Isabel Weiss
In my opinion, fairy tales matter greatly. I feel as though fairy tales matter because they allow for us to take a step back from reality, and to fall into a world where anything is possible. They allow for us to experience the unthinkable, and for us to imagine all sorts of things, and bring those things to life. I feel that fairy tales figure into our lives because they are some of the first lessons we are taught. As children, we often read many fairy tales, and through that, we learn all of the great morals and lessons that fairy tales have to offer. At the young age we are when we read fairy tales, we are easily shapeable, and due to that, fairy tales often stick with us through our lives and the lessons they teach are often reflected upon as we continue to experience the world around us.
One of the theorists we talked about was Bruno Bettelheim. He introduced the psychoanalytic way of reading fairy tales. I feel as though he helped me better understand the concept that fairy tales help children grow emotionally. He believed that fairy tales confronted children and gave them a safe way to confront good vs evil, danger, jealousy and more. He also went over how fairy tales are necessary for child development. This helped me as this was the topic I chose for my final paper. Finally he helped me further understand the way that fairy tales allow for people to see the world around us.
Something I learned that surprised me was that fairy tales weren’t originally made for children. I thought it was interesting that they were originally made for adults. I also thought it was interesting that they were originally oral tales, and that they weren’t officially written down for years after that. Another thing that surprised me was that the versions of fairy tales we know changed a lot over time before they ended up the versions they are today. I think it’s cool to see how many generations the stories fairy tales went across, and to see all the different ways they told them.
One thing that interested me, similar to above, was how much fairy tales changed from their original versions. I think it’s interesting how we changed a lot of our fairy tales from their very harsh, and gruesome versions, to more child friendly versions with happy endings, and happily ever after. The one that interested me the most was the original Little Red Riding Hood, versus the version we know today. Most of the parts that contained violence, and things young children should not hear, were taken out, and put into more simpler, and appropriate terms. We see one version that was more sexual, and violent, and another version that was simply innocent, and child friendly. It’s also interesting how when you read a fairy tale as an older version of yourself, you catch onto things you wouldn’t have noticed as a young child. It shows how the young mind of an innocent child works.
Finally, I think it would be fun to include more video aspects in the class. I think it would be cool to watch some of the older versions of these tales, and if they weren’t filmed, maybe videos that exemplify the older version. I personally feel that watching something, and seeing images, helps me learn better. Another thing that could be brought into a future class could be an activity where you create your own character, or maybe modernize a fairy tale that we know into more recent terms. I also think it could be cool to work as a class to create one big in depth fairy tale. I know we did this here and there, but I think it would be fun to create a full fairy tale with lots of detail, and to come up with a lesson, characters, and plots together as a class.
