in this case it is the children who have the upper hand. The only food in the house is
produced thanks to the imagination of the children, so adults like Eun-Soon must
succumb to the wishes of the children and enter their fantasyland, or starve. This role
reversal is quite ironic because the children who long for a nurturing figure are the ones
that must provide for the adults, and it parallels the ending of the Brothers Grimm version
of “Hansel and Gretel,” in which the children have transformed from a burden to being
the providers as the father becomes dependent on his children’s new found glory and
wealth.
There are several elements within the film that stem from the fairy tale “Hansel
and Gretel.” As previously mentioned, the endless amounts of extraordinary sweets are
produced from simply imagining, a form of magic. This sugary food is also alluring like
the gingerbread house, and it is there to attract or distract in this case, but does not
necessarily provide sustenance for the body. Hansel and Gretel, malnourished both
physically and emotionally, leave their dysfunctional family, and once they come upon
the gingerbread house, they have false hopes of being fed and cared for. When Hansel
and Gretel realize they are in fact food for the witch, they must become cannibals, and
their interdependency as siblings enables them to survive. Within the film, the children—
who are also literally and emotionally starved— try to fight their nightmare by attempting
to establish a perfect family unit, complete with loving parents who nurture them.
However, in the process it is the children who have become like the witch who lures and
traps people in their home. They are striving to replace their horrid memories of “father”

26. Giese 26
with an adult figure that will nourish them physically and psychologically, and if the
adult expresses a desire to leave, then the children become monsters that punish the “bad”
adults out of fear of abandonment. A cycle of abuse is repeated, and the children are
unable to escape their trauma.
Due to their abandonment issues and lack of adult affection, the children respond
with violence and cannibalize the adult figures that failed them. A stew is prepared from
the flesh of adults who proved unsatisfactory to the children, and it is served to the new
arrivals, or potential parents. This form of consumption contrasts the general playful,
affectionate nature of consumption of human flesh, illustrated in the saying, “You’re so
cute, and I’ll eat you up.” However, whether the consumption is playful or dreary, it
stems from a desire to be in control of a person’s life. The physical consumption in the
film is an endless cycle, where the evil adults are eaten, digested, and incorporated as a
part of greater wickedness by the next set of bad adults. By feeding the bad with the
leftovers of evil, the children are issuing an immense amount of control through
containment of evilness in one physical body.
Eventually Eun-soon helps the children to reverse their fortune by showing the
children that he is not a bad person for wanting to leave. He explains he has his own
family to return to, and makes the children realize that although they do not have a
parental figure, they do not need one because they have each other. Through their whole
ordeal at the “House of Happy Children” they have always had one another to lean on for
protection, support, and love. Sibling relationships are a strong bond, especially during
times of hardship when there is no one else to depend on. Like Hansel and Gretel, the
children in the film break the cycle of disappointment and abuse by appreciating the

27. Giese 27
bonds that they do have, and although the film’s ending is quite ambiguous, one may
argue that together the children finally gain the agency to make themselves happy,
dependent upon one another rather than a parental relationship. Significantly, this break
through depends on the children’s rejection of the eat or be eaten logic.

28. Giese 28
III. Ingestion and Trickery in “Little Red Riding Hood”
A. Background
Perhaps the most popular fairy tale in the Western world, “Little Red Riding
Hood”—identified as tale type ATU: 333 The Glutton—is a cautionary tale that has
undergone several revisions to become the tale that is so well known and loved.
According to Ülo Valk in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales, a
cautionary tale is “a narrative that demonstrates the consequences of wrongdoing and
thus reinforces moral and behavioral norms. [They] tend to have unhappy endings” (170).
The cautionary tale “Little Red Riding Hood” (LRRH) began circulating “during the
Middle Ages in France, Tyrol, and northern Italy…warning against hostile forces
surrounding them; …portrayed as ogres, maneaters, wolves, or werewolves” (Altmann
and Vos 159). Several oral versions of this tale type were quite coarse with descriptions
of the little girl eating bits and pieces of grandmother; however, beginning with Perrault
and the Brothers Grimm the story has continued to be sanitized in print, deleting the
consumption of family members and the erotic exchange between wolf and girl. The tale
type ATU 333 typically includes motifs such as a wolf or other “monster” impersonating
the grandmother of a little girl—whom he meets as she is on her way to grandmother’s
house—in order to devour the child. In addition, there is an exchange between the wolf
and child that consists of “why what big (body part) you have.”
The most well known versions of LRRH are the two popularized by Charles
Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood” was the
first printed version, therefore shaping the ensuing literary tradition that centers on the
tale as a warning for women. In contrast to the three tales that will be discussed, the

29. Giese 29
Brothers Grimm changed the ending to include a male savior, who happily cuts
grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood out of the belly of the wolf and replaces them
with heavy stones. In doing so, the hunter has stripped the wolf of a hearty meal and fills
him fill of indigestible items. The Grimms also add a second exposure to a wolf that
demonstrates how Little Red Riding Hood has learned her lesson, and properly reacts to
the situation. Zipes argues that well into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the story
“continued being sanitized, with references to touching and swallowing deleted and
obedience stressed” in order to be more appealing to a wider audience of children
(Altmann and Vos 163).
Much of the vocabulary in “Little Red Riding Hood” can be applied to both food
and sexuality; therefore, food will be examined as the foreground, while the subtext of
sexuality will be in the background. A wolf is commonly the predator in this tale type,
sometimes interchanged with an ogre, werewolf, or in East-Asian tales a tiger, all of
whom have voracious appetites. Uncontrolled cravings of wolves—wolfishness—are
synonymous with gluttony, indicated by the popular parental warning of “Don’t wolf
down your food!” (Cashdan 79). But the term “appetite” has often been used to describe
sexual desires, and characters with such unquenchable needs are given masculine
qualities. A French version collected by Paul Delarue, an Italian version redacted by
Christian Schneller, (both of which were collected in the 19th century), Isabel C. Chang’s
Chinese version, and a film adaptation will be examined.
B. “The Story of Grandmother” Paul Delarue (1885)
“The Story of Grandmother” is a much more gruesome tale than the familiar
versions of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, and is “one of the fullest available texts

