Middle Of A Cinderella Complex example essay topic

The traditional story of Cinderella begins with a beautiful, motherless young girl name Cinderella whose father gets married for the second time. His new wife is an arrogant and proud widow who has two daughters of her own, both vain and selfish like their mother. Immediately following the wedding, the wicked woman began to show her true colors. She could not bear the good qualities of her pretty stepdaughter, and even more so because they made her own daughters appear the less attractive. To punish Cinderella for this she made her wash dishes, scrub floors, and wait on her own daughters. She gave Cinderella a straw bed in the loft to sleep upon, while her daughter's slept in fine rooms and upon soft beds.

The sisters wore fine gowns, while Cinderella was only allowed to wear shabby clothes, but even with that she still was a hundred times more beautiful then her evil stepsisters. Poor Cinderella bore all this very patiently, and wouldn't tell her father, because he always sided with his wife. So innocent, gentile hearted Cinderella was forced to bear an undeserved existence all because of her stepmother's resentment for her. It can almost be stated as a fact that everyone in the world has heard or seen the story of Cinderella. No matter where you go throughout the world, you can always find some version of the story. Tennessee Reed interpreted the story of Cinderella her own way in her poem entitled "Disney's Cinderella".

In this poem I find the same similarities as the traditional story - a common term in sociology called the "Cinderella Complex", which is used to describe a situation where a person merely being herself can arouse a sense of inferiority in others that leads to resentment and hostility. The story of Reed's Cinderella symbolizes this type of relationship complex with an evil stepmother, and two evil "jealous" stepsisters who all secretly want to be Cinderella, and attempt to disguise their mental and physical inferiority by constantly, and brutally degrading her. "One of the stepsisters accused her of stealing / her dark blue boot-cut jeans and white cotton blouse by Guess?" (8-9). As in this poem, the Cinderella Complex can also be found in sibling relationship in real life, especially when they are step siblings - each dislikes having to share their parent's attention. In families with more than two children as in the case of Cinderella, brothers and sisters might team up against one another. In this story even the stepmother teamed up with the stepdaughters against Cinderella.

She (the mother) could not bear the good qualities of beautiful Cinderella, and even more so because they made her own daughters appear the less attractive. The Cinderella Complex again causes all this situations. In addition to siblings, at the work place the relationship between coworkers can create an environment where the Cinderella Complex can thrive. The competitive environment that employees work in inflects this. If someone is simply out-performing everyone else, resentment among the coworkers can easily arise into the situation. The innocent hardworking employee is then forced directly in the middle of a Cinderella Complex.

They then have to deal with resentful coworker symptoms such as undeserved rudeness, or even attempts to try to hurt the person's work performance. Furthermore the Cinderella Complex can be found in many relationships in society. It's a prime example how ill willed people take aggressive actions against someone because of resentment. Those who find themselves in the middle of a Cinderella Complex don't always get the promotion, or live happily ever after in "Disney's private island in the Bahamas" (59) with prince charming.

It's a situation that is often detrimental to people and relationships. People need to become aware of the poor character resentful emotions can lead too, and therefore know not to act on them. Every person who has heard the story of Cinderella has his or her own interpretation. It is said that the story may have originated back in Ancient China. Like all stories that are told, they are spoken or handed down from generation to generation. Over time, the story has changed and adapted to modern times.

It is a classic fairy tale with many symbols and images. It is left to the reader to determine just what the true meaning of the story is.