SJNY100-Fairytales/Folk Tales

Fairy Tales serve as a way to digest our own lives. They aren’t methods of escape, though when used incorrectly can be, Fairy Tales can help people cope and figure out how to go through with their day to day chaos. They provide examples of people suffering, going on adventures and other such hijinks, but through a lens of parody. When something bad happens in a Fairy Tale something good eventually comes back around to nullify or overcome it. They serve as examples of how people can overcome challenges, and that these challenges can be overcome! Every Child knows dragons can be slain, they just don’t know how yet. Every Adult can get lost in the hustle and bustle of the world, they just need a little reminding on how to take a step back, and that things are simple in pieces. That’s why Fairy Tales are so important, they serve as a way for people to reorganize themselves, and to come out better then they were, mentally, character-wise, really in any possible way, as they can motivate people to do better, and that things will be okay.

Jack Zipes helped me understand the different classifications of Fairy Tales. The Literary and Oral Folktales, while still being Fairy Tales, they have different backgrounds and uses. Literary Fairytales are those personal stories that people grew up with, ones that they have a claim to. They are fixed, ‘proper’ versions of these tales, sometimes with art depicting the events. While Oral Fairytales are much more fluid and everchanging, they adapt to the location, the culture, the environment, the audience and their age. They are meant to be dramatized, to be had fun with. They are meant to make day to day more easy for everyone, as they are the ‘Common Man’s‘ Tale. They were catered to those who were listening. It’s really fun and helpful to learn about this aspect of Fairy Tales, especially when trying to craft my own. Understanding the ‘Basics‘ of the ‘base-line‘ Fairy Tale forms are really helpful, and they stand as a way to view every Fairy Tale through a new lens. It opens up questions of what came from the original oral tales and what came from the newer literary tales.

The thing that surprised me the most was how Cultural the Fairy Tales were. That sounds odd but, you don’t really think of how many people know Fairy Tales. Everyone knows Little Red Ridding Hood; dozens of characters, media, merchandise and so much more have been made of her, or inspired by the story. But looking at all of the Artwork, seeing drawing after drawing, painting after painting , it really just hits home how universal Fairy Tales are. People grew up with these stories, as integral parts of their childhoods. It’s a mystical feeling looking at these different and chaotic, yet so unified pieces of art. They can look almost completely different in style, and with how the characters are designed, but at the end of the day, you can still tell what Fairy Tale it is, no matter where the Artist came from.

I’m not sure I know what Interested me the most about Fairy Tales, about what we covered. I’m in general a creature guy, I’ve created dozens of monsters, all ranging in size, shape. They’re all uniquely different and eerie. One’s this weird Cat mimic, with a biological lantern on the end of it’s tail, and it’s head is an open mouth like a Venus Flytrap. Another is A mutated Dinosaur, a fleshy, limp arm where a tongue is supposed to be. I have a weird flower, a ghost girl from a dream, a couple Kaiju, some weird tentacle horrors somewhere, probably. I guess that’s what’s interested me the most while reading and learning about these Fairy Tales, it’s the Monsters. From the Wolves, to the more nightmarish Ogres and Witches. Monsters are just so unique, they can be anything; Tragic, Malicious, Trying to Survive, an Adversary, A Nuisance. They can range from Fantastical to frighteningly Realistic, a Dragon holding up within a tower, or a psychotic man whose about to kill his Wife. They’re just a really interesting thing to look at, maybe you can get a sense of what their creator was thinking, like what the character was meant to be, but sometimes, they’re just random things, which makes me wonder, what ideas brought them together in that way?

I think the only thing potentially missed is other countries Fairy Tales, granted this is due to the Fairy Tales as they are known today coming mainly from Europe, and the tales collected in the Classic Fairy Tales book don’t exactly help with diversifying the selection, but I think that it’s a real shame they weren’t at least briefly covered. There are a lot of interesting stories from other cultures, Brazil has an werewolf like Anteater, Japanese Urban Legends are WEIRD, a whole lot of ‘ Wrong Place, Wrong Time ‘, but even further back with Yokai and such too, they’re really interesting views into how nature is personified, how almost anything is, and Britain has a couple weird creatures too, like the Grindylow. Irish Fairy Tales can be fun to, like ‘The Ballad of Tam Lin‘ and heroic legends like ‘Cu Chulainn‘. I think the next class could really benefit from learning about at least one non-typical European Fairy Tale.

