The Fairy Tale And Ashputtle And Cupid And Psyche

I first read Lemony Snicket’s ‘Series of Unfortunate Events’ when I was 10 years old. Having little patience, I planned to just skim through but found myself immediately immersed in the story and the writing style. The author uses clever techniques to appeal to both children and older readers, which allowed me to remain engaged with the text. Snicket warns that, “if you are interested in books with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.” I found myself attracted to the gothic elements and darker nature of the text. I found it to be uniquely different to the traditional fairy tales with a cliché “happily ever after”. A Series of Unfortunate Events has no typical “happily ever after,” but the

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

Lin Lan’s “Cinderella” is a classic fairy tale that depicts the life of a poor, young girl named Beauty in the hands of her wicked stepmother and stepsister. The story leads one to believe a moral lesson is portrayed as how in the end evil never prospers. Beauty is rewarded in many different forms for being the innocent protagonist, while the stepmother and stepsister are chastened for their heinous deeds. As children are the main targeted audience for fairytales, it would seem evident to create a character of good standing morals and virtue; however, there are multiple instances that contradict Beauty’s faultless character.

In the essay “Fairy Tales and Modern Stories”, Bruno Bettelheim argues that fairy tales can provide children more reassurance than realistic stories. Bettelheim used examples like “The Little Engine that Could”,”The Swiss Family Robinson” and “Rapunzel” to show how realistic stories and fairy tales both affected children’s thinking. The author claims that modern stories don’t compare to fairy tales, because they can’t provide an outlet for children to work through their problems and emotions. Bettelheim explains that fairy tales give children the reassurance and hope that there's a better future that is waiting for them. He argues that fairy tales can have a more impactful effect because it can offer “escape” and “consolation” for troublesome events in their lives. He even claims that modern stories fail to give the reader “encouraging

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.

Maria Tatar points out how these stories help shape individuals at a young age. She explores how children reading these stories and using imagination can uncover fears and desires they have. But these fairy tales do not only have a good influence on children, but also

In a lot of ways the stories are similar to each other, but there are even more ways how they are different. One of those ways are like how the cruel relatives get punished. In both stories the villains deserve a little bit of karma throughout both books. In Ashputtle one way the relatives were punished by: “and the doves pecked out both the remaining eye.” (Straub 858) I feel that the step sister had Karma from what they did to Ashputtle for all those years. They were just jealous and cruel to her before and after she got married to the prince. So the doves pecked out both of the sister’s eyes, which the doves were suppose to represent her mother how passed away and always look out for her. So Ashputtles mother wants the best for her and she didn’t ruin her evil stepsisters to ruin day of getting married to the prince. But in Cupid and Psyche it was a little bit different. Venus did a lot of awful things to Psyche and made her parents give her up on a mountain. She also got her son to try to get her to marry someone that looked like a monster, but overall Venus’s plan backfired:”My dear son,’ said Venus “Punish that beauty.” (Benson 844) Venus got a little bit of karma when she wanted her son to make Psyche fall in love with a monster instead he stuck himself with the arrow on accident and fell in love with her. Which is bad for Venus because her son is in love with the person she despises the most Psyche. In both of the situations karmas were lots

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.

In the real world, problems and complications come up and happily ever after’s don’t exist. Sexton takes the classic story of “Cinderella”, reworks it, and makes it into her own twisted version of a fairytale. She starts the audience off with a few little “rags-to-riches” accounts comparing modern culture’s unrealistic dreams to what life really is like. Then she goes into telling the readers the famously known fairytale in a sardonic tone. The audience gets a sense of frustration from her way of expressing herself in each little story she talks about. She shows the world that its not always rainbows and butterflies, the real world is more complicated than that.

Unlike any other form of literature or entertainment, Fairy Tales help children to discover their identity and suggest experiences needed to develop their character. In Bruno Bettelheim’s “Life Divined from the Inside” Bettelheim states that “Fairy Tales intimate that a rewarding, good life is within one’s reach despite adversity-but only if one does not shy away from the hazardous struggles without which one can never achieve true identity (Bettelheim 106). Anne Sexton’s “Cinderella” is a perfect example of Bettelheim’s definition of a 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).

Whenever we talk about fairy tales, we speak of the Fairy Godmothers, the magic beans, and the talking cats. Rarely do we ever write papers about how one day we want to be the Big Bad Wolf, or the Wicked Witch of the West. There will never be a time in someone’s childhood when they prefer to be a villain rather than a hero, and that has much to do with our choices as we get older. We tend to throw aside anything we feel isn't the best. As Dick Gregory once had written, “I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that.” At young ages, we were exposed to different people by attending our first elementary schools. When I entered the third grade, I remember at such a young age, I allowed my heart to have first been deceived

If one were to be asked about the backbone of fairy tales, an answer would likely include true love. Regardless of the origin, tales from across the world reflect instances of enamorment and devotion, with most providing numerous examples of the bond between family and the lust shared by lovers. In many cases, endearment is the driving force for the actions of protagonists: princes search for their one true love, brothers protect their sisters, and parents dote on their children. While “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” aims to support the idea that love and passion are everlasting, it instead imparts the idea that love is a variable entity and not always as transparent as it seems.

While reading a short story, one should stop to think about what concept the story is trying to tell. Many authors write stories about real life scenarios that could educate individuals about their future. Short stories are written by authors who have their own opinions about life and happy endings. Margaret Atwood, the author of the short story “Happy Endings”, has her own opinion about what she thinks about fairy tales and happily ever after. This idea contributes to a real life scenario about important life events. Atwood emphasizes the idea that happy endings doesn’t exist in today’s society even though fairy tales differ from this.

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.