Snow white

“Mirror, mirror on the wall; Who is the fairest of them all?”

I remember these lines from the play performed in our school’s annual function when I was in 6th grade. I didn’t make the cast owing to my skin tone. Two of the fairest girls in our school were chosen to be the the Step mother and Snow white. That was the first time I questioned the story of Snow White. What is the moral of the story? When I first heard the story, I was told the moral of story as “Beauty is not skin deep” apart from the usual “Good triumphs evil”.

As I watched the rehearsals and finally the play (I was, like any 11 year old girl, fascinated by the fairy tale princesses), I realized that they never refer to ‘beauty’. They don’t ask who is the prettiest of all, instead they ask who is the fairest of all. Is fair a synonym of beauty? How the moral of story can be “Beauty is not skin deep” when all they consider is fairness of skin?

The moral “Beauty is not skin deep” would have made sense if Snow white wasn’t the fairest maiden in the land but still was more popular (as she was kind and nice) than her Step mother. This in turn could have made the Step mother jealous and hence the rest of the story.

But then I have a personal issues against the story and hence wants it changed.