Mary Wilkins Freeman

First of all, I have to say that I love Freeman's writing. I have now read several of her works and have found them all fascinating. One thing that was brought to my attention today that I failed to pick up during my reading was the many similarities between the tale of Old Woman Magoun and Snow White. This was just touched on at the end of class, but I looked back over the story and found it to be quite true. Lily is an innocent young girl of near marrying age whose beauty catches the attention of the men in the town. Her grandmother is very possessive of Lily and, although kind and generous to her, holds obvious power over the people in the town. Magoun is very protective of her granddaughter's purity to a possessive extent and is willing to murder the child to keep it to herself. She treats Lily kindly until the moment when she realizes that Lily must marry and give up her innocence to someone else. At this point in the story, the grandmother becomes harsh. This is similar to Snow White because the wicked witch only becomes a threat to Snow White when she realizes that she no longer possesses the greatest beauty. This happens once Snow White reaches a mature age and becomes an object of attraction to men.

There is also the reoccurring sour apple within the story that gets blamed for both Lily's and her mother's deaths. We discover that Lily has actually been poisoned, like Snow White, which brings to question the death of the mother. The grandmother is revealed to be a selfish and jealously possessive woman who could be compared to the wicked step mother in the tale of Snow White. I am thinking about writing my paper on this topic, so any feedback about this idea is greatly appreciated.