Paper Bag Princess

The book is a fairly tale. It is a children’s storybook written by Robert Munsch. The storybook has been translated into many languages. It has been reprinted in a record fifty-two times. It has also sold over a whopping three million copies. He creates a set up of the medieval empire. The prince lives in a castle and spends most of his time of the day hunting. One day he is captured by the dragon. Princess Elizabeth tried to find Ronald to the den of the dragon. The princess is brave enough and very intelligent. She knows that she cannot fight the dragon but does not feel believe that she cannot save the prince. She uses her knowledge to trick the dragon that does not seem ready to fight to. She uses her white cloth to trick the dragon to follower her. This time she is dressed in a paper bag and applied smoke for disguise. Her hair looks bad. She takes away the prince. Robert shows us how ungrateful the prince is. He insults the princess because of how she looked when she rescued him. This does not seem to affect the princess much.

Themes in the storybook

Robert has done a lot to bring about the tradition beliefs of what gender roles were. He used the princess to reverse these roles and show the children that they are not tied to these roles. He does not use women as the weaker sex. Despite Elizabeth being a lady and not a warrior, her knowledge is enough to save the prince. The theme of beauty is also very clear in the story. Beauty does not depend on the skin. There is also the idea of happy life after. He deviates from what many people expect of the princess having to do all the odds to be with the prince. She proves it when she can she doesn’t have to marry the prince to be happy.

Critique

Considering that this is a children’s book, Robert can maintain an easy language. This makes it exciting and fast for children to read. He is also able to break the tradition of being prisoners of traditional roles. This is an excellent book for children whose brains are still growing. He, however, fails to distance pure happiness from money. Negative critiques say that he shows that money dictates a happy life.