Ky Huang
Ms.Depaolo/ P.5
H English
03 March 2015
Mead
Margaret Mead is a feminist who believed that gender roles in society are affected by the way culture is exposed to them. She also believed that human behavior is learned through one’s culture and it helps them develop through their coming of age. Culture conditioning is the process where high authorities define and make you learn the cultural values, beliefs, and systems in the way how we perceive ourselves in the world. This process or concept is present in The Frog Prince where The Princess is portrayed as a helpless being when it comes to her losing her golden ball and not being to retrieve it. Although The Princess is viewed as a helpless weakling in the fairy tale, the story depicts the cultural conditioning between the characters which shows that they behave and react to one’s actions through their beliefs. The fairy tale, The Frog Prince describes how The Princess felt powerless to do anything for her gain and that the Frog was the one who lead her into a marriage between the two of them. Throughout the story, The Princess was being guided by the Frog through his words. It all started on a day where The Princess was playing with her golden ball which she treasured the most and when it was tossed, she missed catching it as it fell and it rolled into the pond. The Princess was weeping about the lost of her golden ball. ‘Alas, if I could only get my ball again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the world’. This quote shows that The Princess is over wielding her power thinking that she is a powerful being that has everything in the world. But yet again through this scene, The Princess is shown to be a powerless person because she is unable to retrieve her golden ball. This would support Mead’s idea in where one is using their culture influences to excise their power to retrieve their lost things. Because The Princess grew up in a castle and lives a loyal life, she does not understand how society functions. Grimm uses the deal that the Frog makes with the Princess to retrieve her golden ball as a way of showing how the Princess easily gives in to what man offers them. ‘Alas!’ said she, ‘what can you do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.’ The frog said, ‘I want not your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes; but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from off your golden plate, and sleep upon your bed, I will bring you your ball again’. This quotes shows that at first the Princess was thinking that it is a good deal because all she wants is her ball back and because the frog is nothing, but a frog, she does not consider the consequences. This depicts Mead’s ideas because it shows that one becomes ethnocentric and perceives one’s way of being as ‘the right way’. In this fairy tale, the themes of keeping your promises and one’s appearance can affect the way how the characters view one another and how their true nature is revealed through their behavior and actions. When the Princess received her ball from the Frog, she took it and ran home with it, ignoring the words that the Frog said. This can showed that the Princess disregards what the Frog said and acts based on her decisions because she is a spoiled Princess. Mead’s ideas reflect on this because the living conditions of the Princess and the Frog are totally different where one has everything she wants and the other just lives in a stream, but are an animal being. ‘What nonsense,’ thought the princess, ‘this silly frog is talking! He can never even get out of the spring to visit me, though he may be able to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him he shall have what he asks.’ This quote here shows that the Princess is already degrading the status of the Frog by his appearance and not considering what he can become. The Princess easily determines that the Frog is just a silly Frog and that he will never be of an equal