Gretel is a homeless and hungry girl in a tale that was already old when the Grimm brothers wrote it down almost two centuries ago. But the story of her abandonment, imprisonment, and ultimate triumph is still meaningful in the way that all old, well-told stories are meaningful.
The themes in Gretel's Story are still vivid and powerful today. People continue to find both love and hatred within their families; evil and goodness still struggle to destroy each other; and our lives endlessly repeat the archetypal cycle that begins with the loss of innocence and ends in wisdom. The parts of ourselves that we fear the most may be the hiding places of our deepest truths and greatest strengths.