Survivor's Ball, Or, The Donner Party
"It is believed that about 1/2 of the survivors of the Donner party resorted to cannibalism." (www.vw.vccs.edu/vwhansd/HIS121/Donner.html)
I think this story is mix between "Little Red Riding Hood" and the history of the tragic Donner party. First for the L.R.R.H. connection, the color red is mentioned several times in this story. (e.g. little girl in the red parka, red lipstick, Donner's red lips) Also, Jasper's grandmother is important to him, and Jasper always seems to get lost. Another similarity is there is a wolf: he hears one howl outside the hotel when there are only supposed to be marsupials in New Zealand. Finally, there are all those LRRH quotes throughout the story. (e.g. Why, Grandmother, what big eyes you have! p. 155)
As for The Donner party, they were a group of emigrants trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mts. during the winter of 1846-47. About half of the group died, and some of the party resorted to eating the dead. Their story is similar to Little Red Riding Hood's in that they too were lead of course by a sort of "wolf in sheep's clothing". (see website above for more info)
We all know from "Travels with the Snow Queen" that your map only protects you if you follow it, and both L.RRH and the Donner party don't follow their maps (p. 103). So, my questions are how did Jasper not "obey the dictates of his map"? What is the significance of his losing a tooth? Who exactly is Serena and where does she go in the end? Are they both eaten?
Hopefully, you found some of these things to be true and will have more to add in class.
I think this story is mix between "Little Red Riding Hood" and the history of the tragic Donner party. First for the L.R.R.H. connection, the color red is mentioned several times in this story. (e.g. little girl in the red parka, red lipstick, Donner's red lips) Also, Jasper's grandmother is important to him, and Jasper always seems to get lost. Another similarity is there is a wolf: he hears one howl outside the hotel when there are only supposed to be marsupials in New Zealand. Finally, there are all those LRRH quotes throughout the story. (e.g. Why, Grandmother, what big eyes you have! p. 155)
As for The Donner party, they were a group of emigrants trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mts. during the winter of 1846-47. About half of the group died, and some of the party resorted to eating the dead. Their story is similar to Little Red Riding Hood's in that they too were lead of course by a sort of "wolf in sheep's clothing". (see website above for more info)
We all know from "Travels with the Snow Queen" that your map only protects you if you follow it, and both L.RRH and the Donner party don't follow their maps (p. 103). So, my questions are how did Jasper not "obey the dictates of his map"? What is the significance of his losing a tooth? Who exactly is Serena and where does she go in the end? Are they both eaten?
Hopefully, you found some of these things to be true and will have more to add in class.
posted by Anonymous at 8:29 PM
2 Comments:
Great catch on RRH. I thought the same thing last week when I read it. I bet that the old fairy tale theme can be found in several stories. Now to just find it!
And I know this is the cop-out answer, but Serena definitely got eaten. Jasper probably volunteered to follow her into Mr. Belly of the Whale.
I figured that Serena might not have gotten eaten because she was a survivor. She survived the fire in her house, even though she set it herself. Maybe she survived the situation that drove her to burn her house down. But if she didn't get eaten, where did she go?
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