30. Giese 30
faithful to oral, peasant versions of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ [as it] was recorded in
France at the end of the nineteenth century” (Tatar, Off 37). A little girl is given the task
of taking a hot loaf and bottle of milk to grandmother. Along the way, the girl meets a
bzou, or werewolf, who takes advantage of her naivety to satisfy his raging appetite. The
werewolf arrives at grandmother’s, kills her, and instead of eating all of grandmother, the
werewolf puts some of her flesh and blood in the pantry. Once the little girl arrives, the
disguised werewolf instructs her to eat the meat and drink the wine off the shelf. The
ever-present refrain of “Why what big teeth you have/ All the better to eat you with my
child!” ensues while the werewolf salivates over the thought of devouring the girl. After
performing a striptease and throwing all her clothes into the fire, the little girl escapes the
jaws of the bzou by claiming she must go outside to relieve herself, and cleverly ties the
string, that the werewolf placed upon her ankle, around a tree. The little girl arrives
home, safely inside.
The catalyst of the bzou encounter with the little girl is bringing grandmother
food. A loaf of bread is made fresh for grandmother, which is indicated by the detail
“hot” loaf, meaning fresh from the oven. Bread was the staple food item during the
Middle Ages, and continued to be a crucial item well into the 19th century when this story
was collected, so the little girl is carrying the means of nourishment and survival for the
grandmother. It is important to note that unlike the gingerbread house in “Hansel and
Gretel,” the bread in LRRH is not cake-like and therefore is not a treat. The bread is hot
and freshly prepared as a means of sustenance as well as a form of nurturing the
grandmother. Although the bread is not enchanted and luring like the gingerbread house,
it does attract the attention of a werewolf, and unfortunately, the girl’s good deed of

31. Giese 31
providing food results in the demise of the grandmother, who becomes food when she is
butchered and partially consumed by the werewolf. What is more horrifying is that the
little girl naively eats the flesh and drinks the blood of her grandmother; even after a cat
warns her “A slut is she who eats the flesh and drinks the blood of her grandmother!”
(Hallet and Karasek 25). Although this form cannibalism is more disturbing than the
witch wanting to eat Hansel—due to the blood relationship between the consumer and the
consumed—the eating of flesh and drinking of blood is symbolic of the little girl’s
transforming maturity and reminiscent of the Christian ritual of communion. By ingesting
her grandmother, the little girl is embodying grandmother and her characteristics: she is
gaining the knowledge of the older woman, an understanding of what it means to be a
woman, and the power associated with creating a family to the third generation. In
addition, it is not uncommon in fairy tales for women in different generations to ingest
one another, with maturing girls eating their elders due to the “notion that fertility, being
a limited good, must quit older women to invest younger ones” (Haase 157). So,
consuming the grandmother serves as a ritualistic passage of the little girl to achieving
sexual maturity and remembering the practices of her grandmother.
The raw meat consumed by the girl reflects the cultural practices of 19th-century
France and her position in it. During this time, cooked meats were reserved for the
aristocratic class since cooking required more technology and resources. Meat was a
luxury item for peasants, but the middle class were able to afford raw meat and wine with
most of their meals (Tabler, “Food in France”). The little girl is often discussed as a
peasant girl, and perhaps she was so willing to eat the meat because it is a luxury that
should not be ignored. Also present is the influence of social norms—it is courteous to

32. Giese 32
eat what is presented to you. So, the expectation to be polite leads to the girl consuming
the food with no questions asked.
Popular criticisms of LRRH focus on the sexual maturation of the little girl. These
ideas can be expanded upon by highlighting the danger of being eaten. Instead of viewing
the striptease of the little girl as an erotic act, I suggest it is a form of meal preparation.
The bzou is like a hunter who has already trapped his prey and is imagining all of the
delicious possibilities for his meal; the little girl is like a turkey. Before the hunter can eat
the turkey, he must first clean the bird by removing the feathers; similarly, the werewolf
instructs the little girl to undress. Throwing the clothes in the fire is like throwing the
feathers in the trash because as the bzou says, “you don’t need them anymore” (Hallett
and Karasek 26). We can read this striptease as an expression of the little girl’s desire, as
Angela Carter does; but in addition to being seen as a sexual object or subject, the little
girl is simply the next meal to fulfill the werewolf’s insatiable hunger. The samples of
grandmother were not enough; the bzou must also consume the little girl to get his fix.
When perceived through the lens of food, the lust for the little girl’s body is not sexual,
but gluttonous.
The classic dialogue between the little girl and the werewolf calls attention to the
senses in relation to how we experience the body. Sight is apparent as the little girl
notices all of her grandmother’s odd, wolf-like characteristics such as the hairiness and
big shoulders. Touch emerges as the long nails that are better to scratch with. Hearing is
evident with those big ears the bzou has, and taste appears through the big mouth, which
is followed by the infamous line “All the better to eat you with, my child!” (Hallett and
Karasek 26). All of these senses contribute to the enjoyment of eating. There is the

