Genre
Postmodernism, satire
Setting and Context
An apartment in a contemporary city somewhere in America on the East coast
Narrator and Point of View
First-person unnamed narrator who appears to be a part of the seven dwarves, although the exact identity of the narrator remains unclear. Different sections are also written in third-person omniscient or contain only dialogue. Some sections are fragments of words and phrases without narration.
Tone and Mood
Ironic, darkly humorous, and critical
Protagonist and Antagonist
Snow White is the protagonist. There is no clear antagonist since all of the characters exemplify some flaw that negatively impacts or harms other characters, blurring the novel's morals.
Major Conflict
The overarching major conflict is that the fairytale's characters do not know when or how to conform to their traditional roles within the Snow White fairytale. At the same time, several other conflicts occur. The dwarves are unhappy with Bill because he has stopped caring about their work and they fear losing productivity. Snow White yearns for a prince while questioning her role as a princess. Jane wants Hogo to love her, even though he mistreats her.
Climax
The dwarves hang Bill while Jane attempts to poison Snow White and kills Paul instead.
Foreshadowing
Bill's death is foreshadowed when the dwarves exhibit brutal and paranoid behavior towards Paul at the beginning of the novel.
Understatement
The dwarves often have an ironically understated tone when describing violence and brutality, framing it as merely a fact of life or in an otherwise casual manner.
Allusions
The novel contains many allusions to the Brothers Grimm's retelling of the original Snow White fairytale as well as the Disney animated version from 1937. The novel also alludes to many other works of literature and art, such as Stendhal's "The Red and the Black" and "The Passion of Joan of Arc," a French film.
Imagery
The novel utilizes imagery related to color. It mostly utilizes visual imagery, but does not construct a cohesive visual depiction of setting or characters other than Snow White. The images remain disparate.
Paradox
The entire novel focuses on the paradox of choice that fairytale characters have in their own narratives. Fairytale characters, despite appearing to have agency, are constricted to one repetitive role—a convention that Barthelme subverts.
Parallelism
Paul and Snow White parallel each other's doubts about their roles as fairytale characters.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The hair refers to Snow White (synecdoche)
