Story within a Story
Metaphors and symbolism are not just realms meant for the written or visual art form; films have a tendency to dabble in these areas as well, and in a beautiful way. There are symbols that show up within a film and are meant to signify something – in Shawshank Redemption, Andy Defresne’s posters could symbolize freedom or in American Beauty, the roses that Lester Burnham sees are symbolic of lust and passion—or there are metaphors that are there to give the film a deeper meaning – in 2001: a Space Odyssey, the bone that the ape uses to kill another ape turns into a space station, showing how advances in technology can lead to violence and vice versa.
Another very useful tactic that books use, which has not been done often in film, is the concept of a story within a story. I’m not simply speaking of a character in the film telling a story, like Gordy’s story about Lardass in Stand By Me. A film can take its original story and add in a story within it that ties back into the original story. Confusing, I know, but if done correctly, the film can be given new dimensions. And no other film does this better, in my experience with film, than A Little Princess.
The Two Little Princesses
The film, A Little Princess, is actually based on a book of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Though the film and book differ in many ways, the film actually takes on the literary task of symbolism and metaphor where the book does not. It tells about a young girl living in India named Sarah Crew. She is English and living with her father, who is a part of the English military. When World War I breaks out, her father must go to Germany to fight and she must go to a boarding school in New York City; it is the boarding school that her mother went to, however her mother died when she was very young and Sarah hardly remembers her.
Another important thing to know is that, while in India, Sarah knew an old woman named Maya
who told her an ancient story about a Princess and her Prince. Maya also told Sarah that all girls are princesses, no matter if they are rich or poor, beautiful or ugly.
When Sarah comes to the cold, draconian life-style of the boarding school which clashes very harshly with her free-spirited life in India, she is shocked to see that none of the girls at the school have any imagination or joy in stories. She begins telling them the story throughout the movie that Maya told her. The audience may begin to realize how perfectly the story fits with what is happening to Sarah.
The characters in her story, Prince Rama and Princess Sita, correspond perfectly with the characters of Sarah’s father and Sarah herself, showing that the film is actually about two little princess.
The Circle
In the story that Sarah tells, the prince and princess are sitting in the woods when the princess sees a deer that is hurt. She begs her prince to go help it and before he leaves, he draws a circle in the sand, saying if you stay within this circle nothing would harm her. This 
happens at the beginning of the film just before Sarah is sent to the boarding school where her father wishes her to stay so she will be safe. In this way, the circle could symbolize the school.
However the princess believes she hears her prince cry out and leaves her circle to go find him. As she searches she is trapped by an evil monster that takes her to his castle and locks her in a tower. In this way, it would seem that the circle symbolized India, and the monster was the war that separated her from her father, or perhaps the evil headmistress, Miss Minchin, who guarded the school, or tower, where she is forced to stay.
To further the symbolism even more, when Sarah hears that her father has died during the war and she must live in the cold, damp tower of the boarding school as a servant, she draws a circle on the ground in chalk and lays in it, crying for her father.
The Yellow Smoke
According to Sarah’s story, the Prince Rama is killed after he saves the deer and before he can return to his Princess Sita. The monster that has kidnapped her sends out arrows that land into the ground around him and emit a thick yellow smoke. The smoke is poison and
Rama dies in the woods.
After Sarah tells this park of the story to the girls, the film cuts to her father in the trenches of the war. He appears to be the only survivor, but as he makes his way through the trenches he sees his friend John is still alive, but barely. As he attempts to take John with him to get help, German planes drop mustard gas on them. The last we see of her father during this scene is when he passes out from the gas. In the next scene, Sarah is told her father is dead.
The yellow smoke that kills Rama is to correspond with the mustard gas that kills Sarah’s father. Furthermore her father dies trying to save his friend, just as Rama dies because he left to save the deer. This analogy between the smoke and mustard gas furthers the idea that the raging monster is actually symbolic of the war, as it separates Sarah from her father and attempts to kill her father/Rama.
The Deer and the Resurrection
After Sarah learns of her father’s death and all of her family’s money is taken by the English government, she is forced to live in the boarding school as a servant. She begins to give up on her dreams and imagination, even going so far as to declare that the magical stories she used to tell are “just stories.” The movie continues with Sarah and we do not return to Rama and Sita until she begins to feel the magic of India again. It is an Indian man who lives next door named Ram Dass who subtly begins to remind her of the fantasy she has forgotten. She begins telling her stories again, and tells about Rama’s resurrection.
The deer that Rama had saved comes to Rama’s body and lies down. It magically gives its life to
Rama because he is indebted to him for saving his life. Rama lives again and Sarah’s stories come back alive with them. However, as all of this is going on, we learn that the Indian man who lives next door looks after an older man named Mr. Randolph. His son was John, the man that Sarah’s father tried to save. He learns that the man in John’s battalion is still alive and takes him in, at Ram Dass’ suggestion, because he wants to learn what happened to his own son. The man he takes in ends up being Sarah’s father, who is very much alive but suffers from amnesia.
The deer, or John, has brought Sarah’s father back to life and the magic of India, or the character Ram Dass, has brought Sarah and her father closer together. However Sarah’s father still has amnesia, and he and his daughter have yet to be reunited.
The Magic of India
Ram Dass’ character, which is meant to symbolize the magic of India, not only brings Sarah’s father closer to her, but it also helps him to remember who he is. He gives her father hints to his past by mentioning India to him. Finally, when Sarah and her father see each other and her father doesn’t recognize her, Ran Dass stares intently at him, forcing him to remember. The magic of India, which is something Sarah and her father remember from their past, reunites them in the end. An interesting side fact is that the director of this film, Alfonso Cuaron, actually had the actor who played Sarah’s father, Liam Cunningham, play Prince Rama as well.
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