33. Giese 33
aesthetic appeal of food (sight), which is why the werewolf has the little girl remove her
clothes to gaze upon his potential meal. Touch relates to texture of the food item, so if the
little girl appears firm this can be more desirable than someone who is fatty or old like
grandmother and therefore chewy. The sense of taste is an obvious link to enjoying food,
for without it, eating would be devoid of pleasure and would simply be a matter of
survival. However, smell is essential to experiencing flavor in combination with taste,
evident when a nose is congested and therefore all food that is eaten is lacking flavor.
What is ironic is that the sense of smell goes unnoticed by the little girl; and yet a wolf’s
snout is the most defining physiognomy and important feature when it comes to hunting
(Altmann and Vos 157). Perhaps the girl’s failure to perceive the nose is a reflection of
how taste and smell will not come together in the bzou’s experience of the little girl, for
she escapes and the bzou is left with her scent in his nose, but no taste on his lips.
The little girl is able to dodge the jaws of the werewolf through trickery. Although
the girl appears naïve and unaware at the beginning of the story (through telling a
stranger where she is going and not listening to the cat’s warnings), by the end of the tale
her cunning abilities and quick wit allow her to live another day. By ingesting and
digesting the grandmother, the girl has acquired knowledge and through this process is
becoming an adult female. In other words, the body of the grandmother has spared the
life of the girl, allowing her to grow more.
C. “Little RedHat” Christian Schneller (1867)
“Little Red Hat” is a Northern Italian version collected by Christian Schneller.
This tale varies from most LRRH stories in that an ogre replaces the wolf as the villain,
and grotesque details similar to “The Story of Grandmother” remain intact. Little Red Hat

34. Giese 34
sets out from a field to bring granny soup, and informs an ogre, whom she meets along
the way, that she is going to granny’s house across the stones. The ogre beats Little Red
Hat to the house, kills granny, eats her up, and ties granny’s intestine onto the door in
place of the latch and places the blood, teeth, and jaws in the cupboard. Just like
Delarue’s tale, Little Red Hat arrives hungry; she eats her granny’s teeth and jaws, drinks
her blood, and takes off her clothes to get into bed. There is the classic dialogue
exchanged between the ogre and child; however, when Little Red Hat mentions how big
granny’s mouth is the ogre responds, “That comes from eating children!” and swallows
the girl with one gulp.
The transformation of the villain from a wolf into an ogre is not surprising or
unjustified. The appetite of an ogre parallels that of a wolf—ravenous for meat—and is
apparent in many tales such as “Hop O’ My Thumb” and “Jack and the Beanstalk.” In
addition to similar cannibalistic desires, the ogre is described through the dialogue of this
particular version with physical attributes that resemble those of a wolf. First, as in
Delarue’s version, Little Red Hat notices how hairy grandmother is. This observation is
followed by several others about her long hands (compared to Delarue’s long nails), long
ears, and lastly a big mouth. If it were not mentioned in the story that this was indeed an
ogre, the physical description would lead most to assume the villain was another big bad
wolf. Is this variation significant? Not really, because both beasts are driven by their
desires for human flesh, and both creatures encompass the same fearful qualities and
beastly tendencies, like feeding the child her own grandmother’s flesh and blood.
A major difference between Schneller’s version and the LLRH’s most people
know today is that the ogre is brutally honest during the dialogue scene, but Little Red

35. Giese 35
Hat is too naïve or incompetent to notice. Little Red Hat will question something that is
unusual, and the ogre responds with a reoccurring structured phrase that is honest but not
understood by the naïve girl. An example is when Little Red Hat pulls on the latch to
enter the house, which the ogre has replaced with grandmother’s intestine:
‘Grandmother, this thing is so soft!’
‘Just pull and keep quiet. It is your grandmother’s intestine!’
‘What did you say?’
‘Just pull and keep quiet!’ (Schneller).
This pattern continues as the little girl eats the teeth and jawbone, and drinks the blood of
her grandmother. Although Little Red Hat notices that things are odd, she is not clever
enough to escape being eaten. The little girl is like a mouse, which is wary of the cheese
in a trap, but ignores its instinct and winds up dead.
When Little Red Hat consumes her grandmother, the ogre pretends the body parts
are different items of food. The teeth are said to be rice perhaps because both are white in
color and small in size. Rice may seem out of place in an Italian fairy tale; many people
would associate rice with Asian countries. However, during the later Middle Ages rice
became a popular commodity in Italy, and today Italy is the biggest rice producer in
Europe (Rice and Wine). During the time that “Little Red Hat” began circulating among
Italians, rice was a staple food, and therefore is a justifiable food item to be included in
the tale. Next, the jaws of grandmother are disguised as two pieces of very red chopped
meat, evoking an image of raw meat because a steak that is cooked loses this “very red”
color. Little Red Hat also mentions how red the wine is that she drinks. Blood fresh from
the body is a prominent, bright red color, but once blood dries it becomes a darker,

36. Giese 36
burgundy-like color. The redness of the wine reflects the proximity in time between when
the grandmother was killed—essentially milked for her blood by the ogre—to when the
little girl consumed parts of the body. All three of the body parts are displayed as raw
entities, which are ingested by both Little Red Hat and the ogre himself.
Unlike the girl in “The Story of Grandmother,” Little Red Hat does not gain the
power of her grandmother and achieve maturity by consuming her grandmother. Instead,
the ogre achieves ultimate satisfaction by having the opportunity to ingest the
grandmother twice. The little girl has no time to digest and therefore embody her
grandmother since the ogre devours her immediately after she has eaten the meal of
granny’s body parts. When there is no time for digestion, the girl becomes the next food
item. Essentially, the ogre is enjoying a second helping of the grandmother, which
reflects his gluttonous characteristics. An initial meal of the grandmother was not enough
for the ogre, so he devised a plan to consume more of the granny while pleasuring
himself with dessert.
D. Isabelle C. Chang, “The Chinese Little Red Riding Hood” (1965)
There are multitudes of tales similar to “The Story of Grandmother” that
originated from areas beyond Europe. Specifically in Asia, a group of 241 Taiwanese
tales adhere to the motifs of this tale type, and although there are three girls in “The
Chinese Little Red Riding Hood,” it is closely linked to Delarue’s “The Story of
Grandmother” (Orenstein 69). This version begins with a young widow leaving her three
daughters at home while she goes to visit grandmother. A wolf overhears and, after the
mother departs, disguises himself as an old lady in order to get into the house. Once
inside, the wolf blows out the candle—the only source of light—and climbs into bed with

