Frightening Expierences

A Cinderella Story

In Colin B. Hyde's story "The Curse of the Hnf!" a king grieves over his beloved wife's, Queen Gorgina, deadly illness. He becomes so wrapped up in his depression that he neglects all his duties as a king as well as his beloved daughter, Wytan, who just wanted his attention. In trying to help the king to get back on his feet, his people brought in Dr. Robus, the Hnf, to try to help the Queen. He, however, took advantage of how vulnerable the king was and tried to take over the kingdom in order to accomplish his ultimate goal of exporting his pharmaceutical line. His plan, however, didn't follow through because of Princess Wytan. Thus, this story could be interpreted as a Cinderella story in which Dr. Robus is the evil step-mother, Princess Wytan is Cinderella and King Nyam Foo is Prince Charming.

King Nyam Foo can be seen as Prince Charming. This is because Prince Charming needs a wife in order to be able to run his kingdom and fulfil his duties as a king. In the same manner, King Nyam Foo isn't able to fulfil his duties as a king when his beloved wife becomes gravely sick with her health "deteriorating" (15) day by day. The king became "very neglectful of his duties" (15). He "spent all his time moping over his fading queen" (18). King Nyam Foo needed his wife by his side in order to be the once "bright and benevolent king" (1) he was. "For he loved Queen Gorgina to the very bottom of his heart, and would find it very hard to love without her" (18). King Nyam Foo, however, was also very gullible and easy to manipulate as was Prince Charming. Prince Charming believed everything Cinderella's evil step mom said. He believed her when she said no one else lived at the house apart from her and her two daughters. He also did what the step mother asked of him such as dancing with one of the daughters at the ball. Likewise, King Nyam Foo believed everything Dr. Robus told him. He believed all his lies from the very beginning to the very end. The king believed everything about the pigs, especially that "POARK was the cause of the queen's diseases" (21). He also believed Robus when he told him that his wife was doing better, that "the red syrup" (41) was "showing great result" (41). Moreover, King Nyam Foo was also easily manipulated by Dr. Robus. He always did whatever Robus wanted him to do. For example, he "appeared on the mid-morning news cast, lamely reciting a speech laced with gloom and doom concocted by the Hnf..." (26). King Nyam Foo also allowed Robus to do what he wanted. Hence, he was allowing Robus to change the name of Oink City to "Robusville" (41).

The character of Cinderella now can be seen as that of Wytan's. Cinderella was treated horribly by her evil step mother. Similarly, Wytan was always mistreated by Dr. Robus. He called her names such as "little rotten potato" (39) and beat her up and locked her up in a closet. He also tried to find ways how to get rid of Wytan in order to keep her from ruining his plans. He advised the king on Wytan for his own benefits not hers such as putting her "under the care of a governess" (42). In a like fashion, Cinderella's evil step mother tried to keep her out of her way by locking her up when