ENG 214 Unit 3 Test Study Guide PDF

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Professor: Christine Doyle...

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dentification: Passages 1. “What road are you taking,” said the bzou, the Needles Road or the Pins Road?” “The Needles Road,” said the little girl. - from “The Grandmother” by Paul Delarue. This is the wolf, who is called the bzou in this story, asking the little girl which road she is taking on her way to her grandmother’s. Significance: The bzou wants to know which path the girl is taking so he can take the other one and beat the little girl to her grandmother’s house. Unfortunately, the little girl does not know the danger she is putting herself and her grandmother in by talking to the wolf at this point in the story. 2. “Undress, my child,” said the bzou, and come and sleep beside me.” “Where should I put my apron?” “Throw it in the fire, my child; you don’t need it anymore.” -from “The Grandmother” by Paul Delarue. This is the wolf, who is called the bzou in this story, disguised as the little girl’s grandmother telling the girl to get into bed with him. Significance: 3. This good woman had a little red riding hood made for her. It suited her . . . extremely well. from “Little Red Riding Hood” by Charles Perrault. 4. There are various kinds of wolves. . . . There are also wolves who are charming, quiet, polite and unassuming . . . who pursue young women at home and in the street. And unfortunately, it is these gentle wolves who are the most dangerous ones of all. - from “Little Red Riding Hood” by Charles Perrault. This is Perrault describing the moral of his story at its conclusion Significance: 5. “Set out before it gets hot, and when you are going, walk nicely and quietly, and do not run off the path . . . don’t forget to say ‘Good morning,’ and don’t peep into every corner.” - from “Little Red Cap” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This is Little Red Cap’s mother warning and instructing her before she sets off to go to her grandmother’s house. Significance: 6. It is also related that once when Red-Cap was again taking cakes to the old grandmother, another wolf spoke to her, and tried to entice her from the path. Red-Cap, however, was on her guard. - from “Little Red Cap” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This is the narrator describing a time in which Little Red Cap encounters another wolf after her first experience with one. Significance: 7. [E]ven in a nightcap a wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the MetroGoldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge. - from “The Little Girl and the Wolf” by James Thurber. This is Thurber humorously explaining the alternative outcome involving the little red riding hood character in his story. Significance:

8. Moral: It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be. - from “The Little Girl and the Wolf” by James Thurber. This is Thurber explaining the message behind his humorous adaptation of “Little Red Riding Hood”. Significance: 9. One day her mother asked her to take a basket of fresh fruit and mineral water to her grandmother’s house. - from “The Little Girl and the Wolf” by James Finn Garner 10. “Sexist! Speciesist! How dare you assume that womyn and wolves can’t solve their own problems without a man’s help!” - from “Little Red Riding Hood” by James Finn Garner. 11. It was not a long time since she had played with dolls; as now she . . . arranged her flowers she again lived through an enchanting and cherished experience: one was doing everything gravely and solicitously, and all the time one knew one was playing. - from “The Ring” by Isak Dinesen. This is the narrator describing Lise as immature for her age. Significance: 12. “How can you pity such a terrible man? Indeed Grandmamma was right when she said that you were a revolutionary and a danger to society!” - from “The Ring” by Isak Dinesen. 13. With this lost ring she had wedded herself to something. To what? To poverty, persecution, total loneliness. To the sorrows and the sinfulness of this earth. - from “The Ring” by Isak Dinesen. 14. “Dear child, remain pious and good, and then our dear God will always protect you, and I will look down on you from heaven, and I be near you.” - from “Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 15. “Shake and quiver, little tree, /Throw gold and silver down to me.” - from “Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 16. “Cut off your toe. When you are queen you will no longer have to go on foot.” - from “Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 17. And thus, for their wickedness and falsehood, they were punished with blindness as long as they lived. - from “Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 18. One day the woman stood at this window, overlooking the garden, and saw there a bed full of finest rampion. - from “Rapunzel” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. 19. “Frau Gothel, tell me why it is that my clothes are all too tight. They no longer fit me.” from “Rapunzel” (1812) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This is Rapunzel asking the fairy why her clothes no longer fit her, perhaps not knowing that it is because she is pregnant. Significance: This is how the fairy comes to find out about Rapunzel’s visitor, the prince. As a result of her saying this, Rapunzel loses a good part of her long golden hair and if left in the

