Evolution of Fairy Tales and Their Changing Influences on Children

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.

In general the modern treatment of fairy tales tends to be revision and simplification of archaic themes expressed in previous society. As a clarification, contemporary western society makes a habit of taking historic fairy tales and molding them to current values. This idea appears in Lydialyle Gibson’s article for The University of Chicago Magazine “How Fairy Tales lost their magic.” In the article Gibson explains that over centuries and variation in societal values, “Only because times and audiences have changed… fairy tales themselves have lost resonance” (Gibson). She believes that the adaptation of fairy tales for a specific audience has been detrimental

Once upon a time, there was a literary genre commonly know as fairy tales. They were mystical and wonderful and a child’s fantasy. These fairy tales were drastically misunderstood throughout many centuries, however. They endured a hard life of constant changing and editing to fit what the people of that time wanted. People of our own time are responsible for some of the radical changes endured by this undeserved genre. Now, these fairy tales had a young friend named Belle. Belle thought she knew fairy tales very well, but one day she found out just how wrong she was.

The central focus of this unit is to identify the elements of stories and how their themes may relate to each other in a variety of ways. Students will be guided in a variety of comparison and contrasting activities in order to gain understanding of main ideas, characters, and cultural themes across similar fairy tales from different cultures. This unit focuses on three different versions of Cinderella from different cultures. I chose to focus on the common elements of the fairy tales and the cultural differences because this was something the students were struggling with previously.

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.

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.

Fairy tales picture a world filled with magic, love and the triumph of the good over the evil. Fairy tales are a window to other worlds where the wildest dreams can come true and the hero always lives happily ever after preferably paired with his loved one. Although some people argue that fairy tales are full of stereotypes, filled with frightening monsters and promote racism and sexism I believe that they are wrong because fairy tales provide valuable moral lessons to children, teach them other countries' cultures promote the imagination and the cognitive development and therefore they should be read to young children.

The definition of a fairy tale as written by the Oxford Dictionary is “a children's story about magical and imaginary beings and lands.” Fairy Tales are known to be much more advanced than just a “children’s story”. These stories are known to have hidden messages. Three writers talk about fairy tales and what it means to them. We will be looking at three important people and articles.

Fairy tales are one of the many types of folklore that generally have some sort of fantastic element, usually featuring magic, imaginary creatures, and often a conflict between sides that are clearly good and evil. Within

Fairytales are stories that have some magical aspects. They usually tell a story about a castle and times when kings ruled the land. I always loved the princesses in these stories. When I was young, I would dress up as them. My friends and I would act out the stories. They usually teach a lesson. I always wanted the princess to escape of find a happy ending. Most fairytales end with “Happily ever after.”

In his paper he uses the ideas and works of Bruno Bettelheim, Ernst Bloch, and many other scholarly authors to further his argument of fairy tales still being applicable to adults in today’s society, even though fairy tales are now directed towards young children. Mieder believes that instead of focusing on comparing traditional fairy tales to the 19th century, society should focus on comparing the changes and additions of present day fairy tales with traditional fairy tales. Mieder uses three main fairy tales to get his point across, “Snow White”, “The Frog Prince” and “Hansel and Gretel” . Each of these fairy tales successfully convey the issues in modern day society such as the suffering economy, sex, importance placed on appearance and politics. Mieder aims to deliver the message that fairy tales still pertain to adults as they express real life problems, but also that fairy tales should not only be used negatively. He believes that the positive, hopeful side of fairy tales also relates to adults as it is reveal the want of adults for their utopia and their happily ever

Cinderella is one of the most well-known stories in every culture. Cinderella comes from many regions and time periods. Folktales are stories inspired by popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth. The Egyptian Cinderella (the first version of Cinderella) is a folk tale that suggests breaking social and racial barriers. Fairy Tales are stories, like myths, that provide supernatural explanations of everyday events, often with a moral outcome, or the portrayal of justice. The Disney version of Cinderella is a fairy tale that implies mistreatment of people. These narratives share in common the idea of love conquers all.

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.

Fantasy writer and lore crafter J.R.R. Tolkien looks to unveil the mysteries surrounding fairy stories in his aptly named essay, “On Fairy-Stories”. While Tolkien wholeheartedly admits that he is in no sense an expert on the matter of fairy stories, he does consider himself an observant traveler upon its surreptitious shores. The realm of fairy stories, according to Tolkien, are vast and unwilling to divulge their secrets cooperatively. As such, Tolkien seeks to dissect the inner workings of fairy stories by attempting to answer the questions: what is a fairy story, where is its origin, and finally what is the use of a fairy story?

Fairy tales are something that everyone has read or seen, they all seem to have important lessons at the end of each one to teach young children some of the lessons they need for life. These fairy tales when we were younger all seemed innocent and something we all hoped that would happen to us. Little did we know as we got older that the fairy tales we all knew and loved when we were younger, weren't as innocent as they seemed.