Beagle's Analysis

Without prior knowledge to the difference between the sensations and Bettelheim’s discovery, it is uncertain if this was a major discovery. Although Tater established the idea that fairy tales help children mature and transition from silent, naive toddlers to talkative, insightful toddlers, she fails to address alternative theories.

The poems “A Barred Owl” and “The History Teacher” by Richard Wilbur and Billy Collins respectively, depict two different scenarios in which an adult deceives a child/children, which ranges from the sounds of a bird at night, to the history of the world itself. “A Barred Owl” depicts two parents who lie to their daughter about an owl who woke her in the night, while “The History Teacher” involves a man who tries to protect his students by using education as a tool to deceive them. Both poets use diction, imagery, and rhyme to help them convey a certain tone in their poems.

Fairy tale characters, along with other fictional beings, have entertained and inspired many children for centuries. Various little girls, all over the world have dreamed of one day finding their Prince Charming and meeting their godmother, while little boys were on the look out for dragons and dragon slayers. At some point however, the magic in many of the little children eyes slowly drifted away, and their belief in this fictional reality wavered. Americans in the 21st century seem to have lost their connection with imagination. In “Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?,” Ursula LeGuin claims that Americans fail to read fictional novels because they have lost faith in an alternate reality, and find books useless, due to the lack of personal gain. Yet, LeGuin overlooks the many maturely developed Americans who have never touched any fictional print, and exaggerates their self-indulging nature.

A caterpillar that smokes from pipes and eats tarty-tarts is only the beginning of Frank Beddor’s first book in his trilogy The Looking Glass Wars. Many of us are familiar with the infamous fairy tale of Alice who stumbles upon a hole that leads her to Wonderland and meets strange characters like the Cheshire Cat and others. Now there are many differences in Beddor’s tale; not only is the Cat an assassin with nine lives but Alice-the character we grew up knowing-has a different name, Alyss Heart. She is a young girl whose kingdom of Wonderland is taken over by her blood thirsty and cruel Aunt Redd, who is truly the incarnation of evil. This book is one with many

In fantastic literature, there is either the uncanny (which is the natural) and the marvelous (which is the supernatural). Both are used in this story in the two seperate days. The uncanny is used when the girls are pretending to be dogs. The marvelous is used when the girls become dogs that can talk. An explanation is needed in the fantastic, and that in a way is given by referring to the different dimensions. Thiem explains the fantastic as a "wonderous passage from one world to another" (231), and

For many generations, adults and children alike have relished L. Frank Baum’s cleverly written bedtime story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. On the surface, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz seems like an innocent fairy-tale that was written “solely to pleasure children today” ; however a deeper look into the main characters and symbolism inherent in the story, suggest an outlook into the Gilded Age. Many historians, beginning with Henry Littlefield, have interpreted The Wizard of Oz as being an allegory to the Populist Movement and the issue of money that surrounded the Gilded Age. Although Baum mentions that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written as a bedtime fairy-tale to be read and enjoyed by people of all ages, the hidden symbols and deeper

In 1862, floating upon the river Isis, Charles Dodgson narrated for Alice Liddell and a few others in company his original tale of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Gliding along underneath the blue sky, Dodgson wove his words into one of the most classic children stories of all time. Thesis: Although Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland may have only begun as a children’s story, many adults have sought to discover the “true meaning” of the novel. Curiosity has led to years of searching and interpretation of the origins of Carroll’s novels, and the symbols inside, developing into theories ranging from practical to nearly impossible, eventually evolving into their own stories in the film industry.

By combining the words “marvelous” with “pathetic,” Woolf draws an allegory of the plight of mankind: despite eons of time and valiant struggle, no human can defeat death in the end. As the reader continues to follow the story, he sees more specifics stand out from the text. First, one can see the lack of objective worth for the moth with the phrase, “I forgot about him,” (Woolf) right before it begins to die. These words magnify the futile struggle of the bug in the latter half of the story, because all its efforts are completely unappreciated nor cared for. The only witness to its end is one human in the entire world.

