Fractured Fairytale Creative Task by Anika Novak
Once, in a dark forest full of wild game, there was a well-built lodge in which lived a father and his three sons. One day, their father, realising his age, decided to test his sons, to see if they were worthy of the family legacy. Gathering his sons, he told them to bring back to him a golden apple from a garden. Such a treasure could not be retrieved without overcoming a great obstacle, the brothers surmised. They were right, for the garden was surrounded by an impossibly high wall.
“If you succeed in this endeavour,” their father said, “I will know that my lodge will be in safe hands”.
“Your eldest brother will be the first to try.”
And so, the eldest brother went off. Finding the wall, he saw it was too slippery to climb, and far too tall to jump over. He followed its edges, trying to find a fault or any other way he could enter, but saw none. As he walked along the wall, he thought to himself; what was this family legacy his father spoke of? They had a decent house, but not much else to their name. Countries wouldn’t collapse if they stopped existing. He realised this quest was based purely on his father’s ego. What use was a golden apple anyway? People would know that amount of gold was stolen, and with such an object they would know where it was stolen from. They couldn’t sell it, and they had no use for it. In fact, it occurred to the eldest brother that the family had no use for any of their possessions, when he really thought about it. The eldest brother decided to return home.
“Father,” he said. “You are materialistic and far too caught up in yourself. I’m leaving home and becoming a hermit.”
And so he did.
The father, thinking nothing of his eldest son’s words, sent his middle son on the same quest. He knew the eldest brother put too much thought in the wrong direction, and often said idiotic things that didn’t make sense, and he knew that this middle son had no thoughts to put anywhere.
The father settled in his chair and waited for his middle son to come back, so that he could send his youngest son who was small, yet clever, on the same journey. He was a smart lad, and the father was sure he’d find a way to succeed.
The middle son, all muscle and no brains, set off.
He reached the wall. Too smooth to climb. Too tall to jump. Too thick? He punched the wall, which was, surprisingly, not too thick. The middle son stepped back, then rushed forward, and busted right through. The middle son entered the garden and took an apple.
He arrived home successful, much to his father’s chagrin.
He first turned to his brother. They’d both heard the eldest brother ranting about how it would be impossible for them to sell the golden apple. The youngest had taken this as a challenge.
“Here,” said the middle son. “Do something with it.”
So the youngest brother went to the smithy attached to the lodge, and started planning how best to execute his combined forgery-laundering scheme.
The middle son then turned to his father.
“Too easy. Give me something else.”
The father, rather afraid at the ease with which his son had completed the task, thought desperately of his “List of Dangerous Quests to Send My Sons On”, and decided which one was least possible to overcome with brute force.
“I, ah, I heard there’s a princess being kept captive by an evil sorcerer. But her prison is nigh unreachable. I heard it’s in the middle of an incredibly stormy sea. And don’t get me started on the sorcerer himself. He can do magic. You remember what magic is, right? I told you, but I’m sure you forgot. You see, magic is-”
“I’ll go.”
“Oh my DEAR son. I could NEVER let you go. You will SURELY PERISH if you did and as your LOVING FATHER I could NEVER-”
“I’ll go.”
The father was delighted to see his blockhead son so willing to fling himself at death. Good riddance.
Out loud he only wished him luck, and waved a tearful goodbye.
And so the middle son set off again.
Along the way, the middle son encountered many problems. They blended together in his memory, mostly because the solution to the problem was always to punch it, or, if not that, to punch it harder. Really, if these people would just think for themselves, they wouldn’t have so many easily punchable problems.
The middle son arrived at the stormy sea, and found passage aboard a supply ship. The crew was terrified. Few supply ships made it through the waves, but the sorcerer paid too much for the endless death and destruction caused by the journey to not be worth it. The middle son zoned out before he could hear any more about the complex relationship between the sorcerer, the suppliers, and the plight of the workers who were actually tasked with completing the order.
The ship set out and, almost on cue, a raging storm whipped the waves into a massive frenzy. The screams of the crew and the general jostling of the ship that the storm caused annoyed the middle son to no end, so he jumped in the waves and wrestled them into submission.
“Hey,” said a crew member. “That’s not plausible.”
“Wrong.” said the middle son.
They continued on the defeatedly calm sea.
The ship arrived on the shores of the dark and twisted island castle.
As the crew started unloading their cargo, the middle son knocked on the door.
No answer.
He punched the door down.
The sorcerer turned to face his opponent, and shot out a few precursory spells.
The middle son punched them away.
“Ah, a fascinating technique. I see you have come to challenge me, young hero. I assume you’re here to rescue the princess? Many have tried before you, and none have succeeded. For my magic prowess is unmatched in this land, and far beyond it. Your attacks may be strong, but are they strong enough to-”
The middle son’s fist connected with the sorcerer’s jaw.
The sorcerer collapsed, because sorcerers are weak nerds.
Then, the first trap activated.
It was defeated by punching.
The traps kept coming, and the middle son kept punching. He punched his way from one door to the next.
It was only when he almost punched an ornately dressed woman that he realised that not knowing what the princess looked like could be a bit of a problem.
“You wouldn't happen to know what the princess trapped in this castle looks like, would you?”
“I would happen to know what the princess looks like, for I own a marvelous thing called a mirror.”
“Tell me what she looks like then? I’m trying to find her.”
“She looks like me. Because she is me. Hi, I’m the princess trapped in this castle.”
“Oh. Good. My fists were starting to hurt.”
