Godfather Death Research Paper

The Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen are the pioneers of the fairy tale literature. Their collection of fairy tales are considered as today’s classic and have become the basis for every, if not all, modern fairy tales. Their stories contain violence, gore, and heavily edited sexual content, an indication that these tales were originally meant for every ages, not just children. Over the years, it has become sanitized and has become part of the children’s literature. The most famous sanitized versions that anyone could find would probably Disney’s, a company specializing for child and family entertainment. One would be surprised to know that their origins have darker aspects and some became reluctant to reading them

The story of “Godfather Death” draws into attention the concept of death in children’s mind. The story goes on how Death was chosen to be a godfather and helps his godson become famous by giving him the ability to cure any ailment. However, he must follow Death’s authority that so long as he appears by the headrest of the sick, he can cure them, but if he appears by their feet, then they were bound for him. In one of her notes in “The Annotated Brother’s Grimm”, Maria Tatar mentions that the story enable the “earlier generations to talk about death, compassion, love and justice” (194). Children learns about death without any actual involvement of a representation such as the death of a close relative. Tatar adds, “this particular tale stark reminder that even those on whom fortunes smiles cannot cheat [death],” and death does not care for the status, age, or deeds of any mortal (194). It was shown when Death declared the demise of the king or the princess, uncaring of their status as sovereign. It was also shown when Death took his godson’s life in exchange of his disobedience of curing someone, the princess, against his rule again, and refused his godson’s pleas to lengthen his life in the expense of someone

In one of C.S. Lewis’s famous essay, “On Three Ways of Writing Fairytales”, he defends,
Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker. Nor do most of us find that violence and bloodshed, in a story, produce any haunting dreads in the minds of children…. Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book.
Children will grow up someday and learn of the world’s cruelty someday, and nothing will stop this force. It would be easier to give them a transitional phase between their fun, loving world and into the cold, reality instead of letting them see part of the truths that are plastered in the T.V. screen among the news’