Many children grow up reading fairy tales that affect their behavior and morals as they develop. The themes and morals portrayed in these stories teach children about the world. Fairy tales that are introduced to children by parents and adults are the stories that are reflective of what the culture or adults value their children learn. Fairy tales have the ability to transform a generation through the views of the youngest generation. Thompson claims in his article “Universality of the Folktale” that tales have evolved from their creation, each seem to be similar in nature. He sates that the stories minister to “the same basic social and individual needs”(Thompson 269). Fairy tales evolve but continue to appeal to universal themes and ideas. Conversely, Cullen discusses the cultural impact on fairy tales. Cullen claims that the most …show more content…
Thompson argues that themes remain the same as time and place changes, while Cullen believes that different themes and ideas cater to generations. Throughout both articles, the authors describe the impact of culture and generational views on the versions of fairy tales that rise in popularity by using concrete examples. Cullen’s article describes how and why Perrault’s Cinderella was well received and became the most popular version of the story. One example she uses is Madame d’Aulnoy’s version. Madame d’Aulnoy’s version depicts the Fairy as “sympathetic and dignified,” which Cullen believes was more well received than Perrault’s version at that particular time because the public thought that Perrault’s fairy was a witch(Cullen 320-321). The most popular story coincides with the views and values
In “Cinderella”, by the Grimm Brothers, the authors utilize a multitude of fairy tale genre conventions such as frequent usage of rhetorical devices, magical creatures, and the classic “Happy Ever After” fairy tale ending, to emphasize the importance of genuineness and the dangers of pursuing superficiality. The authors use several rhetorical devices such as symbolism and juxtaposition
The author, the assistant professor at the University of Oradea, uses what she coins a “gender lens” to peer into the gender and behavioral effects that fairytales have on children. She dives into the idea of how the fairytales were constructed with her data she reconstructs the writing process that the writers of that exact time would've preformed to recreate the mind behind the tale. She especially evaluates the old fairytales and how they have evolved into Walt Disney's fairytales. Snow white was a great representation of a fairytale that the gender lens peered right into, showing the monolithic stereotype of a women and how she seeks a man for finical and physical security. The author finds that even with young children playing with these
Most of the children read about many fairy tales, especially Snow Whites, Sleeping beauty, and Cinderella when they grew up. It is a surprising fact that to discover a hidden, unexpected political intention in the simple plot of fairy tales. That is a feminization of woman. The fairy tale world suggests a male-centered patriarchy as an ideal basic society and impliedly imply that man and woman need to have a proper attitude toward this opinion. However, Jewett’s A White Heron describes a new perspective of fairy tale’s plot.
The reader’s understanding of the fairy tale genre changes when reading this story and reading Atwood’s. Perrault follows all of the generic conventions of a fairy tale while Atwood challenges them. The reader would have a new perspective on Perrault’s story after reading Atwood’s because it allows them to recall how all fairy tales are very similar and stick to their generic conventions. This allows people to think about the way society sees women as homemakers and men as breadwinners,
Society is an ever evolving element of life, and as society has changed over the years, so has works by authors and directors. As authors and directors gain influence from inspiring sources, they are also gaining influences from the surrounding culture and the time period that they are living in. This may even be subconsciously. New historicism is the theory that explains this and specifically focuses on just how the time period of a work changes and shows how an author's experiences come to life through a work. In Walt Disney’s, Cinderella, the time period glamorizes Cinderella’s journey to happiness while the Grimm Brothers version connects more with reality, teaching that media evolves to what society wants to see.
