Morrison-Summary

'Cinderella's stepsisters'

Toni Morrison's 'Cinderella's stepsisters', was actually a speech given by her at Bernard College. The occasion was chosen carefully as the speech could be most effective in this setting. In this essay, Morrison, highlights the similarities between Cinderella's stepsisters and modern, educated young women of today. Discarding all generally accepted notions about the stepsisters, the author explains that stepsisters were "not ugly, clumsy, stupid girls with outsized feet" (590) instead, they resembled modern powerful women of today and could be accurately described as, "beautiful, elegant, women of status" (590). Morrison believes that with women emerging as a powerful force in the world today, misuse of power is an imminent possibility. This, she felt, could destroy self-esteem of their underprivileged and less accomplished peers. The author further elaborates on the problem saying that misuse of power by one group often results in destruction of self-esteem of the other less privileged group. This happens because power and knowledge are new unfamiliar assets for women and not every female knows how to handle them properly. Their newfound power has resulted in certain degree of alienation between educated women and their less sophisticated peers. Addressing the audience at Barnard College, Morrison warned the women that they were about to enter a phase in their lives where they would be doing "the very same thing" (590) that stepsisters did to Cinderella i.e. treat her shabbily for lack of privileges that they themselves enjoyed. Morrison urged her audience to remember that there "there is something just as important" (591) as power and that is relationship with peers. She felt that in order to minimize the risk of abuse of power, it was crucial to build a positive bond with others in the society. Morrison's essay revolves around the elusive asset called 'power' and how misuse of it divides the society into two distinct groups-cinderellas and stepsisters.