Professor Elam

Memorial Day Weekend, 2012

The original story of Snow White is a fairly gruesome tale. The sentence meted out to the Evil Queen is Pure Medieval, the Old Testament eye for an eye idea. But in the original story, Snow White is a passive character. She is acted upon by the Evil Queen. It takes an accident for the poisoned apple to be dislodged from her throat so that she awakes to her Prince. 

Now fast forward to 2012. Popular entertainment resonates with the prevailing soial mood. And what is the prevailing social mood-revolution and protest. From Western Europe ( no austerity for us) to North Africa nd the mid East (freedom now) to Moscow ( Putin is the Czar Reincarnate) to Cuba, people are unhappy with their lot in life. So in the new version, Snow White and the Huntsman, Snow White becomes an active participant in her own reinvention. This switch from passive tense to active tense reflects the ongoing social mood of the world. The plot line of  the original fairy tale suggests a story that had surely been hundreds of years old when the Brothers Grimm began publishing their story collections in the early 1800s. in the original story the Queen seems to fear no one and does as she please. Snow White is a metaphor for an unlucky population under the rule of an unjust Queen. 

Not in the modern version. In the movie poster the armor clad sword bearing warrior is in fact Snow White herself, backed up by the Huntsman's warriors. No doubt this also reflects in increasing female activism, at multiple levels.  Reflecting the general popularity of sword and sorcery movies the last ten years, this one will likely be a hit, after all, it resonates perfectly with the social mood on march around the world.