Hansel and Gretel

illustration by nishant saldanha

Hansel and Gretel is a story about 2 children left outside to fend for themselves and what do they do? They find someone else to mooch off! The mother and the witch are really two sides of the same “Mother” both seem evil in their own respective ways and both are good too. The mother seems like an evil bitch for sending them out on their own and the witch initially seems like a good caring person taking them in only to inevitably try to eat them! These women are just trying to make the kids understand that they have to get out into the world and grow up. If they don’t then they will just become man-babies, shunned  from society! Are they both evil? Perhaps… but that depends on who you think I am talking about. This is purely based on western culture of course, had this story been based in the east, the mothers wouldn’t be able to let go of their children! The kids would have to shake them off or beat them with a stick!

text by zara abraham