Controversy: The Grimm Brothers - Too Grim for Children?

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There has been lots of controversy about the Grimm Brothers and if their book, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, is too grim for children to read. Long before the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm, even thought about writing their book, they were inseparable. Even though the brothers were inseparable, they were complete opposites. Where Jacob was serious, introverted, and active; Wilhelm was outgoing and talkative. They came from a large family with five brothers and a sister. Once their father died, the brothers being only ten and eleven, the family struggled and had to rely on relatives and their father’s pension to feed everyone. Even with the family struggling and the hard times, the family sent the brother to high …show more content…

In the original Cinderella, the stepsisters cut off parts of their feet so they can fit inside the shoe, golden not glass, and at the end pigeons peck out their eyes until they 're blind. In Rapunzel, when old lady Gothel found out about the prince visting Rapunzel she cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and sends her into the dessert to live alone and trunks the prince to climb the hair un the tower and tells him that she 's dead which leads him to jump out the tower’s window. It’s clear to see that Grimm’s tales are graphic and most parents now wouldn’t want their kids reading or hearing those stories. Even though the brothers just copied the stories as they were told the stories are a far stretch from reality, Maria Tatar says “These tales are not politically correct. They are full of sex and violence.” While the Grimm brothers did well on preserving the stories exactly as they were told, in today’s time there are a lot better books aimed towards children unlike the brothers’ tales were. Young children shouldn’t be allowed to read the harsh original versions of the stories they love; they should be able to keep their minds as innocent as they can for as long as they can. If kids were to read the original Grimm’s fairy tales, it could scare their little minds

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