The Consequences Of Fairy Stories

In Michael Chabon’s “Kids’ Stuff,” he is discussing how comic books have changed. Chabon starts off with different varieties of comic books and how they’re widely viewed. He then talks about how comic books have changed to appeal more towards adult readers. He also says that when comic books were aimed at kids there were huge sales, but now comics aimed at adults have less sales and is declining. He refuses to believe that comic books from the past would not appeal to kids today. Chabon then gives four principles that he believes hold true for successful children’s literature. He suggests that publishers should put out comic books for children, about children. Chabon’s argument is, “I suggest that a publisher should try putting out a

In the familiar more traditional version, Cinderella is a poor maid girl that, with the help of fairy godmother, gets a chance to meet prince charming. They fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after, and then what? What is a happily ever after? Is this even a realistic thought? In the dark comedic poem Cinderella, Anne Sexton forces the reader to examine this question. Utilizing literary devices such as tone, imagery, and style, Sexton encourages the reader to think about how silly and unlikely a fairy tale ending actually is.

The commonly used saying, “they lived happily ever after,” originates from early fairy tales. Fairy tales are stories that feature fanciful characters that convey a moral to teach children lessons and values that they will keep for the rest of their lives. The original story of “Cinderella” by the Grimm Brothers and the later Disney version Cinderella (1950) are both descriptions of a legendary fairy tale of a kind and gentle girl who overcomes the rancor of her stepmother and stepsisters and ultimately finds a happy ending. Although both stories have the same plot, the overall messages that they deliver are different.

Who turned the gruesome originals into pretty, perfect productions. Disney replaced gore with magic wands and wishes, deaths with true love's kiss, and morbid endings with happily ever afters. Just take the movie Sleeping Beauty, she was cursed then awaken by a handsome prince by true love’s kiss. That’s not what happened in the original version. Sleeping Beauty was still put under a sleeping curse but while she was sleeping a wandering king saw her and raped her, and she gave birth to twins while she was still sleeping. But, that’s just one Disney movie, they couldn’t possibly be all like that, right? Wrong! You’ve see Disney’s Cinderella at least once in your lifetime? In Disney’s version CInderella is portrayed as a servant girl in her own house, who gets whisked off to the ball by a fairy godmother and get’s the prince at the end. But, if you scrape all the sugar off that cake you get a story about a girl who is treated as a slave in her own house who has two stepsisters willing to cut off parts of their feet to fit inside her shoe, and there’s even more. At the end she actually does end up marrying the prince but not before getting revenge on her stepsisters. She has her bird friends pick at the stepsister’s eyes causing them to go blind. Now you tell me if those are the stories you’ve all seen and loved as a child. Disney tricks us into

When most people think of the movie, "Cinderella';, they think of the animated Disney version with the little mice and the happy ending where Cinderella marries the prince and they live happily ever after. While the movie "Ever After'; is based on "Cinderella';, it is not animated, but still has many of the same characteristics as the Disney version. Of course it is not exactly the same, and since it is not animated there are many differences.

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.

This translated to today’s literature, by establishing that no one wants to read about an unflawed character or one with excess. This leads to discussion about another characteristic, the happily ever after. “Then he took her to his kingdom, where he was received with great joy, and there they lived long and happily.” (Grimm 94) In these fairytales, the down on their luck, the poor are rewarded with unknown riches or marriage into nobility, or escaping their curse. In Rapunzel, the cursed maiden is discovered by her long lost prince and married into royalty. The basic concept is that we want to read about flawed persons who rise to the occasion and best those who don’t believe in them, ending up happy. This echoes in today’s literature still, because we see ourselves in these flawed characters, seeing as if they can persevere, then so can we. What makes all of these happy endings possible (and why we connect to the characters) is the way these characters come upon riches and joy. Another characteristic of the Grimm’s stories are the main characters perseverance, selflessness, patience or beauty to achieve betterment. Rapunzel waited several year, while raising her children before she found her happy ending, but it states that “Rapunzel was the most beautiful child in the world” and that “as he drew near he heard a voice singing so sweetly that he stood still and listened. It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to pass away the time with sweet

Fairy tales today are commonly viewed as fantastical stories - often with magical characters or elements - aimed to entertain children. Moreover, they frequently contain lessons or principles to be instilled in youths, promoting the morality of future generations. The values associated with a certain fairy tale can be identified quite easily these days, especially with the more prominent and well-known stories. For instance, the modern version of Beauty and the Beast schools readers to look past the exterior of others, for true beauty is measured by one's character. However, contemporary fairy tales have often been subject to censorship and revision from their origins in order to facilitate their

The film Ever After and the short story “Cinderella” are similar in many ways. For example, in both stories, there is a “happily ever after”; Danielle/Cinderella gets the prince. This is important because it can teach young girls to have hope, and everyone needs hope. It is a positive thing to have in a

As a little kid, fairy tales were my favorite types of stories and movies. Stories that ended with a “happily ever after” always made me very happy. On the other hand, they have come to make me very upset, because most of the time they gave me unrealistic expectations for life at such a young age. In “Ashputtle” and “Cupid and Psyche” like many short stories, is a fairy tale that the end will reward good and punish evil in different ways.

Although many view children's fiction as suitable only to children, and an embarrassingly immature pursuit for a serious person, children' stories mold the way we think. They allows us to look at very complex and difficult issues in a safe and playful way, and they give us the freedom to imagine the unimaginable.

Some things about fairy tales we know to be true. They begin with "once upon a time." They end with "happily ever after." And somewhere in between the prince rescues the damsel in distress. Of course, this is not actually the case. Many fairytales omit these essential words. But few fairytales in the Western tradition indeed fail to have a beautiful, passive maiden rescued by a vibrant man, usually her superior in either social rank or in moral standing. Indeed, it is precisely the passivity of the women in fairy tales that has led so many progressive parents to wonder whether their children should be exposed to them. Can any girl ever really believe that she can grow up to be president or CEO or an

The idea of a happy ending, to the common person, is the cliche ending of a story in which the protagonist gets the damsel, saves the world, and survives near death. However, this is a very simple way to look at the concept of a “happy ending” and neglects the grand scheme of things, just as there are more complicated equations in mathematics as one progresses in school, there are more complicated elements in a story as we look to dig deeper into literature. A story that has a complex happy ending is Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the story of a man seeking revenge on his family that has caused him much despair. If we look at this play in a simple manner, we will probably not look at the ending as happy ending as our beloved characters die,

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.

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.