Fairy Tales And Modern Stories Bruno Bettelheim Summary

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 Therefore, the necessity of out of date stories with words abandoned terminology would decrease as younger generations grow older.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

A parent will never know what goes on in the mind of their child, all a parent can do is shield the child from the negatives of life and hope negativity never enters their mind. Author Bruno Bettelheim wrote The Uses of Enchantment, published in 1976, the book contains an essay called “Fairy Tales and the Existential Predicament,” in which Bettelheim presents a psychological perspective of the impact that traditional fairy tales have on children. Bettelheim begins his essay with personal knowledge, rhetorical appeals (pathos and, logos) and textual evidence. In his essay, Bettelheim sets the stage by reaching out to to his audience, he writes “overcoming narcissistic disappointments, oedipal dilemmas, sibling rivalries; becoming able to relinquish

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.

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

Tartar explains how a little Fairy Tale can affect someone’s life, it could be by their personality, or even just little things such as how they see life. She then explains that even reading the same stories as people got older, like for example The Little Red Riding Hood, each person will see it with a different message. On Maria Tatar work she explains some of the psychological aspects that are involved in knowledge development of children; she makes an emphasis on how some “fairy-tale characters always seem to be lying, cheating, or stealing their way to good fortune.” (Paragraph-10, Pg. 231); most parents do not want their children to steal things from other people. Tatar states that as people get older, they are more likely to forget the strong messages that a simple

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).

"Fairy tales have long created potent cocktails of beauty, horror, marvels, violence, and magic, drawing in audiences of all generations over the course of centuries" (Tatar 55) writes Maria Tatar in her essay "Why Fairy Tales Matter. " This innate power is probably the reason why, still today, fairy tales are as meaningful and effective as they were centuries ago, when the brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault first wrote them down. Thus, as fairy tales are powerful weapons to condition the minds of their readers, it is only natural that literary critics have decided to analyze them in great detail. For example, both Maria Tatar and Vanessa Joosen assert that fairy tales play a vital role that tales play in children's empowerment: the first one arguing that the language in traditional stories gifts children a newfound virtue, the second claiming that the tales' retelling are cardinal for the development of critical thinking.

Reading fairy tales or seeing them represented has become part of an everyday routine for children. As Baker-Sperry states, “Through interaction that occurs within everyday routines (Corsaro 1997), children are able to learn the rules of the social group in which they are a part” (Baker-Sperry 717-718). For example, through Red Riding Hood, children learn to listen to their parents and to be wary of strangers. Some of these messages are harmful though; not all girls have to be naive and weak while boys are predacious wolves. Not everyone has to play the role that society assigns them.

"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 have passed from generation to generation, almost as a rite of passage, throughout western civilization. Whether it is the tales of the Grimm Brothers’ or modern Disney versions, fairy tales have permeated society for ages. The question is whether they are merely stories told to children for entertainment or something more. Every tale offers children morals to live up to such as not trusting strangers to being kind to animals. Are morals all that are provided though? Fairy tales seem to have a much more lasting effect on a child’s psyche than simply a lesson learned.

However, few realize that there are many communal ideas imbedded in the plots that often go unrecognized. Fairy tales, more often than not, highlight a multitude of social aspects which might seem inappropriate for children. Constantly evolving, fairy tales, as indicated by Yolen and Zipes, illustrate the sexist views of the dominating class, the societal beliefs as they change throughout history as well as the community’s values especially during crisis.

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.

As children, we watched endless movies, read thousands of books and heard an excruciating number of stories about; princesses, knights, dwarfs, magic, and evil witches. Fondly we took these stories to heart as moral lessons for our future. Not once did we question the imagination or the duality of these bedtime stories. We laid our heads down at night not knowing we fool-heartedly believed in a changed truth. As youth we were bottle fed a much sweater version of our favorite fairy tales, these spoons full of sugar made stories easier to comprehend and much more appropriate for our ever-growing minds. What not only our parents, but the authors and story tellers failed to do, was prepare us for how real the original stories would turn out to be. Fairytales in their true, unaltered states allow us to see just how realistic and relatable some of these stories are in today’s society and the morals and lessons taught by these fairy tales are extremely applicable to everyday life.

Fairy tales are important due to the ability to enhance a child’s imagination and artistic intellect. On a deeper note, however, they allow for the development of critical thinking skills, which, in turn, allow for children to make logical decisions based on the choices that the characters make within the tale. They see the actions that the characters engage in and, as a result, the consequences that follow, which allows them to analyze what happened and why. In “Cinderella,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Hansel and Grethel,” through the various obstacles that Cinderella faces to be with the prince and her interaction with her step-sisters, the Queen’s false intentions towards Snow White and her