Collections of Traditional Folk Tales “The Feathered Ogre” was originally published as part of the collection Italian Folk Tales (1956), which Calvino transcribed and retold from the oral tradition. The most famous collection of folk tales is probably that of the Brother’s Grimm, who wrote a comprehensive collection of traditional German folk tales, which have…
Tag: Short Stories
The Feathered Ogre – Literary Devices
The Folk Tale “The Feathered Ogre” was originally published in Calvino’s book, Italian Folktales, in which he transcribed stories from the oral tradition in Italian culture. However, even read out of this context, this story clearly resembles the familiar folk or fairy tales children are often told. Because they originate in an oral tradition, folk…
The Feathered Ogre – Themes
Heroism The protagonist of a fairy tale is often a courageous man who risks mortal danger in order to achieve some noble quest. The king’s attendant in this story is heroic in every way. He is the only one ”loyal and courageous” enough to go in search of a feather from the ogre. Along his…
The Feathered Ogre – Characters
The Beautiful Girl The innkeeper’s daughter, a “beautiful girl,” is first encountered by the protagonist as the wife of the ogre, who has been his captive for years. She comes up with a scheme to take four feathers from the ogre, answer each of the four questions, and escape with the man, without either of…
The Feathered Ogre – Summary
A king falls ill and is told by his doctors that the only way he can be cured is by obtaining a feather from the ogre that eats every human being it sees. No one of his subjects is willing to go on a quest for one of the ogre’s feathers, until one attendant bravely…
The Erlking by Angela Carter – Analysis
All of the stories in The Bloody Chamber re-imagine the plots and revisit the themes of traditional fairy tales, making explicit their sexual subtexts. For example, Carter offers several different versions of ‘’Little Red Ridinghood” and ”Beauty and the Beast” that focus on innocent young girls’ seduction by animalistic men. Carter observes in her introduction…
The Erlking by Angela Carter – Themes
Nature and Its Meaning The deep woods where the story is set is a lonely, melancholy place, giving in to the creeping coldness of the oncoming winter. It is also a truly wild place; it has ”reverted to its original privacy.” It has a disorienting effect on any human passerby, as indicated by the second-person…
The Erlking by Angela Carter – Summary
The story opens with a long descriptive passage depicting the stark and gloomy atmosphere of the woods in late October. These woods are characterized as entrapping and menacing, not so much because of any physical danger they present as because of their ability to undermine human identity: “It is easy to lose yourself in these…
Debbie and Julie – Analysis
“Debbie and Julie” concerns a teenager’s decision not to take on the responsibilities of motherhood. Julie, the adolescent protagonist of the story, gives birth to a baby daughter and, resisting the positive feelings she has toward the infant, abandons her in telephone booth, a place in which she hopes the baby will be quickly found….
Debbie and Julie – Setting
Teen Runaways in Great Britain In 1989, the same year that Lessing published “Debbie and Julie,” the British government recognized the problem of teen runaways by passing the Children Act, which made provisions for outreach to runaways and offered some sources of refuge for them. However, the great majority of British runaways do not receive…