37. Giese 37
the children. Questions ensue about the furry and sharp things making up their
grandmother’s physique. The eldest daughter, Felice in the English-language translation,
catches a glimpse of the wolf’s face, and instructs her younger sisters to fetch a glass of
water while she asks “granny” if she wants to try a gingko nut. The wolf agrees and the
girls run outside to climb the tallest gingko tree, and plot to pull the wolf up in a basket.
Three times the girls drop the basket until the wolf lets out his last howl, allowing the
children to run into the house, latch the door, and fall asleep.
Although Chang’s version falls under the tale type ATU 123: The Wolf and the
Kids and does not contain obvious similarities to Western tales like a red cape, there are
several motifs that allow this tale to be grouped with the other tales of ATU 333. The
most important retained motif is that the wolf poses as grandmother (K2011) because his
concealed identity is the catalyst for this tale type’s climax. There is also the
identification of the wolf by his hair (H75.5) and the refrain of what makes your ears so
big (Z18.1). Furthermore, like the girl in Delarue’s “The Story of Grandmother,” the
Chinese girls are able to trick the wolf and avoid becoming his next meal. Rather than
focusing so much on a sexual coming of age as in the tales previously discussed, I read
this version as foregrounding the interdependence of siblings and how they take care of
one another through the exploitation of a specific food, the gingko nut.
A major indicator of the cultural differences in this version is the gingko nut.
Felice describes the luscious nut to the wolf, claiming the meat is “softer and more tender
than a firm baby and tastes like a delicious fairy food” (Hallett and Karasek 33). The
initial lure of eating plump children is replaced by the desire to eat a nut, which Felice
cleverly relates to properties of a baby’s flesh, thus appealing to the cannibalistic

38. Giese 38
tendencies of the wolf. Being too old to climb the tree, the wolf asks Felice to pick some
for him, and when she does not return he goes outside to investigate. The wolf yells to
throw some gingko nuts down, but Felice claims that the mouth-watering nuts are fairy
nuts and therefore transform when the leave the tree. Every chance she gets, Felice
highlights the alluring properties of the gingko nut. In doing so she is able to redirect the
wolf’s original desire of consuming the children to that of consuming the unobtainable
precious gingko nuts. Furthermore, a basket is used as a means of preparation for defeat.
Not only does the basket serve as a tool for transport (bringing the wolf up into the tree),
but can also be viewed like a meat mallet, tenderizing the flesh of the wolf with every
purposeful drop of the basket. Even though the girls have no intention of turning the wolf
into food, they tactfully beat him until there is no life left.
According to an ethnobotany journal, the gingko tree is “widely cultivated due to
the ornamental value of the tree and use of its leaves and seeds for food and medicine”
(Kirschner and Ching-yu Hsieh 321). Historically in China, the gingko nut is considered
a delicacy during weddings and feasts, and has numerous benefits for medical issues.
However, the nuts contain toxins that are eliminated through cooking, fermentation, and
roasting (Clark). This information about the gingko nut enables a more complex
interpretation of the tale. The gingko nut is portrayed as a divine food that one must have
fresh from the tree, when in reality if consumed in excess without cooking the nuts’ toxic
qualities could reap severe repercussions such as blistering or dizziness. An important
detail that can be easily overlooked within the tale is that the adapter and translator
Chang does not specifically state that the girls eat the nuts; there is only talk about how
delicious the meat is in order to distract the wolf from devouring the children. It is

39. Giese 39
possible that there is no mention of the girls’ gobbling these nuts because people in China
are aware of how this common nut must be prepared for proper consumption. Therefore,
a Chinese audience with the relevant knowledge can easily identify the cunning trickery
behind tempting the wolf with raw, toxic gingko nuts.
An issue that results from reading tales across cultures is that new audiences may
not be familiar with connotations that are important to grasping the tale within its cultural
context. Specifically in this circumstance, the peculiarities of gingko nuts would elude a
person with little understanding of Chinese foods and diets. Although many European
folktales and fairy tales are translated for consumption specifically by English-speakers,
food items such as bread in “Hansel and Gretel” and rice and wine in “Little Red Hat” are
familiar items sold in neighbor grocery stores globally, unlike the gingko nut which is
found only in specialty “foreign food” stores. Knowledge of the ginkgo nut is not
mandatory for enjoying “The Chinese Little Red Riding Hoods”; however, previous
exposure to the food enables the audience to understand the use and significance of the
gingko nut in Chinese culture. Almonds or pine nuts are a comparable nut in flavor, and
can be used as a substitute in cooking, but it is important to remember that these
substitutes do not have the potential poisonous effects as the gingko nut.
E. Hard Candy (2005)
For many it might be difficult to pick out ways in which the film, Hard Candy,
utilizes fairy-tale characteristics. However, if the film is watched while keeping fairy
tales in mind, many aspects relating to sexual implications of food and violence can be
connected to elements in “Little Red Riding Hood.” A teenage girl, who wears a red
hoodie reminiscent of the famous trademark of red riding hood, arranges a meeting with a

40. Giese 40
thirty two year old man who she has been flirting with via the Internet. The girl, Hayley,
suspects the man of being a pedophile, and assigns herself the task of exposing his dirty
secret by going to his house to drug and torture him. Similar to the printed texts of
LRRH, Hard Candy can serve as a cautionary tale for women, warning against the
dangers of online chatting and naivety of young girls when it comes to seduction by older
men.
The title Hard Candy reiterates the ideas of consumer and consumed in LRRH.
The predator, Jeff, thinks Hayley is sweet like candy due to her cute smile and flirtatious
manner. To Jeff, the saying “you’re so cute I could eat you up” applies; he is attracted to
the youthfulness of Hayley, which is symbolically represented through “candy,” a food
item typically associated with and loved by children. What Jeff doesn’t know is that
Hayley is much stronger and harder than he expects, and this results in him being
drugged and tied down to a table while she pretends to castrate the man. This young girl
shares the role of predator, a monster capable of taking down an experienced hunter.
Hayley is a modernized take on the heroines in “The Story of Grandmother” and “The
Chinese Little Red Riding Hoods,” who are able to outsmart and kill the dangerous male
figure, saving themselves and future victims. In order to not be the one physically
devoured, the girls must be the ones to figuratively devour, a role that they all readily
accept and excel at. Although the children do not wish to eat the predators, their will to
survive and natural instincts lead them to commit murder.
One of the first scenes of the film illustrates the connection between food and
sexuality. At the coffee shop, the moment Jeff arrives Hayley is eating a truffle. Not only
is she moaning that “it’s so good” but has chocolate all over her lip, two acts that have

