Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
How do fairytales have an impact on children
How fairytales shape our lives
The importance of fairytales
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: How do fairytales have an impact on children
Fairy tales provides emotional and mental reassurance during any experience of adversities in the duration of a child’s lifetime. Fairy tales aid children to escape any sort of isolation and negativity they could potentially encounter in their daily lives because of the adversities. Unfortunately, everyone will inevitably face difficult situations. However, facing any sort of adversity constructs an individual’s identity and character and ultimately, allows individuals to overcome them. For instance, in another popular fairy tale called “Cinderella,” a young, kind hearted, and forgiving girl named Cinderella faces the wrath of her wicked stepmother and sisters of constant ridicule, treatment, and manipulation. The stepmother and sisters received …show more content…
Everyone, as well as Cinderella, experienced adversities, although, Cinderella did not let the cruel remarks define her identity. Instead, her forgiveness and kind heart are attributes that defines her identity and character. Therefore, young readers recognized how, despite all the adversities Cinderella faced, she did not let them destroy her character and instead, she forgave them. This educates readers on how anyone could encounter difficult and inevitable situations, although, it is up to themselves on how to deal with the outcome of the situation. In fact, overcoming inevitable situations is what makes an individual stronger and contributes to self-growth and self-improvement. In “The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre,” author Jack Zipes, an American academic and scholar of fairy tales, analyzes the idea of how fairy tales are helpful and beneficial in unfortunate situations, “Fairy tales are informed by a human disposition to action—to transform the world and make it more adaptable to human needs, while we also try to change and make ourselves fit for the world”
Fairytales share similar themes in the manner in which they approach storytelling for the individual. In “The Great Fairy Tale Tradition”, Jack Zipes has selected and edited stories and categorized them by their respective themes, illustrating the different thematic elements found in each story. Every chapter includes a short introduction to the literary history of the selected stories and their themes. In the “Three Brother’s Who Become Wealthy Wandering the World”, “The Three Brothers”, and “The Four Skillful Brothers” each story explores the adventures and pursuits of brothers who venture into the outside world and are later faced with a test of skills in which they must prove their worth and courage. Although the three tales are incorporated into the thematic chapter of “Competitive Brothers” and share similar characteristics, there are contrasts between their respective stories.
In this article, she interprets her own version of thinking toward Cinderella. She interprets the Big Bang into Cinderella and tells an entire new side of the story that no one else thought about. She asks the question “What Is Cinderella, Exactly?” and answers in the most fashionable way possible. She says that “Americans will call almost anything a Cinderella story that involves a good thing happening to someone nice. We slap that title on movies and books, but also on basketball games won by tiny schools full of scrawny nerds, small businesses that thrive and even political ascendancies that upend established powers.”
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.
A fairytale is a fictional fantasy fable that passes through generations of children as source of interest to them. Though used for the intent of entertainment, fairytales often indirectly advocate a moral or message to readers (whom are usually children), in hopes that they will grow up to apply these ethics and lead a righteous life. This criteria, however, often originates from the occurrence of a magical transformation; it is this paranormality that introduces the characters of the story to a side of life far from what they have grown to know and learn to adapt to the dramatic amend in their life. This is evident in the characters in world-renowned tales such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.
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...
Throughout history it is known that fairy tales were written to teach children lessons about life in a way they could understand and that is fun and unique. Authors of fairy tales put simple lessons into the stories so the children could understand them easily while reading. Whether this be a lesson to be nice to all people, like in Cinderella, or to not judge someone by their appearance, like in Donkey Skin, both by Charles Perrault. Each fairytale has a moral that can be found throughout reading the stories that teach children right from wrong while letting them use their imaginations to discover that moral. The good and the bad lets them express their thoughts openly, rather it be their negative thoughts through the villian or their
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.
Hansjorg, Hohr, (2000). Dynamic Aspects of Fairy Tales: social and emotional competence through fairy tales. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, Vol 44, No 1, Department of Education, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
We all grew up hoping that we were the princesses who met the dreamy prince and lived ‘happily ever after’ like in a fairytale.People debate over whether or not Disney fairytales are beneficial for children. Like Melissa Taylor the author of the piece ‘10 reasons why kids need to read non disney fairy tales’, I am against disneyfied fairy tales. In this essay I will argue on why kids should not only watch disney fairytales but also the real versions.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: the Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. Print.
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
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...
It is this element of hope in a true fairytale that creates the support for a protagonist to overcome the opposing force that has been thrust onto them. A genuine fairytale is said to have the element of, “A innocent character [placed against] the evil character who normally loses somehow,” (Gokturk) which is seen as Cinderella is chosen by the prince over the evil step-sisters at the ball. As human beings with a developed moral system, it has been seen that the more deserving, mistreated character is favored to succeed in the story. Cinderella is seen as this “underdog” character in her quest to find love with the prince and overcome her step-sisters’ mistreatment. As Cinderella is mistreated by her new family, sympathy is built for the emerging protagonist and hope of her to conquer her situation follows. The underdog of this story grows in favorability to be picked by the prince due to the societal belief that the more deserving candidate should overcome their opposition. If there was no sense of hope thought the story of Cinderella, this story could not be categorized as a true embodiment of a
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.