Cinderella! Everywhere!!

Two days ago my boyfriend and I watched Ever After together. I love Ever After. It is definitely my favorite of the plethora of Cinderella stories found in the media. Each character (with the exception of the baronness and Marguerite) have their own kind of growth and transformation. The dialogue is absolutely brilliant, the love story is actually believable, and the story has a fun and entertaining plot to follow.

We happened to watch Ever After together the day after we watched Cinderella's episode of Once Upon a Time, which throws in the twist that Cinderella finds her story's happy ending (kinda) after making a deal with the baby-hungry Rumpelstiltskin.

I started to think about all the other Cinderella stories in the media. A quite obvious one is "A Cinderella Story," which puts a modern twist on the Cinderella story, starring Hillary Duff. Others include "Slipper in the Rose," "Ella Enchanted," Disney's "Cinderella," "Another Cinderella Story," Roger and Hammerstein's "Cinderella," and "If the Shoe Fits." In fact, there are dozens! Cinderella stories are everywhere! I wonder if Cinderella isn't the most popular fairytale; its plotline seems to weave its way into dozens of stories. The prevalence of Cinderella-themed plotlines would be an interesting content analysis.

So why is Cinderella so popular?

This is something that has actually intrigued me for years. What is it about the story of Cinderella that creates enough appeal to retell the story in hundreds of books and movies? I have a few ideas. The challenges presented can appeal to many. Some struggle with broken families. Some struggle with feelings of rejection, betrayal, ostracism, and loneliness. Some feel out of place, some feel overworked, some feel that their circumstances are preventing them from reaching their potential or finding happiness. Cinderella struggles with all of these difficulties and finds a quick and simple solution: a fairy Godmother who makes all her dreams come true with the flick of a wand. Suddenly Cinderella rises from rags to riches, finds love, and lives happily ever after.What's not appealing about that?

Not that I'm accusing the human race of not having the desire to solve their own problems. But I'm sure everyone would agree that it would be nice to have an external influence solve all our problems for us.

But does real growth occur when that happens?

Plus, some of these Cinderella stories do not even include a fairy godmother. In some of them, the heroine has to endure trials and challenges throughout the entire story until she finally achieves her grand reward.

Perhaps it's the hope that anyone's rotten circumstances can change that appeals to audiences everywhere. Whatever it is, I still find myself among Cinderella fans. As long as the story isn't cliche. Which is kind of hard to pull off when it has been done so many times.