As children, we were raised with the presence of fascinating disney fairytales and stories. Each one of these fables included some type of moral, that taught us what is truly important in life. We were taught the power of courage from The Little Mermaid, the effects of optimism from Peter Pan, the significance of love from Olaf in Frozen and WALL-E, and importance determination from Tiana in The Princess and the Frog. Notably, none of these stories actually occurred in reality. The message lies within the adventures these characters experience, not the existence of the imaginary characters themselves. As we see in this enchanting fables, the source of truth is not within numbers or facts, but rather the experiences we endure. In the modern …show more content…
era, we have become quite obsessed with analyzing situations with numbers. The feelings we sense in our hearts have potential to be replaced by materialistic objects and numerical values. Truly, no number of “likes” on an Instagram picture can resemble the love we have for a friend, or the feelings we are trying to express by posting an artistic image. Walt Whitman, a prominent author of the 1800s wrote in his work Leaves of Grass, that “houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with perfumes, I breathe the fragrance and know it and like it, the distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it” (Whitman). Whitman is expressing his resistance to not allow the perfumes, or artificial objects, to conceal his feelings and truth in life. It is imperative to not become intoxicated by the phony perfumes that are projected by society, but to breathe in the sincerity of one another, and each other’s experiences. Whitman proposes what is real in life, and they are certainly things that can not be objectified. Similarly, author Henry David Thoreau escaped to the woods to escape the fabricated aspects of life. Thoreau wrote in his work Walden that he “wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life” (Thoreau). By escaping the developed world, Thoreau believed he found the essence of truth by living in solitude without the presence of reality. Surely, both Whitman and Thoreau reached their truthful pursuit of happiness by the experiences they encountered. Evidently, as humans, it much easier for us to relate to emotional experiences rather than numerical values statistics.
For example, reading the story of a child suffering from cancer is much for impacting than reading “childhood cancers make up less than 1% of all cancers diagnosed each year” (American Cancer Society). Comparative to the Disney fairytales, the hypothetical story of a child suffering from cancer has potential to not be necessarily true, but it would achieve a deeper impact within our hearts than a statistic. Qi Wang, a professor of human development and psychology at Cornell University regards a similar approach to why storytelling helps humans reach a deeper truth than factual information. Wang explains that, “stories [capture] intimate details and our innermost thoughts and feelings” (Wang). Similar to Whitman and Thoreau, Wang asserts that a deeper truth is told by thoughts and feelings, because they are simply irreplaceable, and provide deeper connections to the listener or reader. In Tim O’Brien’s work of fiction The Things They Carried, O’Brien describes his emotional experiences within the Vietnam War through fictional stories. Odds are that the reader of this book would not be able to relate to the trauma of the Vietnam War, therefore O’Brien could not necessarily explain what he felt when he, for example, saw a dead body on the side of the road. Instead, O’Brien uses short stories that are easier to understand and more relatable for the reader.
His book is the epitome that, “a thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth” (O’Brien). This means that to accurately explain the truth, emotional experiences are the best source to express the real truth. If O’Brien wrote his story as a memoir, it may be perceived as bland because the reader would not be able to take anything away from it, because of the lack of connections made. For this, O’Brien claims that fiction is for “getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth” (O’Brien). In other words, storytelling for the purpose of telling a moral or sharing an experience is far more effective than stating facts. Although The Things They Carried may not necessarily fall into the category of fairytales, it surely obtains the same effect as one. In a nation where we consider ourselves people of principle, it is far overdue that we acknowledge the origin of truth. As Wang said, our stories, fiction or not, are what bring people together. For this, storytelling is the best way to convey the truth. In some cases, telling a fictional story is more effective than directly stating facts in order to portray an important message. As we learned in Disney fables, the most important aspects of life, such as, honesty, determination, and love, were displayed by completely fictional stories. The source of truths in our lives is not always determined by the actual events that have occurred, but rather the morals we learn from the feelings we endure.
There are many levels of truth in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. This novel deals with story-telling as an act of communication and therapy, rather than a mere recital of fact. In the telling of war stories, and instruction in their telling, O'Brien shows that truth is unimportant in communicating human emotion through stories.
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.
Throughout Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, a plethora of stories are told concerning the lives of a select number of soldiers in and out of the Vietnam War. In his writing, O’Brien also conveys his own thoughts on the art of storytelling and the nature of stories themselves. In these passages, O’Brien provides a detailed analysis of the challenges of storytelling, the effects of time on memory, the role of imagination in storytelling, the reason for retelling a story, and a story’s purpose and process for the reader.
