Salina Huang, Period 7, 10/4/21

 

Modern Mythology 2022


Salina Huang
10/4/21
Period 7
Senior 2021

Literacy & Learning

Write about your thoughts regarding any of the fiction or nonfiction covered in class.
We are currently reading about Cinderella and analyzing it through different critical theories. I
think it has been interesting to deeply analyze the meaning of a children’s fairy tale I thought
nothing of when I was younger. Specifically, the feminist perspective. I never thought about how
the beauty standards and roles of women could affect young girls reading the tale of Cinderella.
Now that I am analyzing it from an adult perspective, I can see that it could lead to self-esteem issues and unrealistic expectations for oneself.

Reflect on any new information you have learned in English class by considering how
that learning influences your critical perception.
I learned that fairy tales are a reflection of the current culture, and we can use fairy tales from
the past to see a glimpse of what life was like in that time period. For instance, the Cinderella
tale we all know takes place long ago when royalty ruled, and women stayed home and did
household chores. This has opened my eyes a little because when I was younger I merely saw
this as a fantasy world where happy endings always occurred.

How is what you’re learning applied to any other classes/the world around you?
This has led me to think about the folktales that we leave behind now in the form of memes and
social media. In my own opinion, I don’t think it would be easy for people in the future to attempt
to derive meaning from our culture at the moment. For instance, our generation finds humor in
distorted images with singular word captions that have nothing to do with the image. I do not
think these types of “folktales” can reflect what is going on in our lives right now. However, I
think they will find the millions of COVID pandemic memes insightful.