Humans can only hope to observe life’s beauty through the eyes of the child within themselves. As a child, ignorance is bliss, and the unimaginable can be obtained. Children are raised believing that a heavy man slides down a small chimney to deliver presents, and that a bunny on Easter leaves plastic eggs full of chocolate scattered around their front lawns. Boys and Girls since the beginning of time have been brought up on stories of fairytales where the impossible becomes possible. Little girls think that a fairy godmother can make a once maid, a princess. Boys believe that toys can talk and that woody and his friends can beat buzz lightyear. Since the beginning of time, humans have used fanatical stories to counteract the ugly truth and

Throughout the story, elements of fantasy are weaved prevalently with the realistic aspects of everyday life, which is known as magical realism. For example, the central character is an angel, an obvious demonstration of fantasy, but the angel lacks the supernatural and perfect qualities commonly associated with angels, instead having “huge buzzard wings, dirty and half-plucked, forever entangled in the mud,” and “only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth,” which seem more closely associated with the realities of Earth (Márquez, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” Perrine’s Literature, Arp ed., Ninth edition, Boston, Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2006, p. 327-332). In addition to the angel, fantasy was created through the spider woman, who is described as “a frightful tarantula the size of a ram and with the head of a sad maiden” (330). However, while both the angel and the spider woman are undeniably fantastic, the characters in the story treat them as if they are a part of everyday life; no one ever questions how they

Lewis Carroll’s Alice and Frank Baum’s Dorothy are two of the most well-known and well-loved heroines of all time. At first glance, both Alice and Dorothy appear to be rather accurate renditions of actual little girls who embark on their own adventures in strange and fantastical lands. However, closer scrutiny reveals that only one of these characters is a true portrayal of what a little girl is really like, while the other is but a fulfillment of what most girls would only dream of being like.

I find it impressive that humans can overlook flaws in order to accentuate the positive qualities in others. This attribute can obviously be positive because I can imagine that it would be a bit hectic if society constantly was pointing out the idiosyncrasies that one another observes. It also hinders the attention that should be given to those issues that deserve it. I myself have been subject to this wonderful occasion of blatant ignorance. As I began to rise through the ranks of the academic bureaucracy, I was diverted into the “gifted” classes. Apparently the fact that I could not read was not a key issue to them.

'Alice in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll seems a first a simple fairy tale, but in fact its meaning is a lot more profound. This novel criticizes the way children were brought up during the Victorian era. Carroll presents the readers with the complications these offspring must endure in order to develop their own personalities/egos, as they become adults. For Alice, Wonderland appears to be the perfect place to start this learning adventure. A way to understand her story is by compering it to the world as if being upside-down. Nothing in Wonderland seems to be they way it’s supposed to. The first lesson, Alice must learn in this peculiar journey through Wonderland is to achieve separation from the world around her and to stop identifying herself through others, in order to discover who she

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll endures as one of the most iconic children 's books of all time. It remains one of the most ambiguous texts to decipher as Alice 's adventures in Wonderland have created endless critical debate as to whether we can deduce any true literary meaning, or moral implication from her journey down the rabbit hole. Alice 's station as a seven year old Victorian child creates an interesting construct within the novel as she attempts to navigate this magical parallel plain, yet retain her Victorian sensibilities and learn from experience as she encounters new creatures and life lessons. Therefore, this essay will focus on the debate as to whether Alice is the imaginatively playful child envisaged by the Romantics, or a Victorian child whose imagination has been stunted by her education and upbringing.

In the story of Alice in Wonderland we follow Alice down a rabbit hole into a land of pure wonder, where the logic of a little girl holds no sway. In Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, we witness exactly the opposite as Emma Bovary, a most romantic creature, is purposely cast into a harshly realistic world. In either case, a creature is put into an environment unnatural to her disposition, yet in Flaubert’s example, Emma shares the world we inhabit, and thus the message her story brings is much more pertinent. To convey this message, Flaubert replicates not a world of fantasy, but rather the real world, with all its joy, sadness, and occasional monotony intact. Then he proceeds to dump an