Fairy Tale Analysis

Alicia Elsbeth Stallings, an American poet and translator, constructed an Italian Sonnet poem by the title of Fairy-tale Logic. In this poem, Stallings works towards portraying life through the use of common fairy-tales. Stallings presents life as a whole by describing in the first stanza that life is not always going to be easy. She begins her poem by reminding her readers that every individual is going to continuously be faced with everyday dilemmas that sometimes may seem impossible to surmount. Eventually upon arrival at the second stanza, Stallings shifts gears to present the reader with a motivation for overcoming life’s obstacles. She describes that only one’s self can overcome the obstacles that are present in everyday life through believing in themselves, for only one’s true self has the ability to face obstacles with the confidence of overcoming them. Fairy-tale Logic, thoughtfully constructed by A.E. Stallings, seeks to portray a message that life is not alway easy, but it is not impossible though the shifting of tone as the poem progresses, the use of parallelism, as well as the use of literary allusions.

From generation to generation stories are always changing. Fairy tales like Cinderella go from mean step sisters to nice sisters, fairy god mother to a tree. After reading 5 different versions of Cinderella I had to choose which I would decide to read, above the others to my favorite child. After difficult thinking I have chosen the Walt Disney’s version of Cinderella for many great reasons. I have chosen the Walt Disney’s version because I feel it is the most fitting for children over all the others which are best suitable for older teens.

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

Elsa had an imagination like no other, she lived in a world of fairytales with dragons and monsters thanks to her Granny. Granny was Elsa’s ultimate hero, she showed her a life better then hers in the land of almost awake. Granny took Elsa on a special quest when she died and Elsa discovered she had other heroes besides just Granny that would help her continue on without Granny by her side. Elsa’s other hero besides Granny was Harry Potter but when Elsa goes on the quest she discovers she has three more heroes. Elsa’s two biggest superheroes were her Granny and Harry Potter but when going on her quest she discovers she has more then that. Elsa discovers her other heroes are Wolfheart, Alf, and Her mother.

Fairy tales are an entertaining and memorable way to teach valuable lessons to children. However, things have not always been this way with fairy tales. In the past, fairy tales could serve as an outlet for unpopular ideas and thoughts, or a way for people with little value in society to express themselves. Fairy tales were often tightly related to their author’s culture, possibly because it made the story more familiar. In Hans Christian Andersen’s “Den Lille Havfrue”, better known as “The Little Mermaid”, Andersen uses prominent mythological and cultural ties to display the struggles of a young girl who wants to see what the world offers, as opposed to staying at the bottom of the ocean and living a mermaid’s long, but soulless and definite life.

Once upon a time, didn’t happen the way everyone was told as a child. Though out time and cultures, the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales children have grown up with, have been changed to fit the needs of individual cultures and families. Their influence stretches over geographic and linguistic boundaries leaving a mark on cultures around the world. The tales of damsels such as Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White are ones that are known by every generation, in almost every cultures around the world. These stories that are told now are not the ones told long ago in their home country of Germany.

"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.

Fairy tales change over time because of race back then there wasn’t any african american or latinos characters in the fairy tales like little snow white and rapunzel all of them were white like snow white the dwarfs the prince the evil queen all of them were white.

The Young Maiden did all she could to convince the Young Prince that the stories he had heard were only fairy tales. But as she traveled with the Young Prince, she saw with her own eyes the many wondrous things she had only heard about in fairy tales. She began to believe in the Young Prince, and soon, his quest became hers.

Another thing I found interesting was how Paul looked down on the people around him. He was not happy with his life and believed that he was meant to live the life he had in New York. The theatre and being at Carnegie Hall was the only thing that made Paul happy when he was back home. It was mentioned how it was “Paul’s fairy tale” (Cather p.g 244). In New york, he was able to buy anything his heart desired and he lived out his dream. In the end, Paul ended up jumping in front of a train, all cause he did not want to go back to his old life. I think he was also ashamed that everyone in his town knew about what he did due to it being n the newspaper. “It was to be worse than jail, even, the tepid waters of Cordelia street were to close over

Fairy tales have been passed through several generations. Listening to an elder read these fairy tales to us, expands our imagination as a child. These make-believe stories create fantasies at mostly young ages. For an example, a little girl may read “Cinderella”, then continue dreaming and pretending about becoming a princess finding her true love. These fairy tales help younger kids find the good in life and seek the happily-ever-after in every story. The common fairytale, “Cinderella”, has an interesting history, written with archetypical elements leading up to its moral and theme.

Sagas about princes and princesses, beauty, magic, and love, fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella among others have become children’s favorite bedtime stories. However, as parents tuck their sons and daughters in, they fail to realize that there is a much more daunting purpose to these stories. American writer and poet, Jane Yolen suggests that fairy tales indicate life values. Furthermore, Yolen insists that these tales are “thumbprints of history” (Yolen 27). Studying fairy tales in depth, she proves that the “functions of myths” consist of “creating a landscape of allusion [and] enabling us to understand our own and out culture from inside out” (Yolen 18). Yolen confirms that these stories comment on, “the abstract truths of our

Fairy tales are read and told by many and leave lasting impressions and memories long into adulthood. While some of the originally intended morals of pre-modern fairy tales can be seen as outdated by today’s standards, these tales still hold great relevance because of the virtues they teach, their ability to foster the ability of imagination, and the way they are able to show how to deal with difficult situations often with great resourcefulness. Many people in today’s society feel the need shield their children from these tales because they deem many too scary or disagree with certain examples being set, but there is still much value to be found.

Fairy tales are meant to present children how live should be. Fairy tales teach children of the good things and the bad things people can do. For example William Kilpatrick writer of the book “Books That Build Character” states “We think many parents want books for their children that are not simply a good read but good in the other sense of the word- books that not only capture the imagination, but cultivate the conscience as well (18)”. Many parents want their children not to just be entertained but also want them to develop a sense of good and bad. Children also develop unconscious messages from fairy tales. Child begin to realize the underlying messages as they begin to grow and think of themselves as the characters in the tales and begin to put themselves in the different scenarios that the characters encounter.

Some fairy tales end with a happy marriage to a wealthy person and living a life on a bed full of roses. An example can be found in Beauty and the Beast. There is a young girl and her father is a merchant. She ends up marrying the Beast, who ends up being a handsome prince, and live happily ever after. But there are two fairy tales that are a little different. The first one is Thumbelina. She goes through all of these obstacles to end up marrying a prince. She is gifted wings and ends up living happily ever after. There are some fairy tales that really don’t have that “happy” ending. The Little Mermaid gets her heart broken due to her living in almost a completely different world than her true love. She ends up committing suicide because