Fairy Tales: Reflection of Societal Dysfunction

When people talk about fairy tales, in their mind, they will automatically think about fantasy element such as princess, princes, and fairy and of course the happy ending at the end of every fairy tale. They give us a place for freedom of thinking and relaxing. Moreover, in some way, we used fairy tales to teach a child's moral lessons about how to behavior. Do fairy tales only offer the freedom of thinking and moral lesson fairy tales to people? We use to think that the fantasy in the fairy tales has no impact on their society, and it's merely the element to get the stories in fairy tales gloomier and more attracted to the reader. No, fairy tales still hold one more important function. In one aspect, fairy tales reflect the bad side of society. Like in a movie Pan’s Labyrinth, there is a relation between the fantasy world in the fairy tales and her living society. Thus, even the fantasy is part of our imagination about a better world, but it has a significant role in transforming imagining into politics because it acts as a tool to reflect the dysfunction of society.

Using imagery to create the fantasy world as a way to escape, people represent they disagree with the existing order. In many fairy tales, the fantasy exit as a tool to rescue the sick person. Look at Cinderella, the fantasy part of the story is the appearing of the fairy godmother who use her magic power to help Cinderella go to ball part and meet the prince. We also know that if she doesn’t cry the fairy god mother won’t help her. The Crying of her is formed by the unequal of the family. In other words, the fantasy only appears when people are suffering in his or her life. This idea demonstrates clear though the character Ofelia in the movie Pan’s Labyrinth. O...

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...slavers.

In the end with Ofelia returning to her underworld kingdom and the captain being killed by the Marxist rebels, we get the message that no one government can subjugate their people with power without some sort of rebellious uprising while the dead captain represents the hope of collapsing fascist rule. Therefore, through the fantasy in world and the way it is created, people will be able to compare and have a deep look in the society that they are living. From that, we understand what they want and what they are deserved. If we think of fantasy as a form of political protest, yes it is. We could see it shows how people, through wishes, can find ways to deal with the problems in real society. From wishes they have, an action to impact society will be formed, that is what Annalee Newitz meant when she wrote, “and buried in every political wish is a fantasy."