In A Glass Grimmly

In a Glass Grimmly’s narrator tells the story and offers commentary, enhancing both the telling itself and the reader’s ability to connect with the text and draw their own conclusions through critical thinking. The note prior to Chapter 1 is Gidwitz’s way of beginning a dialogue. It sets the tone for the novel and lets the reader know there will be familiar elements in the following stories, though those elements are presented in potentially unfamiliar ways. Throughout the story, the narrator interrupts the narrative to provide information the reader would not usually get, such as promising at the end of Chapter 1 that the frog will be OK. While this information spoils future events, it also brings about a greater air of mystery, leaving the reader to wonder what terrible things the frog will witness and how they might change him even though he remains unharmed. Gidwitz’s narrator also brings humor, often warning readers about terrible things or commenting on the characters' poor choices. By doing so, Gidwitz detracts from the frightening elements within fairy tales and makes the novel more accessible to a young audience.

Chapter 1 begins the events of the book and borrows from the Brothers Grimm tale “The Frog Prince.” In the original story, a frog, who is truly a cursed prince, falls in love with a beautiful princess after she drops her ball into his well and he retrieves it for her in exchange for her friendship. Gidwitz stays true to the outline of this story, having his frog fall in love with the princess and retrieve her ball in hopes of becoming her friend. Here, Gidwitz departs from the traditional tale to lay the groundwork for the following chapters. Rather than befriending the frog, the princess is revealed as spoiled and selfish because she believes her beauty makes her better than others. The frog gives chase, revealing his good heart. Unlike the frog of the Grimms’ tale, Gidwitz’s frog is under no enchantment, so he has no ulterior motive for pursuing the princess. He simply wants her company and believes her beauty makes her wonderful. At the end of Chapter 1, the frog learns his lesson about assuming beauty equals goodness when the princess throws him against a wall. In the original version, this action broke the frog’s curse and returned him to his prince form, but here, the princess’s violence only serves to further reveal her wicked nature and do lasting harm to the frog.

The queen in Chapter 2 is the princess from Chapter 1, and her obsession with beauty shows she has not changed since the events of 20 years ago. The interplay between Jill and her mother sets up Jill’s character arc and her struggle to free herself from her mother’s expectations. Here, Jill tries to be like her mother because she hopes doing so will win the woman’s love, and Jill does not yet realize that she is only harming herself by denying her own good nature. The bulk of Chapter 2 calls to Hans Christian Andersen’s tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” in which a vain emperor is tricked by con men who take advantage of his love for fancy clothing. The clothier is one of the Others—the mythical beings behind the trials and suffering Jack and Jill later face. He uses his charisma to convince everyone in the palace that he has the finest silk; he’s successful because the queen and others want to believe they are sophisticated enough to see the cloth. The exception is Jill and the other children, who, because they are children, are more likely than the adults to think for themselves and not conform to societal pressures. That Jill finally sees the dress once she tries it on reveals her desire to be accepted and The Difference Between Wanting and Wishing. Jill wishes to be beautiful, and the desperation of this wish makes her see things she knows don’t exist in an effort to convince herself her beauty is real.

In Chapter 3, Gidwitz borrows from the English fairy tale “Jack and the Beanstalk,” in which a poor boy named Jack trades his family’s cow for magic beans that grow into an enormous beanstalk with a kingdom of giants at the top. Gidwitz expands on Jack’s character; his father belittles him, and the village boys tease him. Jack, like Jill, searches for acceptance. Jack’s desperation leads him to trade his cow when the village boys say the trade is a good one. Jack knows it’s not a good trade, but he struggles with The Importance of Self-Trust. Together, Jack and Jill’s search for their true selves represents how What We Seek Is Inside Us. In these early chapters, both children search outside themselves for the things they believe they want, and they are always disappointed because others cannot grant them the beauty and acceptance they seek. Their combined desperation jumpstarts the central external conflict at the end of Chapter 3 with the arrival of the final member of the Others. This woman can convince Jack and Jill that the quest for the Seeing Glass will bring them what they want because Jack and Jill want to believe her words are true. Jack and Jill’s willingness to barter their lives for perceived happiness means they are still at the beginnings of their character arcs and do not yet understand the harm they can bring upon themselves to get what they think will make them whole.