Fairy Tale Essays (Examples)

Tales
In the 17th century, fairy tales were miles apart from the versions we read and watch today. Endings would not always be as happy as we know them to be and there were far more complications, perversity and brutalities. For instance, in Sleeping Beauty, the girl is not kissed and awakened by her prince; rather, he rapes her and makes her pregnant while she is still unconscious. I plan on bring all of these elements into my fairytale. Back then, these tales had a lot of mythology and hidden meanings which is why I have chosen the number three to be common throughout my tale. Three children will be born, and will be placed in a bed of iris flowers. The iris flower is special that it has three petals, and each petal represents courage, wisdom and faithfulness. I will be build a connection to the children and the…

Media presentations of justified violencemay also change the belief that violent behavior is wrong, encouraging the development of pro-violence attitudes. […] Violence is acceptable because it is not real, therefore "victims" do not really suffer (Funk et al. 26).
Given this serious -- and well-documented -- consequence of even imaginary violence, writers and readers of fairy tales should exercise care that their depictions of violence are truly relevant to the moralistic issues at stake. The "blood in the shoe" must be justified; otherwise, it simply desensitizes the (often juvenile) reader to no real advantage.

orks Cited

Anderson, Craig a., Leonard Berkowitz, Edward Donnerstein, L. Rowell Huesmann, James D. Johnson, Daniel Linz, Neil M. Malamuth, and Ellen artella. "The Influence of Media Violence on Youth." Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4.3 (2003): 81-110. Print.

Bascom, illiam. "Cinderella in Africa." Cinderella: A Casebook. Ed. Alan Dundes. Madison, I: University of isconsin…

popular culture is relatively young and new in modern society. Sociologists and psychologists began to pay attention to it only at the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth. Popular culture is a set of values, customs and system of beliefs which are common for people of different financial, class and gender background, so that it forms a wide group of people which goes over the limits of one country who share common cultural beliefs and norms. Person begins to perceive popular culture since early childhood through education and fairy tales read by his parents, which are used to form a system of believes and values on the hand with stereotypes on unconscious level and even later most of popular culture attributes are perceived as fairy tales on unconscious level and are taken for granted like social myths that form sets of beliefs nearly of…

Dis-missal of the great French fairy tale writers from the palace of King Louis XIV help revolutionize the literary French fairy tales?
French fairytales and literature are indeed a topic that is worth discussing. This is because the work compiled by the French writers, back in the 17th and 18th century is still part of the English as well as French literature. Nowadays, the term fairy tale is used by many people to refer to the magical stories that are told to small children. This word has actually been derived from the French term "Conte de Fees," which was a label given to a couple of tales written for adults in the 17th century (Windling).

Many people are not aware of the fact that even the magical stories that are told to children today, Sleeping eauty, The White Deer, Donkeyskin and Cinderella (to name a few), are in fact adaptations…

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Despite their differences, these versions do also have aspects in common. In each tale, it is true love which saves Sleeping Beauty from her slumber. After she is revived, she marries her prince charming and lives "happily ever after." All three versions also tell of Sleeping Beauty as the long awaited only child of a loving king. In the "Sun, Moon, and Talia" as well as the alt Disney version, Sleeping Beauty is sixteen when she falls into her slumber. These similarities show the importance of certain social conceptions concerning patience and the value of true love.

Resources for Further Reading

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. Penguin Psychology. 1991.

A new look at classic Fairy Tales, Bettelheim explores these tales and how the educate and liberate the minds of children everywhere. This work looks at the hidden psychology found within many commonly known fairy tales such as "Sleeping…

Sexuality in Specific Fairy Tales Analysis
The issue of sexuality in Disney cartoons has been controversial for a long time. The present paper has the purpose of describing and analyzing the specific sexuality in three Disney stories. These are: Little Red Riding Hood, eauty and the east, the Little Mermaid.

It is true that adults watch cartoons as well, but the main target is represented by children. For them cartoons- filmic realizations of fairy tales- are full of truths. From this point-of-view it can be considered that fairy tales teach young children a lot of things, influencing their values as future adults. Their importance is more than obvious. The most famous cartoons include girls and boys as main characters. It is normal for them to be using stereotypes, but to what extent can the gender stereotypes become harmful? Let us take a look at three Disney cartoons representing three universally…

Tales Are Not Just Children's Play -- The Importance Of Folklore In College Education
Although fairy tales are often considered to simply exist as palatable and easy to understand tales for children, this has more to do with the modern legacy of Disney cartoons than the actual genealogy of this literary tradition of oral narrative. In fact these stories did not originate as tales to ensure that young people behaved in a proper and decorous manner. Rather they are quite literally, tales of the common folk (hence 'folktales' or 'fairy tales') and populace. These tales provide snapshots of common cultural values particular to a people and to a cultural tradition. The Brothers Grimm quite explicitly attempted to catalogue oral narratives of their native, rural Germany, providing a bloody chronicle of the sociological values and assumptions of this heritage. Even though Hans Christian Anderson attempted to construct his stories more obviously…

Disguise in Fairy Tales Deceit is the purpose of disguise, whether it is well-meaning or not. Cinderella dons the disguise of a beautiful princess to win the heart, mind and affections of the handsome prince. The wolf in Grimm’s “Red Riding Hood” dons the disguise of Red Riding Hood’s grandmother in order to eat the girl after he has already eaten the grandmother. In The Ballad of Mulan, the girl dons the disguise of a man to fight in the Chinese Army. In all three cases, disguise is used to deceive, though the intention would not seem to be malicious in every case. However, in Anne Sexton’s modern re-telling of Cinderella, there is a hint of outlandishness about the Cinderella tale that gives the story an ironic and satirical ending: the prince and Cinderella live happily ever after because they stay eternally youthful, never have to deal with children or…

Holes by Louis Sachar
Louis Sachar makes this fantasy story seem realistic by the way he intertwines the elements of fantasy or supernatural, with the everyday things that are going on. The story opens with a description of Camp Green Lake, a very brief glimpse in to why anyone would go to a lake where there is no lake and moves to Stanley's arrival at the camp. The more or less mundane discussion of Stanley's problems in school, his problems with the bully, his arrest and conviction of a crime he didn't commit, and the constant failure of his father's experimenting create an atmosphere of a gritty realism. Then, in the midst of this, Stanley begins thinking about his, "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-great-grandfather." It is, a family joke. "henever something went wrong, they always blamed Stanley's no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-great-grandfather.

Then the realism starts being bent. Stanley meets Mr. Sir. He gets his "camp clothes." He…

Carroll / Burnett
ithin the English canon of literary fairy-tales -- what German literary critics would refer to as a "marchen," or a conscious attempt to write imaginative literature, with some level of artistry, for children -- both The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Alice's Adventures in onderland by Lewis Carroll seem to have withstood the test of time, and attained a level of canonicity. Yet to call these books mere fairy tales -- no matter how literary -- is to underestimate the influence that adult literary genres have upon the composition of children's classics. The simple fact is that, although the Alice and The Secret Garden are obviously children's books with child protagonists, each one manages to take a genre more obviously intended for adult readers and try to make it viable for young readers. In the case of The Secret Garden, the books affinities to Gothic…

The three girls identified with the Disney princesses. My youngest sister was Princess Aurora of the Sleeping Beauty, and displayed being playful and an animal lover, seen as playing with imaginary animals that included birds and mouse, dogs and cats. My other sister played the character of Snow White who was very accommodating and seemed to be the one sweeping around their "house." The third girl, a neighbor, was Cinderella who was also "helping" with the household chores. The boys on the side were playing fighting swords and was shouting and grunting. They also appear to be all around the place. As the afternoon progresses, the girls engaged in quiet and organized play, while the boys shifted from heroes to villains, as long as there is active play involved.
These portrayals of characters as played by the children show how models affect their behavior and gender roles. This is not…

Magic beings in fairy tales [...] importance of magic beings and fairies in fairy tales. Today, fairies are a popular form of fantasy that comes to life in a variety of way. One of the most traditional homes for fairies and other magical beings are fairy tales, created for children but loved by all ages. Some of the most beloved fairy tales contain fairies and magical beings that are central to the plot, the moral, and the essence of the stories. Without fairies and other magical beings, these tales would lose their magic, and their universal appeal.
Fairies are magical beings that inhabit many of the world's most famous fairy tales. Children old and young are familiar with many of these tales from Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty and beyond. Fairies and magical beings are part of what make these fairy tales so delightful and so memorable. Not all fairies are…

grand cycle is never ending. The series of creation, existence, and destruction, from the first moments of the big bang, to the empty, icy death of the universe never stops. Just like a circle with no end or beginning, the universe spreads and collapses, condenses and ignites repeatedly. How many universes exist and whether or not they interact or fuel each other is unknown. What is known is a universe exists as one single drop in a sea of many. Your thoughts, your actions, they all have potential to birth a TW world, a dream, an existence.
Such a being created this universe and its name is Luma. The god Luma, born during the process of cycles, came to create light in its TW world and took the form of a young woman, colorless, with eyes of stars and hair of comet trails. She used the light of fire and…

Eventually, she rejects the child entirely, telling her husband that she cannot see the child anymore. Moreover, she is not content to withhold her own love and affection from the child. On the contrary, when her husband employs a babysitter, the mother is threatened by the girl's competence and makes the father fire her. In this way, she absolutely fulfills the fairytale elements of the evil maternal figure, playing a role that is traditionally filled by stepmothers in these stories. Not only does she refuse to love her child, which could be explained away by the character's obvious struggle with mental illness, but she takes knowing and intentional actions to make sure that her son is deprived of any type of maternal love.
The finally fairytale theme present in "A Sorrowful oman" is that of the rescuing male. The husband in the story is portrayed as actively compassionate. He sends…

Tales
Charles Perrault was responsible for collecting and adapting many of the fairy tales best known to contemporary audiences, and his collection of Stories or Fairy Tales from Past Times with Morals, also known as Mother Goose Tales, offers a unique insight into both the evolution of fairy tales in general and the socio-political context of Perrault's own writing. In particular, Perrault's use of domesticated and wild animals in certain tales shed light on the gender and class conflicts that under-gird both the stories themselves and Perrault's own historical context. By performing a close reading of Perrault's "Little Red Riding Hood," "Puss in Boots," and "Donkeyskin," one can see how Perrault uses domestic and wild animals in order to reinforce notions of gender that idealized male autonomy and proactivity while condemning female exploration, in addition to simultaneously supporting the preexisting class structure that impoverished the majority while rewarding the nobility;…

[1] However, in his greed he puts on his finger a ring that had belonged to the giant, and this ring forces the man to cry out, "Here I am! Here I am!" In order to save himself from being discovered, he bites off his own finger to make the magic stop. Then, lost in the wilderness, the ex-robber tells of frightening forest-entitities, including a woman who is going to commit infanticide and feed her own child to a group of men. The man makes her instead cook a hanged robber for dinner, and, having hung himself in a tree in the place of the robber, has a chunk of his flesh removed from his side to be eaten. In the last story, Giants are frightened away by thunder. The Queen is pleased by the stories and released the man's children. (Grimm)
In the Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and…

This has been interpreted as overprotective behavior and is directly linked to being a parent. One cannot be overprotective of a child he or she does not have. It is only logical to conclude that the witch is to Rapunzel a sort of a stepmother; also, one could gather that the witch wanted Rapunzel not only to hurt and get back at the child's natural father, but for her own benefit. She has also been interpreted as a motherless child who steals someone else's offspring in order to fill the void in her own life. Consequently, the witch in Rapunzel cannot be seen as a purely evil character, a typical antagonist who seeks the destruction of the protagonist at all costs. Her refusal to accept the prince and to offer the young girl a chance to fall in love could be explained by maternal jealousy and overbearing parenting. Also, the…

Tale
An intergalactic space mission from Earth tries to create a scientifically-based cooperative. The name of the ship is the Nefertiti, after the ancient Egyptian Queen. Captain Reeftart, his first mate Jane, and their enthusiastic crew first set foot on the friendly planet Stauron. The Stauronians share the Earthlings' hope for an interplanetary federation based on science. Although the Stauronian leader Glastia is skeptical, Reeftart believes that the Dirgonians will be receptive. However, Dirgon is a xenophobic, insular, and isolationist planet who, though benevolent, do not generally support measures to collectivize resources. Reeftart's optimism is tempered by Jane's pragmatism.

Faced with the potential for failure, Reeftart conspires to trick the Dirgonians into starting their own collective; he believes that if the Dirgonians believe that they initiated the idea they would feel fully in charge. Reeftart obviously knows little about Dirgon or their core culture, for when the Nefertiti arrives on…

Tales
Forces Beyond Their Control -- hat does not kill you, makes you stronger in the fairy tale as well as the real world

The idea that what does not kill or harm you makes you stronger is a popular cliche. However, in many fairy tales, this theme is underlined by the introduction of a protagonist whom is regarded as weak or strange by society, but whose personal gifts not only enable him to overcome this negative self and societal impression, but also ultimately help him or her to deploy what at first seemed to be a negative characteristic, in a positive fashion.

For instance, at the beginning of the first Harry Potter book, the young Harry Potter is a wizard whom is still unaware of his identity. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter is forced to live amongst Muggles, of whom he is the disfavored son,…

Tales and Nursery hymes
Children's rhymes and fairy tales serve as a fun and interesting way to teach children moral lessons At least, that's the modern interpretation of what nursery rhymes and fairy tales are meant for. The history of nursery rhymes and fairy tales is a lot darker than their modern use suggests. They are filled with violence and abuse. These relics of the middle ages and renaissance are filled with references to death, plague, and in some cases, even torture. This paper will take a look at several nursery rhymes and classic fairy tales and evaluate their hidden meaning.

A beloved children's nursery rhyme is the old woman who lived in a shoe. The first image that comes into one's head when this rhyme is mentioned is that of a kind old lady chasing after her myriad of children. But closer analysis of the rhymes reveals something more…

Nature of the Universe
The term fantastic insinuates that it has to do with matters extra-terrestrial. It has to do with the world beyond the conventional one that we interact with at the physical level. Tolkien has an obviously clear view of what it is in relation to the value of creative thinking and imagination. Literature is created from the primary imagination which is also referred to as an echo from the primary imagination. This is also the force and living power behind all human perception. This is a repetition of the eternal act of creation as is encased in the creation by the infinite "I AM." The fairy story and triology are nothing but creation. It is the crafting of the secondary universe by imagination. Essentially, that aspect is the outstanding activity of the maker of the fairy story. This is what sets such a creator apart and makes…

The first reading allows the individual to react to it on a personal level, to relate the story of the tragic lovers in terms of his or her own experiences with love (Walker, 1995, p. 13). But secondary and tertiary (and so on) readings allow the individual to connect to the story on deeper and increasingly abstract levels so that an analysis of this story might come to understand it as a story of the temporary death of the individual and its potential and even expected rebirth as part of a universal mother, a submission of the identity of daughter and son into the more primary identity of creation and life. An individual who follows an analysis along such a path can explore his or her own feelings about love and loss, about autonomy and dependence, about fear and acceptance.
However, within the clinical setting, the client must choose his…

Unconventional Children's Tale
"A Very Old Man ith Enormous ings: A Tale For Children" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a lot of things. It's a great story, it's a satire on organized religion, it's a perfect example of magical realism, and - to be brief - much more, but one thing it is not is a conventional tale for children.1

hen one thinks of children's tales, what does he/she think of? Perhaps the images that are conjured up are princes and princesses, magic castles, big bad wolves, etc. hat doesn't come to mind is a very old man with enormous wings, who is "dressed like a ragpicker" (Marquez, 1955, p. 337). And as Marquez (1955) tells the reader in further detail, "There were only a few faded hairs left on his bald skull and very few teeth in his mouth, and his pitiful condition of a drenched great-grandfather had taken…

Nights at the Circus" is a fairy tale in the modern times. It revolves around the circus star, Sophie Fevvers, who is half-human and half-swan, and who is the passionate object of professional and moral pursuit of Jack Walser, a devout journalist who must seriously investigate into the truth or falsity of this half-human, half-animal phenomenon. Fevvers is surrounded by equally phenomenal characters, such as the prophesying pig named "Sybil,," the clown offo, the circus owner Colonel Kearney, Mignon and Lizzie. Wasler's intense investigation leads him to join the circus team, disguised as a clown, in order to complete and satisfy his obsession of getting to the bottom of Fevver's mysterious person and reality. In the course of their togetherness -- which begins in London, proceeds to Petersburg and Siberia and returns to London --, it is Wasler who transforms from his selfish point of reference to a childlike one,…

Tale Problem
The Enchanted Cloak and the Land of Prosperity

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom so vast and so wide that the kings of the surrounding empire sought for control. Now this land was not only vast, but it was the home of an enchanted queen, who had been blessed and cursed by a witch. Blessed, for her kingdom and her land would forever flourish in the hands of the ruler. Cursed, for her castle would forever be plagued with monstrous beasts as her servants. Cursed, for the queen herself would forever be confined within her tower, for the enchantments that surrounded her home were far and many.

Yet the kings of the surrounding magical land sought to claim the hand of the queen and the land of enchantment. For whosoever retained ownership of such a land -- and whosoever married such a queen -- would also…

Cross-Cultural; Study
Plot

The plot of the fairytale of Rip Van Winkle is such that it moves from the current time in the tale, then skips twenty years ahead all crumped up in one night and back to the present time. RIP goes out into the woods and gets attracted by the spirits into their cave in the rocks where he gets drunk and passes out for the whole night. When he wakes up he finds himself not in the cave of the bearded and strange men but in the woods, in his hand a rusted gun and his Wolf dog missing, his clothes are tattered and his beards overgrown. When he returns to the village, things have changed, many buildings he knew yesterday were strange and the people in the village are all strange. It was upon enquiry and interacting with the people that he realizes he had actually…

The hungry birds in the sky pecked away at the bread. The presence of the birds was an independent event unrelated to the travails of the children: it could not be foreseen and would have not made getting loss more or less probable if Hansel had used stones. But with bread, alas, that was not the case.
"Don't the leaves of the trees look strange?" said Gretel. The conifers of the evergreen trees around the children were organized in perfect Pascal's triangles. The strangeness of the land of probability was confirmed when they came upon a gingerbread house covered with chocolate shingles and lollypops in every permutation of the colors of the rainbow (Hansel and Gretel calculated the possible combinations). Had the children been less hungry and weary they would have further calculated a subset of probabilities that the individual who owned such an abode was likely to be a…

The ible, he argued, cites the creation of Eve for Adam as proof that a wife is man's support, as well as many other examples of humble and devoted wives.
The knight told his brother that he desired a young wife, who was no older than thirty, for she would be more pliable. Placebo cautioned that it takes great courage for an older man to marry a young woman (Classic Notes, 2004). He warned him that a young woman who married an older man may have ulterior motives, which the man would never know until he was married. Despite the fact Placebo has a wonderful wife, he understands what faults she has and advises January to be aware of who he marries.

The brothers argue about the merits of marriage, with Placebo predicting that January would not please his wife for more than three years, but Placebo eventually agrees to…

Brothers Grimm
One Linguistic Feature in the Brothers Grimm: Pronoun Usage

The Brothers Grimm is a collection of fairy tales. There are many linguistics features used in the tales, partially because the Grimm brothers were linguists during their lifetimes. It would be only natural that they would incorporate some of that into what they wrote for others. The linguistics feature focused on in this paper is the use of pronouns. Six fairy tales will be used to discuss and address the pronoun usage of the Brothers Grimm, so that comparisons can be drawn. The reason behind this is that some scholars and others are very interested in the way the Brothers Grimm addressed pronoun usage, since they originally wrote in German. The gender of the nouns and the way the pronouns were used were said to not always match up, at least in translation, leading one to wonder why they…

supportable logical textual evidence written component options. You analyze primary texts relevant question principles close reading -- noting items word choice, similes, metaphors, connotations, .
"Beauty and the Beast:" Fairy tale vs. cinema

The story "Beauty and the Beast" is one of the most popular juvenile fairy tales of all time. It has also been a potent source of metaphor for many authors and filmmakers. One of the most famous written versions of the fairy tale for children is one authored by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. Beaumont uses the story in a didactic fashion, both to illustrate the values of Beauty and the superior values of the countryside. hen Beauty's family is located in the city, her sisters adopt the shallow and superficial values of the city and refuse to associate with people of their own merchant class. Only after being humbled in the countryside does the youngest daughter…

Beauty Beast
Judgment and Superficiality in "Beauty and the Beast": Parsing a Fairytale from a Postmodern Perspective

It is the conceit of nearly every epoch to assume that certain ideas, perspectives, and frameworks are new or unique to the current time, and with postmodernism this has extended to the notion of purposefully and meaningfully fragmented texts. That is, many postmodernists view fragmentation and purposeful alienation from reality -- truly, a questioning of what constitutes reality -- as the quintessential and definitive postmodern element (Erb, 51). hile it cannot be denied that the postmodern period and postmodern works frequently embrace and utilize such fragmentation, and while perhaps no era has used it to the extremes or with the prevalence as the postmodern era, it must also be acknowledged that concepts of alienation from truth and reality are not new to the period, though they were dealt with quite differently in earlier…

Cinderella
Fairy Tales, especially old classic versions of children stories, revolve around one central theme i.e. A person must struggle against odds in order to eventually receive the coveted reward. These stories are usually simple and lucid as the target audience is not cognitively ready to grasp more complex issues and subjects. Grimm Brothers are a popular name in this connection and their many fairy tales including Cinderella and Snow White are every child's favorite. These stories are meant to provide entertainment but they also offer important moral lessons in disguise. "Despite all the criticism, fairy tales survive because of their greatest strength: the enduring lessons of life expressed in few and very simple words." (Schulte-Peevers 1996)

For this paper, I have chosen Cinderella to analyze the theme of struggle. Do fairy tales prepare young children from struggles of life? This question is indeed important and thought provoking because it…

Cultural Review
Film and Culture

The Grimm brothers began collecting folktales around 1807 and began a legacy that has been ingrained in popular culture. Although the tales that they collected were representative of the culture at the time, the brothers worked to canonize some of the archetypes that were present in their day. Instead of seeing them as just random works of literature, the brothers were able to identify various themes which served as the main focuses on their fairy and folk tale. These themes seemed to be generally available in the stories that the two individuals documented just as they are also present today. These archetypical characters which formed can make one wonder whether it is the culture that shapes the story or whether it is the stories that shape the culture.

Very few Grimm's Fairy Tales deviate from the stereotypes of the hero, villain, and damsel in distress…

Forests in Children's Lit
The Dark Forest of Fairy Tales

Fairy tales are rightly seen by many authors and critics from Jung to runo ettelheim as repositories for archetypes and for vital social messages. Additionally, they must be seen as a literary genre by themselves, and elements which may be seen archetypically must also be taken in terms of their literary function. In this light, one can study the role of the forest in fairy tales both as a reference to the archetype of the dark forest and as a social reference to the land outside civilization, and simultaneously be aware of the way in which the forest operates as a literary device to isolate the characters quickly from their familiar world by placing them into another realm. The ways in which forests seem to function in fairy tales to isolate the characters ranges from the very physical to the…

Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Maria Tatar, a professor of German at Harvard, is partial to the Tales of the Brothers Grimm, who she claims purged the collection of references to sexuality but left in "lurid portrayals of child abuse, starvation, and exposure and fastidious descriptions of cruel and unusual punishments, including cannibalism" (Showalter Pp). Says Tatar, "Giants, ogres, stepmothers, cooks, witches, and evil mothers-in-law are driven by a ravenous appetite for human fare" (Showalter Pp). Indeed fairy tales always possess the elements of evil, whether in the form of monsters, step-mothers, or sorcerers. The list of how evil is presented in fairy tales is endless. However, one thing is for certain and that is there is always a duel between good and evil within the fairy tale motif.

Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" possesses many elements of the fairy tale motif. However Stanley Brodwin sees it as an…

Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1909 "The Secret Garden" is one of the best loved children's stories of all time. As with most children's stories it is based on the fairy tale motif.

No one really knows the exact origin of fairy tales, in fact they seem to have originated in that timeless realm of their subjects (Harischandra Pp). J.R.R. Tolkien describes the realm of fairy tales as "wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there ... beauty that is an enchantment ... there it is dangerous ... To ask too many questions, lest the gate should be shut and the keys be lost" (Tolkien pp). Fairy tales generally have elements of good and evil, often portrayed by evil stepmothers and fairy godmothers, and usually a fair maiden as the protagonist. Burnett modernized the fairy tale motif in "The…

Trace the roots of many of the traditional cannon of fairy tale - Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty etc. - and women and children are often subdued by the establishment. Stardust's suggestion that there might be greater things inside all of us seems perfectly in line with traditional fairy tales.
If, however, you believe in more traditional gender roles and are very conservative in regards to family structure then Stardust may present a problem namely, that homosexuality is okay. To those coming from the hard right, Captain Shakespeare's effeminate behavior behind closed doors (or in the closet), and his revelation to the crew that he enjoys cross-dressing and they're subsequent reveal that they already knew, Stardust is definitely a challenge to the status quo. Even the heterosexual romance between Tristan and Yvaine pushes the limit as they are shown in bed together on more than one occasion. Magic and the…

Red Riding Hood and its variants is one of the best known fairy tales, but the different versions of a little girl's experiences while going to visit her grandmother have textual differences which serve to change the tone, if not the overall arc, of the story. However, these differences can actually help one to understand the wide range and reception of fairy tales, because even though different versions of "Little Red Riding Hood" have very obvious textual differences, they nonetheless maintain certain elements necessary to identify any particular version as a version of "Little Red Riding Hood" in general. By comparing Charles Perrault's "Little Red Riding Hood," the Grimm Brothers' "Little Red Cap," and an anonymously authored tale from Germany and Poland called "Little Red Hood," one will be able to uncover the narrative elements necessary to identify a fairy tale as a variant of "Little Red Riding Hood." In…

Bluebeard
The story of Bluebeard is a famous one, although not as often retold as some of the happier stories like "Cinderella" or "Sleeping Beauty." One of the reasons for this is that the story of "Bluebird" does not end happily, nor does it allow the hearer to vicariously imagine him or herself saved from a life of poverty or despair. Fairy tales were told not only to entertain but also to instill wisdom and teach the listener important lessons about proper behavior. The concept was that if a young person, particularly a young female, emulated the behaviors of the virtuous characters in these stories, then perhaps they too would be saved from a miserable life of destitution and depression. This tale, then, is an advisory both about who you choose to marry and about the dangers of disobeying your husband. Critics have argued about what the purpose of this…

China and the far east represent such areas and naturally they are a threat to Turkey. One ways of fighting against this threat is by encouraging the local creativity to develop and by promoting it abroad.
Another important issue that can be discussed is repr4esented by the impact of fashion upon the Turkish society. One might argue that the Turkish society is so different from the western one that it is impossible for fashion to actually have a profound social influence. This is not true. On the one hand the attack of the media is extremely intense and there is no way to prevent girls and women to come in contact with them. On the other hand, keeping them away from the media is not a solution, even if the purpose would be that of defending culture. The right way to proceed about it is to allow women to decide…

This is perhaps most notable in the punctuating words of the witch. "One midnight gone!" cries the witch at the mid-point of the first act, then sings "It's the last midnight," before she leaves the play. The return to the words and themes of the woods is the only constant of the play. This is because the play is about journeys, not about coming to some final moral conclusion. The woods, unlike the safety of the home, is unpredictable -- not even the witch knows that the spell she weaves to regain her beauty will deprive her of her magic, or that the golden floss first provided by the baker will come from her own beloved, adopted child Rapunzel.
Interestingly enough, Rapunzel is the one character who never says 'Into the Woods,' and when other characters provide often humorous reflections on what they have learned in the woods, such as…

Moral Messages in Children's Literature
I chose four children's classics: Charlotte's web (1952) by E.B. White, and other three children's fairy tales, two by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm (Cinderella and Snow white and the seven dwarfs) and one by Charles Perrault (Sleeping Beauty). These were among my personal childhood favorites. Looking back on all four as an adult, I see many similarities, but also many differences, in these books' inherent moral messages. All have been positively reviewed (e.g., have received awards or good critical reviews, and/or have stood the test of time). Each contains many distinct moral messages, some plain, others less so. Each also deals with situations that require moral decisions.

Charlotte's web

Charlotte's web is a story about eight-year-old Fern, who, while growing up on a farm, loves and nurtures a pet pig, Wilbur. Wilbur grows up (with help from Fern and various animal friends, including a wise…

Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell Without knowing that a ball turret is small place in a B-17, we would not understand the central metaphor analogizing the mother's womb to the ball turret, which is essential to understanding that the poem is about the contrast between the warmth of a mother's love and the cold dehumanizing treatment of the "State" where he is just another soldier.
Common Ground by Judith Cofer Before reading the poem, the title seemed quite self-explanatory, I figured the poem would be about finding common ground between people, and in a sense it is, but the message, after reading the poem, is much starker. It is more about the inescapability of aging, the common links that tie generations as the young get old and realize the commonalities they share with their parents.

Hazel Tells LaVerne by Katharyn Machan Knowing the fairy tale helps…

Education - eading
Violence in Folk Literature

The primary question of the paper is: is there too much violence within the texts or narratives of folk literature? Before the answer is provided, another question appears after this one -- they are too violent compared to what? The question, is there too much violence in folk literature, such as in the Brothers Grimm tales, implies a comparison, but the comparison is incomplete. Are the fairy tales by the Brother Grimm violent? That is affirmative. There is often explicit violence and cruelty in these tales that are supposedly for children, but if readers of the 21st century want to evaluate or qualify the level of violence present, readers and education professionals need to provide standards and criteria by which to gauge the levels of violence. The Brothers Grimm were born into 18th century Germany. Are we comparing the violence and cultural standards…

Hansel and Gretel
In the first paragraph, Bruno Bettleheim discusses the very real predicament of a man and woman without money who have little children to care for and little mouths to feed. He states, "Even on this surface level, the folk fairy tale conveys an important, although unpleasant, truth: poverty and deprivation do improve man's character, but rather make him more selfish, less sensitive to the sufferings of others, and thus prone to embark on evil deeds" (273). hen one is need, the instinct is to feel concern more for oneself than others, even if those others include your children or other relatives. Though parents are supposed to have a protective instinct towards their children, this instinct can be limited when the extermination of the self is imminent.

Children are complex psychological creatures. In "Hansel and Gretel," the children begin the story in a crisis. They are cognizant that…

Badlands
Formalism Meets Realism in Haunting, Childlike Badlands

Terrence Malick's 1973 film Badlands blends formalism and realism to produce a genre film (crime, American, gothic, romance) that is at once self-aware, genre-adherent, genre-breaking, realistic, cinematic, artful, and genuinely objective in its depiction of an a subjective childhood experience. The film's sound and editing contribute to the overall feel of the film, which is deliberately romantic, innocent and haunting -- as though the characters were living out a violent Peter Pan fairy-tale in the real world without realizing their own culpability. This paper will discuss Badlands from the standpoint of formalism, realism, editing and sound in order to show how Malick approaches the horrifying story of a serial-killing couple in a fresh, imaginative, sympathetic, subjective and yet amazingly objective way.

The sound of the film is guided by a score that repeatedly uses the "Gassenhauer" of Orff's Schulwerk (German for "school…

Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer
Chaucer appears to create the Wife of Bath shine intentionally from the rest of the characters in the novel; she has been possibly one of his most controversial figures since her contradictions as to what she states and just what she does. The writer's formation of her character offers one significant objective which has been to surprise his readers. Chaucer chooses to consider each and every bad attribute that ladies were thought to have in those times and also the outcome has been Alisoun. This kind of vivacity and boldness had been seldom observed in female fictional figures of that era (Oberembt 287).

The Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer

Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales had been written towards the end of the Fourteenth century, however it was left incomplete. It has been setup as numerous stories within one story. The primary frame has been a travelling crowd…

These are some of the arguments that Ingraham deploys to illustrate the gender, race, and ethnic nuances of wedding advertisement and the wedding industry.

ccording to Furstenberg (2003), the problem regarding teenage childbearing is misplaced. Instead of seeking ways to limit it, one should ask why it is problematic. Shattering many of the myths of teen childbearing -- showing, for instance, that many of the mothers do go on to become productive members of society (sometimes on a footing with 'regular mother), and that these mothers ultimately acted better for themselves than had they married the person who would have, likely, ruined their lives, as well as that there is little statistical numerical difference between the numbers of white and black premarital birth, and that teenage birth was always common but only became problematic when it occurred outside marriage (starting off first with the Blacks and then progressing to Whites)…

tales we know to be true. They begin with "once upon a time." They end with "happily ever after." And somewhere in between the prince rescues the damsel in distress.
Of course, this is not actually the case. Many fairytales omit these essential words. But few fairytales in the Western tradition indeed fail to have a beautiful, passive maiden rescued by a vibrant man, usually her superior in either social rank or in moral standing. Indeed, it is precisely the passivity of the women in fairy tales that has lead so many progressive parents to wonder whether their children should be exposed to them. Can any girl ever really believe that she can grow up to be president or CEO or an astronaut after five viewings of Disney's "Snow White"?

Perhaps, perhaps not. But certainly it is true that modern popular culture contains a number examples of characters and stories…

In fact, he stresses that these stories should be read without any commentary about the possible unconscious content. "Fairy tales can and do serve children well, can even make an unbearable life seem worth living, as long as the child doesn't know what they mean to him psychologically" (Bettelheim 57). This destroys the story's enchantment.
More recently, different authors have returned to the earlier usage of fairy tales, or conveying a message about society perspectives. Catherine Storr, for example, emphasizes a feminist viewpoint. In "Little Polly iding Hood." Polly does not become a victim to the cunning of the male wolf. In fact, she outsmarts him and refutes the stereotype of men being smarter than women. Polly does not even live in a forest but in a city. She deceives the wolf by taking the bus or getting a ride to her grandmother's house. Finally, the story ends with the…

Country/Culture
China

Africa

Korea

Great Britain

North America

Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella story from China (Louie, 1982); (Carr, 2012); (Snuggs, 2007).

Chinye: A West African folk tale (Onyefulu & Safarewicz, 1994); (Nigeriaworld, 2012); (Snuggs, 2007),

The Korean Cinderella (Climo, 1993); (Shapiro, 1993); (Snuggs, 2007).

Tattercoats: An old English tale (Webster Steel, 1976); (Advameg, 2012); (Snuggs, 2007).

The rough-face girl (Martin, 1992); (Native Languages of the Americas, 2011); (Snuggs, 2007).

Names of Cinderellas

Yeh-Shen

Chinye

Pear Blossom

Tattercoats

Rough-Face

China

Nigeria

Korea

Great Britain

Algonquin Indian

Time Period

"In the dim past," according to first publication in 850-860 AD

"Long ago," according to the book published in 1994.

"Long ago," according to the 1993 book.

"…there once dwelt"

"Once, long ago" according to the 1992 book.

Treatment

"Treated roughly and not allowed to go to the springtime festival to choose her marriage partner."

"Chinye must run a dangerous errand through the forest…

Furthermore, governments were making education more secular in nature due to the growth of scientific thought (loyno.edu). As a result, Religion was viewed skeptically by many people, particularly educated ones at the time.
The youngest son is skeptical. He sees the problems of the society, but holds himself above them. His unwillingness to engage in life around him causes him to be easy prey for the evil one who does not even have to deceive him; he is fooled by the wind as he waits for it to change. He waits too long and is lost like his brothers.

Only the wise man's daughter is left with him and he has given up hope of understanding life after death. Now, he has only a blind daughter to comfort him. She is the embodiment of the traditional female as the reader sees her connected to a spinning wheel and described as…

Hans Christian Andersen
How Andersen's Writings Mirrored his Life

One of the most beloved writers of fairly-tales is Hans Christian Andersen. He was a Danish author who searched his past and that of his native Denmark for ideas that could become children's stories. The fact is though that Andersen was writing for a large audience. Though his stories may have been told in the fairy-tale genre, he was relating morals that applied to all ages, genders and ethnicities. The legacy he created by telling the tales in the manner that he did was as a children's story writer, but he wanted to be more. This paper discusses the legacy that Andersen created with his stories and the legacy he sought vs. The one he achieved.

