Modern Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales Through the Ages People all over the world have enjoyed telling stories for as long as people could communicate. Fairy tales in particular have been told in many different variations (due to many stories being told orally instead of being written down). Some notable fairy tale authors include: the Grimm brothers, Hans Christian Andersen, and Walt Disney. The Grimm brothers helped to make the fairy tale world something everyone wanted to be a part of, however, his stories has dark and twisty endings, with something terrible happening to the main character in the end. Hans Christian Andersen sits in the middle of the spectrum. The stories that he wrote sometimes were dark and scary, but were also happy and had feel-good endings.

Growing up, Andersen had a very rough childhood – he had to deal with poverty, never knowing where his next meal would be coming from, and his troubled love life. Since he had a rough childhood, Andersen was able to pull from his personal experiences to shape his stories, “He never quite got over those early traumas, or the later scars. But they later became the fuel of his fantasies and the substance of his stories” (Cech 1). Since many of his readers had been in the same situations he had been in, they were drawn to his writings and could almost instantly bond with them. He was able to, “touch those chords of sympathy within his readers because, on some fundamental level that they, too, have shared [those] feelings and have hoped for the same optimistic resolution” (Cech 6). Since Andersen was able to create such an intimate connection with his readers, he was able to create, “and immediate bond of identification and sympathy between [himself] and his readers” (Cech 2). Children loved his stories because they gave them hope for a better future or just made their day a little bit better. Unlike the Grimm brothers, children were not frightened by all of Andersen’s stories’ endings. Even though Andersen did write a lot of child friendly stories, he did explore, “those other, darker reaches of the psych that we do not like to

Most children in today’s day have a favorite Disney movie that they have watched over and over again. They can more than likely say most of the line of the movie by heart as well. This is because when Walt Disney started creating his stories, he knew he wanted them to have positive and moving endings. People loved the messages Disney sent – they were always positive and taught children life lessons: “The message delivered by Walt Disney’s various projects was an optimistic one that cherished the values of family unity and selfless courage. Goodness almost always triumphed over evil. His works promoted preservation – of the environment, of the family, and of the American way of life” (George 2). In addition to having great messages and life lessons, Disney was very different from the people he competed with during his time. Because of his differences, he was able to spark interest with all sorts of different people. His characters were likeable and fun to follow, “Unlike his competitors, whose cartoons were filled with slapstick and double entendres, Disney’s short features focused on the wholesome activities of likeable little characters who were essentially human in spirit if not in form” (Carey 3). Since people enjoyed Disney’s works, he became very successful very quickly. Today, everyone knows who