41. Giese 41
clear sexual, even orgasmic implications. Jeff flirtatiously wipes the chocolate away, as
he mumbles seductively that Hayley “desperately wants, needs, longs for another piece of
chocolate.” Chocolate is tempting because its slightly forbidden, and the associations
between chocolate, romance, and sexual desire are endless: chocolate covered
strawberries and chocolate hearts on Valentine’s Day to name a few. While eating the
truffle Hayley’s obvious euphoria—also tempting and forbidden—excites Jeff and leads
to a version of LRRH’s striptease; Hayley changes into a shirt in the bathroom, and opens
the door for a second to flash Jeff a glimpse of her bra. In a way, the chocolate truffle
serves as a form of manipulation; Hayley seductively eats it in order to entice Jeff into
taking her home.
On the drive to his house, there is a slow scene of a car on a windy road passing
through a forest. This is the point where the two pass the threshold, travelling from the
reality of a coffee shop meet up to the extraordinary world where a small girl is able to
terrorize a grown man. Once at Jeff’s house, cocktails are made from orange juice and
vodka, which are interestingly called a screwdriver. Today, screwing is a slang term for
having a sexual encounter, and alcohol frequently impairs people’s judgments, so it is
only fitting that they are consuming a drink with a sexual name during a socially taboo
situation of a much older man with a teenage girl. Hayley prepares the drinks, and in
doing so slips a potent drug into Jeff’s drink, which knocks him out. By being the one to
prepare the drinks, Hayley is in total control of the situation, like the Chinese Little Red
Riding Hoods who repeatedly lift and drop the wolf in a basket. Further along in the
movie Jeff is about to break through the ropes binding him to a chair, and Hayley wraps
his face in plastic wrap until he passes out. A tool generally used for food preparation or

42. Giese 42
storage allows Hayley to gain back control and tie Jeff to a table for the next course,
which features castration. Similar to the basket and gingko nut in “The Chinese Little
Red Riding Hoods,” drinks and food related items have become instruments for violence
and the struggle for control in Hard Candy.

43. Giese 43
IV. Good versus Bad
A. Background
The concept of good food versus bad food is an area of growing concern in the
fields of health and mainstream media diet fads. Generally, people attempt to consume
the good foods while ignoring the temptations of bad foods. But what happens when
something bad is disguised and portrayed as something good? Within fairy tales such as
“Rapunzel” and “Snow White” there are contradictions between foods that are generally
thought of as good, but once consumed become symbolic of bad fate. There are also in
parallel stereotypical associations regarding a type of person, such as an old lady, who is
presumably good, but then revealed to be bad.
While the previous two sections of this thesis focus each on a specific tale type,
this last one will emphasize a cluster of motifs that raise issues concerning good versus
bad food. Motifs are the building blocks of a narrative and account for certain images or
moments that make a story easily identifiable. Many motifs appear across tale types, but
some of the most well-known motifs characterize a specific tale in people’s minds: the
apple in “Snow White,” the glass slipper in “Cinderella,” and the wolf in “Little Red
Riding Hood.” The following is a list of motifs gathered from the Motif-Index of Folk-
Literature Vol. 6 that will be highlighted in two tales, “Rapunzel” and “Snow White.”
 F1041.8.5 magic results from eating
 J2541 “Don’t eat too greedily”
 F1041.1.4 death from longing
 T511.7 conception from eating food
 T572.2.2 abortion by eating

44. Giese 44
 S111.4 murder with a poisoned apple
 E106 resuscitation by removal of poisoned apple
 S332.4.2 stepmother orders stepdaughter killed
B. “Rapunzel”: Giambattista Basile, Brothers Grimm, Marina Warner
The first printed version of “Rapunzel” appeared in Basile’s Pentamerone;
however, the most common form of the story comes from the collection of the Brothers
Grimm published in 1812 (Altmann and Vos 209). There are substantial differences
between the Italian and German versions, but a basic premise remains intact. A woman
craves a type of leafy green or lettuce (rapunzel, rampion, parsley) that is growing in a
witch’s or ogre’s garden. After consuming the plant, the woman’s desire intensifies until
it is satisfied again. Eventually the witch/ogre catches the garden thief, and threatens to
eat the trespasser unless the woman promises to give the witch/ogre her child. Once the
child reaches a certain age, the witch takes the child and locks her in a tower. The girl
uses her beautiful hair to eventually escape with a prince, return to a kingdom, and marry.
In both versions, the woman’s desire for the forbidden plant is so great that if it is
not fulfilled she will die. Basile’s woman longs for parsley to the point where she is
fainting away. Furthermore, the Brothers Grimm describe the lettuce as so fresh, green,
and mouthwatering, causing the woman’s craving to become greater everyday until she
began to waste away, turning pale and wretched. This woman has developed a type of
eating disorder known as anorexia. Since she cannot obtain the food she craves, the
woman starves herself and displays anorexic tendencies such as obsession with food (will
only eat the rapunzel from the garden), bulimic fits, and the need to do something in
particular (Sceats 65). Unlike anorexia in general, her anorexia is not appearance-driven;

