Traditional Literature - Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky Reflection

Zelinsky, P. O. (1997) Rapunzel. New York: Dutton Children’s Books.
Rapunzel is the story of a soon-to-be-mother who steals and eats the rapunzel herb from a sorceress' garden. In retaliation, the sorceress takes the mother's baby as soon as she is born, names the baby Rapunzel, and locks her away in a high tower. Years later, a prince finds and marries Rapunzel. When the sorceress finds out, she banishes Rapunzel to the wilderness, and tries to kill the prince. As in most fairy tales, the prince and Rapunzel eventually find each other again and live happily ever after.
This book is a Retold Tale. In the back of the book, Zelinsky writes, “My retelling of “Rapunzel” takes shapes from both Grimms’ and earlier versions of the tale” (1997). The theme of the story is a limited one. As predicted, the theme only shows good prevails over evil when the handsome prince rescues Rapunzel, the innocent damsel in distress, as they overcome some sort of evil force, in this case, the sorceress. In addition, the characters of the story are two dimensional or flat characters because the reader only sees one side of their personality, good or bad. There is no in between. The sorceress is purely evil and Rapunzel is purely good. With round characters, you see good and bad traits of the characters.
The fairy tale, Rapunzel was one of my favorites as a young girl. I often dreamed of having long flowing gorgeous hair just like Rapunzel’s. The story I read as a young girl was part of a collection of fairy tales in one large book, and was quite different from Zelinsky’s version.
Big Question: How do different versions of fairy tales compare and contrast with each other?
I would like to obtain several variations of this story. Place students in small groups – a different version per group, and have the students research the origin, provide a summary, and compare and contrast their version to another group’s version of the story.
Common Core Standard:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations.