Throughout this semester I have come to the realization that fairytales are more than just stories for children. I believe that they are tools to people’s imaginations, help shape moral values, and give deeper insight to people’s own emotions. Fairytales help people to understand themselves. A lot of times, the stories are examples of human experiences with things like fear, courage, and hope distilled in them. Fairytales figure into people’s lives by modeling different behaviors like kindness and love. I think that they are symbolic and can relate to people’s lives and are stories that people can live out.
Jack Zipes helped us to better understand fairytales because he showed us a more human charm to them. Instead of solely having these stories for entertainment, Zipes tried to explain why they were created and what they may have been trying to teach to their cultures and societies. He proves that these tales are created with real peoples hopes and fears in mind. He includes warnings about real world dangers and brings attention to the struggles of women and peasants. Jack Zipes helped his readers to understand that fairytales are more than simple tales. They are stories that shape and reflect the different societies and generations that tell them.
I was extremely surprised to learn about all of the different versions of each fairytale. For my research paper I examined the different versions of the story Cinderella. I learned that in Europe alone, there are over 500 versions of the story. Cinderella is a popular tale but I can’t help but wonder if there are other fairy tales with even more. I also found it captivating to see how the tales vary based on who is telling the story, where the story is being told, and when the story is being told. I noticed that things like that can make all the difference in what version you receive.
I found it most interesting how fairy tales were not originally written down. Each tale was passed from person to person through oral tradition. Because different people told the tales, they would all be slightly altered. Endings would be different, characters would be added, and details would be changed based on the storyteller’s style. The tellers of these stories would make changes unintentionally and make changes purposefully to adapt to the audience they are being told to. Although things differ from version to version, each one reflected values and fears of the societies and generations that had told them. Later on, some collectors, including the Grimms Brothers, put pen to paper and wrote them down. This made the tales more set in stone or fixed. This also made tales that were told in several different forms, become a single version.
Finally, I think it would have been worthwhile to read more tales than articles. Personally, I really enjoyed reading the fairytales and diving deeply into them. I found a lot of the articles to be unengaging and tedious. I also think that future students would find it interesting to look into more parallels between the different versions of the stories. For my research paper, I investigated the different types of Cinderella stories. Although they were all relatively similar, I found it fascinating to see how each version differed. I would have loved to see how other fairy tales differed from version to version and find more parallels. I also would have liked to explore some more symbolism from the tales. There were a few things throughout the semester that I noticed and I am curious to see if my classmates saw the same or other symbolic pieces in the readings.