The Value of Fairy Tales – Final Reflection Blog

One of the main reasons that fairy tales matter is that they convey the universal themes of human feelings and societal morals through their allegorical stories, and thus, they are the fundamental source from which we learn concepts of courage, self-awareness, and change.

Works of Zipes, Darnton, and Tatar show that fairy tales are not only the stories created to entertain kids, but they also represent the same struggles, ethics, and cultural problems, which are the core of the new age of storytelling, including the movie Spirited Away.

Jack Zipes was the scholar whose ideas I used to view fairy tales as oral stories of culture that are still alive and change continuously according to the needs of society. His study showed that fairy tales reveal the power structures of the ruling class during the different historical periods, show the gender roles, and support the values of that particular time; therefore, changes in the endings to suit the expectation of the society are the only alterations made while the emotional part is kept intact.

Comparing the original versions of fairy tales with many of the Disney adaptations, especially The Little Mermaid, I found out that the former are much darker, and the fact that struck me most was that the original one was mostly about pain and sacrifice, not love.

This in turn shows that fairy tales were in essence about the struggles of mankind and survival.

I found the correlation between the fairy tales and Spirited Away regarding the magic, pain, and transformation very cool and fascinating. Nevertheless, instead of the traditional fairy tale ending of “happily-ever-after”, Spirited Away depicts the emphasis on character development and taking up personal responsibility.

In my view, we could have benefited from investigating non-western versions of fairy tales further and talking about the present adaptations of fairy tales in graphic novels and games where they, as an art form, continue to develop and ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌evolve.

Upon taking this course, I’ve discovered that fairy tales are a relevant part of our world, and how much they really matter. Reading works from the different fairy tale theorists and writers really put into perspective for me how relevant storytelling and fairytales are. The many different approaches to fairy tales and what they mean and how they’ve evolved, and exploring different works by people like the Brothers Grimm and Perrault showed me how complex and meaningful fairytales are. Based on my own childhood experiences, fairy tales were a key way to stimulate my imagination by diving into fictional worlds and realities that these tales painted. They showed me many morals and characters who I strove to be like. They taught me right from wrong. Fairy tales factor into our lives in so many ways. They’re the building blocks for children navigating this world, and they are key tools for care givers to provide this aid for the next generation of future adults.

A theorist that helped me better understand fairy tales, and who happened to be my favorite, was Bruno Bettelheim. He takes a psychology oriented stance upon evaluating fairy tales, specifically Freud’s psychoanalytic approach which I’m already very familiar with, as a psychology major. His explanations such as: fairytales help children reach their maturity by helping them understand and face their subconscious thoughts and desires really helped me put in perspective how much psychology is important in fairy tales. I had never thought about fairy tales this deeply until Bettelheim’s writing connected my knowledge of psychology to these stories.

Something I learned that surprised me was just how many different interpretations of fairy tales there really are. Going into the course, I was fairly knowledgeable about the Brothers Grimm and the movie adaptation of the tales but was astonished to read and learn about just how many other interpretations there are. This is also the same for the various illustrations we looked at throughout, assessing how arts for the tales evolved with each adaptation of the tale, it’s so shocking to see there’s a whole world of fairy tales to be explored. The one thing that really put this into perspective for me was Darnton’s tracing of the famous fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood in his article, “Peasants Tell Tales” that we went over. He literally goes through a line of people who told the tale, and who got it from who, the accounts of Little Red varying from writer to writer as we see the tale evolve. This is what fascinated me the most.

What interested me the most about our topic was how similar themes are seen throughout the majority of fairy tales. Upon learning and reading about the different fairy tales, we see many similar themes throughout including, the girl being saved by a man or prince, a physical transformation, or the focus on beauty, inside and out. It was interesting to me that we saw the same themes re-iterated throughout many tales, to me, this is to really drive home right and wrong to children. Focusing on the girl having to be saved by a man it really interested me how it was never the opposite and these gender roles were universal for all tales. It would be interesting to see one of these classic tales with a spin on these roles, where the girl saves herself or even the girl saves the guy.

