James Thurber-Humor in Fiction

On October 8 , 1943 , in Columbus , Ohio , Robert Lawrence Stine was born . Later , he was joined by his brother and sister . Though instead of playing with them , he would stay inside writing stories on a typewriter he found . The stories he wrote were funny because he was afraid of like Pinocchio .

Given that his stance on the ownership of fairy tales is strikingly different from the prevalent, popular opinion that “establishes fairy tales as national property”(355) or is “thought to reach back like sacred works”(353), by positioning his own belief of “Individual Ownership of Fairy Tales”(362) towards his conclusion, Haase gains a terrific advantage in being able to persuade the reader, since the alternatives, “Revered Place of Folklore”(353), “The Nationalistic View of Folklore”(354), “Vessels of purportedly universal human truths”(358), have all been rendered sufficiently unsound. Had Haase not used this particular stratagem, he would have opened up his essay to a lot of speculation, skepticism, assumptions and even repudiation. If he were to present his case differently, say chronologically tracking the ideas of ownership throughout history, it would be interesting to see whether the inference that a reader drew from the essay or his ultimate acceptance of Haase’s view would be entirely so straightforward. He is also completely humorless while writing about fairytales, failing to inculcate wit, sarcasm, quips, lively phrases, or even scholarly badinage, in any shape or form, which is a rather curious departure from the amusing perception of the subject at hand. This, however,

Barbara Ehrenreich employed the use of humor multiple times in Nickel and Dimed; it was perhaps her most frequently used rhetorical device. Ehrenreich was trying to portray the tragedy and heartbreak of the situation by using that sort of hopeless, sardonic humor. She also used her humor as a way to camouflage topics that would otherwise be off-limits. Although some of the humor included in the narrative may have seemed distasteful, it all had a purpose and was rarely used inappropriately.

Just how people don’t judge a book by its cover, don’t do the same to fairy tales. Fairy tales are more than what they appear to be. They are far more than children’s bedtime readings. Although, they aren’t extensive, they pack a considerable amount of information and leave space for interpretation. They reveal the truth of how the world can be unfair and people can be cruel. Most fairy tales have been rewritten, some more than others. The later versions have been sugar-coated and made to be appropriate children’s stories. In the tale, “Bluebeard”, by Charles Perrault, which is not sugar-coated, has an unexpected theme in comparison to most fairy tales. This wealthy man has a blue beard, which all women are repulsed by. He wants to get married, so he sways the girl by hosting a party that last an entire week. They get married and soon after, the husband must go for a business trip, tells the wife to enjoy herself by inviting her friends over and before he leaves, he gives her one rule to follow. Her actions lead to the repercussions that follow her. Before describing the tale, certain characteristics come to mind when thinking of fairy tales, such as magic, animals, protagonist, villain, royalty, etc. One critical aspect that fairy tales contain is a moral. In the fairy tale, “Bluebeard”, there may seem to be more than one theme or lesson to be learned, but one critical moral is how curiosity can lead to the downfall of disobedience.

States have choices in the means by which to promote community well-being, protect public safety and curb the drug trade. Over the last two decades, the choice was imprisonment. Prison is, of course, a legitimate criminal sanction, but it should be used as a last resort – i.e. used only for serious crimes -- and the length of the sentence should be commensurate with the conduct and culpability of the offender. Unfortunately, too many states have opted instead for sentencing policies that mandate long sentences even for nonviolent, low-level drug offenders. In her article, Patrice Gaines, the author of Laughing in the Dark: from Colored girl to woman of a color-A journey from prison to power, argues that it is necessary to provide restorative

Alexander Hamilton presents his knowledge of human nature in this statement, “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased”. In 1954 William Golding Published the novel Lord of the Flies in order to get a deeper look into the flaws of society that are related to the flaws of human nature. During WWII a group of British school boys were being transported by airplane, nevertheless the airplane was shot down, killing the pilot and leaving a group of boys on an island where there is no adult supervision. Today our topic will be focusing on the pessimistic views of

The poem deviates from the basic fairy tale through the use of ironic predicaments. Cinderella makes a bold statement from the beginning:

Jamie and Mark Roberts of Forteau posted a picture of themselves paddling around in a puddle in the main road of their town using an inflatable dinghy. This is to show the terrible conditions of their road.

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

Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey follows Odysseus on his long journey home. The Epic also includes the stories of Odysseus’ family left behind: the travels of his son, Telemachus, and how plenty, of what we would now call “home wreckers”, suitors pressured his wife, Penelope, into marrying one of them. The characters are beautifully crafted and the story is truly epic. All the elements presented can bring in any reader from any century, the Cyclops, the Gods, the trickery of Penelope, and the disguises of Odysseus, are all legendary literary hooks . There are many things to learn—about writing, about the world around us, the world ahead of us, and the past behind us—from The Odyssey. (26) It is undeniably evident that this ancient text has

In Margaret Atwood’s poem “There Was Once”, Atwood uses irony to point out the societal problems within the genre of fairy tales. Charles Perrault, the author of the short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, writes about fantastic creatures, magic, and love, following the generic conventions of fairy tales. When compared to Perrault’s short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, Atwood’s poem both compliments and contrasts Perrault’s. These two texts, although similar, offer different views on the genre of fairy tales.

"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.

J.D. Salinger (Jerome Davis Salinger) was said by some people to be one of the best American Authors of past century. Salinger’s works reflects the many experiences he had as a child. One of the more common focuses tends to be his fascination with protecting the innocence in children.

Conversely, Orenstein maintains that, by focusing on only the historical dimension of the tale as opposed to its larger social context, Darnton misses vital elements of the tale’s broader themes as well as the changes which occurred in the transition to the male-dominated written tradition. Orenstein begins by noting the wide breadth of oral cognates to “Little Red Riding Hood” which had been discovered across Europe and in Asia (Orenstein 69). Citing the work of folklorist Paul Delarue, she establishes that “Charles Perrault - whose 1697 text is the presumed source of the Grimms’ “Little Red Cap” - had dramatically revised the original folk tradition” (Orenstein 71). Most significantly, Orenstein observes - and criticizes Darnton’s lack of observation - that when authors began to put these stories onto paper, “the sense of female authorship - literally, female authority” (Orenstein 83) disappears from their tales. Fundamentally, Orenstein advances an interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood as a hero story whose “heroic heroine” (Orenstein 82), her cleverness, and most significantly her triumph over evil have all but vanished from the popular literary tradition.

Fairy tales have been embedded into our culture and date back before recorded times, they provide a source of entertainment and imagination for children. Despite today’s fairy tales having positive moral intentions they have been adapted from earlier versions which often can be very different and much more sinister. The fairy tale “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile formed the basis for the more commonly known Disney interpretation called the “Sleeping Beauty” however they are vastly different, Basile’s original is a very dark and twisted story compared to the Disney version.