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Dylan Rainbow
Professor Greg McClure
Writing 39B
8 November 2015

An Analysis of Genre Conventions in Snow, Glass, Apples

Today, the term fairy tale tends to conjure up images of well-known Disney movies
with happy endings. However, fairy tales were not always so innocent. Tales collected and
published by the Brothers Grimm during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example,
contained horrific elements that would normally be considered inappropriate for children of the
modern age. Disturbing as they may be, these older fairy tales (which were meant, in part, to
frighten children into behaving) do not fall under the horror genre as characterized by Noel
Carroll in his 1987 essay, The Nature of Horror. In his short story Snow, Glass, Apples,
however, author Neil Gaiman reimagines the classic story of Snow White with an altered and
more perverse storyline, using common horror conventions such as precise, sinister language to
transform this classic fairy tale into a true horror story. While the original Snow White plot
merely attributes to the antagonist a cruel, inhumane personality, Gaiman creates an art-horror
monster through disturbing imagery and by imparting to the reader the distinct senses of impurity
and uncleanliness that Noel Carroll deemed essential to the horror genre. Gaiman accomplishes
this by effectively othering Snow White and satisfying Carrolls additional requirements for an
art-horror monster. While fulfilling enough expectations to make it qualify as a horror story,
however, Gaiman also subverts a number of themfor example, the protagonist does not
manage to ultimately overcome the monster, as Tony Magistrale and Michael A. Morrison

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suggest would be the case. By means of these modifications, Gaiman reshapes the fairy tale into
a tragic story realistically demonstrating how the righteous do not always triumph in the end.
Gaiman begins the process of alienating the monster of the story right away. In the wellknown Brothers Grimm version of the story, Snow White is the target of a wicked stepmother
who repeatedly tries to kill her out of jealousy. In Snow, Glass, Apples, Gaiman reverses these
roles, making Snow White the monster. The author applies more than just a role-reversal,
however, as he turns what was merely a malevolent antagonist into a vicious and disturbing
creature that is not entirely human. The story imparts this sense of impurity from the first
sentence, when the narrator (the stepmother) states, I do not know what manner of thing she is.
None of us do (Gaiman 2). H.P Lovecraft, now regarded as one of the most significant authors
of horror fiction, wrote in the essay Supernatural Horror in Literature that The oldest and
strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the
unknown. Gaiman uses this convention of the unknown right away, immediately imparting to
the reader a sense of fear and suspense. He purposefully uses the word thing to imply that
she cannot be accurately described as a human. The narrator leaves the subject of the sentence
ambiguous, leaving the reader to wonder what this mysterious thing could be.
Furthermore, Gaiman inhibits the readers potential understanding of the girl by
neglecting to name her. The stepmother simply refers to her as the girl, the Princess, or
merely by the pronouns she and her. This is another convention the author uses which serves
to alienate the girl from the other characters and consequently from the reader. Human beings are
naturally inclined (or at least socially trained) to refer to people by name; it is considered rude to
neglect learning the name of somebody we associate with. When we name an object, that name
usually reflects, with some accuracy, the manner of thing that it is; for instance, a toaster is how

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we refer to a thing that toasts. As a result, we tend to view the name of a thing as the essence of
that thing, as if the name is a key to understanding the thing itself. Therefore, by failing to name
the girl, the narratorand ultimately Gaimanare preventing the reader from establishing a
sense of understanding of the girl and thus, according to Lovecrafts assertion, making it much
easier for the reader to fear her.
While not strictly necessary for the horror genre, Gaiman makes the main characters fear
of the monster explicit. In The Nature of Horror, Carroll describes several requirements that a
monster must satisfy in order to be considered an art-horror monster. One such requirement is
that the protagonist must be afraid of the creature (53). Gaiman makes the fulfillment of this
condition clear by having the narrator say, I had been frozen by her, owned and dominated.
That scared me, more than the blood she had fed on (3). Later, when she resolves to put an end
to the girl, she states, I had to, although she terrified me. (8). Gaiman conveys the protagonists
sense of fear not only through actions and events, but also explicitly through the stepmothers
words, which include the descriptively straightforward verbs scared and terrified.
Gaiman also suggests to the reader other perceptions using more subliminal messaging,
as demonstrated in the third sentence of the story which portrays the girl as a killer: She killed
her mother in the birthing, but thats never enough to account for it (Gaiman 1). The narrator
could just as easily have stated, factually, that her mother died in the birthing. Instead, Gaiman
uses the stronger transitive verb killed, as if the girl was personally responsible for the death.
While the first two sentences clearly communicate to the reader the perplexing nature of the girl,
this one uses subtle wordplay to attribute the girl with malicious intent. In this way, Gaiman
encourages the reader to view the girl as a wicked character from the start.
The monster Gaiman creates is fairly consistent with Carrolls requirement that the