Lastly, I’d like to brush upon something we didn’t fully miss, but something I wished we focused more upon. I wish we focused more upon the fairy tales themselves more, reading more like ones we missed such as, “The Little Mermaid” rather than primarily focusing on the theorists and writers. Though the articles we read were very important and thought-provoking, the fairy tales themselves caught my attention, especially with reading them in class which was very endearing and fun to me. Though, I don’t think we’d be able to fully understand the weight and importance of fairy tales without reading the articles we read, so for classes in the future I would love more of a balance between the two! Thanks for a great semester, I really enjoyed this class!

In my opinion, fairy tales are important because they open children’s imaginations. Similar to what Tatar discussed, these fantasy worlds allow one to think outside of the box; outside of the confines of reality and imagine various “what if” scenarios. Additionally, fairytales break down real, complex topics into simpler, digestible material that can be understood by a child. For example, “Little Red Riding Hood” could be interpreted as conveying a message of being wary of strangers without being overtly disturbing.

Darnton helped me better understand the importance of fairytales from one of many historical perspectives. Particularly, the importance of examining fairy tales from an anthropological perspective to gain a better understanding of the tale as a whole; such as how it evolved over time, what alterations were made by different cultures and what these changes imply about said culture. Additionally, Darnton emphasized the importance of knowing which version is being analyzed to properly understand the story’s original function and messages.

There were many aspects of the evolution of fairytales, especially in regards to history, that surprised me. For starters, how these stories that are now commonly associated with and labelled as “just for children” were at one point considered a privilege meant for the wealthy. Moreover, I found it interesting that there is a “gap” from a historian’s perspective as there were no documented accounts of the lives of peasants, yet many of these stories involve a protagonist of low status and conflicts rooted in struggles peasants often faced (ie: starvation). 

I initially took this course as I was interested in learning about how the modern retellings that myself and others view as the “standard” version differ from their source material. However, throughout the course I found myself most interested in identifying recurring themes and tropes present in these stories. Examples include the prevalence of beauty, conflict between good vs evil, the role of nature, marriage being a resolution, dynamics between families, and the role of gender.

While it was important to overview the theorists and their philosophies to better understand fairy tales, I wish that there was more time in the course dedicated to reading the tales themselves. There were many others, such as Vasilisa the Fair and West of the Sun East of the Moon, that I wanted to analyze and discuss in class. Additionally, I enjoyed examining the alternative versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” and would have liked if we had done something similar for the other tales.

Fairytales have been very important to me ever since I was little. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know who the classic fairytale characters were. So yes I do think fairytales are extremely important in society. Fairytales serve as a way for us to examine our fears, doubts, and hopes in magical ways. For kids they bring them to a far off land with magic and dragons that bring joy to them. It makes kids want to explore and go on adventures just like the characters in these stories. It also teaches them certain values and morals from a young age which they carry for their whole lives. For adults it shows them hope in dark times, and how good people will always be fine and happy in the end. It makes them use their imagination which not many adults do very much. These stories bring a sense of hope and joy into people’s lives that they can relate to which is why they are still widely popular today.

In my opinion, I feel Ashliman helped me understand fairytales better. I like the way he broke them up into four different categories. Fairytales can be used for the fulfillment of wishes, to express fears, to educate, or to explain the unexplainable. He talked about the four different symbols you find in stories, and even broke these tales down even further into sub categories like religious takes, romantic tales, and magic tales just to name a few. After reading that article I feel like I could easily classify all the fairytales we read into each of these categories to further understand the purpose and message of them.

What surprised me in this class were some of the fairytales I’ve actually never heard of. Going into this class I thought I would know every story we read, but it turns out I didn’t. I’ve heard of Bluebeard but I didn’t know anything about it. Same as Puss in Boots, I love the Dreamworks movie but I knew nothing about the original story. Donkeyskin and The Juniper Tree I never even heard of or knew existed at all. And then of course there were the tales that were made into Disney movies, like Beauty and the Beast. I didn’t know the original well so I enjoyed reading it and comparing it to Disney’s. I enjoyed reading the stories I wasn’t as familiar with. But I was more familiar with a lot more than I expected because there was this book series I read when I was nine called Whatever After which was about these two kids who got pulled into these original fairytales and had to help fix them. They would basically watch the entire fairytale happen in the book so I knew all these original versions already from reading that. 

The most interesting part of this fairytale topic in our class was just reading all these stories. I had the most fun comparing them to modern day movies. I didn’t enjoy reading the theorist articles very much, I just liked learning about the original fairytales and talking about them after. It’s very cool to know that these are the exact tales people read centuries ago. 

