Essay for Week 13: The Grimm Brothers' Dark Outlook on the World

Illustration by Walter Crane. Web Source: Un-Textbook

This week I read Ashliman's translation of some of the classic stories that came from the Brothers Grimm. One thing that almost every hears when they are told about these stories is that they are not as friendly as their Disney cousins. A lot of them are very gruesome and dark. People may get a happy ending, but the story is not going to be full of lollipops and gumdrops while getting there. Many of the stories I read this week had an especially negative outlook on the people of this world.

One such story is the Cat and Mouse in Partnership. In this story, a cat and mouse decide to live together, and they store a pot of fat in a church to save for the winter season. The cat, however, eats it all up before winter, then he eats the mouse. The story ends with the line, “that is the way of the world.” My jaw just dropped when I read that. How horrible! The little guy is going to get screwed over by the fat cats of the world and all we are left with is “that’s just the way it is.” However, the mouse should know not to trust a cat. Cats are the natural predator of mice. The moral could be salvaged and made into something like: be careful who you get into bed with; don’t partner someone who is known to be an enemy. This moral, however, could lead children to be overly distrusting of people.

Again, in The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, the wolf was trying to deceive seven young kids (baby goats). He goes to the miller for help. The miller is scared of the wolf, so he agrees, even though he knows it is wrong. The story says “that is the way people are.” I again object to this moral. The miller feared the consequences of doing the right thing, so he helped the wolf. People cannot live that way; they must do what is right because it is right.

Perhaps these stories were written in this way on purpose. Perhaps the Brothers Grimm intended on me to find the moral disgusting. That way, I object strongly to them and do not become like the characters in their story. In this way, reading their stories could create a better world.