Note: this example is written from a reader response perspective which necessitates the use of first-person. The other
lens analysis did not since they are not based on your own experiences. Also, parenthetical citations for this analysis
were not necessary since you are all working from the same story. However page numbers are necessary for your novel.
When you quote or summarize or paraphrase!
Exemplar Reader Response Journal
When examining "Snow White" from a reader-response perspective, it becomes clear that Snow
White serves as a warning to children (specifically girls) about the dangers of vanity. Although
Snow White's goodness is tied to her beauty, her desire for beautiful things nearly kills her.
I read many fairy tales as a little girl, and the one message that I received over and over was
that good people are beautiful and bad people are ugly, so when I read "Snow White," even as
an adult, I expect that in fairy tales, the beautiful people are good and the ugly people are bad.
However, in this story, the queen is both evil and beautiful, but her vanity, and desire to be
"fairest of all" turns her into a hateful would-be murderer and cannibal, as is evident when she
thinks she is eating Snow White's heart and lungs.
Snow White herself, is depicted as a good girl because she is willing to be a good housekeeper
for the dwarves. I tend to balk at this estimation of goodness because as a modern woman, I
don't like the idea that women are only valued for their domestic skills, and think the dwarves
should be willing to protect her even if she is not a good housekeeper. However, although she is
"good" she is also vain. When the wicked queen tries to trick her, she doesn't tempt her with
goods that will make her housekeeping job easier; she tempts her with trinkets: pretty silk
bodice laces, a comb, and a "beautiful apple." In spite of the dwarves' warnings, she falls for the
queen's tricks and "dies" from eating the poisoned apple. It appears to me that she is being
punished for her vanity and desire for things that are not "domestic."
After the prince rescues Snow White, they punish her evil stepmother by forcing her to dance to
death in hot iron shoes. I am of course horrified by how gruesome this punishment is. I realize
that children in the time of the Brothers Grimm would be more accustomed to death, pain, and
the general brutality of life, but I still find the punishment shocking given the fact that I was
raised to believe that children should be sheltered from violence. This suggests to me that the
evil queen's punishment is not just a horrifying lesson for children about the dangers of vanity,
but a warning for Snow White as well.