45. Giese 45
rather it is a refusal to eat as a form of control. The first line of the Grimm’s version
mentions how the woman and her husband have been trying to conceive a child, and
hoped that God would grant them their wish. Conception is a situation that one has little
control over, instigating the need to have strict control in other areas such as, in this case,
what foods to consume. Once the rapunzel is obtained, the woman allows herself to
binge, eating the plant hungrily, until her craving becomes three times as great.
The obsession with lettuce in the tale revolves around the concept of pregnancy.
In Basile’s tale, when the woman is caught stealing she claims her cravings stem from
being pregnant. Food cravings of pregnant woman are very real, scientifically explored
phenomena. Cravings can be linked to obtaining nutrients that the fetus and mother need
for healthy development, and they can result in extremes such as consuming paint,
plaster, and dirt (Logue 243). Unlike Basile’s, the Grimms’ story does not explicitly state
when the woman becomes impregnated, which leaves room for interpretation. Expanding
on the idea that pregnancy causes intense cravings— even irrational ones for inedible
(dirt) or unobtainable items (lettuce in a forbidden garden)—one way to read the
Grimm’s story is that the woman’s cravings are an indication of her conception.
However, perhaps consuming the rapunzel from the witch’s magic garden granted the
woman’s wish to become pregnant. The important thing to draw from either
interpretation is that the rapunzel plant has clear connections to pregnancy.
Both Basile’s and the Grimms’ tales raise issues about motherhood. Traditionally,
audiences are inclined to associate a witch with evil, heartless characteristics; however, it
can be argued that there is a role reversal between the witch/ogress and the mother in
these variations of “Rapunzel.” Is it not cruel and heartless of a woman to quickly agree

46. Giese 46
upon giving up her unborn child in order to satisfy an immediate urge? The natural
instinct of a female to protect her young is transferred to the witch, who locks Rapunzel
in a tower in order to preserve her innocence, and shield her from a cruel world. Although
imprisonment does not seem like a loving gesture, the witch does provide Rapunzel with
comforts and affection like the act of brushing her hair. When approached this way, the
ideals of a good and bad mother are highlighted, and are unexpectedly assigned to a
character whose archetypes tend to be the opposite.
Margaret Visser, a prominent writer in the fields of history and anthropology who
has explored the history and mythology of an ordinary meal in Much Depends on Dinner,
argues that lettuce has, as a food, sexual implications. In the mythology of ancient
Egyptians, the consumption of the white sap from lettuce was believed to increase sexual
potency, and presently in the Nile there is still popular belief that lettuce promotes
fertility in males (Visser 194–5). Conversely for females, lettuce has gained a reputation
for inducing sterility because the milk in lettuce is similar to that of a mother’s milk, and
breast-feeding is a form of natural birth-control (Visser 196). This information disputes
the idea of the woman in the Grimm’s’ tale conceiving due to ingestion of the plant and
supports the hypothesis that the woman was with-child prior to her cravings.
Furthermore, this idea of female sterility can be applied to the witch, who must obtain
children from another source. The witch is the one to grow the lettuce, and therefore
presumably eats it in large quantities, causing her to be barren. Since the witch cannot
conceive children on her own, she must lure pregnant woman into promising to give up
their own.

47. Giese 47
A modern version of “Rapunzel” further expands on the relationship between
lettuce-type plants—including rampion and parsley—and female fertility. Marina
Warner’s short story “The Difference in the Dose: A Story after ‘Rapunzel’” calls
attention to the physiological uses of plants, specifically belladonna and rampion. The
main character, Belladonna, reminisces on her life as she sets out to meet her biological
mother. As an infant, Belladonna was adopted by an older lady, who is comparable to the
witch in “Rapunzel” texts because she worked as an herbalist and was renowned for her
skills at growing plants that tottered between remedy and poison, or a comfortable
pregnancy and a miscarriage (Warner 324). Warner credits her knowledge of plants
affecting pregnancy to a book she reviewed, Poison: A History and Family Memoir,
where Warner learned that “parsley, when decocted in concentration, was a popular
abortifacient, used to stimulate the return of menses—in other words, to procure a
miscarriage” (Warner 334). Further research indicates that rapunzel is German for
another type of leafy green that has connections to the female cycle such as regulation
and prevention of cramps. Visser and Warner both assert that there is a definitive
relationship between leafy-green, lettuce type plants and female fertility.
Typically, vegetables of any type are deemed a good food. Leafy greens are full
of fiber, vitamins, and minerals that aid in the digestion of many other food items, as well
as protect the body from heart disease and diabetes. However, even foods that benefit
overall health can blur the line between good and bad. Anything consumed in excess can
become bad; therefore, the key is moderation. So, in both the Brothers Grimm’s and
Basile’s stories the women are craving a good food, but the intense longing can be an
indicator of poor health, lacking nutrients, or even a psychological disorder/obsession

48. Giese 48
such as anorexia. Although an insatiable desire for a vegetable does not seem on par with
a yearning for chocolate cake, any uncontrollable need is an area for concern
symbolically in fairy tales.
C. “Snow White” Brothers Grimm (1884)
Most people are familiar with the cliché, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Unfortunately for Snow White, the cherished apple is detrimental to her life. In the
Brothers Grimm tale, the beautiful Snow White is born to a woman who wished for a
child as white as snow, red as blood, and hair as black as ebony. Snow White’s mother
dies, and her new stepmother could not bear that Snow White was more beautiful than
she. A huntsman is hired by the stepmother to kill Snow White, but he pities the child and
lets her escape to a dwarf’s cottage. Disguised as an old peddler woman, the stepmother
attempts to kill Snow White with a poisoned lace, a poisoned comb, and succeeds at last
with the infamous poisoned apple. Snow White dies and is placed in a glass coffin on top
of a hillside by the dwarfs. Years later, a prince carries the coffin away, and a sudden jolt
shook the poisoned core out of Snow White’s throat, restoring her to life.
Any mention of a poisoned apple conjures the tale of “Snow White”; however,
apples have been an element in literature for several centuries. The poisoned apple in
“Snow White” is produced from the stepmother’s jealousy of Snow White’s youthfulness
and beauty. The spiteful motivations of the stepmother resemble a Greek myth involving
Eris, Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena. Upset that she was not invited to a wedding feast, Eris
threw a golden apple addressed “for the fairest” into the center of a table. Hera,
Aphrodite, and Athena fought over the apple, and Paris was delegated to choose a
winner. Each goddess promised Paris a prize, and he chose Aphrodite’s appeal of the