I really wanted to read The Little Mermaid so I was sad we missed that. I honestly just wanted to finish all the fairytales in the book so that’s primarily what I feel like we missed out on. I wanted to read The Little Match Girl as well since I’ve seen the Disney short version of that story. I think for the next class, instead of reading all of the theorist articles we went over, maybe cut back a few and read some more fairytales. I feel like you learn more by reading more fairytales and drawing similarities and morals from each story instead of  reading an article about someone’s opinion of what the fairytales mean. I’d rather figure out what they mean to me on my own than by reading someone else’s words.

Based on my own experiences and what I have learned this semester, fairytales are a crucial part of the literary world. Fairytales are important for people of all ages but most significantly they play a role in the mental and emotional development of children. They help children to feel understood in their feelings and teach them how to navigate the world around them with the stories, characters and moral lessons. 

One theorist we learned about that helped me better understand fairytales was Bruno Bettelheim. He talks about how fairytales are essential for the emotional development of children which I found interesting and hadn’t previously thought deeply into. He goes through how children often apply fairytales to the world around them when they are facing a challenge. For example, by seeing characters in stories face struggles, children are able to solve internal conflicts they are facing. Ultimately he shares the idea that fairytales are therapeutic for children in the way they provide them with solutions to real world problems. 

Something I learned that surprised me was how each fairytale can be interpreted in many different ways. For example one of the most shocking interpretations we learned about was in Little Red Riding Hood. Before this class I had never thought about how this story could be seen as sexually suggestive. When I previously thought of fairytales before taking this class I viewed them as innocent stories for children that had moral lessons, but now I know that each age group could interpret them extremely differently and give the stories different meanings and purposes. 

The thing that interested me most about our topic was how each retelling or version of a fairytale can vary. For instance, The Brothers Grimm’s versions of stories versus Charels Perrault. When reading the Annotated Fairytales book in class, I appreciated the side bar notes that Tatar added because oftentimes they would tell you how an aspect of the story highlighted compared to other versions. This made me interested in learning more about each version of the tales which is why I chose to do my research topic on the global variations of Rapunzel.

One thing that I think would be worthwhile to add to the class is looking at the different variations of one tale whether it be different literary versions or even film adaptations. I think it would be interesting and fun to spot the differences between the versions as a class and talk about why the authors chose to make those variations. I also think it would be something different to watch a film instead of only reading them and seeing how they differ. 

Fairy tales are an important part of our lives, shaping us when we’re young and often staying with us as we grow older. These stories connect people across families, generations, and communities. Almost anyone you meet will recognize at least one fairy tale you know. That shared experience helps form meaningful bonds. Beyond connection, fairy tales also offer valuable lessons. Their magical, imaginative elements entertain children, but also teach important life lessons. Fairy tales endure not just for their magic but for the impact they have on how we think, learn, and relate to one another.

Maria Tatar helped me better understand the importance of fairy tales because she shows how these stories do much more than entertain. In “Why Fairy Tales Matter,” Tatar explains that fairy tales give children a safe space to explore fear, courage, and curiosity, allowing them to work through real emotions in an imaginative world. Her argument helped me see that the value of fairy tales isn’t just in their magic, but in how they teach children to navigate challenges and gain confidence. Tatar also emphasizes how these stories are passed down across generations, shaping cultural values and helping people feel connected. After reading her work, I realized that fairy tales matter not because they are simple, but because they help us understand ourselves and the world.

One of the most surprising things I learned in this class was how dark many original fairy tales were. Reading Bluebeard surprised me, since it was much more gruesome than anything I expected to read in our class. Understanding this darker history helped me make better sense of the way some tales were interpreted, such as “Little Red Riding Hood.” As a child, I never imagined it had anything to do with sexuality, but rereading it now makes those themes clearer. Realizing how many layers I missed when I first heard these stories as a kid, and learning that many were originally intended for adults rather than children, completely changed how I see fairy tales today.

One thing I found very interesting was how different each version of a fairy tale can be. Since these stories were first shared through oral tradition rather than written text, they changed constantly as they passed from one storyteller to another. Each teller added their own style, altering endings, adding or removing characters, or shifting details to suit their audience. Sometimes these changes happened unintentionally, and other times they were deliberate, reflecting the values, fears, or cultural expectations of the community telling the story. 

