German Culture
Myth Project - Brecken Yeo - Ms. Harrison 7th
Plot Summary of Hansel and Gretel
- Hansel and Gretel belong to a poor family
- a famine is comes over their area
- mother wants to abandon their kids because they eat too much
- Hansel and Gretel overhear their parents talking about this
- Hansel goes out and collects pebbles
- next morning they are lead into the woods
- Hansel leaves a trail of pebbles
- able to find there way home
- mom is angry and so they do the same thing the next day, but Hansel doesn't have enough time to gather anything so he scatters the bread he is given
- when they try and go back, the bread has been eaten so they can't find their way home
- they follow a bird to a house that is covered in candy and food
- inside there is a witch
- the witch decides to try and plump up Hansel so that she can eat him
- because he is clever and smart, he is able to trick the witch into thinking he is skinny
- the witch finally decides she is going to bake Gretel so the witch decides to ask Gretel to check inside of the oven
- Gretel realizes what the witch is trying to do so she says that she doesn't get what she wants her to do so the witch demonstrates and Gretel pushes the witch inside of the oven
Values exhibited in Hansel and Gretel
- cleverness
- don't trust strangers
- don't disobey our parents
- "Do come in, and stay with me. No harm shall happen to you."
- not really a threat, but there were fears
Connecting Values and Culture
- obey your parents
- at the time, people didn't always trust their neighbors
- Napoleonic wars and invasions were a daily part of the brother's lives
- child abuse, murder, pedophilia, parental negligence, and human evil