Changing the way you learn

Snow White

Conflict
1. Person vs. Self
  1. Mary is insecure of the way she looks due to the skin condition that she has.
    1. She was often teased in her childhood which led to her antisocial personality. This antisocial personality is what Mary is battling with when she is trying to make friends.
2. Person vs. Society
  1. Mary is unable to make friends easily due to her being a social outcast, and lacking the confidence to face society, which is why she is spending her time lonely in the library eating her lunch.
    1. She makes a mockery out of the typical high school teenager by dressing up a cheerleading and wearing many layers of makeup. She is unable to enjoy this for long due to another student dressing up as her for his costume and everyone (society) at the party gets a kick out of it.
3. Person vs Circumstances
  1. Mary struggles with the condition that was placed upon her by her parent’s genes, and she forced to deal with this condition her whole life.
    1. From childhood to her teenage years, she always felt different and not normal but there were is no solution to her skin condition, she will always have to face this battle.
Characters
1. Mary
  1. She has two recessive albino alleles which causes her to have a pale white skin tone and eyes to be a near pink colour.
  2. She enjoys the company of her two older brothers as well as her best friend Karen, because they embrace that she is different and love her anyways.
  3. She never had a real social interaction with other kids that were age because they always treated her like a monster.
    1. “When I was little, kids would tease me by singing ‘Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how’d ya get so white and scary?’ ”
  4. Mary's emotional detachment from her mother was caused by her having a small hatred towards her mother because she was beautiful, a cheerleader in high school and was fifty percent of the reason that she has the albino gene.
    1. This leads to her making the cheerleader costume to not only mock her mother but society as well.
2. Antagonist
  1. Snow White does not have one specific character as an antagonist but rather an entity.
    1. Society is playing the role of the antagonist. The norms of society are opposing Mary due to her looks, she will always be on the outside looking in.
      1. Society is the one putting pressure on Mary to act a certain way and to look a certain way, they don’t accept her for who she is.
Literary Devices
1. Verbal Irony
  1. “My two older brothers turned out tan and freckled, respectively, then bingo, they hit the genetic jackpot with me.”
    1. This is verbal irony because jackpot is often associated with a something positive and lucky but when Mary is using the term genetic jackpot to describe her condition, she is using the words to mean the exact opposite.
      1. This jackpot that her parents hit ruined her life.
2. Dramatic Irony
  1. When Mary’s mother says “Mary! You look beautiful” after seeing her costume, she is unaware of the fact that Mary had primarily made this costume to ridicule the typical high school girl as well as her own mother who was a cheerleader in high school.
3. Hyperbole
  1. "I could have run forever but after three blocks my house pulled up in front of me”
    1. She is using the exaggeration that she could forever to describe the fact that she wanted to run away from her problems forever although she can’t literarily run forever.
Themes
1. Don’t seek others approval
  1. This could be one theme of the book because Mary is seeking for others to accept her the way she is.
    1. Her brothers as well as Karen have already done so, but she isn’t quite satisfied yet.
      1. Till the end of the story when she was mocked at the party, but Karen still came over to her house to comfort her which is when Mary had realized she didn’t need everyone, she only needed Karen
2. One friend is really all you need
  1. This was the last line in the short story, it recaps how the events in the story are teaching Mary about the importance of just appreciating that one friend you may have.
    1. It is the central idea of the story because even though she is facing social challenges in the the story that are put upon her, Karen still stood by her side and was a faithful friend throughout.
Mood
1. Insecurity
  1. This is the primary theme introduced early in the first paragraph of this story. Mary is putting on a cream to try and help the facial insecurities that she has.
    1. After the mood was set, it was then expanded on further when the flashbacks of Mary being made fun of as a child. Throughout her life she had to face insecurity and she continued to face this as the story continued on. This is how the author created the feeling of insecurity, through Mary’s experiences
2. Suspense and Interest
  1. Grace Hu is able to create an interest and build up in the story by building up Mary’s excitement and eagerness for the party, while we as the readers could predict that there would be some sort of conflict arising at this party.
    1. I was enticed in the story waiting for the party to arrive and to see how this party that Mary has built up so much in her head and planned everything for can collapse and see her reaction towards it.
Symbolism
1. The Boy at the Party
  1. The boy who decided to dress up as Mary for his Halloween costume is representing society as whole.
    1. The boy was apathetic towards Mary, he didn’t care for how Mary would have felt if she saw this costume, he only cared about if he had a funny costume or not.
      1. Society in comparison is essentially the same towards her, they don’t care about how bullying, putting others down, and making others feel insecure can really damage a person, they are only worried about getting a good laugh out of a mean joke.
2. Cheerleader
  1. A cheerleader is symbolising the image of the perfect girl in the eyes of Mary.
    1. Cheerleaders are typically pretty, have great social skills and gets along with everyone. These are all things that are contrasting Mary.
Narration
1. First Person
  1. Snow White is told from the first perspective of Mary, I think the author chose to use this perspective because it was the one that best allowed a deep connection to be made between the reader and Mary. The reader is able to get a closer idea to what Mary is feeling emotionally and is able to sympathize with the experiences that she is going through
    1. Personally I think it did an effective job, as I got to read through the events that transpired and knew the thoughts of Mary as they happened, I was able to relate some of my own personal experiences of high school that she was encountering.
      1. I could clearly see the similarities between Mary and I which led to me loving the character even more.
Plot
1. Introduction: Mary has a rare skin condition that makes her insecure, her mother often blames herself for this because she gave her the gene in the first place, but her brothers and best friend Karen love her despite everything. Throughout her life, Mary is made fun of because of her looks
  1. Starting incident: Mary is eating her lunches alone recently because she wants Karen to hang out with her new friends. Karen misses her and invites her to her Halloween party that she is having.
    1. Rising action: Mary decides to wear a cheerleader costume to the party, so she puts on a lot of makeup, wears her mother’s makeup and gets new coloured contacts. She goes to the party, and no one even recognizes her, they all think she is beautiful.
      1. Climax: She notices that a boy has a costume of her on, and he is making fun of her while the crowd is laughing around with him. She runs home crying immediately.
        Falling Action: She went into the shower and when her hair turned a sickly pink colour, she let all her frustration out and cut all of her hair off, then shaved it bald.
        Conclusion: Karen comes to her house to see if she is okay, she cheers her up and they decide to go out together. Mary realizes that you truly do only need one friend.

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	Created by dhrumil_naik over 9 years ago