Trina D. Taylor
Storytelling 5440
August 3, 2002
Fractured Fairy Tales
Every child is familiar once they have reached school with at least one fairy tale.
One must be familiar first with a fairy tale in order to understand a fractured
version of one. According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and
Adolescence web page, “Fairy tales typically have simple, direct plots, even
when they involve multiple episodes and themes. They take place in the past
("once upon a time"), and the time, setting, and central conflict are quickly
established at the beginning with little time devoted to description. The conflict is
usually resolved soon after the climax of the story in a brief and usually happy
ending (" . . . and they lived happily ever after"). Characterization is twodimensional, with characters being either completely good or completely evil.
Attention is maintained through suspense and repetition, a frequent plot element,
often in series of threes (as in the three "huff and puff" sequences enacted by the
wolf in "The Three Little Pigs"). Common narrative devices include magical
powers, spells that induce extended sleep, magical objects and transformations,
wishes, and trickery.” Fractured fairy tales will be studied to see if they have the
same elements. Fractured fairy tales are written with a unique adaptation to
make it different either by changing the setting, the characters, the problem, or
how the story ends. Fractured fairy tales are present in poetry, books, songs,
movies, and even can be found written by children on websites.
The purpose of this project is to compare and contrast 10 fractured versions
within three form of analysis. This study focuses attempts to incorporate as
many different versions as possible. The main concentration and description of
this paper is to examine the tales in relation to three aspects: characters, theme,
and genre. The main character changes in relation to the fairy tale and
characteristics of good and evil. .

Characters
Do the characters change in the fractured version? Does the gender or age
differ? What are the characters motives and goals? How do the characters
change in physical form?

Theme
The central theme of fairy tales is happiness and contentment. These were
further broken down into four other categories.

Genre
Does it still contain a majority of the same elements as a fairy tale?
I found some of my items by searching the database of barnesandnoble.com. I
had several versions in my personal collection. There are a wide variety of
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sources available including cassettes, teaching kits, big books, flannel board
sets, puppets, CD-ROMs, games, videos and DVDs.
Bibliographic Citations:
Hopkins, Jackie. The Three Armadillies Tuff. Peachtree: Atlanta, 2002.
The three armadillies take the place of the three billy goats gruff
in this version. The three sisters have to go through a culvert to
get to the dance hall to go dancing. They meet a coyote who
would like to eat them in the drain pipe and convince her to go
along to the dance hall after a complete make over.
Calmenson, Stephanie. The Principal’s New Clothes. Scholastic: New York,
1989.
The principal is the emperor in this tale. Mr. Bundy, the principal,
has so many clothes that he can go a month without wearing the
same thing. So he is elated when Moe and Ivy offer him a new
suit with magical powers that no one who is stupid can see. He
goes to an assembly in his new clothes, which turns out to be his
underwear. The students come to his rescue and save the day
by giving him assorted pieces of clothing. He sets a new fashion
trend with his assorted styles of clothes.
Ernst, Lisa Campbell. Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale.
Simon & Schuster: New York, 1995.
Grandma lives on a farm and drives a tractor to thresh her wheat
out on the prairie. Little Red Riding Hood who wears a red
sweatshirt instead of a cape rides her bike to bring Grandma
wheat berry muffins from the secret recipe. She meets the wolf
that decides to steal the recipe, but he doesn’t count on Grandma
being a tough character. Grandma puts him to work as a chef in
her kitchen of the restaurant making muffins, but he doesn’t learn
the secret recipe.
Osborne, Mary Pope. Kate and the Beanstalk. Scholastic: New York, 2000.
Kate is poor and sells her cow for beans. Little did she know that
a magic beanstalk would grow and would make all her dreams
come true? Kate climbs the beanstalk and learns from an old
woman that the giant killed her father so she decides to get back
the hen, the gold and the harp that the giant stole from her family.
She learns that the castle once belonged to her family. She
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eventually chops down the beanstalk, kills the giant, and makes her fortune for
her mother and herself.
Tolhurst, Marilyn. Somebody and the Three Blairs. Orchard: New York, 1994.
The three Blairs who are humans all go for a walk in the city, and
Somebody, looking mighty like a bear, makes himself right at
home in their cozy place. They set off to feed the ducks. When
they return, they find that the kitchen is a mess; somebody has
been playing with the water in the bathroom, and sleeping in the
beds and is still asleep in the crib. Somebody escapes down the
drainpipe, but Baby Blair invites him back to play.