I don’t think the course left out anything major, but I do believe adding more film viewings could make it even more interesting. Watching older movie adaptations alongside newer versions would help us see how fairy tales have shifted across generations, whether through tone or character roles. Even just reading the older tales and watching new movie versions could be interesting. Movies make changes easier to notice because the visuals and storytelling choices highlight what different eras value or find appropriate. Including more of these comparisons could give a deeper sense of how fairy tales continue to evolve over time.

Based upon the readings this semester, and my own experience with fairytales and literature growing up, I do believe that fairytales matter. Fairytales matter because they allow us to view the world through another lens that isn’t our innate reality. By doing so, we are unaware at a young age of how important they really are to forming who we are and how we view the things around us. As we get older and look deeper into them with a more expanded worldview and older eyes, we see that fairytales offer us a way to connect back to our childlike wonder and remind us of a time when the world was simpler. We understand through them that the world seems so big, and that these stories tackle the things that taunt us as children in an attempt to make the hard-to-swallow things less scary and more compactable and easier to break down for our young minds, and our current ones as we digest the morals and lessons that they give to us. They have the ability to resonate with us on a psychological level, and are more important than we give them credit for, even as we are learning to understand their value. Fairy tales let our minds rest in the fantastical worlds and simplistic messages they give us to complicated situations. By presenting these ideas in something that isn’t our true reality, they become easier to fathom and connect to, and figure into our lives by staying with us and having a lasting and memorable impact even as we continue to grow.

The theorist which I believe helped me best understand fairytales in a new way is Robert Darton. His work gave me a more historical and social perspective on why fairytales exist, and how they have contributed to society over the course of decades and time periods. I have always thought of fairytales and more specifically literature in general as transformative and emotional ways that Tatar offers us, as well as somewhat been exposed to the ideas that Bettelheim proposes, which I think exist to a certain degree in all stories. Darton’s argument, however, was one I had never thought of or considered, and it opened my eyes to another side and element of fairytales and the hold they have on not only us and our subconscious, but what they mean and offer in the larger context of society, and even history. I have always thought them to be an individual tool, whereas Darton makes them out to be useful in a social context as well.

Something I learned that surprised me was looking deeper into the illustrator’s roles in addition to and in accordance with the author’s importance when it comes to really bringing a story to life. Especially when doing our illustrator mini project, it helped me understand art as a form of expression, especially in the realm of storytelling, and that being an illustrator and deciding what to capture and how to capture it is just as important as being an author. By providing images that relay the story, and by offering differing tones of the same story, it can be seen that the story does affect everyone differently and that how we perceive what is happening is unique to every person. Also by having a variety of different pictures, the reader can understand the depth that the illustrator can capture within an image.

The thing that interested me most about our topic was just getting to read and analyze the stories, as well as to dive deeper and understand their inner workings, how they are written to impact us, and the purpose of what they’re attempting to invoke out of the reader. I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to have discussions about the stories themselves, hear classmates’ reactions and opinions, and understanding the stories which we were already familiar with in a refreshed and perhaps more ‘mature’ way compared to how we thought of them and understood the versions we were presented with as kids.

I feel like we covered a lot of material throughout the course, including the theoretical readings and the tales from the big book. I wouldn’t say we really missed anything, although I wish we did get to read some more of the stories from the book we were already familiar with, or at least get to discuss them in class like The Little Mermaid, so we could at least compare it again to the Disney version and get everyone’s perspectives and thoughts about it. In addition, I think it might’ve been worthwhile to compare the different stories written by a common author, like Charles Perrault who had a ton of different stories. Does his writing style change? Is he always trying to implement the same morals? What does that say in terms of time periods and society? I feel like we did look into this a little bit, so I’m not sure if that counts as something we missed. Either way, I enjoyed all the things we did get to cover in this class, and I think that the future classes would too.

I believe that fairytales matter because of the place they have in childhoods around the globe. They help children make sense of fear, hope, and moral choices, and as we grow, the stories gain new meanings. We keep retelling them because they aren’t just entertainment but something that has been passed on for hundreds of years now.

One of the theorists I personally learned from the most was Bruno Bettelheim and his psychoanalytic approach to observing fairytales and some of their subtle darker themes. He focused on what the audience, more specifically children, and how fairytales aid children in confronting these themes. Whether it be death, jealousy, danger, and the concept of good versus evil. Bettelheim believed that fairy tales help them confront and work through their anxieties, offering hope that challenges can be overcome. His perspective made me see fairy tales not just as childhood stories, but as tools for emotional development and resilience.

