Maria Tatar Fairy Tales Analysis

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 Therefore, the necessity of out of date stories with words abandoned terminology would decrease as younger generations grow older.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

In Tatar’s article, An Introduction to Fairy Tales, she draws us in by describing childhood books as “sacred objects.” She takes a quote from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. describing how the stories give lessons about what a child subconsciously knows - “that human nature is not innately good, that conflict is real, that life is harsh before it is happy - and thereby reassure them about their own fears and their own sense of self,” (Tatar 306). She describes how many adults long for the simplicity of enjoying those stories in their childhoods, only to realize that they outgrew them, and instead have been introduced to reality. The original stories were more for adults rather than for children. Nowadays, stories have been adapted to be more suitable for children. Fairy tales may allow a kid to wonder due to their charm, but they also can

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

Bettelheim believed that fairy tales must be left for a child's own interpretation in order for them to apply these tales to their own life as they begin to understand their conscious and unconscious selves. Bettelheim states that “the vagueness of the tales [is] pedagogically suited to these tasks in that it engages the child's imagination to fill in the details and invest his interests on whatever level he finds himself” (Heisig). The tales commonly deal with universal problems that everyone faces, and children are able to easily apply these universal problems and messages to their own lives. Children comprehend that although the tales are untrue, they are not unreal, so they apply these tales to their own beings (Heisig). Furthermore, the fairy tales engages a child's imagination, and this allows him to sort out his conscious and unconscious self. A child must overcome the psychological problems of growing up by coping with his unconscious self, and fairy tales allows children to familiarize themselves with their unconscious mind by fitting unconscious content into conscious fantasies, enabling him to cope with that content (Tatar 270). In the process of relieving his conscious and unconscious pressures, children must work through these psychological problems by themselves, and “in

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).

Bruno Bettelheim, the author of Uses of Enchantment, has constructed an evaluation that fairy tale’s offer insight to the child’s psychological life. He believes such literature depicts underline meaning to ways in which the child develops and deals with real life conflicts. Undertaking such a strong controversial topic for the first time,

Another way of learning is introduced by an entry entitled "Fairy Tales" included in an encyclopedia which mentions that fairy tales can teach a child about other cultures and civilizations and therefore teach it that apart from it's own country and culture there are also many other people and cultures throughout the entire world. This can help children to overcome the egocentrism and selfish thoughts, which are very common in those ages, and make them realize that apart from them , billions of other people live in this planet and hundred of other nations exist apart from their own. Also fairy tales can introduce children, who are relatively powerless in most areas of their lives, to a world "where the smallest animal, the poorest peasant, the youngest daughter often prevails over those larger, richer, older, and more powerful." Thus, in the words of writer and child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim: "fairy tales can help children confront and resolve conflicts in their own lives" Therefore, we can easily conclude that, fairy tales, by portraying a world where it is possible for the weak to prevail over the strong, can give hope to children and make them confront their own problems with courage and self-esteem.

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.

The different ideas that authors have toward a fairy tale or any kind of writing has to do most with his or her professional experiences. Bruno Bettelheim is known to be a child psychiatrist. Bettelheim states “The child, as he develops, must learn step by step to understand himself better; with this he becomes more able to understand others and eventually can relate to them in ways which are mutually satisfying and meaningful” (Bettelheim 731). Bettelheim in this is talking about what he does. Bettelheim professional area is a therapist of disturbed children.

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

Children all over the world listen to fairytales every night at bedtime and hear colorful stories about evil witches, goblins, hobgoblins and other terrible creatures of the night. Indeed, the some of the most famous fairytales by the Brothers Grimm are filled with evil creatures that are out to do humankind harm. Moreover, many of the stories in fairytales do not contain the watered-down version of evil that is depicted by many Disney-type productions in modern media but rather describe the real thing where people can suffer and even die as a result of their contact with the evil creatures in fairytales. Some authorities even argue that fairytales can be disturbing for young readers, but most seem to agree that the good-triumphs-over-evil themes in fairytales make them timeless and appropriate for everyone. To gain some fresh insights in this area, this paper provides a review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning the evil in fairytales, including examples, followed by a summary of the research and important

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.