Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Fairy tales influence children
Fairytales and their impact on human development
Impact of fairytales on children
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Fairy tales influence children
It might be surprising too many but Fairy tales have been so frequently reinterpreted in many cultures since they first originated. As far as we know, Fairy tales date back as early as 350 B.C. Scholars think that such stories were originally passed down orally from generation to generation and were an immediate success through out the decades. According to …. (2013) Fairy tales started off being intended for adults but eventually became a tradition of stories that parents generally read to their children. Moreover, Fairy tales usually feature characters such as elves, old evil witches, stepmothers, and young innocent girls and usually involve magic of some sort. Yet, the term fairy tale itself was first used by Madame d’Aulnoy, a 17th century French writer, who used the term to describe her own fairy tales, which she called contes de fee. She originally started story telling at a woman’s salon and these tales were later better known by Charles Perrault. However, often many times some well-known traditional re-tellings of the fairy tales included violence and bloody scenes, such as those stories by the Brothers Grimm, and are a little too violent for children these days. Not only are they too violent but other popular fairy tales are difficult to read to boys and girls as bedtime stories because they may have an evil witch character or may be too vicious for them as well.
Since the creation of fairy tales, these stories have always started with a struggle where the endings included some sort of violence. For example in the story Cinderella by the Brothers Grimm, Cinderella’s step sisters abuse her and in the ending, the first stepsister cuts her toe off and the second step sister cuts a bit off her heel just to make their feet ...
... middle of paper ...
...o your children? After reading this fairy tale to your children, you may never look at fairy tales in quite the same way again. The Fairy Tale story begins with the same lines with in which all Fairy Tales begin with: “Once upon a time…” and ends with “…Happily ever After.” However, this story has new concepts incorporated into it. As with anything, many individuals have criticized how fairy tales should not end with a “happily ever after” since they may personally believe that there is no real happily ever after. However, counteracting this perhaps as parents, one can step back and explain to their children to help them realize that it is only a story. Without a shadow of doubt, fairy tales originally started for adults; however, I aimed at pleasing children and not grown-ups. This new edition of a fairy tale I wrote will forever be known as Bella In the Wild.
Fairy tales are usually associated with elegant dresses, fancy shoes, and a happily ever after for the protagonists, presenting the tale itself as if it is too good to be true, because it is. In reality people cannot have a fairy tale ending because the majority of the population has difficulty paying bills, providing for their families, and, in many cases, relationships fail. Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee” shows readers exactly that: All Fairy Tales must be brought to an end and there is nothing that can stop this.
The telling of fairy tales has changed tremendously as they have been around for a great amount of time. As a child, fairy tails are read by someone who is older, that understands the deeper meaning of the tale. The Brothers Grimm tales were not meant to be for children because of the content that they contained. In Zohar Shavit criticism, he made the point that as time went on, fairy tales were transformed into ones that were more appropriate for children that did not contain all of the violence, sex, and dark meanings. They wanted children to look at the world in a different way than how it was intended for adults (Shavit 327). Literary critic, Robert Sale, once
A fairytale is a fictional fantasy fable that passes through generations of children as source of interest to them. Though used for the intent of entertainment, fairytales often indirectly advocate a moral or message to readers (whom are usually children), in hopes that they will grow up to apply these ethics and lead a righteous life. This criteria, however, often originates from the occurrence of a magical transformation; it is this paranormality that introduces the characters of the story to a side of life far from what they have grown to know and learn to adapt to the dramatic amend in their life. This is evident in the characters in world-renowned tales such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.
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.
Fairytales, the short stories that most children heard as they went to bed, are actually folktales from previous decades. The fairytales today are primarily adaptations of older versions recreated by Disney— the pioneers of this generation. With that said, the modern versions consistently display good triumphing over evil, a prince charming that constantly came to the rescue, and a happily ever after ending. However, the original folktale version didn’t always come with fortunate events, but often were more violent and gruesome. With the fairytale Cinderella, Disney maintains a similar theme as its Grimm version; however, the conflicts, events, and characters that support this idea are rather different.