Something that surprised me was the development of fairytales from oral to literary. I never knew how deep the conflict was when it began to shift.  In their oral form, fairy tales were shared openly within communities and were told by and for ordinary people, passed down through generations, and constantly reshaped by whoever was telling them. But once these stories began to be written down, they became more privatized and exclusive. Only the educated and literate had access to them, and they were often shared in French salons and parlors, which were spaces reserved for the upper classes. Realizing this made me more aware of how the version of a fairytale we know today often reflects those who had the power to record it, rather than the communities that originally created it.

Simply reading some of the very first versions of fairytales. I was fascinated by how strikingly different they are compared to the many modern versions.  The original stories are often darker, more violent, and more direct about fear, danger, and survival. Seeing how much they changed over time shows how each generation reshapes fairy tales to fit its values. Many have softened certain parts, highlighting others, and making them more suitable for children. But I personally have liked the darker themes and think that some of it is important to address. 

I think what would have been worthwhile was covering more tales that we aren’t familiar with. Personally, I’ve never heard of Juniper Tree or Bluebeard before this class, so it was refreshing and eye-opening to read stories that were completely unfamiliar to me. Exploring these lesser-known tales broadened my understanding of what other unique fairytales there are. Encountering them for the first time made me realize just how diverse the fairytale tradition really is, and how many stories exist beyond the ones we grew up with.

Thanks to this class, I have come to the conclusion that fairytales do matter and teach plenty to people of all ages. Although many view them as stories that simply entertain children, they also educate them on matters such as proper behaviors and how to treat others, and makes them more aware of their emotions. Fairytales go through human feelings and experiences in a magical world which has solutions and answers, and allow listeners and readers to figure out how to solve their own problems or make their situations better. In the past, they helped form a community, with storytellers speaking to family members of all ages, and this ensured that adults too could take away the meaning and lessons of the tales. Even after growing up, people remember the plots of fairytales and what they took away from them, proving that they leave a lasting impact. I think it is interesting to see how people take what they learned from them into their own lives.

One theorist I personally enjoyed was Maria Tatar, and I felt she did a great job on educating people about the importance of fairytales on the developing minds of children. She went over how they give kids freedom and choices, which helps them gradually mature. Tatar demonstrates that fairytales can be highly educational by making children use their imagination and recognize the importance of language- how words can cause emotions and be actions. Learning how to properly use language makes them more capable, which aids them in growing into smarter people. I felt that her exploration of these ideas helped me better understand why fairy tales continue to matter and how they shape young minds.

I was surprised at how differently fairytales were interpreted and meant to be presented, such as “Little Red Riding Hood.” When I was young I never thought that there would have been a much darker perspective on this tale, with a man seducing a young girl and taking away her virginity. Erich Fromm viewed it as a girl’s confrontation with adult sexuality, and Bruno Bettelheim viewed it as a story about a girl’s sexual awakening and coming-of-age. I think rereading it now in this class made these themes more apparent, but it was surprising to see the things you miss as a child when reading fairytales. This also helped me better understand how they were originally made to entertain adults, not teach children.

I was most interested in learning how distinct the literary versions of fairytales by authors such as the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault were from the Disney movies, which I had mostly associated them with. For any fairytale we read that I had watched the movie of, I sought the difference between each take of it and how it evolved into its typically twentieth century edition that was made into film. For example, I thought it was interesting to read that Cinderella went to the ball on multiple occasions, that she forgave her evil stepsisters, and that she even married them off to noblemen in Perrault’s version. This differs from the Disney version where she only attends the ball once and is not seen forgiving her stepsisters towards the end of the film.

I think it would have been nice to go through all of the fairytales in our textbook. I found the articles to have been helpful in understanding the importance of fairytales as a whole, but would have preferred seeing the themes and lessons portrayed in each one available to us instead. I found that the tales themselves did a better job at teaching than some of the articles since we could see the examples right in front of us instead of reading about them in general. I also feel like they were much easier to read than the articles, which sometimes overcomplicated concepts and had difficult writing to understand. I think doing this in the future could help students comprehend the importance of fairytales more while simultaneously keeping them engaged and interested.