49. Giese 49
most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Troy. The apple in both situations evokes
the vain, conceited personalities of the women—characteristics that are typically
considered unfavorable or unhealthy.
Another Greek myth involving Aphrodite— the goddess of love, beauty, and
pleasure—is linked to the sacred image of an apple. The apple represents knowledge,
especially sexual knowledge, fertility, and love. Aphrodite’s association with apples
relates to Snow White’s budding sexuality and dwindling innocence, which is evident by
Snow White’s desire to appear as a voluptuous woman with the help of lace (used to tie a
bodice and accentuate cleavage). Furthermore, Snow White accepts the comb as a hair
accessory to freshen up and add an alluring factor to her outfit. Through a disguise as a
kind old woman, the stepmother is able to appear as an expert in female beauty and
manipulate Snow White with the art of cosmetology (Gilbert and Gubar 294). The
relationship between fruit, knowledge, and awareness of sexuality is also present in the
most widely read text in the world, the Bible.
In the Old Testament Adam and Eve are forbidden to eat the fruit from the tree of
knowledge, just as the dwarfs have forbidden Snow White from leaving the cottage or
allowing anyone inside. But is it not human nature to become curious about what is off
limits? When Eve ate from the tree, she experienced temptation at the hands of the
serpent and was rewarded or punished with sexual knowledge. For Christians, the
consumption of fruit marked the original sin, the time in which man and woman become
conscious of their nakedness. Snow White’s acceptance of her disguised stepmother into
the cottage parallels the serpent deceiving Eve in that both aggressors wait until the
woman is alone and vulnerable, away from the protective male figure(s). Like Adam and

50. Giese 50
Eve’s newfound sexual awareness, the gifts Snow White willingly receives serve as a
catalyst for her maturation and interest in appearing womanly rather than childish.
However, Eve is the one responsible for making us into intellectual humans by opening
our eyes, driven by curiosity to work towards acquiring knowledge rather than merely
accepting what is given.
Additionally, in Judaism, eating from the tree of knowledge represents the
beginning of the mixture of good and evil, which had been separate entities before this
time. Within Snow White, the forces of good (Snow White) and evil (the stepmother) are
battling, as one tries to embrace characteristics of the other. Snow White, the pure,
innocent, and beautiful strives to become the woman that men love—a great housekeeper
and cook, but well endowed and manicured. The stepmother, on the other hand, wants to
thwart Snow White’s budding sexuality and realization of her (Snow White’s) place in a
patriarchal society in order to preserve her own beauty and position as the most powerful
female. Gilbert and Gubar claim that Snow White and the Queen are in some sense the
same person, a coming together of good and evil.
While the Queen struggles to free herself from the passive Snow
White in herself, Snow White must struggle to repress the assertive
Queen in herself. (…) a two-faced fruit represents her ambiguous
relationship to this angelic girl who is both her daughter and her
enemy, her self and her opposite. Her intention is that the girl will
die of the apple’s poisoned red half—red with her sexual energy,
her assertive desire for deeds of blood and triumph—while she
herself will be unharmed by the passivity of the white half. (Gilbert and

51. Giese 51
Gubar 296)
Through sharing the apple, the women’s attributes blend just as good and evil mix
together after consuming from the tree of knowledge according to Judaism interpretation
of Genesis.
Unfortunately for the Queen, Snow White does not actually swallow the poisoned
piece of apple; rather it becomes lodged in her throat, suspending her life. Since no
digestion of the evil poison occurs, Snow White remains innocent and in a preserved state
of beauty. Although the fruit does not poison Snow White to a concrete death, it starves
her from living for quite some time. The dwarfs place her in a glass coffin that creates
juxtaposition for Snow White’s well being. First, the coffin protects Snow White; the
apple starves her from developing into a self-absorbed, evil woman like the Queen. On
the other hand, Snow White is displayed as something to look at, an object of art that
must be conserved for admirers. When the Prince comes across the coffin, he begs the
dwarfs to give “it” to him—Snow White and her idealized physical attributes have
become an item to be bartered for and possessed by the Prince. When the fruit is
regurgitated, Snow White is fully restored to life, and fulfills the fate that her stepmother
was so eager to avoid—becoming Queen.
The prominent food items in the two tales above are generally associated with
proper nutrition, good health, and an overall better lifestyle. Both circumstances illustrate
the fine line between the good qualities and bad properties of rapunzel or an apple that is
dependent upon portion size. A proper balance is maintained by moderation, and when
something is consumed in excess, like in “Rapunzel,” there are negative consequences.
Marina Warner’s short story also demonstrates how portion size can drastically change

52. Giese 52
the effects of a plant from being a healthy snack to a tool for abortion. Similarly, apples
are associated with fewer visits to the doctor, as a means to extend life, but in “Snow
White” it has an opposite effect, the apple freezes life. The apple also symbolically
represents Snow Whites transformation from an innocent, good child into a
knowledgeable, sexually aware adult. Each tale presents issues concerning pregnancy and
female domestic roles, with food serving as a form of barter, manipulation, and control. It
is ironic that an apple or type of lettuce can be the demise of the female characters
because traditionally women have the role of preparing meals and therefore know the
characteristics of the foods they work with. The witch and stepmother are taking
advantage of the fact that these foods seem so commonplace and comfortable, so there is
no reason to second-guess the consumption of them.

