CINDERELLA BY ROALD DAHL

This Revolting Rhymes of Roald Dahl are a different way of telling children those typical fairy tales that everyone knows about. He, with a funny touch, brings fairy tales to reality and is meant for down to earth people. As people usually say with this story of Cinderella by Roald Dahl, we wonder if our childhood wasn’t a complete waste of time always playing with skinny blond Barbie’s and watching movies as Sleeping Beauty, Snow-white and Cinderella in which all the princesses problems were solved by a strong handsome prince and a kiss.

But going back to Roald Dahl and his Cinderella story I can say for sure that it is entertaining and kids will laugh with it as I did. However it can be difficult for kids to understand and I think that it could be easier to use it and work with it with students from grades nine to twelve if we are going to use the text as it is written. It has a lot of colloquial words as “phoney” and “sappy” that little kids are not going to understand. It also has abbreviations such as “morn” and “bizz” and some complicated words like “wince” or “maiden”. Dahl also uses set phrases that can´t be understood by the context like for example “Hang on a tick” or “turned to pulp”.

Also the fact that it rhymes makes it even more humorous, and it presents rhymes to children in a way that can motivate them and make them enjoy learning English.

Nevertheless if instead of telling it as is said by Roald Dahl you tell the same story but with different words it can be easy for them to understand and they will like it. Then they could create their own version of Cinderella´s story or they can imagine what happens after the “happy ever after”.  Another activity with them can be that in groups they have to choose any fairy tale they want and they have to change it and later on perform it.

The changes I will do so that is appropriate for children will be:

Ø  Omit this two phrases :

“Where rats who wanted things to eat,

Began to nibble at her feet.”

“She beat her fist against the wall,”

Ø  And in the part in which the prince cuts the step sisters head off, instead of saying this:

'Off with her head!' The Prince roared back

They chopped it off with one big whack.

This pleased the Prince. He smiled and said,

'She's prettier without her head.'

Then up came Sister Number Two,

Who yelled, 'Now I will try the shoe!'

'Try this instead!' the Prince yelled back.

He swung his trusty sword and smack –

Her head went crashing to the ground.

It bounced a bit and rolled around.

In the kitchen, peeling spuds,

Cinderella heard the thuds

Of bouncing heads upon the floor,

And poked her own head round the door.

'What's all the racket?' Cindy cried.

'Mind your own bizz,' the Prince replied.

Poor Cindy's heart was torn to shreds.

My Prince! she thought. He chops off heads!

How could I marry anyone

Who does that sort of thing for fun?

The Prince cried, 'Who's this dirty slut?

'Off with her nut! Off with her nut!'

I would say it like this:

‘I am the prince, and I´m going to bail’

And he told his guards to take her to jail.

This pleased the Prince. He smiled and said,

‘She is going to look prettier in jail’.

Then up came Sister Number Two,

Who yelled, 'Now I will try the shoe!'

The Prince then yelled ‘That´s something you wouldn’t dare to do,

Now put this one in jail too’

‘What´s all that noise’ Cindy cried.

‘Mind your own business’ the Prince replied.

Poor Cindy's heart those words were crude.

She didn’t want a Prince this rude!

How could I marry anyone

Who does that sort of thing for fun?

The Prince cried, ‘Who is this whale?

‘Put this one too in the coldest jail’

I couldn’t contain myself and I read the other stories by Roald Dahl so I am going to finish by saying that all of them are hilarious. They all show the harsh reality and prevents us of being scatterbrained.

“Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.”

-Roald Dahl