Candy House Trap!

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I can imagine this was Hansel and Gretel's reaction when they saw the house made of candy that was actually a TRAP. Imagine you haven't eaten a full meal in what feels like forever and then you come across a house made out of bread and candy, it would feel like a God send right?! 






Hunger is frequently served as a motivation in fairy tales, causing protagonists to go to the extent of changing their circumstances in order to be fed. These tales are likely to reflect the reality of the time they were written in and we see this in Hansel and Gretel as it very much reflects Jacob and Wilhelm's reality that I informed you of in my introduction (head to my introduction post if you haven't already read it). We can say that Hansel and Gretel becomes a tale about displacement due to the absence of food. The parents of Hansel and Gretel kick them out of their own home as they are unable to provide them with adequate food. This is how the parents conversation went:

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"Early tomorrow morning we will take the two children out into the thickest part of the woods, make a fire for them, and give each of them a little piece of bread, then leave them by themselves and go off to our work. They will not find their way back home, and we will be rid of them." Little did they know Hansel and Gretel had a plan and left a trail of breadcrumbs to find their way home, but the birds ate them.

Through this we see how food serves as a form of safety in a sense, because had not the birds eaten the crumbs, they would have lead Hansel and Gretel back home. Never would have thought that food could act as a form of safety! 

Not only does food serve as a form of safety but the lack of food in Hansel and Gretel is used as a catalyst for their abandonment. It completely destructs and divides their family. So food works as a threat here!

It's also funny and interesting to think that Hansel and Gretel's starvation saves them in a way. Why do you say that? You're probably thinking! Because they were so hungry, "The two children had not been able to fall asleep because of their hunger" which resulted in them overhearing the evil stepmother's plan to get rid of them as she sees them as a burden. Had they fallen asleep, they wouldn't have known the plan plotted against them!




We see how hunger serves as a motivation as it is interesting that "both the witch and the mother forsake their roles as nurturers and instead selfishly choose to assuage their own hunger by sacrificing the children." (Phoenix and Walter,195) The witch does this by locking Hansel away and attempting to make him fatter before eating him herself whereas the mother kicks both children out. This cruel act portrays the power of food in that the witch and more importantly, the mother put their own need for food before the children. A maternal act would be to put your children before yourself but here we see the total opposite of that. Times get hard so the parents resort to abandoning their children. T R A G I C. 

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We see food as a trap, a danger, and a seducer. The witch's attractable edible house lures Hansel and Gretel into danger as they see the house as the fulfillment of their hunger. It's heaven in their eyes, a dream come true, they've finally got access to FOOD! The witch is so evil she uses food as a trap and a method of torture by feeding Hansel food to make him fatter so she could eat him herself. Do you ever wander how she was going to eat him fried, boiled, sauteed, roasted or simply RAW? How you ever stopped to think that the witch lives in a house made out of tasty food yet she desires to eat a human being?! Did I hear someone say cannibalism?


A catalyst, a protector, a seducer and an abuser... Although food kept Hansel and Gretel alive, it almost caused them their life!

References:

[1] https://giphy.com/
[2] https://giphy.com/
[3] https://giphy.com/

Phoenix E. L and Walter L. Critical Food Issues: Problems and State-Of-The-Art Solutions Worldwide. Praeger, 2009.