53. Giese 53
V. Conclusions
Through this research I have explored how food provides insight into material
conditions, food trends, class and other power relations, and human behavior. “Hansel
and Gretel” and “Hop O’ my Thumb” illustrate how material conditions, i.e., famine, are
integrated into stories, and in these two circumstances serve as a disclaimer for the
actions of the parents. For the Grimms, the mention of historical events is necessary in
order to appeal to the logos of the audience and clarify that the parents did not abandon
their children out of pure hatred, but out of necessity. Food trends identified in both tale
types and specific versions I studied reflect the origins of a story. In this sense, food can
be an indicator of a tale’s cultural legitimacy and helps reinforce the credibility of the
tale. The gingko nut in “The Chinese Little Red Riding Hoods” is a well known food in
Chinese culture, so it is logical that this item serves as such a central part of the tale.
However, if this tale were to be set in Mexico, the gingko nut would not have the same
associations, and would be a distracting and confusing detail in the story. Food trends are
also dependent upon material conditions; a famine leads to bread becoming the staple
food of a society, which then produces an obsession with and embellishment of bread in
the fantasy world. Furthermore, the combination of material conditions and food trends
creates or reinforces cultural norms. In “The Story of Grandmother” and “Little Red Hat”
courtesy as a social expectation plays a part in the eating experience—you eat what is
presented to you—which is why the little girl munches on parts of her grandmother even
while making questionable observations about the food and the wolf/ogre. Exhibiting
proper etiquette is one of the basic expectations of growing up and becoming a positive

54. Giese 54
member of society, no matter the culture. So in a way, the inclusion of food in cautionary
tales like the ones discussed helps teach and promote society’s standards and norms.
Without my intentionally planning to focus on it, gender in regards to power
relations emerged as a dominant theme for this research. The reappearance of the role of
women cooking in the kitchen is a well known gender stereotype. On one hand, this can
be a negative, belittling role if the implication is that women are only capable of
preparing food; however, for Gretel and Vasilissa their time spent cooking served as a
turning point in their lives, a marker of maturity and transformation from adolescent to
contributing member of family and society. Gender stereotypes also reflect the belief that
females are biologically endowed with caring and nurturing characteristics. Some may
argue that biological tendencies make women accept their role of food preparers because
the art of cooking nurtures and fuels the ones they love. But food is not the only thing
emerging from kitchen; stories are also produced from cooking, making women an
essential part of remembering the past and teaching the future. For many families, the
kitchen is the heart of the household where everyone gathers to chat while (traditionally)
the women prepare a feast. So women not only physically sustain their loved one’s
bodies through cooking, but also psychologically fuel their minds with stories.
Continuing on with the link between food and stories, this research demonstrates
how food is interconnected with language that describes sexuality. The language used to
describe a meal and sexual experience can be interchangeable: both can be fulfilling or
orgasmic; he has a voracious appetite, we say; and lastly in “Little Red Riding Hood” the
wolf is eating the girl with his eyes, and she performs a striptease. In addition, both food
and sex play upon similar emotions such as desire, temptation, lack of control or guilty

55. Giese 55
pleasures, or the need for comfort. Society also expects its members to maintain a balance
when it comes to eating or sexual activity; gluttony is considered a moral sin and over-
consumption in either aspect can lead to negative consequences like weight gain, poor
health, loss of self-worth, unplanned pregnancies, STD’s, and detachment from reality.
Another human behavior that discussing food in fairy tales invites us to take into
account is the importance of the process of consumption. When it comes to reading, we
ingest the words from a page, but don’t always digest the information. Many students
study for hours going over their textbooks, but then do poorly on their exams because the
material is not retained. In order to gain knowledge or power, we must complete the
process of consumption. First, the material must be ingested and taken in, either
physically chewed or psychologically imprinted into the brain. Then, the item undergoes
digestion; the body absorbs the nutrients, or the mind makes associations to better
remember the information. Consumption of food or information will benefit the body,
mind, or both only if it is fully ingested and digested. At one level, this is an unconscious
process—you do not need to instruct your body to absorb food—but at the same time you
must make conscious decisions as to what you expose yourself to and how much
(quantity or time) you should swallow.
The topic of food studies is an expanding field, and the focus on food in fairy
tales calls for further explorations. It would be interesting to do a more focused analysis
on the relationship between food and sex. This is not a new topic; there is endless
research on aphrodisiacs, but what about tracking a specific item with aphrodisiac
properties in literature? Another future project I am considering is more fairy-tale
centered: it would be interesting to focus on a story that has been adapted several times in

56. Giese 56
print and in film and track the food changes to see how these alterations reflect the
cultural trends of the time of the retellings’ production.
“When we no longer have good cooking in the world, we will no longer have
literature, nor high and sharp intelligence, nor friendly gatherings, no social harmony,”
said Marie-Antoine Carême, founder of French haute cuisine. Whether it is elaborate or
simple, food fuels conversation and storytelling. Food permeates all aspects of life, and
the time spent preparing, cooking, and eating among friends and family ensures that
folktales, recipes, and all genres of literature will continue being passed on to future
generations.

57. Giese 57
Appendix
Episode Brothers
Grimm “Hansel
and Gretel”
1843 (German)
Charles
Perrault “Le
Petit Poucet”
aka Little
Thumb
1697 (French)
Consiglieri
Pedroso “The
Two Children
and the Witch”
1882
(Portuguese)
Verra
Xenophontovna
Kalamatiano de
Blumenthal
“Baba Yaga” 1902
(Russian)
Joseph
Jacobs
“The Rose
Tree”
1890
(England)
Director: Pil-
Sung Yim
Henjel gwa
Geuretel
2007
(Korean Film)
father poor woodcutter,
first objects to
abandonment
worried about
wild beasts
tearing them to
pieces, distraught
about leaving
them
proposes child
abandonment
can’t bear to
see them starve
in front of his
face
none peasant good man abusive, evil
mother stepmother
comes up with
plan of
abandonment,
give them one
piece of bread.
is the one to lead
children into
forest. “naughty
children”
does not want
to leave them
… imagine the
wolves have
eaten them up
tells children to
go buy beans and
follow bean shell
path to where she
will be in the
forest
stepmother. gave
children scarcely
enough to eat
wicked thought
grows like a
poisonous plant
tells them to visit
her grandmother
who will give them
sweet things to eat
a second wife no real mother.
pseudo moms