Kimmel, Eric. The Runaway Tortilla. Winslow Press: Florida, 2000.
Tia Lupe and Tio Jose own a taqueria in Texas down on the Rio
Grande. The tortillas are as light as air. One day the female
foolish tortilla up and runs away. She rolls away from the couple,
two horned toads, three donkeys, four jackrabbits, five
rattlesnakes, and six buckaroos. Senor Coyote tricks her by
asking her to eat the grasshopper that is stuck in his throat and eats her as she
tries to help him. Who can resist a Texas version of a fairy tale?
Cole, Babette. Prince Cinders. G.P. Putnam Publishing Group: New York:
1987.
Prince Cinders is a skinny boy who is jealous of his brothers'
strength and hairiness. He is left behind to do the laundry and
other household chores while they are off to the Palace Disco.
One evening a fairy visits him to grant his wishes. The fairy is
not very good at spell casting though and when he asks to be big
and hairy she turns him into an oversized ape. He doesn’t know it though. Prince
Cinders heads off in his new incarnation to the Rock 'n' Royal Bash to claim his
princess.
French, Fiona. Snow White in New York. Oxford University Press: London,
1990.
Snow White is living in the art deco world of New York City. Her
father marries the Queen of the underworld. She resents Snow
White for her popularity in the city. One of the mobsters leaves
Snow White to die on the streets, but she is saved by the seven
jazzmen when she falls into a jazz club and becomes a singer.
The poisoned apple becomes a cherry in Snow White’s drink at a
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party thrown by the queen. Thank goodness she had just choked on the cherry,
and it pops out when her coffin is hit.
Scieszka, Jon. The Frog Prince Continued. Puffin Books: London, 1991.
The marriage is in trouble. The princess hates the way he hops
around on the furniture instead of slaying dragons, and he
dislikes the fact that she never likes to visit the pond anymore.
The prince decides that he will be happy only if he becomes a
frog once again, so he runs off in search of a witch to do the job.
On the way, he finds a trio of eccentric old women who are still
worried about the other fairy-tale characters and a fairy
godmother who is practicing turning various objects into carriages. When he
kisses the princess again, he turns back into a frog. Everything turns out well in
the end as they find out they truly love each other after all.
Trivizas, Eugene. The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig. Simon and
Schuster: New York, 1997.
“Once upon a time, there were three cuddly little wolves with soft
fur and fluffy tails....'' They go out into the world to build a house
for themselves. Yet, the big bad pig is after them. They use
brick, concrete, and steel constructions, but the pig with a
sledgehammer, a pneumatic drill, and dynamite destroys each
house. ``Something must be wrong with our building materials,''
the wolves muse. Their final house is built from beautiful and
sweet smelling flowers that are easily destroyed. The perfume of the flowers
causes the pig to change his horrible ways and all live together as friends happily
ever after.
Websites:
Fractured Fairy Tales Project
This site is devoted to many different primary and intermediate classes around
the United States and Canada that have written fractured fairy tales. It has a
section that links out to other sites.
http://www.desertskyone.com/FT/#top
Fairy Tales for Teachers
This site provides background information on fractured fairy tales.
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/listfairytake1.html
Children’s Books
This site allows you to search for numerous topics including fairy tales.
http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/fairytales/
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Fractured Fairy Tales
This site presents a list of books for children and parents of fractured fairy tales.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/fft.html
Narrative elements:
Numerous narrative devices or elements abound in fairy tales. These elements
were detailed in the introductory paragraph. Four of those: time of the story,
magical elements present, repetition of key phrases and series of three were
chosen to be analyzed in a chart with the fractured version of the fairy tale. Many
of the fractured fairy tales change the time period of the story from long ago to a
more current time period. The majority of the fractured versions still contain the
narrative device of repetition with different flavor added to the wording. Many
have a series of three characters in the plot.
Version
In the Past
Has
Magic
Repetition
Series of
Threes
The Three Armadillies Tuff
Present
No
“Who’s that scritch
scratchin’ through my
tunnel?”
3 Armadillos
The Principal’s New Clothes
Present
Pretend
None
3 Viewers of
Magic Cloth
Little Red Riding Hood: A
Newfangled Prairie Tale
Past/Present
No
None
No
Kate and the Beanstalk
Past
Beans
"Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum'un,
/ I smell the blood of
an Englishwoman"
3 Treasures
Somebody and the Three Blairs
Present
No
“This is too _____.
