Analysis of Colors Representing Snow White’s Transition into Adulthood

“Lips red as the rose, hair black as ebony, skin as white as snow.” These words describe the image Snow White’s mother had in mind of what she wanted her daughter to look like. But who knew this exact image would cause her daughter to be killed because of jealousy. In most fairy tales jealousy is the root of all evil, but for Snow White, the Evil Queen’s jealousy forces Snow White into her adulthood. Snow White is a fairy tale about a young girl who is forced to live on her own. Snow White’s mother dies moments after giving birth to her beautiful daughter. A year later her father marries another woman who was beautiful but could not accept the fact that someone else was better looking than she was. The evil queen constantly asked the magic mirror who was the fairest of them all and every day the answer was the same, the Evil Queen. When Snow White turns seven the answer suddenly changed and the queen quickly becomes envious of Snow White. At this exact moment Snow White’s transformation into adulthood is about to happen. 

Throughout the story Snow White is faced with many challenges that tests her maturity. With each challenge she overcomes, Snow White is wiser than she once was. The Evil Queen attempted to kill her multiple times. The first attempt she tried was the huntsman. When the man decided to let Snow White free, Snow White traveled through the forest alone. She had to make her first big decision. She had to decide if she wanted to run away and take care of herself or return home and face the possibility of being killed by the Evil Queen. Snow White’s decision shows the confidence she had in herself to live on her own. Most children would have ran home eventually. At this point in the transition Snow White is no longer a part of her family and is no longer depended on her parents. She has to learn how to take care of herself and learn a lot of things quickly. This seems to be a hard challenge for a seven year old girl, but sometimes the dark tunnels result in something good in the end. 

For Snow White, she will eventually become wiser than before. In the story the readers are presented three colors that are constantly repeated throughout the text. The colors are red, white, and black. These colors symbolize the stages in the transition to adult hood. White symbolizes snow which represents innocence and purity. This color describes her as her parents’ child. At this point in life, Snow White has no wisdom and she’s just like any regular child living with their parents. This color represents Snow White’s life before the huntsman decided to let her be free. Red symbolizes blood, which represents the feeling of love and warmth. Red describes the phase Snow White experienced when she met the seven dwarfs. In this point of the story, Snow White is working to survive. In order for her to live with the dwarfs, she has to perform house duties and prepare meals while they are at work. By doing this, Snow White picks up responsibilities that other children do not have and most importantly duties that princesses does not have. Some how while living with the dwarfs, she becomes a wife to seven men. While they are at work working and supplying everything needed, she is at home working and making sure everything around the house is did. Black symbolizes ebony wood, which represents death. This color is the most important because it describes the last stage Snow White went through to becoming an adult. In this stage the Evil Queen attempted to kill Snow White three more times. The second attempt was when the queen sold bodice laces to Snow White. The queen offered to lace them up properly, and by doing so the queen pulled too hard that Snow White could not breathe. This situation shows that the older Snow White gets the more she becomes concerned about the way she looks. She was easily tempted by the queen because some part of her also wanted to be beautiful. At some point in every young girl’s life, their appearance becomes very important. The older a girl gets the more concern she becomes when it comes down to the type of clothes she wears and the more tighter she wants them to be. This causes the average teenage girl to spend more time in the mirror perfecting her image to gain attention from the world. The third attempted the queen sold Snow White a poisonous comb. When Snow White purchased the comb, the queen used it to comb Snow White’s hair. The poison instantly took effect on Snow White. This situation also shows how much Snow White was concerned with her looks. Many kids do not worry about their looks because they depend so much on their parents that they only care about what their parents think about them. 

Snow White is finally starting to notice how she looks and wants to keep up her appearance. The last attempt to kill Snow White, the queen created a very poisonous apple. This apple symbolizes death and it also symbolizes the last phase of Snow White’s journey into adulthood. When the poison from the apple killed Snow White, the child in Snow White had died. Once she awakens she will no longer be a child, but a woman who is stronger and wiser than before. Every child has to experience tough situations in order to grow into adults. Many situations may seem impossible to get through, but every situation tests each child to see how strongminded they are. It took Snow White many times to learn not to trust strangers no matter how nice they appear or how tempted she was. Each time Snow White went unconscious because of the queen, she became mature and the more knowledge she gained. Tough situations always leave their targets with more knowledge and wisdom. 

The last stage into adulthood for Snow White is when she met the prince. When the prince discovered Snow White’s coffin, he instantly fell in love with her. While the prince’s servants where carrying Snow White’s coffin, one servant stumbled and the poisonous apple came out of Snow White’s throat. She woke up and fell in love with the prince. When Snow White came back alive, she was a new person. At this exact moment Snow White was no longer a little girl but she was a mature woman. She no longer belonged to the dwarfs or her parents. She was a wife to a prince. 

Snow White had to face many challenges to become a strong woman. Her transition into adulthood was a long and hard journey. Snow White’s transition into adulthood happened only because of the Evil Queen jealousy. The three colors presented in the story describe the path to adulthood for Snow White. Snow White learned many things on this transition, so therefore, teaching her multiple lessons. With each lesson Snow White encountered it made her wiser and pushed her more into adulthood.