wilderness. Also, the prince is blinded and nearly killed after he hears this news and is devastated. 20. Two of her tears fell into his eyes, and they became clear once again. - from “Rapunzel” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This is the end of the story when the blinded prince finds Rapunzel and their twins in the wilderness, and as she hugs him and begins to cry, her tears restore his vision. Significance: 21. “Have you been such a fool, such a dolt, such an idiot. . . . ? Take that! Take that! Take that!” - from “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Joseph Jacobs. This is Jack’s mother scolding him after he trades Milky-White to a man in exchange for 5 beans which he claims are magic. Significance: 22. Then the ogre fell down and broke his crown, and the beanstalk came toppling after. - from “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Joseph Jacobs. This is right after Jack has stolen from the ogre a third time and as the ogre is climbing down the beanstalk to catch up to him, he cuts it down with an axe. Significance: 23. “Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he alive, or be he dead, I’ll have his bones to grind my bread.” - from “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Joseph Jacobs. This is the ogre announcing to his wife that he can sense Jack’s presence in his home, who is hiding in the oven. Significance: 24. And he made me feel excited – Well, excited and scared – . . . . Isn’t it nice to know a lot! / . . . and a little bit . . . not - from Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. This is Little Red Riding Hood singing after she and her grandmas are eaten by the wolf and then saved by the baker after he cuts open the wolf’s belly. Significance: This quote symbolizes Little Red Riding Hood’s loss of innocence. She was completely unaware of how dangerous the wolf was and while she is glad to have learned from the situation so that she doesn’t repeat the same mistake again, she is also a little bit sad to know that not everyone she encounters is inherently good. 25. There are big tall terrible awesome scary wonderful / Giants in the sky - from Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. This is Jack singing after he climbs up the beanstalk for the first time. 26. What’s as intriguing/ Or half so fatiguing / As what’s out of reach? - from Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. This is the two princes singing about the girls that they’ve fallen in love with: Rapunzel and Cinderella. Significance: Each of the princes are in agony for having fallen in love with girls that seem out of their reach. Rapunzel is trapped in a tower without doors and Cinderella has disappeared from the prince after dancing with him at the ball.

27. Trouble is, son, / The farther you run, / The more you feel undefined For what you have left undone / And, more, for what you’ve left behind. - from Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. - This is the baker’s father talking to his son towards the end of act 2. Significance: After his wife dies, the baker feels lost and decides to abandon the group and his son. When he encounters his father, who is “not completely dead,” he tells him that he did the same when his mother died. He advises his son not to run away because you can’t escape your problems and the difficulties of life that way. Instead, you must face them head on. 28. Children may not obey,/ But children will listen. Children will look to you / For which way to turn, / To learn what to be. Careful before you say, / “Listen to me.” / Children will listen. - from Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. 29. You move just a finger, / Say the slightest word, Something’s bound to linger, / Be heard. No one acts alone. Careful, No one is alone.- from Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine. This is the baker talking to Jack and Cinderella talking to Little Red Riding Hood at the end of the play. Significance: As they wait for the giant, the two remaining mother and father figures are

30. Into the woods you go again, / You have to every now and then. Into the woods, no telling when, / Be ready for the journey ....... But everything you learn there / Will help when you return there. - from Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine.

Short Essays 1. Potential questions for short-answer (one paragraph; ten points each) essays: a. Think about traditional versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” (Delarue, Perrault, Grimm), that we read – motifs of each and how they appear, and how the differences change the overall meaning of the story. b. Think about the adaptations of “Little Red Riding Hood.” What has the adapter retained, and what changed? How do the changes in details change the overall emphasis of the story? c. Think about specific individual characters from traditional tales who appear in Into the Woods, and how the adventures (and the characters themselves) are changed in the play.

How do these changes in plot and character change or enlarge the meaning of that character’s adventure?