Fairy Tales are popular children’s stories involving magical beings and lands. Due to the Native American beliefs, myths are the most heavily concentrated folklore. The values that are reflected in this culture 's lore are bravery, curiosity, faith, loyalty, and religion. Oral tradition and folklore
Unfortunately, the origin of the majority of these fairy tales started off with valuable life lessons. For example, in the Grimm brothers’ tale, which Disney has adapted its storylines from, Snow White and Rapunzel possess eerie undertones that accentuates the difficulties everyone faces in life (4). These original stories have actual meaning and substance, while Disney made some serious modifications in the storylines that results in the well known tales of today. Parents are reading to their children these santanized tales that misconstrue the true messages that were intended to tell and instead replaced the meaningfulness with bigotry and useless, false expectations.
Many families have many traditions, but one tradition that is common among all households is that they read fairy tales to their children right before they put them to sleep. They do this to fill their minds with good positive thoughts and leave them with something to think about. Religion dictates the characteristics of familiar fairy tales as religion provides a moral and ethical framework for having a good life, an ideal goal parents want their children to have. On the whole, fairy tales are constantly changed to adhere to cultural or social beliefs that are deemed important by diverse people in a community.
Both superstition and religion have influenced the way Hans Christian Andersen has shaped the narrative to many of his fairy tales. These influences are evident in two of his classic tales, “The Travelling Companion”, and “The Little Mermaid”. From the time before and during the developing age of fairy tales, the influence of superstitious religions were noticeable in almost every aspect of society. It is for the benefit of our greater understanding to realize “for centuries the only instruction was that given by the clergy in
(1976). This book explores how fairy tales have affected the way children develop by analyzing some of the well-known fairy tales to find how the uses of magic have shaped on people, especially children, think and understand the world. Bettelheim explains that for a child to grow up to find meaning in his or her life the child must be presented to literature such as fairy tales. This book will provide arguments that fairy tales are positive impacts on children’s development.
Finding out about the classic fairy tales becoming modern ones, surprised me a bit;
Most of Carter’s stories are not new tales, but retellings of old ones, and underline the fact that stories are a part of the human civilization and have always been there. However, in the general acceptance of stories as part of culture what has been overlooked is the fact that the stories shape culture and human behaviour. Stories encode moral norms and gender stereotypes and propagate them in society. Fairy-tales, in particular, portray stereotypical modes of behaviour for men and women, boys and girls and subtly urge them to internalize and thus perform this kind of stereotypical behaviour. Through her stories Carter draws attention to the passive acceptance of the social and moral codes by the readers and the need for all individuals to think anew and re-examine those blind spots in the tales and uncover what has been covered up.
I have always been fascinated by the connections made with the character from Perrault’s tales and the applications able to be made to real life experiences. This paper is an in depth search into the implementation of the morals portrayed in the tales. When sitting in English class one day a few weeks ago, my well known teacher informed us that we would be starting to write a paper. The students, as one could imagine, went into a full out sigh and had a defensive anger against this new dreadful assignment. As we began reading fairy tales and completing other foundational work on the background to fairy tales, I felt this excitement that I have not felt in many years, it was a feeling that brought be back to my youth.
Justyna Deszcz wrote an article based on Zipes’ political and socio-historical approach and added a variety of facts she had collected from many other authors and articles. Deszcz believes that the reason we have shifted into the submissive and “family-friendly” theme of fairy tales is because “the fairytale has been reduced to a mass-produced commodity, to be purchased and owned, and to bring in considerable profit. What is more, the fairytale is being used as a source and a vehicle of powerful self-mirroring images affirming the existing value system, and thus lulling audiences into passivity and compliance.” This point proves that the original thought of harsh realities needing to be exposed in story telling has converted to just being a profitable way to tell simple-minded children’s
As a child, I enjoyed reading because I was able to go into a different world and travel through other people's minds. It also allowed me to learn about other cultures and household values that were different from my own at home. Classic fairy tales are part of our childhood to teach us about right and wrong through stories that demonstrate cause and effect situations that have consequences because we are developing our own morals. What people don't know is that the fairy tales we are exposed to are the “children friendly” versions and even then often the morals in them are really meant for adults. On the other hand, the original versions expose violence and contradicting acts to what's right in our society.