Blog Post #5

Snow White the fairy tale by the Brother’s Grimm and Snow White and the seven dwarves have many differences. One difference can be easily spotted in the title of the Disney version called Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The movie had way more of a focus on the dwarves and even went as far as to include them in the title. The Disney movie’s changes of the dwarves included giving them all names based on character traits such as Dopey and Happy. In the fairy tale none of them had names and there wasn’t much of a distinction between the different ones other than their different bed sizes. Disney chose to put more of a focus on the dwarves to relate to the unemployed working class of the United States during the oppression. During a time when everyone wanted to work, their hardworking natures allowed people in America to relate to them. Snow white in the movie is also changed from a princess with one parent to an orphan princess who lost both and is forced to work for the evil queen. Yet again Disney wants to relate to the middle class. Instead of being born a princess she works hard, does what she is told and later becomes queen. In essence hard work pays off. Her readiness and willingness to work can also be seen in the movie when she wakes up in the Dwarves’ home and willingly offers to cook, clean, and keep house for them. Workers during the great depression were being encouraged to go out and volunteer and make the country great to get it out of the depression. Walt Disney’s movie changed the original fairy tale in a lot of ways in an effort to both relate to his middle-class audience and influence the spirit of the country through both the dwarves and Snow White.