Choices of Lust do not end in Fairy Tale Endings Many girls dream about finding their fairy tale prince at a very young age. In fairy tales, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Sleeping Beauty, there is Prince Charming and Prince Phillip respectively. The princes find and save their princesses with a single kiss to break the evil curse set upon them. Yet, as young girls grow into adolescence and adulthood, they figure out that fairytales are not reality. In reality, love is not as attainable as the fairy tales portray. Susan Minot’s character in “Lust,” suggests that reality is a vicious cycle of unhappy relationships and a series of choices that lead to the realization that life doesn’t have a fairy tale ending.
Snow White and Aurora are the ideal images of innocence. They are young and impressionable when it comes to their actions. Snow White wishes about her Prince Charming by singing, “‘I’m wishing, for the one I love to find me’” (Hand), while Aurora sings about meeting her prince in a dream. During the movies both princesses have a naïve sense of danger. Snow White takes the poisoned apple from the frail old woman, while Aurora is lured to the spindle by a mysterious glowing orb. In both instances the princesses chose to succumb to the temptations put before them, resulting in a curse that put them both into a deep sleep. The only way to break the curse was if their true love kisses them. At the end of each movie the princesses are united with their respective prince and they each have a fairy tale ending.
In “Lust,” the main character was as innocent and impressionable as Snow White and Aurora. She experiences the power the male form has over a female when “the boys next door tied up our ankles. They held the door of the goat house and wouldn’t let us out until we showed them our underpants” (341). Minot’s character learned that when a boy wants something, a girl is to give it to them in order to be accepted. This feeling followed her throughout her teen years, for example, “if you go out with them, you sort of have to do something” (341). She was also told by her housemother that women were to give men babies. She learned at a young age that men were dominating, yet she chose to continue putting herself in compromising situations as a teen. She knew what she was doing was wrong since she protected herself by using birth control. She later realized that there are men that are far more dangerous and demanding than the others she was involved with, resulting in “feeling a little off-kilter. You begin to feel like a piece of pounded veal” (344). Minot’s