Fairy Stories are thought of as influential works that are known to create fantasized magical worlds that the reader can dive into. They have changed with the times and have been adjusted over the years so they can be more sensible for children. Fairy Stories are diverse in their plots and their orientations; yet, they are all structured in the same manner. They generally tell a tale and at the end of the story the reader is left to ponder the moral of the story. In his essay “On Fairy Stories”, J.R. R Tolkien is wary about the influence of fairy stories and explained that there are many ways to interpret and incorporate the tales into our lives while Bruno Bettelheim author of “Use of Enchantment” believes fairy stories are an essential component …show more content…
In Tolkien’s work “On Fairy Stories” he stated that “Fairy Stories were plainly not primarily concerned with possibility, but with desirability. If they awakened desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearably, they succeeded” (19). His statement suggests that fairy stories are fundamentally meant for a diverse audience and, regardless of age, if the reader benefits and finds an innate love and comfort in the story then it is a successful work of literature. Machen’s story “The White People” detailed the imagination and the influence of childhood stories that a young girl heard from her nurse. The girl created a world of her own. She found thrill and comfort in the stories told by her nurse and though she was frightened sometimes, the stories were very important to her. This fact is proven in the short story shortly after the nurse was scolded by the father for telling her stories when the girl stated “I would never whisper a word of what [the nurse] told me and if I did I should be bitten by the great black snake that lived in the pool in the woods” (Machen 133). As a child, she exposed herself to the harsh punishment of becoming aware of one of the scariest creatures she knew just so she could continue her story telling sessions with her nurse. This reiterates Tolkien’s claim that successful fairy stories have a great influence on the reader. The child’s whole world …show more content…
Bettelheim’s “Use of Enchantment” he explains how important fair-tales are for a child’s development. Children are willing to believe whatever they are told and they are inclined to see the good in all that they experience, making them vulnerable to influences of all kind (Tolkien 12). A child’s personality and thought process is developed over time based on the way they perceive the world. In Bettelheim’s essay, he stated, “To offer a child rational thought as his major instrument for sorting out his feelings and understanding the world will only confuse and restrict him” (119). This statement suggests that a child’s mental growth and personality advancements are dependent on many factors. The girl in Machen’s story was told about a princess that practices witchcraft and ended up killing her suitors. Growing up on fairy tales with a lack of maternal care could have given the girl the wrong notion about the moral of the story. She could have interpreted the story in different ways, either thinking that the acts of the princess were wrong or that she could do whatever she wanted and not get caught otherwise she too would face a punishment like the witch princess. This notion explains the fact that children need to be nurtured and directed toward the positive aspects of life. They need to be taught the difference between right and wrong not just with the use of fairy
Children can identify themselves with fairy-tale characters; they imagine themselves as heroes, who are capable of killing dragons, or simpletons, who demonstrate the superiority over clever people. Fantasies based on the fairy tales are extremely important part of the children’s lives, and this is not only because they describe threatening situations that resemble main fears of a young child such as the fear of getting lost, fear of wrong decisions, fear of monsters or evil animals. Happy endings, which are always present in fairy tales, give children the confidence that despite all their fears they will be able to win in the end. This knowledge helps them to prepare for the difficulties of life, regardless whether they are real or imagined (Doughty, 2006).
Presently, many books and fairytales are converted movies and often, producers alters the original tales to grasp the attention of a large audience. However, some of these interpretations hide the primary interpretation. The original interpretations of the Disney classics Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are greatly reinvented from the original fairytales Sun, Moon, and Talia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because of the brutal nature of the treatment women in these original forms. Although there are differences in certain aspects from the original tales to the movies, there are many issues that are influential to the young girls who are still watching the Disney version. I realize this when my youngest niece, Anella asks me, “Why can’t I be beautiful and fall asleep and suddenly wake up to finally find my prince?” This is true in all cases of the four different translations of the fairytales. Every single girl in these stories are in a “beautiful” state of half-death who wake to find a prince who if eager to carry them off. This can lead to negative psychological effects on young girls as they are growing up, creating a large amount of pressure and low self-esteem due to the beauty that these stories portray and maintaining restrictions that these women experience in the stories. While it is true that Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves are considered Disney classics that entertain children and provide meaningful role models, it is evident that the true, vulgar nature of these tales are hidden; these stories are about women who are thrown away.