The Grimm Fairy tales Fairy tales have existed for thousands of years. Some of the most famous fairy tales were German in origin and were collected by the Grimm brothers. Jakob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm were scholars that spent most of their time together. In 1838, they began writing a German dictionary while they were working as librarians.
Throughout history it is known that fairy tales were written to teach children lessons about life in a way they could understand and that is fun and unique. Authors of fairy tales put simple lessons into the stories so the children could understand them easily while reading. Whether this be a lesson to be nice to all people, like in Cinderella, or to not judge someone by their appearance, like in Donkey Skin, both by Charles Perrault. Each fairytale has a moral that can be found throughout reading the stories that teach children right from wrong while letting them use their imaginations to discover that moral. The good and the bad lets them express their thoughts openly, rather it be their negative thoughts through the villian or their
Fairy tales portray wonderful, elaborate, and colorful worlds as well as chilling, frightening, dark worlds in which ugly beasts are transformed into princes and evil persons are turned to stones and good persons back to flesh (Guroian). Fairytales have long been a part of our world and have taken several forms ranging from simple bedtime stories to intricate plays, musicals, and movies. However, these seemingly simple stories are about much more than pixie dust and poisoned apples. One could compare fairytales to the new Chef Boyardee; Chef Boyardee hides vegetables in its ravioli while fairytales hide society’s morals and many life lessons in these outwardly simple children stories. Because of this fairytales have long been instruments used to instruct children on the morals of their culture. They use stories to teach children that the rude and cruel do not succeed in life in the long run. They teach children that they should strive to be kind, caring, and giving like the longsuffering protagonists of the fairytale stories. Also, they teach that good does ultimately defeat evil. Fairy tales are not just simple bedtime stories; they have long been introducing cultural moral values into young children.
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...
Throughout history people have always been telling stories, whether it is how some ones day went or something strange they saw. One place that has a particularly strong connection with storytelling is Ireland. Telling stories in Ireland was usually for entertainment told at a bar or by the fire in a friend’s home to hear what someone else saw or experienced leaving one with new knowledge. Fairy- legends were stories that were told quite often in conversational type settings telling people something they had heard of experienced about the fairies. The people of Ireland used to strongly believe in the fairies during the nineteenth century. Fairies are not human but look somewhat similar to us except that are usually a lot paler. They live their
One similarity between fairy tales is the presence of violence most notably in Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Grimm’s version of Cinderella. Sleeping beauty shows a dragon being decapitated, Little Red Riding Hood sees a wolf eating humans then getting his insides ripped open, and Cinderella shows the stepsisters getting their eyes plucked out. The majority of fairy tales are heartwarming and provide a powerful message, so it is very odd to see violence included within them as well. It is worth noting that the violence is, for the most part, ignored by the readers. This is probably ignored because the reader is distracted by a number of others things with the story elements and plot. For example, in the Grimm’s version of
We all grew up hoping that we were the princesses who met the dreamy prince and lived ‘happily ever after’ like in a fairytale.People debate over whether or not Disney fairytales are beneficial for children. Like Melissa Taylor the author of the piece ‘10 reasons why kids need to read non disney fairy tales’, I am against disneyfied fairy tales. In this essay I will argue on why kids should not only watch disney fairytales but also the real versions.
Fairy Tales have been around for generations and generations. Our parents have told us these stories and we will eventually pass them down to ours. In this time of age the most common fairytales are Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and The Beast and many more. Children idolize their favorite character and pretend to be them by mimicking everything they do in the stories. The character’s behavior is what is viewed as appropriate in society. These fairy tales show a girl and a boy fall in love and live “happily ever after”. The tales in many people’s eyes resemble a dream life that they would want to have of their own. However, have you ever really looked at what makes up a fairy tale? Many things are unrealistic but the most unflattering aspect of these tales is how women are depicted in them. Fairy tales give an unrealistic view to how women should look and behave in real life.
Over the years, fairytales have been distorted in order to make them more family friendly. Once these changes occur, the moral and purpose of the stories begin to disappear. The tales featured in the many Disney movies - beloved by so many - have much more malignant and meaningful origins that often served to scare children into obeying their parents or learning valuable life lessons.
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...