This is just right.”
3 Blairs
The Runaway Tortilla
Present
No
"Run as fast as fast
can be. You won't get
a bite of me."
No
Prince Cinders
1970’s
Fairy
None
3 Brothers
Snow White in New York
1920’s
No
None
No
The Frog Prince Continued
Past
Witches
None
3 Witches
The Three Little Wolves and the Big
Bad Pig
Present
No
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll
puff and I’ll blow your
house down.”
3 Wolves
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Themes:
The central theme of the fractured fairy tales is for the characters to live happily
ever after. The themes of the stories that I abstracted from that happiness and
contentment were marriage, friendship, self-esteem, and other themes that might
not fit into one of the other categories. I chose to take a fairy tale approach to the
themes and only look at the bright side. Marriage of the characters takes place
in Snow White in New York, The Frog Prince Continued, and Prince Cinders.
Friendship is the major theme of Little Red Riding Hood: A Newfangled Prairie
Tale, The Three Armadillies Tuff, and The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad
Pig. The character’s self esteem is changed in The Principal’s New Clothes and
Kate and the Beanstalk. Somebody and the Three Blairs’ theme is to be happy
with what you have. The Runaway Tortilla’s theme is to learn when to be quiet
and not be a braggart.
20%
30%
Marriage
Friendship
Self-Esteem
Other
20%
30%
Character:
The characters change in all of the versions except for The Frog Prince
Continued. The character in Snow White does change her innocence to
worldliness and changes the setting in Snow White in New York. The setting and
the reason Little Red Riding Hood earns that name changes in Little Red Riding
Hood: A Newfangled Prairie Tale. She earned the name of Little Red Riding
Hood because of the red hooded sweatshirt she wears instead of a red cape with
a hood. The characters reverse roles in The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad
Pig. The wolves become the good characters and the pig becomes the bad guy.
The other characters change into totally different characters in The Three
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Armadillies Tuff, The Principal’s New Clothes, Kate and the Beanstalk,
Somebody and the Three Blairs, The Runaway Tortilla, and Prince Cinders.
The gender is changed in some of the tales. Prince Cinders is a male Cinderella.
Somebody is actually a bear instead of a little girl like Goldilocks. The tortilla is a
female as the gingerbread boy was a male. Kate, a young girl, is the character of
Jack. The armadillos and the coyote are all females instead of male as in The
Three Billy Goats Gruff tale. Age is hard to determine in the tales. It seems that
most of the characters remain the same age except for the teddy bear character
in Somebody and the Three Blairs. The principal might be younger than the
emperor in the version of The Emperor’s New Clothes.
The character’s motives and goals are basically the same in the majority of the
tales. The Frog Prince’s goal is different because he is not happy being a man,
and he wants to change back into a frog. Prince Cinders actually wants to be
more like his brothers in their brawniness and hairiness as opposed to just
attending the ball. The armadillos are attempting to cross the road to go dancing
not for fresh grass.
The goats become armadillos to make the version a Texas or western tale. I
have to admit it is one of my favorite tales from this research project. I love the
versions that are turned into western ones. For that reason, I like the fact that
the gingerbread boy becomes a tortilla. The main character of Goldilocks
changes to a teddy bear while humans replace the bear characters. The rest of
the characters in the tales may physically change gender but not form.
Summary:
The search for materials was simple. Most of the tales were in my personal
collection. One or two I found in the library and on the Barnes and Noble
website. The Runaway Tortilla I found on a sample project in the modules, and
then looked at it on the Barnes and Noble site. I would have preferred to have
looked at each book individually instead of doing a summary from websites.
Therefore, I would have to plan ahead enough that I could order the books from
interlibrary loan. I could have even expanded the project to include only
fractured versions with a western/Texas motif. Then I could even research only
by cultures. I could go on for days and days with this type of project. Thank
goodness my time is limited.
The hardest part was to really determine how to analyze the tales since they
were ten distinct tales. It might have been easier to have picked only one tale
and focus on its’ differences. I look forward to using the project in another class,
but attacking it with the different ways I mentioned in the above paragraph.
(Dr. Figa, I had to squish the subheading for narrative elements like that so all of
the chart would fit on one page.)