The article “Grim Variations from Fairy Tales to Modern Anti-Fairy Tales”, the author Wolfgang Mieder identifies fairy tales plays a significant value in people’s life. The article argue that fairy tales are not only just for children, but they are also for adults, even though fairy tales may be refer to as children stories. According to scholars, these tales are traditional narratives for adults. Within these tales there are lessons on how people should behave and other aspect of life, which only adults can comprehend. Fairy tales conceal the hidden frustrations of adults and their longing for a utopian world. This article provide the readers with points on why these tales are also for adults and the hidden meaning they have within them. “Fairy tales present the world in black and white, but in the end of this conflict is resolved (Mieder 91)” and this belief there is always kindness within humanity and the longing for a utopia plays a significant role for adults. The concept of hope for fairness and equality allows these tales to outlast the passage of time among children and adults. Mieder states adults today will not accept the value of the benefits these tales contain, and they are too focus by real-life problems. The adults of today’s society are realist and will not notice the good-natured meaning behind these tales, deeming them to be far-fetched, unlike the adults in the past who create these stories as a form of escape from their cruel reality. These
Notably exempt from the essay is Tatar’s refutation or concession of the influence of modern novels and stories on young readers. Clearly, if fairy tales have a lasting power over children under 14 years old, then other genres are capable of having the same impact. However, her avoidance of the subject suggests societies shift from aged fairy tales to futuristic novels has the same impact on children. Furthermore, the “beauty, horror, marvels, violence, and magic” of fairy tales can now be found in fantasy novels, like The Hobbit(55). Therefore, the necessity of out of date stories with words abandoned terminology would decrease as younger generations grow older. Also, research studies have shown that individuals that are exposed to violent books and stories tend to be more aggressive and angry because literature is more interactive. As a result, more parents could be reducing their children’s exposure to fairy tales from authors like the Grimm brothers as a precaution. Thus, there could be underlying justification for the lack of interest in fairy tales. Although Tatar failed to include concessions in her work, she did
Maria Tatar’s “An Introduction to Fairy Tales” discusses the impact on how the stories help guide the children from their younger age. The first five paragraphs of the article mentioned about how the children can overflow with imagination, and can vividly see their reality of desire and also, fear. The fairytales can also corrupt the naïve minds of the child in a way of making them realize the reality of the world is unjustified, and people can be harsh. Moreover, Tatar gives an explanation on how people grow up with the same fairy tales with different versions; which gives an entirely different personal idea. Fairy tales also develop the child’s intellectual mind by reading various kinds of genre.
In the piece “Yours, Mine, or Ours?, Donald Haase discusses on the ownership of fairytales. Fairy Tales originate from folklore, described as traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practices that are passed on in large part through oral communication. With fairytale's being passed down through generations its new ‘authors’ take ownership of them. Ownership impacts the reception of the fairytale and determines how the audience reads and interprets it. Haase discuss how fairytales are suppose to show and tell what is true and what is acceptable in the context it was written in. With fairytales being changed the reader is exposed to a different moral and purpose with its telling. Haase concludes by informing that fairy tales belong to everyone and that we must take
The fairy tale helps the child to understand a balance between the good and the evil; it gives him a hope for a good future.” Fairy tales assure the
In Tatar’s article, An Introduction to Fairy Tales, she draws us in by describing childhood books as “sacred objects.” She takes a quote from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. describing how the stories give lessons about what a child subconsciously knows - “that human nature is not innately good, that conflict is real, that life is harsh before it is happy - and thereby reassure them about their own fears and their own sense of self,” (Tatar 306). She describes how many adults long for the simplicity of enjoying those stories in their childhoods, only to realize that they outgrew them, and instead have been introduced to reality. The original stories were more for adults rather than for children. Nowadays, stories have been adapted to be more suitable for children. Fairy tales may allow a kid to wonder due to their charm, but they also can
Triumphant reward in spite of unjust punishment is a universal sentiment that transcends languages and cultures. There are thousands of folktales and fairy tales that are firmly rooted in individual cultures, yet the tale of Cinderella has been told through many centuries and throughout the far corners of the world. With thousands of versions of this classic tale in print worldwide, the tale is believed to have originated with the story of Rhodopis, a Greek slave girl who is married to an Egyptian King. The story of Rhodopis, which means rosy-cheeks, dates back to 7 BC and is attributed to a Greek geographer named Strabo. The Chinese variation of this fairy tale is named Yeh-hsien. The Chinese version is traceable to the year 860 and appears in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Duan Chengshi. Yeh-hsien is a young girl, motherless and in the control of her stepmother, who befriends a treasured fish. The jealous step-mother kills the fish, but it’s bones provide Yeh-hsien with magical powers, eventually enabling Yeh-hsien to escape the control of her step-mother for a royal life. The Story of the Black Cow which is found within the pages of Folk Tales from the Himalayas by John Murray, published in 1906, the child who is mistreated by a stepmother is a male and the role of savior is portrayed by a snake, with a cow serving as the moral of the story, faithfulness. These two versions of Cinderella carry many common threads that are
Fairy Tales are not just stories that parents tell to their children, but stories with hidden valuable messages which are mostly left on a side. In the article “An Introduction to Fairy Tales,” Maria Tatar clearly explains how people need fairy tales in their lives. Tatar also states how fairy tales have the ability to take the listener, especially children’s, into a journey in which they can play with their imagination so that they can discover their deepest fears and wishes. Personally I agree with the author, because of the fact that in an individual’s lives as they get older, they will try to define themselves, sometimes comparing their own life with a character from their favorite story or Fairy Tale.
