We don't notice
that the books that we read or the movies that we see show similarities or
patterns from another book or movie. Foster shows us that Hansel and
Gretel is a great way to write a modern day novel. Take some of the bits
and pieces from that fairy tale and you have yourself a horror novel. He gives
us the example of Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato that
there is a woman that has the same role as Sacajawea. The woman in the novel
knows the land and can show the character the way to Paris just like Sacajawea
did for Lewis and Clark. Foster is trying to explain to us that similarity in
stories gives us a sense of familiarity and lets us understand more about the
novel.
The movie Maleficent is
a perfect way to explain what Foster has been trying to teach us in chapter 5, 6, and 7. Maleficent is
about the original Sleeping Beauty, but a side that we never
saw with the classic fairy tale. Maleficent is a winged fairy that
falls in love with a human, but he betrays her by cutting off her wings so he
can show them to the King, so he can be the descendant to the throne. Maleficent
wants revenge so she goes to the King and casts an evil spell on his daughter,
Aurora. The spell is that when Aurora turns 16 she will prick her finger on the
needle of a spindle and she will die, but she can only be awoken by a true
love's kiss. The King sends Aurora away to the forest with three fairies so
Maleficent won't ever find her. Maleficent finds her and doesn't want anyone to
harm her so her curse can live on until she is 16. Aurora eventually meets
Maleficent and thinks that she is her fairy god mother and Maleficent
begins to create a bond with Aurora and wants to break the curse, but she can't
unless Aurora has a true love's kiss. Aurora meets a Prince, but they don't
have time to create a relationship so Maleficent takes her to where she lives
to try and keep her safe. Aurora's three fairies reveal Maleficent's true identity
and this causes Aurora to run to her father in panic. Aurora goes into the
dungeon of the castle for safe keeping, but pricks her finger. Maleficent
decides to take the Prince to Aurora and have him kiss her, but it doesn't
work. So she apologizes to Aurora for lying to her and kisses her on the
forehead and Aurora awakens. Instead of true love's kiss from the original
fairy tale there is true love from a motherly love.
This is what
Foster was explaining to us in chapter 7, how we can use portions of the
original fairy tale and create a whole new story. Maleficent is
giving us that sense of familiarity from Sleeping Beauty, but also
giving us that strangeness and new awakening of Maleficent by having her be the
hero by saving Aurora instead of her being the antagonist.
