Cinderella is Dead: Chapter 3  Summary & Analysis

Walking through the town square, Sophia passes a woman reciting passages from Cinderella to a crowd. The square is lively with celebrations for the 200th anniversary of the ball. Sophia runs into her friend Liv, who won a replica of the fairy godmother’s wand at one of the festival games. As they talk, Erin joins them, much to Sophia’s surprise and relief. Referring to the replica wand, Sophia mentions that magic probably no longer exists. Her friends quickly remind her that it must exist, because if they honor the story of Cinderella and obey their fathers, they might be granted Cinderella’s fate. They urge Sophia to have faith in the story and to never question it publicly.

The girls make wishes at the fountain, and Sophia wishes out loud for Erin to run away with her. Erin wishes that Sophia would accept that Erin isn’t as brave as she is. Sophia is devastated, and Erin runs away. Liv points out an area of blackened grass and says that insurgents tried and failed to destroy the fountain. She takes their failure as a sign that there is no way to resist “the book or the king.” She also says that a girl was found dead recently, adding to the dozens of dead and many more missing young women in Lille.

Sophia arrives at the seamstress’s, where her mother Eve has been worrying about her. The seamstress fits Sophia into her dress, which Sophia hates. When the fitting is over, Sophia notices the seamstress is badly bruised, like many other women who are abused by the men in their lives. She asks about the bruise, and her mother sends her to wait outside. When she is alone, Sophia considers what it would mean to be chosen by a man at the ball. She would become a wife to someone she doesn’t know, who might be as abusive as the seamstress’s husband. Her wants and needs would become secondary to her husband’s, and she would lose Erin. Sophia and her mother go home together, and they quietly confess to each other that they hoped this day would never come.