Thesis: The marriages in the fairy tales might seem appealing, but they’re unlikely to be happy.

 

Outline/Reasons

1. In “Rumpelstiltskin,” the King married the miller’s daughter solely for her “wealth.” This creates issues in the future when the King realizes that she is actually poor.

 

2. In “Rumpelstiltskin,” the King and the Queen have mismatched personalities. The King is greedy for wealth and uses death threats to get what he wants. The Queen, however, is innocent and non-materialistic.

 

3. In “Bearskin,” all the daughters were planned to have arranged marriages. The youngest daughter was an object of exchange for the gold Bearskin paid to the old man.

 

4. In “Bearskin,” with the addition of Bearskin coming into the family, the two elder sisters suicide. This will create tension in family gatherings as he would be viewed as a family destroyer.

 

Writing Instructions

1. Choose one of your outline items, which should be a reason.

 

2. Write the body paragraph that corresponds to your outline item.

 

3. Your first sentence should state your reason.

 

4. The body of your paragraph should support your reason with logic and evidence.

 

5. Write as though you are writing to a friend who really enjoys listening to you talk or write, but who disagrees with you a little bit on this topic. Do not focus on perfection (especially correctness). Focus on clarity and solid evidence. Letting your personality shine through will help you as you draft and make the finished product better.

 

6. Do not retell large chunks of the story. Always assume that your reader has recently read the work you are discussing. Your job is to convince, not review. You are using juicy quotes or very short summaries to back up your claim (e.g., “The youngest daughter was always suspicious of The Old Soldier”). If you are spending more than two sentences on a summary, you have entered a summary black hole.

 

7. For evidence, use a summary unless a quote is actually juicy.

 

8. Repeat, writing a new paragraph for each item in your outline. (You can change your outline if you need to. Just make sure you adjust the outline before you write the new paragraph. That way you make sure that you’re not drifting off topic.)

 

Requirements

1. List your thesis.

2. You must write a body draft (no introduction, conclusion, or title) of 500+ words and at least 3 paragraphs.

3. Your paper must be in MLA format. Citations must be correct.

 

 

I have attached the two folktales as pdf documents.