Hans Christian Andersen has always been remembered as someone who wrote children's stories, despite the fact that he wanted to earn much more important distinction…

The psychoanalysis attempted to decipher the meaning of the most popular folk tales though the lenses of psychology and psychiatry and went as far as the archetypes of humanity presented under the form that could be digested by children. Thompson considers such attempts to generalize and explain the phenomena simplistic and rather deceptive. He emphasizes, however, the importance of the study of primitive society in coming closer to a theory regarding the origin and role of folk tales. The availability of folk tales databases from around the world made possible a conclusion regarding the globalization of the phenomena from ancient times (the Folktale, 400).

If for religious purposes or mere entertainment, folk tales are a component of childhood that can hardly be ignored. They were the first forms of the written form of art a child came in contact with. Their role is undoubtedly essential in a child's development of…

The father only sees Tom's limitations, but Tom knows the horse has been trained to follow voice commands. "Put me in his ear," he says, and he guides the horse through the woods successfully. ecause of this, evil men notice Tom and offer to buy him from the father. The father refuses, but Tom talks him into it, and tricks the men by escaping. In this scene we see Tom acting immorally, as he actively plans to cheat the men. Through this, ettelheim would probably argue that the reader has the fact that children sometimes act badly validated, making the reader less of a monster: his parents may expect him to always act well, but he has an example to demonstrate that other children besides him sometimes make mistakes or even deliberately do something they shouldn't do, and remain loveable. The reader learns that a child does not have to…

In the beginning of the story, Erendira must "bathe and overdress her grandmother, scrub the floors, cook lunch, and polish the crystal ware" (Marquez) every day. Erendira endures a difficult life for a fourteen-year-old girl, considering she was "too meek for her age" (Marquez). The life her grandmother makes her live is inhumane as she attempts to make Erendira pay for her mistake with prostitution. Erendira's prince does not arrive quickly and when he does, she leaves him. Here is where we see the story move from a fairy tale story to one that seeks to explain human behavior. Erendira takes care of herself with the money she feels she deserves. She decides to do so without a man and this makes the story modern while at the same time, very timeless, in that people are as unpredictable as they are predictable. Erendira is an independent woman in need to…

The wife's lie is revealed in "Bisclavet" because the inner humanity of the werewolf does shine through, albeit to another man. "This beast understands, feels like a man," says the king. (p.5) Ultimately, the king's friendship, a relationship forged in the male sphere of the hunt with Bisclavet is more meaningful and lasting than that of the marital bond, borne of a lie of concealment, first on the part of the man, then on the part of the woman. After the full truth is revealed and the werewolf becomes human again: "The king ran to hug him tight;/He kissed him a hundred times that day." (p.9) hen he learns that his friend is in fact a man, and also that the truth has set the man free, the king cannot restrain his lover-like affection. For the first time in the werewolf's life, the man has honest relationship that allows him…

features of residual (or "secondary") orality preserved in Voluspa, according to the criteria Ong (1982) advances?
Ong (1982) talks about how cultures in the past were only able to preserve their heritage through stories that meticulously passed down through the years (41). He says that since type was invented, importance has moved from the wise old man or woman to someone who can "discover new things" (Ong, 1982, 41). However, societies still deem some things as too important to completely lose their oral tradition. He talks about the residual orality of having to memorize certain things through mnemonic devices (Ong, 1982, 41).

However, he also talks of residual or secondary orality in another way also. He says that secondary orality is "an orality not antecedent to writing and print, as primary orality is, but consequent on and dependent upon writing and print" (Ong, 1982, 167). His analysis of the practice…

Tresspas
THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT, DIVISION ONE

SHREK, THE OGRE )

Plaintiff and Respondent, )

) Case CJ -- 2012-1014

FAIRYTALE CREATURES and LORD FARQUAAD )

Defendant and Appellant )

STATEMENT OF FACTS

Shrek the Ogre has for a fair amount of years, owned a property near the swamps -- a place more or less undesirable by the rest of the community of the town. He has lived a quiet existence, keeping out of everyone way, and in this regard has been a model citizen. He has made the claim on the property known in no clearer terms by posting signs which indicate that the property belongs to him, and any intrusion of any sort would not be appreciated. He stresses a great deal of importance for the need of privacy and therefore prefers this seclusion.

The sudden injection of the fairy…

Alice in Wonderland as Victorian Literature -- Being a child in Victorian England was difficult. They had to behave like the adults did, follow all rules, they had to be seen but not heard. Children, however, are naturally curious; unable to sit for long periods of time, and as part of normal cognitive development, consistently asking questions about the world. In fact, childhood is the period when a child acquires the knowledge needed to perform as an adult. It is the experiences of childhood that the personality of the adult is constructed. Alice's adventures, then, are really more of a set of curiosities that Carroll believed children share. Why is this, who is this, how does this work? and, her journey through Wonderland, somewhat symbolic of a type of "Garden of Eden," combines stark realities that would be necessary for her transition to adulthood.

For Victorians, control was part of…