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Communication and its effect
Communication and its effect
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The Telling Nature of the Fairy Tale
Fairy tales have been part of the human experience from the beginning. Whether they have been written or oral they have been passed down for centuries. One of the most interesting features of fairy tales is how they can carry history along with them. Moving from culture to culture, decade to decade, or even century to century. Carrying with them bits and pieces of the previous cultures/times histories and values. Leaving with the new owners of the tales hints of a time past, or hints to their own cultures beginnings.
One such way that a fairy tale can shed light onto the inner workings of a culture, from a former time, is through how human relationships are dealt with in the course of the story. This can become very revealing to how relationships are valued in the culture that adapted the story into their lives, making it their own.
During the process of adapting a tale into a culture the tale is changed in minor ways in order to mirror the values and realities of the culture and society at hand. These tales become a very important tool used in the process of enculturation. The children that these stories are told to learn important values and ideals from the characters and situations found in the stories. So fairy tales not only hold a historical record of the morals and values of a given culture and society but also help in the process creating that culture at the same time. Doing double duty so to speak.
One very famous fairy tale this can be seen in is that of Cinderella. Found in the very first few sentences of the story you can find how the dissolution of marriage is viewed by the culture and society of the time it was released. We’ll talk more about this later. For now let’s lo...
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...Vol. 43, No. 9,
Supplement. 22 March 1995. Print.
Provides statistical reference for divorce rates in the United states.
Salda, Michael N.. The Cinderella Project. de Grummond Children’s Literature Research
Collection, University of Southern Mississippi. Web. 27 April 2010.
http://www.usm.edu/english/fairytales/cinderella/cinderella.html
Source of several historic versions of Cinderella contained in one archive.
Provides images and original text of the fairy tale.
Wolfram, Sybil. “Divorce In England 1700 – 1857.” Oxford Journal of Legal Studies.
1985; 5: 155 – 186. Print.
Gives the legalities of divorce and procedures prevalent in western culture in the
18th & early 19th centuries. Provides a look at what was culturally acceptable in terms of divorce and marriage at the different times separate versions of Cinderella were written and published.
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.
For the first course objective, throughout different lessons in the course, I learned that not all cultures are the same or have the same values. In older European countries when Grimm’s brothers collected and told stories, the society was patriarchal which is reflected in the fairy tales as well. The girls are passive, damsels in distress, who are unable to save themselves but instead they need to wait for the man to help them. Nevertheless, in different tales like Tatterhood which was created at a later time, women have been given more power and they are active. Furthermore, another major difference between different cultures (American vs. Jewish, Mexican, African, Islamic) is the endings. The American stories, along with the other fairy tales always have a happy ending, while the Islamic stories and the Jewish stories differ from that in the sense that they do not have “happy ending.” Native American fairy tales along with Aboriginal fairy tales were unique stories that delineated cultures that not everyone has had exposure to. Each of these cultures was similar in the sense that they focused on nature loving...
Myths play an influential role in all cultures and societies. Back when communication was not easy, stories were told among family and friends to help spread lessons. Values to help children to learn about how to live a blessed life are made into these stories. One may not notice the same thing that happens today. Stories told of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and creatures alike who reward those for being balanced.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Marriage is a commitment that seems to be getting harder to keep. The social standards placed on an individual by society and influenced by the media inevitably lead some to consider divorce as a “quick-fix” option. “Have it your way” has become a motto in the United States. It has become a country without any consideration of the psychological effects of marriage and divorce. The overwhelmingly high divorce rate is caused by a lack of moral beliefs and marital expectations.
Fairy-legends in particular often reflected the people’s fears and became a way for them to explain things they just could not understand. These fairy legends were told very long ago before people had an understanding of science so when an unexpected death or a child went missing fairy legends were created to explain this. People’s anxieties were greatly reflected in fairy legends such as giving birth to a child and what had to be done, children being taken and replaced by changelings, women getting taken away, and children being abducted.
Every year approximately 2.4 million marriages occur.Out of those,2.1 millionwill file for divorce in the United States. These marriage and divorce rates have significantly increased since the years past(Coltrane and Adams, 364).According to Schoen, in the 1950’s, 15 out of 1,000 marriages ended in divorce.In the 1970’s, the rates of divorcedoubled,increasing to 40 per 1,000 marriages. Currently, the rate of marriages resulting in divorce remains the same. Most marriages are ending within seven years ofthemarriage for multiple different reasons. Sociologists haveestablisheddivorce as a social problem from the rise in divorcerates due to the early year of marriages (2006).
While fairy tales are entertaining stories and can be used to educate children of the normal social manners of reality; however, it can be used to entertain and educate people of all ages. It can be used as a method of escaping the real world or to teach valuable life lessons than just the normal social mannerisms of society.
...n every fairy tales, the tragedy identifies their own unique character, and symbolizes the plot to overcome it. After overcoming the hard times, during the plot is solved, and then describes the happy ever after. In The Shining the happy ever after was when Wendy and Danny were able get into the snow car and flee together, while Jack was freezing and dying. Sometimes the happy ever after do not happen with a kiss. In Hazel and Gretel the characters were able to trick the witch and scape. So, the fairy tales the evil never dies, but is destroyed.
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...
Normally, when one was a child, our parents would tell us fairy tales as bed time stories, or to simply entertain us. This is a worldwide tradition in which every parent tells their child the stories they were told when they were little, or new stories. There are infinite stories to be told as well as infinite stories that have already been written or told. The stories told by our parents have influenced us and still influence us in our beliefs and values today. Throughout our childhood, we have been told many stories that teach us to be brave and courageous, respect others, love ourselves and others, to obey orders, and even to help and