“Well then,” the princess said, delicately brushing her skirt. “I suppose I must thank you. The precarious balance of power between my kingdom and the sorcerer’s meant that my return could spark a war between our two kingdoms and- oh. You’ve tuned out. Okay then”
“The sorcerer is dead and I can go home now, so... thanks?” the princess continued. “Well, I’d offer to marry you, but himbos aren’t really my type, sorry. Would you consider my brother instead? He’s been looking for someone who likes punching as much as he does, I think you’d really get along.”
“He likes punching?” asked the middle son.
“Verily.” replied the princess.
The princess and the middle son left the island on the supply ship, which was leaving again since there were no people left on the island to provide supplies to.
As the princess had predicted, the middle son and the prince got along incredibly well. They both decided that they enjoyed punching much more than ruling, so the prince abdicated to his sister. The princess was delighted. Not only had she successfully found a partner for her beloved brother, she had also spared her kingdom of his well-intentioned but frankly meatheaded rule.
Returning home, the middle son and his new husband found that his father and brother had been arrested. Fortunately his brother had talked his way into a lighter sentence, and by the time they got home, he was back to greet them. And though the money from the golden apple had been confiscated by the authorities, they all lived quite delightfully, the newlyweds utilising their punch-based skills and devoted love to solve problems forevermore.
Rationale
In my creative response “The Middle Son and the Punch-able Problems”, I created a fractured fairy tale dissecting the trope of the clever hero outsmarting challenges and saving and marrying a princess as a reward. I have achieved this through taking the ideas presented in classic fairytales such as The Golden Bird, specifically the elements of there being three brothers, and the end goal of the princess as a reward, and adding new twists to the tone and specifics of the stories.
The purpose of a fractured fairy tale is to take familiar tropes and present them in a new manner, which is why the main technique I have used throughout the piece is subversion. The most notable of these subversions is the character of the middle son. The usual male protagonist of fairy tales is more witty than strong, and usually the youngest. The protagonist of my story subverts this both in birth order and personality. Middle siblings tend to be the most overlooked, especially in fairy tales, since they are neither the first to try nor the ones to succeed in stories that rely on the rule of three, (for example, in The Golden Bird by the Brothers Grimm, “[The king] sent the eldest [son] into the garden when night was coming on; but at midnight he fell fast asleep, and in the morning another apple was missing. The following night the second son had to watch, but he did not succeed any better, and again another apple was missing in the morning.”). Making the middle son the protagonist is a small but interesting subversion. The father references this trope when his thoughts pass over to his youngest son, “The father settled in his chair and waited for his middle son to come back, so that he could send his youngest son who was small, yet clever, on the same journey.” He’s incredibly surprised when his middle son does, in fact, succeed: “[The middle son] arrived home successful, much to his father’s chagrin.”
The main subversion though, is the fact that the middle son solves all obstacles, no matter how unlikely, through punching. These obstacles include wrestling the sea: “The screams of the crew and the general jostling of the ship that the storm caused annoyed the middle son to no end, so he jumped in the waves and wrestled them into submission”, and punching away the sorcerer’s spells, as well as the unspecified problems that “blended together in his memory, mostly because the solution to the problem was always to punch it, or, if not that, to punch it harder.”
The singular solution and the absurdity in the context of the situations it is applied to provide a comedic tone for the entire story.
To further enhance and subvert my fairy tale, I have used a narrative style that is more lighthearted and comedic when compared to traditional fairy tales. While parts of the story are narrated in a more traditional, heroic style: “Such a treasure could not be retrieved without overcoming a great obstacle, the brothers surmised. They were right, for the garden was surrounded by an impossibly high wall” others switch to a more contemporary and ridiculous style of narration, such as the sorcerer collapsed, because sorcerers are weak nerds, to contrast the traditional tone and provide comedy to the situation. This is especially prominent in the conversations between the characters, which are much more casual than one would expect from a traditional fairytale: “She looks like me. Because she is me. Hi, I’m the princess trapped in this castle.”
The last technique I have used, characterisation, is best dissected in the character of the princess. Though she isn’t present in much of the story, I have tried to create in her a character who is neither a helpless waif nor a rebel princess, the latter which is now a stereotype unto itself. Instead, I have characterised her as diplomatic and tactful, and as someone who not only thinks of her duty (“The precarious balance of power between my kingdom and the sorcerer’s meant that my return could spark a war between our two kingdoms”, “Not only had she successfully found a partner for her beloved brother, she had also spared her kingdom of his well-intentioned but frankly meatheaded rule.”), but also figures out ways to make her decisions benefit herself; becoming the ruler of her kingdom now that her brother has abdicated. The characterisation and individual motivations of the various characters, not just the princess but others such as the father’s neglect and dismissal of his elder sons: “He knew the eldest brother put too much thought in the wrong direction, and often said idiotic things that didn’t make sense, and he knew that his middle son had no thoughts to put anywhere”, the complaints of the ship’s crew at their precarious situation: “Few supply ships made it through the waves, but the sorcerer paid too much for the endless death and destruction caused by the journey to not be worth it. The middle son zoned out before he could hear any more about the complex relationship between the sorcerer, the suppliers, and the plight of the workers who were actually tasked with completing the order.”, and the youngest son’s loose morality (So the youngest brother went to the smithy attached to the lodge, and started planning how best to execute his combined forgery-laundering scheme.) all contribute to a depth to this fairytale world, where the characters have motivations unrelated to the middle son, as well as the impression that the middle son’s journey is just a small facect of this world. This serves to make the people and the setting more believable to the reader.
Through the use of these techniques, I have created a fractured fairy tale that subverts the traditional storyline of a clever hero outsmarting obstacles and marrying the princess in the end. The varied motivations of the characters, the subversion of traditional expectations, and the overall comedic tone provide a new, different look at these classic fairytale storylines.