Bruno Bettelheim Analysis

Growing up watching fairy tales stories did not really have a meaning to me at first. As a child, I remember seeing them only as cartoons. From the Uses of Enchantment, by Bruno Bettelheim, he stated: “A child needs a moral education, not through abstract implication only, conveys to him the advantages of moral behavior, not through abstract ethical concepts but through that which seems tangibly right and therefore meaningful to him. The child finds this kind of meaning through fairy tales”. I find these sentences to have a strong meaning. In my opinion, it’s basically telling readers that stories are important in our lives and not only does it help us find our identities, but it also help us gain a sense of who we are. To begin

While reading the Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim, I find many quotations that I feel connected to. Still by Bruno Bettelheim, in the Uses of Enchantment, continuing Fairy tales and The Existential Predicament he stated: “Even more important, the form and structure of fairy tales suggest images to the child by which he can structure his daydreams and with them give better direction to his life”. In other words, fairy tales stories sends images to the child so he will be able to think about them and arrange or complete his daydreams in order for him to find direction to his own life. Similarly to the “Snow White” fairy tale, there are still many parts of it that helped me find a balance path for myself by showing that it’s a good thing to have friends, because anything can happen and they can be the ones there for help, no matter what the situation

As an illustration, even fairy tales stories teaches children to live by this quote. From what I learned in Snow White, when the woodsman failed to kill her, the evil queen decided to go out and do it herself by disguising as an old woman. Despite the dwarfs’ advice to Snow White, her good heart carried the day. She still talked to the woman even though she did not know her, and still accepted the apple the woman offered her and unfortunately she fell into a deep sleep. Consequently, it shows that if she did not talk and accept the apple from the stranger, meaning the old woman, she would have never been in the situation that she was because it could have been worse. Therefore, I learned not to “talk to strangers and not let them in my home” it’s better to be safe than sorry later