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Fairy tales effect on children
Advantage of fairy tales
Negative psychological effects of fairy tales
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Introduction: It’s impossible for me to say I don’t know anything about fairytales, but what I do know about them, there isn’t anything I don’t love! Between the knight and shining armor, the damsel in distress and the infamous rescuing scene, you can’t help but hope to one day find your prince charming! Let’s be honest, we love to hate fairytales, they are so unbelievably unrealistic with the romance, the happy endings, the prince and princess, but we all live to have something come close to that annoyingly perfect happy ending. Between “Beauty and The Beast”, “Cinderella”, “The Little Mermaid”, and “Snow White” one thing that is continuous throughout them all is that fabulous good character and that dreadful bad character, and the suspense that keeps us wondering what obstacles they’ll have to endure to get that “fairytale ending” we’re all secretly jealous of. “If you see the magic in a fairy tale, you can face the future” (Danielle Steel). We subconsciously live vicariously through fairytales, we want to escape the real world in hope for a different reality, and we really do believe the grass is greener on the other side. Fairytales are something that we go from not being able to get enough of, being “too old” for, and finally being old enough to appreciate the most beautiful aspects of them that we wish to one day be our reality. Unlike our real lives that we live minute to minute, day to day, year to year, with ups and downs and with a million possibilities of outcomes, fairytales always remain the same, with the minutes of reading, and the intoxicating words that make you cry, laugh, and dream. The importance of fairytales will live on forever just like the authors that wrote them. The Search: Throu... ... middle of paper ... ...ms, and foster a sense of hope. In society, fairytales create a common denominator between races, religion, and bring together humans in our sense of hope and our desire for the ultimate fairytale ending. Works Cited Bottingheimer, Ruth “Fairytales” Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood history: New York. Fairytales “Find Grimm’s Tale” web 15, Feb 2000. Gale facts Bettelheim, Bruno “The Importance of Externalization”. The Uses of Enchantment. The Meaning and Importance of fairytales. New York: Vintage books 1976 Bettelhem, Bruno “The Child’s need for Magic”. The Uses of Enchantment. The Meaning and Importance of fairytales. New York: Vintage books 1976 The Little Mermaid, Dir. Ron Clements, John Musker. Per. Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Pat Carroll, Christopher Daniel Barnes. Walt Disney Pictures 1989 VCR Robbins, Terri Personal Interview 3, February 2014
Fairy tales connect to our owns lives, dreams, anxieties, and help us to consider what we would do in their shoes. Many cultures have their own spin on common fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty, with their own cultural flavor. We read those versions and know that we share something important and the hope for good to overcome evil.
...n” is a great example of an old myth or tale reconstructed and adapted for a modern audience in a new medium. It is a progression on one hand in its use of modern language, setting, and style but it is also the product of the old myths in that it is essentially the same on the thematic level. In addition, the level of self-awareness on the part of the narrator and, by extension, the author marks it out as an illustration of the very notion of evolutionary changes of myths and fairy tales. Adaptation is the solution to the fairy tale, and fairy tales have been endlessly changing themselves throughout history and, by some strange transforming or enchanting power endlessly staying the same.”
Katelyn Matroni Professor Torrence English 102 February 12th, 2014. Meaning of Life According to Bruno Bettelheim, in Introduction: The Struggle for Meaning taken from The Uses of Enchantment, the use of fairy tales in a children’s life allows them to deal with their fears in a symbolic way. In order for a story to hold a child’s attention, it must “help him to develop his intellect and to clarify his emotions”(263). The use of fairy tales in Burn Your Maps, by Robyn Joy Leff, portrays the subtle but important influence of fairy tales on a child.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage, 2010. Print.
Tatar, Maria. Off with Their Heads!: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1992. Print.
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 reasons why fairy tales embed into the social psyche is the simplistic and plot driven nature of the story. Even the smallest child instantly understands the characteristics and motifs of the story. It is set with simple characters with one characteristic for example the wicked stepmother is only every wicked. There are no further details as to how or why she became wicked. The actions of the character further enhance this singular characteristic. The primary drive of the story is the plot with repeated refrains in text and in character’s discourse but with a non-specific setting and period. Few fairy tales include fairies in them but are abound with fantastical creatures and events. The fantastical is still believable as it merely bends the laws of physics.
Fairytales express the creative fantasies of the rural and less educated layers of common man (Cuban, 1984). They are characteristically full of magic, often involving upper class characters (Cuban, 1984). In short, Fairytales are organically grown with the creative material of a collective group. The Grimm Brother’s fairytale, The Frog Prince, is no exception. The Grimm Brothers’ fairytale is about a handsome prince trapped in the repulsive body of a frog, but who nevertheless overcomes and transcends this bewitched state through his wit, perseverance, and magic (Prince, 2009). Until the seventeenth century, it was the adult population that was interested in fairytales (Cuban, 2009). Their allocation to the nursery was a late development (Cuban, 2009). This allocation can be credited to the rejection of the irrational, and development of the ra...
During the 19th century, Grimm’s fairytales were strongly disapproved of due to harsh, gruesome details and plots. One American educator from 1885 stated, “The folktales mirror all too loyally the entire medieval worldview and culture with all its stark prejudice, its crudeness and barbarities.” As childre...
When anyone thinks about a children’s fairy tale the most common ones that can come to mind is “Little Red Riding Hood”. Fairy tales convey a hidden message to children. Like how in “Little Red Riding Hood” the message is to not talk to strangers. Fairy tales have been created to help children understand things in a fun and enjoying way. Not every kid can learn and understand things the same way; it all depends on what they have been taught and exposed to in their life. There is controversy between the way these messages are conveyed to young children, like how in “Little Red Riding Hood” the story ends with Riding Hood and her grandmother being eaten by the wolf which can be frightening to children but it explains to you the bad things
Fairy tales are far from bed-time stories, rather they stem from the political and social needs of the lower class over the course of history. History is always changing, whether it is the lower classes overthrowing the upper classes or the upper classes imposing their control on other cultures. Over the course of history the views of the upper class constantly clash with the lower class. A way for the lower class to respond to the upper class is through fairy tales and folk tales.
...im, Bruno, The Use of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (London: Penguin, 1975).
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: the Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. London: Thames and Hudson, 1976. Print.
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...
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.