Bettelheim’s idea of fairy tales states that a child gets a better understanding of life through fairy tales. In Burn Your Maps, nine year old Wes is constantly surrounded by two fighting parents. Alise, Wes’ mother, instituted a fine set of rules, including restrictions on certain TV shows and a bedtime curfew. Alise states that she has “spanked him many times, but never with premeditation. ”(299)
I believe that fairy tales are a big part of child’s life and they can make his or her childhood memorable. These fairy tales usually have a positive moral that teaches a lesson like the ones I was told as a child. Most tales teach against dangerous behavior. A good story teller, like the ones who passed down the tales and my grandparents, can really have a positive impact on a child. These tales were also a big source of entertainment, both in the present and in earlier days. Hearing stories as a kid taught me important lessons like not to talk to talk to strangers from “Hansel and Gretel”. These fairy tales are also very memorable part of my childhood with my grandparents.
Many parents read fairy tales to their children. Young people are able to use their imaginations while listening to these fantastical stories. Filled with dragons, witches, damsels in distress, and heroes, these tales stay in the mind children for years to come. However, these young listeners are getting much more than a happy ending. Fairy tales such as "The Goose Girl", "The Three Little Pigs", "Cinderella", and "Snow White" one can find theories of psychology. Erik Erikson's theories of social development as well as Sigmund Freud's theory of the map of the mind and his controversial Oedipal complex can be found in many fairy tales. Within every fairy tale there lies a hidden lesson in psychology.
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.
At first glance, what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale may seem obvious—some kind of magic, hidden symbols, repetition, and of course it’s evident it’s fiction—but fables are more than that. As Arthur Schelesinger puts it, it’s about “[expanding] imagination” and gaining understanding of mysterious places (618). While doing this, it also helps children to escape this world, yet teach a lesson that the reader may not be conscious of. A wonderful story that achieves all of this is Cinderella, but not the traditional tale many American’s have heard. Oochigeaskw, or The Rough-Faced Girl, and Ashputtle would be fitting for a seven-year-old because they get the gears of the mind turning, allowing for an escape on the surface, with an underlying enlightenment for children of the ways of the world.
The simplicity of fairy tales and non-specific details renders them ideal for manipulation allowing writers to add their own comments often reflecting social convention and ideology. Theref...
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Use of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
Bettelheim, Bruno. "The Struggle for Meaning." The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Knopf, 1976. Print.
I am writing this paper because I was assigned to write it as a class project. Along the way I realized the importance of sharing the real meanings of all these stories. Stories are important because in the society we live in things are constantly changing. Fairytales change but the base of the story always remain the same no matter how many times it has been retold. It’s important to reveal the true meanings of these stories, even with its dark characteristics, because the world is dark .Children need to know that there are people that have told stories relatable to what they are going through. Fairytales help the development of children; it helps their maturity as they confront someone else’s tough situations, instilling hope of a more positive ou...
“The fairy tale, which to this day is the first tutor of children because it was once the first tutor of mankind, secretly lives on in the story. The first true storyteller is, and will continue to be, the teller of fairy tales. Whenever good counsel was at a premium, the fairy tale had it, and where the need was greatest, its aid was nearest. This need was created by myth. The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.”(Walter Benjamin). For generations fairy tales have brought happiness to hundreds of people. Through childhood to adults, people still enjoy the mysteries of fairytales. In society, fairytales are a great way of connecting
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: the Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. Print.
..., Maria. “An Introduction to Fairy Tales.” Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Ed. Laurence Behrens, Leonard J. Rosen. Toronto: Longman, 2013. 230-235. Print.