Fantasy and Poetry in Children’s Literature

The two selections of literature are Cinderella for the fantasy story and a poem by Eloise Greenfield called â€Å"Tradition†. Both selections are from different cultural traditions, but portray positive messages to children and adults in today’s society. Every little girl dreams of finding her prince charming. There are more than 1500 different versions of â€Å"Cinderella† from cultures all over the world. The story of Cinderella has been in existence since 1865 and published by George Routledge. This fairy tale is one of the oldest and most familiar to young children that inspire them to believe anything is possible. The literary elements in Cinderella include the setting, characters, plot, conflict, climax, and ending. The setting was in a faraway kingdom a long time ago. The characters included a young girl name Cinderella, her stepmother, two stepsisters, the prince, and fairy godmother. The Plot of this fairy tale is a young girl who is being treated unfairly, but dreams of finding her true love. She is being mistreated by her stepmom and sisters and works as a maid in the home. Cinderella begs to go to a ball and is told she could go after all chores are completed. Once she completes the chores and finds a dress, she is maliciously attacked by her stepsisters and destroys her dress. Cinderella was shattered and thought she would never recover from this. The conflict in this story is the continual dislike from the stepmother and stepsisters against Cinderella. The climax is so exciting in this story. After Cinderella meets her fairy godmother, she dresses her in a beautiful gown and sends her to the ball, Cinderella forgets about the time and at 12:00 midnight her fantasy is over. She runs out of the ball and leaves her glass slipper. The prince is searching all over the kingdom searching for the girl who could fit the glass slipper. The ending to this fairy tale is every girl’s dream. The prince searched high and low searching for his princess. He sent his grand Duke to try the glass slipper on every girl in the kingdom and the shoe only fits one person. After Cinderella revealed she had the other glass slipper. This created one of the most romantic fairy tales ever. Cinderella and the Prince falls in love, marry, and live happily ever after. â€Å"Tradition† is a poem written by Eloise Greenfield, an Africa American poet in 1988. Eloise was born in 1929 in North Carolina; this was in the early days of the Great Depression. Eloise was influenced by memories of her childhood, observations, and stories she had read about. The literary elements in the poem include the setting, characters, plot, conflict, climax, and ending. The setting in this poem was a long time ago in a southern state. The character in this poem is any person who has worked hard throughout his or her lives with no worry of failure or fear. The plot in the poem is to live, learn, and give back to others. The conflict in this poem is dealing with self. She can achieve anything in life if she works hard and want it bad enough. The climax is rising to the occasion. If she is able to overcome adversity and focus on her goals, regardless of the many things you have been through. Success is the end of this poem.