Originally dubbed “Disney’s Folly” because of the hundreds of artists and technicians involved in its animation, the movie was a box-office smash upon its release and has remained a family favorite ever since. Renowned Russian director Sergei Eisenstein (1898–1948) called it the greatest film ever made. With its blend of movement and color, the extravagant use of animated birds and other wildlife to enhance so many scenes, the music, and the mix of comedy and horror, “Snow White” is indeed a work of art.
Good and Innocence Versus Evil and Corruption
Snow White is a princess, the embodiment of innocence and goodness right down to her name. These virtues add to her physical beauty. Even after she bites the wicked queen’s poisoned apple and falls into a “sleeping death,” Snow White remains “so beautiful, even in death, that the dwarfs could not find it in their hearts to bury her.”On the other hand, we have the malevolent, stone-hearted queen, who wishes to do away with her rival. She first orders her huntsman to murder Snow White, but when he permits the girl to escape, the queen disguises herself as an old crone, prepares a poisoned apple, and uses first lies and then compassion to convince Snow White to take a bite of the deadly fruit.
Today, we see the queen’s tactics at work in our politics, our culture, and much of our corporate media. Those seeking to steer us away from truth, goodness, and beauty often approach us in the guise of relativism and slippery language, twist the truth or discard it entirely for their own end, and, if necessary, appeal to our sense of pity and compassion to help us take a bite of the apple they offer.
The Demise of Romance
More recently, others besides the queen have attempted to poison Snow White and fairy-tale princesses in general.Forgotten in that formula were its effects on men. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” runs the old saying, and many men have since decided that they don’t necessarily need women, marriage, or children.
A Woman’s Touch
When Snow White first enters the dwarfs’ cottage, it is a dump, like a frat house on a Sunday morning. Dirty dishes are stacked everywhere, dust covers the floor and the furniture, and unwashed clothing and linens litter the place. Assuming that motherless children live there, Snow White, helped by her animal friends—deer, chipmunks, birds, and others—goes to work, sets the house in order, puts a large kettle of soup on the fire, and then collapses in exhaustion across some of the little beds upstairs.After the dwarfs recover from their shock at these changes—they originally assume a monster has taken up residence in their house—at Snow White’s command they wash up for a supper of delicious soup, with promises in the future of apple dumplings and gooseberry pie. They then spend the evening in music, dance, and laughter.
At bedtime, the “little men,” as Snow White calls them, insist that she take their bedroom. They settle down in the living area below while we see Snow White pray for them at her bedside. In the morning, she kisses each of them on top of the head as they set off to work—after she issues stern warnings to beware of the wicked queen.
What we see here is a profound metaphor for civilization, both the little civilization that changes a house into a home and the greater civilization that grows out of thousands and thousands of such homes. Snow White delivers the woman’s touch to the uncouth lives led by the little men.
From those fundamentals of civilization, there naturally follows culture—the dancing and the music. Exchanged between these men and Snow White are the traditional promises of care and protection once natural to the sexes, summed up in the chaste kisses of the princess and the protective instincts roused in the dwarfs.
For nearly 50 years, our society has neglected or denigrated the essential importance of homemakers and, as a result, the centrality of family to civilization. The wreckage of that neglect lies all around us.
Right about now might be a good time to start.
