Humanism, as well as defining what it means to be human is further analyzed in Carters story the “Snow Child,” a highly sexualized, adulterous version of “Snow White.” In this story, the count creates a girl out of physical desire, while he is with his wife mind you, as she first appears naked in the snow. The snow child then pricks her finger on a thorn, bleeds, and dies, which symbolically represents, at least for the perverted count, her first menstruation and her coming into womanhood. This gives us a very different look of Carter’s idea of gender roles, yet does so in a manner so exaggerated it is difficult to misread them as literal. It reveals the countess's hateful attitude represents relationships, and sets up a rivalry between women, as she let the girl die and be raped by the count. Furthermore, we are meant to look at what it means to be a woman coming of age, as the snow child never speaks, but only screams once when she dies. Furthermore, the countess is powerless, and her husband ignores all her requests, and takes away her clothes and possessions at will. Perhaps Carter means us to reanalyze what the roles are for men and women and society, and how they could be exaggerated and distorted at some point to a reality in the future.
Very interesting comments
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