In his evaluation of Little Red Riding Hood, Bill Delaney states, “In analyzing a story . . . it is often the most incongruous element that can be the most revealing.” To Delaney, the most revealing element in Little Red Riding Hood is the protagonist’s scarlet cloak. Delaney wonders how a peasant girl could own such a luxurious item. First, he speculates that a “Lady Bountiful” gave her the cloak, which had belonged to her daughter. Later, however, Delaney suggests that the cloak is merely symbolic, perhaps representing a fantasy world in which she lives.
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, O’Brien explores the nature of stories and what role truth plays in being able to deliver a story and convey its weight to an audience. Throughout the course of the novel O’Brien gives many accounts and his characters recount many tall-tales as well. All of these stories pose questions to the reader, and O’Brien contends that a story’s purpose is to help the audience member feel the reality of what happened and remember those who have died.
In the postmodernist view of the nature of truth, the definition of truth is inconclusive. Due to the lack of belief of a true reality, story truth may more accurately portray the truth than the happening truth. Since personal interpretation distorts the truth, the portrayal of emotions felt in a specific situation is more truthful than what was seen to have actually happened. In The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien gives a rationale for his reason for telling a made up story by stating, “I want you to feel what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth.” In the art of storytelling, the factual truth is not as important as the emotional truth. Emotions are capable of more accurately depicting the truth to a situation than what actually happened. Since one person’s truth to a situation can differ from that of someone else, the portrayal of the emotions that one felt during that time are better able to tell the truth of the situation for each individual. In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien reflects on the art to storytelling:
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.
For hundreds of years children have been enchanted by fairy tales. The beautiful princesses, handsome rescuers, and happily-ever-after endings lent themselves to contentment and a feeling that all was right with the world. During the last century, many of these classics were brought to life on the big screen in animated motion pictures. Walt Disney animated the Grimm Brother’s tale, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, during the Great Depression, grossing eight million, the most money made by any film up to that time (History Channel, 2011). Obviously, in the midst of such a difficult time in America’s history, not just children, but adults also, yearned to hear the message of good triumphing over evil. The question might be considered, though, do these fairy tales embody truth? A look at the cultural messages displayed in Snow White show that although many of the messages are archaic and sexist, the story still has worth today when used and discussed in an appropriate manner.
The human capacity for imagination, not only shapes our minds, but also helps coping with reality. Imagination creates stories that help the mind try to understand events in life. It is at first an escape from life, but also a way to reconcile with reality. In the end, what is imagined becomes truer than the real truth. According to Patrick Smith in Tim O’Brien: A Critical Companion, “Imagination is the beginning of telling of stories, which also becomes a lifeline, a way of coping…” (101). In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, the imagination contributes to the storytelling of the Vietnam War by the narrator. O’Brien deals with the concept of the imagination through stories that are surreal and ambiguous in communicating the truth of the Vietnam War.
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.
Though Beauty and the Beast is a popular tale of American culture, few actually see the deep moral values in the story. Not all of the morals are on the surface, in fact very few are. People have to look beneath the surface for many of the lessons. These lessons are meant for people to reflect upon and better themselves. While the surface story serves for entertainment, fairy tales also provide everlasting lessons.
In “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality,” Catherine Orenstein discusses what television has turned the modern fairy tale into, reality television, and how ordinary viewers can play a part into this new romance. However, she continues to relate modern situations to the stereotypical fairy tale, and how they are both based historically accurate situations, but twisted into something more beautiful. She uses the example of Sleeping Beauty; in the original story she is not awakened by a kiss. She is impregnated by a prince and left in the woods, and then later the prince's’ mother tries to eat her. Orenstein goes on to explain how much our expectation of love and marriage has changed in three centuries -- because historically marriage was a financial
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...
Fairy tales have a constant and uniform influence throughout the lives of individuals around the globe. They play a crucial role in shaping member’s ideologies, tastes, and mannerisms of a particular society. Fairy tales shape the behaviors and morals of all age groups, and generally have an everlasting influence. The majority of fairy tales address a central conflict that eventually is corrected to comply with the norms of society. Interestingly, most fairy tale societies are depicted as a model of righteousness, which includes characters that either conform to the model, or not. Those that don’t conform are commonly labeled as villains. According to Edwards and Klosa, this type of good versus evil dichotomy distracts the perspectives of audience