As a child, I was told fairytales such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs every night before I went to sleep. Fairytales are an adventurous way to expand a child’s imagination and open their eyes to experience a new perspective. Modernizations of fairytales typically relate to a specific audience, such as adolescence, and put a contemporary spin on the old-aged tale. Instead of using whimsical themes heavily centered in nature, the contemporary poems connect with the reader in a more realistic everyday scenario. Also, many modernizations are written in poetic form to help reconstruct a flow in the piece and to develop or sometimes completely change the meaning from that of the original fairytale. Comparing Grimm’s Fairytale Snow White
The tradition of telling fairy tales to children effects not only the listener but also the reader. Maria Tatar, in her book Off with Their Heads!, analyzes how fairy tales instill and reaffirm cultural values and expectations in their audience . Tatar proposes that fairy tales fall into three different tale-types: cautionary tales, exemplary stories, and reward- and- punishment tales. These three types portray different character traits as desirable and undesirable. Due to the tale’s varying literary methods it can change the effectiveness of the tale’s pedagogical value. In Tatar’s opinion, all of these tales are similar in the way they attempt to use punishment, reward, and fear to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. In the cautionary fairy tale “The Virgin Mary’s Child”, the use of punishment and fear to discourage certain behaviors is enhanced by the Christian motifs and values employed by the tale. These literary devices encourage the audience to reflect on and internalize the lessons that are presented in the fairy tale.
There is nothing more precious and heartwarming than the innocence of a child. The majority of parents in society want to shield children from the bad in life which is appreciated. Within human nature exists desires of inappropriate behavior; envy, deceit, selfishness, revenge, violence, assault and murder. The most well-known fairy tales depict virtue and the evil in life. Even more important, the form and structure of fairy tales suggest images to the child by which he can structure his daydreams and with them give a better direction to his life. (Bettelheim).
"Once upon a time," the most used introduction phrase in common fairy tales used to start an adventure. These adventures have been around for years. The importance of some tales might be more significant than others, also based on culture. My goal for this paper is to educate my readers with the importance of fairy tales, especially for younger children. Fairy tales have been around for centuries from generations to generations. Different cultures, such as the Japanese and Western, have also expressed them differently. All these fairly tales teach children different aspects of life, which make these tales so important.
Throughout childhood we grow up with fairytales, namely Disney and the ones our parents tell us. These tales often shape the lessons we learn, remember and reference throughout our lives. Older fairytales are much different than our modern day Disney and teach us different lessons. Disney is often the soft lesson. What I remember are things like be kind, courageous, stand up for what you believe, and fight the evil around you while falling in love with a prince. The old tales have a much harsher reality leaving lessons about the dangers of the world and evil which didn’t always lose. They are different, as the lessons parents needed their children to understand are different from culture to culture and time to time. As a young child I was highly shaped by Disney and as I got older and learned of another fairytale not all of them having a happy ending (like Hans Christian Andersons Little Mermaid when she gets turned to sea foam), taught me of the real world and
Fairy tales make an important part of cultural prophecy, because they contain wisdom which is passed from parents to their children. They contain basic moral and ethical guidelines for children. Images and symbols used in fairy tales can help to judge about cultural, ethical, social and moral values popular in the contemporary society. Changes and similarities, which can be found in the popular fairy tale Cinderella by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, version of 1812 and the Disney version of Cinderella (2015), can help to realize the changes in cultures and historical epochs.
Fairy Folk Tales are the most popular types of literature. The tale is an orally transmitted tradition by generations through the time; some events are changed to fit reality and society. Folk fairy tales deal with the dualism of the good and the evil. They are basing on a conflict between the good and the evil forces. The conclusion comes from aspirations of the human desire to achieve the justices. There are no known authors and sources for ancient’s literature. We have many versions of the story; they are credited by many authors later. Each tale is very like some other culture’s tale. Each culture has own tales, but all the tales are similarities and differences in some points. This essay will compare between two fairy tales, “Cinderella” and “In the Land of Small Dragon”. The tale of Cinderella is a French tale. It is credited by Charles Perrault; it is published in 1697. The in the Land of Small Dragon is a Vietnamese folktale; it is told by Dang Manh Kha in 1979.
As we grow up, we hear fairy tales and we read them into our lives. Every word and every image is imprinted into our minds. The fairy tales we read are never abandoned. They grow with us and our dreams become molds of the many morals and happily ever afters fairy tales display. We tell children fairy tales when they go to sleep and they read them in school and we even have them watch Disney adaptions that reinforce them further. Generally, they were everywhere while we grew up and they continue to be present while children are growing up now. But what influence do these stories have? We casually expose our children to these tales, but in some cases they can have particularly, harmful personal effects on them, although there is nothing completely or visibly “bad” about them or about the characters in them. Before we divulge our youth to these stories, we should assess their substance and see what sort of effect they may be having on them. They have received so much scrutiny and have been studied by many. Recognizing fairy tales effects on the minds of children is vital in their development. This paper will focus on the underlying messages that the average person wouldn’t recognize in these everyday stories. There’s a modern distort with fairy tales because while they still are widely popular with the youth, they influence children’s self images, outlooks on reality and expectations for their futures, especially for young women.