Shane Foster ENG 214 June 29, 2019 Long Essay Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s musical play Into the Woods suggests that fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Jack and the Beanstalk still have importance in today’s society, however, their meanings have changed. In these fairy tales, which are all portrayed in Act I and tied together by a baker and his wife, individual wish-fulfillment is a major theme. Act I begins with the statement of three different wishes: the baker wants a child, Cinderella wants to go to the king’s festival, and Jack wants his cow Milky-White to make milk. In order to fulfill their wishes, each of the characters go into the woods and take whatever actions are necessary to achieve them. By the end of Act I, their wishes are realized and the narrator tells us that all those who deserved happiness have attained it.

The “old,” traditional storylines of these fairy tales come to a conclusion at the end of Act I, however, Act II demonstrates that it does not end there in modern society. In Act II, the characters learn that there are consequences to the methods by which they attain their wishes. In the first act, the baker and his wife learn that a witch has cast a spell on their home preventing them from having a child. The witch tells the couple that they must bring her four items in order to lift the spell and fulfill their wish of having a child: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as

blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold. In order to secure the first of these items, the baker dupes Jack into selling his cow Milky-White to him in exchange for 5 “magic” beans. This is the first example of a character engaging in immoral behavior in pursuit of their own wishes, as the baker later admits that he has no idea whether or not the beans are actually magical. It turns out that the beans were actually magical and a giant beanstalk emerges from them that Jack climbs up and encounters a giant who he steals gold from and eventually kills in order to buy back his beloved Milky-White. In Act II, the consequences of both Jack and the baker’s actions come to light as the giant’s wife climbs down another beanstalk and takes vengeance, leading to the deaths of the narrator, Jack’s mother, and Rapunzel.

By the end of Act II, many innocent characters are dead as a result of the individual pursuals of wishes in Act I. At the end of the play, four characters remain tasked with slaying the giantess: Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, the baker, and Jack. In order to do so, the characters learn that they must work together for the good of the community that remains. While they wait for the giantess to appear and fall into their trap, Cinderella and the baker break into the song “No One Is Alone”. This song symbolizes the change in meaning of these fairy tales in modern society. The song demonstrates that your actions affect other people, and that you have a moral responsibility to not harm others in order to fulfill your own wishes.

Answer: 1. Another story they tell is that when Little Red Cap was taking another cake to her old grandmother another wolf spoke to her and tried to make her leave the path. But little Red Cap was on her guard. - from "Little Red Cap" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This is the narrator describing a second time in which Little Red Cap encounters a wolf after her first experience in which she and her grandmother are both eaten and, thankfully, saved by a passing huntsman. Significance: The narrator's description of a second encounter that Little Red Cap has with a wolf demonstrates her learning and growth from her experience with the first. Before leaving for her grandmother's house, Little Red Cap's mother had warned her to stay the path and not run off into the woods by herself. In addition to learning that she should not disobey her mother, she also learns that not everyone she encounters is inherently good, especially wolves. 2. Two of her tears dropped in his eyes, which were made clear again, so that he could see as well as ever. - from “Rapunzel” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. This is the end of the story when the blinded prince finds Rapunzel and their twins in the wilderness, and as she hugs him and begins to cry, her tears restore his vision. Significance: This is the happy ending that Rapunzel gets for taking control of her own life and deciding to no longer accept being sheltered from the world by Frau Gothel. Also, because the prince had impregnated her with twins, it demonstrates that the prince now has a responsibility to love and protect Rapunzel and their children. 3. “Sexist! Speciesist! How dare you assume that womyn and wolves can’t solve their own problems without a man’s help!” - from "Little Red Riding Hood" by James Finn Garner. This is Red Riding Hood lashing out at the woodcutter who overheard the situation and decided to intervene. Significance: This is Garner's feminist critique of the traditional storyline of "Little Red Riding Hood". In many adaptations of the tale, a man in the woods comes to rescue the little girl and her grandmother from the wolf. Garner uses humor to make the point that as a young woman, Little Red Riding Hood is perfectly capable of dealing with her own problems independent from the help of another man. 4. “What! . . . . have you been such a fool, such a dolt, such an idiot. . . . ?” - from “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Joseph Jacobs. This is Jack’s mother scolding him after he trades Milky-White to a man in exchange for 5 beans which he claims are magic....