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monster must be an extraordinary character in our ordinary world (Carroll 52). While perhaps
not likely, none of the events or characters in the story are beyond the realm of possibility. The
people of the forest, for instance, are described as hunchbacks, dwarfs, or as having
deformed fingers like flipper or crab-claws (6). These conditions, although abnormal (and
unlikely to be present in such large numbers as in this case), are all real possibilities.
Additionally, Gaiman makes certain other elements of the story, such as the poisoning of the
apples, more realisticwhile the original story involved magic, the stepmother of Snow, Glass,
Apples poisons the apples with a powder made from dried herbs and the skin of a particular
toad, and from certain other things (19). By specifying that the powder contains dried herbs,
Gaiman makes the poison sound feasible; yet, the next ingredients, toad skin and certain other
things, convey the same sense of mysteriousness that a fairy tale might. Despite these arcane
and somewhat bizarre elements, the world Gaiman constructs is one that is mostly ordinary by
human standards, satisfying another of Carrolls conditions for an art-horror story.
Gaiman uses precise imagery to convey to the reader a sense of chilling corruption and
impurity. While the original tale used the name Snow White to refer to the princesss stunning
beauty (pale skin was highly admired in those times), Gaiman cleverly manipulates this
description to portray the girls cold appearance and nature: I saw one snowflake land upon her
white cheek, and remain there without melting (Gaiman 15). Normally, human bodies are
warmer than the surrounding air, so a snowflake would melt on a persons face. On the girl,
however, it simply remains there, unnaturally. The description also correlates to the fact that the
princess is essentially a vampire, which is a monster usually described as having very cold, pale
skin. Gaiman also attributes the girl with repulsive physical attributes, such as the wet, black
filth that stained the insides of her thighs (Gaiman 10). This is consistent with Carrolls claim

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that art-horror monsters are commonly described as being impure and repulsive (53).
In the introduction to Dark Nights Dreaming: Contemporary American Horror Fiction,
Magistrale and Morrison assert that A distinguishing trait of horror art is the existence of a
being that emerges to disrupt the personal and social relationships of the status quo (4). The
princess in Snow, Glass, Apples fits this description perfectly. After the girl first drinks the
stepmothers blood, we see her relationship with the king quickly deteriorate: My husband, my
love, my king, sent for me less and less, and when I came to him he was dizzy, listless,
confused (Gaiman 4). As the girl begins feeding off of her fathers blood, he weakens and
becomes distant from the protagonist. The stepmother states that, Soon he was a shadow of the
man I had met and loved by the bridge (4). The protagonist is deeply in love with her husband,
and the princess effectively causes the collapse of this connection. Not only does the girl weaken
her father to the point where he has no energy for his marriage, but she is the cause of his
premature death. Thus, the girl is certainly one who disrupt[s] the personal and social
relationships of the status quo, supporting the categorization of the story as art-horror.
However, Gaiman also subverts some of the expectations for the horror genre. Perhaps
the most prominent example of this is that the protagonist of the story ultimately dies, while the
monster prevails. Magistrale and Morrison state that The horror story attempts to overcome the
monster either through the inclusion of some superhuman event or through the power of the
victim to outwit or survive the creature (5). In Gaimans version, there are points in the story
when the queen believes she has indeed eradicated the monster; in the end, though, the evil
princess and prince take over the kingdom and burn the queen alive in a kiln. This aspect serves
an important role for Gaimans message, as it lends a sense of tragedy to the story, encouraging
the reader to evaluate the circumstances that lead to this unfortunate result. If the story had a

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happy ending, as the original fairy tale did, then the reader would be led to believe that the
protagonist had made the right choices, whereas a tragic ending prompts the audience to avoid
making the same mistakes the character did.
Although the queen states that she was not wise in her actions, the reader is led to believe
that she is in fact a wise and righteous character. She tries to stop the corrupt princess not out of
revenge or hatred, but because she feels it is her duty to protect the kingdom. However, her noble
actions do not lead to a happy ending for her or the kingdom, resulting in a somewhat confusing
takeaway message for the reader. The narrator regrets ever getting involved in the situation, but
Gaiman gives no indication that this would have led to better consequences. So what is Gaimans
point? I believe he is simply making a statement about the reality of life: even when people try to
do the right thing, the results are not always what they intended. In other words, the righteous
person will not necessarily be triumphant.
Primarily, Gaiman encourages the reader to be cautious; while most fairy tales (including
the Grimm version of Snow White) lead us to believe that bad people always lose, Snow, Glass,
Apples demonstrates that this is not realistic. Gaimans transformation of the tale into a horror
story was key in accomplishing this, as it made the far-fetched original plotline more believable
and realistic. At the same time, however, Gaiman refrains from altering the basic storyline and
characters too much, allowing the reader to compare his version to the original and more clearly
see the point he is making. Ultimately, Gaimans twisted story is a perverse and thoughtprovoking work of horror that invites the reader to question the extent to which doing the right
thing is actually the right thing to do.

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Works Cited
Carroll, Noel. "The Nature of Horror." The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 46, No.
1. (1987): 51-59. The American Society for Aesthetics. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.
Magistrale, Tony, and Michael A. Morrison. A Dark Night's Dreaming: Contemporary American
Horror Fiction. Columbia, SC: U of South Carolina, 1996. Print.
""Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H. P. Lovecraft." "Supernatural Horror in Literature" by
H. P. Lovecraft. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.