The Perfect Moral Example

Fairy tales portray wonderful, elaborate, and colorful worlds as well as chilling, frightening, dark worlds in which ugly beasts are transformed into princes and evil persons are turned to stones and good persons back to flesh (Guroian). Fairytales have long been a part of our world and have taken several forms ranging from simple bedtime stories to intricate plays, musicals, and movies. However, these seemingly simple stories are about much more than pixie dust and poisoned apples. One could compare fairytales to the new Chef Boyardee; Chef Boyardee hides vegetables in its ravioli while fairytales hide society’s morals and many life lessons in these outwardly simple children stories. Because of this fairytales have long been instruments used to instruct children on the morals of their culture. They use stories to teach children that the rude and cruel do not succeed in life in the long run. They teach children that they should strive to be kind, caring, and giving like the longsuffering protagonists of the fairytale stories. Also, they teach that good does ultimately defeat evil. Fairy tales are not just simple bedtime stories; they have long been introducing cultural moral values into young children.

In life and in fairytales there are always those that try to harm others or put them down, and fairytales teach children that those who do that do not succeed in the long run. The story of the Pied Piper is a perfect example of this. The people in the city of Hamelin refused to pay the Pied Piper even though they had promised. Because of this the Pied Piper led the children of the village away with his magical music (Young). As one can see this story shows how those that do wrong will be punished for their wrong and cruel acti...

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...n all, children learn that it is possible to go from rags to riches if you are a kind and hopeful person, one day their prince will come.

Works Cited

Abler, Alice. “The Moral of the Story”. Vision. 2008.Web. 20 July. 2010.

Cullen, Bonnie. “The Rise of Perrault’s “Cinderella”.” Writing and Reading across the

Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.622-626. Print.

Guroian, Vigen. “Awakening the Moral Imagination: Teaching Virtues Through Fairy Tale.”

Mmisi. The Intercollegiate Review, 1996. Web. 20 July. 2010.

“Oochigeaskw-The Rough-Faced Girl.” Writing and Reading across the Curriculum.

Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.610-612. Print.

Young, Johnathan. “Once Upon a Time How Fairy Tales Shape Our Lives.” Folkstory.

1997. Web. 21 July. 2010.