Summary:
This changing tale begins with a family living through a horrific war. They experience a major decrease with income and food supply because of the battle. This family of four goes through the struggle of trying to make do with what they have on a daily basis. They live in a forest that slowly turns into a battlefield. The war never hits their home, but it affected their everyday life. The war burned fields, and a huge shortage of crops came about. The mother comes to the conclusion to kill the children because they cannot feed all four family members. The father who is more caring disagreed with this idea. She goes on to say they should "lose" them which would lead to potentially killing them. The son, Hansel, listens in on the parents conversation. The father took the children into the deeper part of the woods the following day. Hansel prepared himself and dropped stones as they walked to make sure him and his sister can find their way back home. When the children came back to the door step the parents were surprised. The father was excited, but the mother said nothing. The children were able to stay at the house for another week. Hansel was waiting for the parents to have another conversation about it, but they never did.
One day, Hansel was surprised by another trip into the forest. This time he was not prepared. The two siblings were then lost in the forest. While they walked around trying to find their home, they were stopped by the smell of gingerbread. The smell lead them to a gingerbread house. The house belonged to an old woman. She found them and took them in immediately. She feed them and prepared beds for them to stay in. Little did the children know, she was preparing to eat them. Hansel and Gretel were then abused and trapped in the house. Gretel ends up saving the day by trapping the old women in the heated oven that was ready for Hansel. She locked the door and opened Hansel's cage that he was stuck in. The children then ran off and found their home and father.
Characters: Father, Mother, Margret (Gretel), Hans (Hansel), The old Women
Setting: Farm House, Forest, and Old Lady's gingerbread house.
Quotes:
Page 12:
"That was in the good days, before the war, before the famine. War came, and the soldiers came with it - hungry, angry, bored, scared men who, as they passed through, stole the cabbages and the chickens and the ducks…But beyond the forest, fields of crops were burned and barely fields became battlefields, or made into soldiers in their turn and marched away."
Connecting to today's generation, how do you think war affects our world/country? Or are there not as many issues as there were in the past?
Page 28:
"And they were cold, and sad, and scared, of bears and of wolves and other things in the forest that might eat children."
We thought this quote was a good example of foreshadowing. Why would the parents resort to putting their children's lives in jeopardy? Why is "losing" the children sound like the best idea for the mother? What makes for a good or a bad mother? Why?
Page 36:
"She was tied to the table leg by a long chain. There was nothing sweet about the old woman, not any longer. She made Gretel clean and work for her, and if the girl did not obey her fast enough she would beat her and call her all manner of evil names."
What was the reasoning for the old women's behavior? What was the purpose of this story and the moral of it?
Contextual Material:
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/keyword/child-abuse
Child abuse has many different aspects: abandonment, physical, sexual, mental and verbal abuse are all common forms of child abuse. It is a very serious matter, and when seen someone should be notified.
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