Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

ErinDoppelheuer's picture

What's in a fairy tale

I fully agree with the person who first posted that said "raised my expectations and made me sad later in life when the world didn't live up to them" because when reading fairy tales I always wished that I could be the Little Mermaid or Jasmine and have a castle,a father who rules the kingdom, a prince, and then the evil woman.  However, all of these things in fairy tales just got my hopes up when I got old enough to realize that none of these things were possible in real life.  I think that this would crush a child even more than finding out in a fiary tale that for example the prince never showed up for the princess. 

" Deeper meaning resides in the fairy tales told to me in my childhood than in the truth that taught by life..."  I partially agree with this quote because fairy tales help children learn more about his/and others problems, find solutions to problems of his own/or man and how else is a child going to learn these valuable lessons as he grows up.  He can't read it in the paper or learn it from the news and parents usually complicate the explanation, so fairy tales explain the plot in a simple way for children to understand.  I completely agree with Frued's statement about overcoming obstacles and in the end one emerges victorious.  This basis in fairy tales helps children to understand the stuggles and difficulties of every day life. 

 

The one thing that I completely agree with is that after a parent reads a fairy tale to their child, the parent should never explain what the hidden meaning or moral of the story is.  It is for the child to figure out, to use his imagination, and to use his growing mind to try and understand some of the lessons needed to be learned in life.  If the parent does explain right off the bat what the moral or meaning of the story is, in a way it ruins the child's imagination and it doesn't let the child think for himself.  Some parents may beleive that a child at this age can't think for himself, but if you let a child speak, you may be surprised. 

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
3 + 1 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.