Association of Grimms Fairy Tales with Childhood - Coursework Example

 Fairy Tales The Close Association of Fairy Tales with Childhood, a Discussion with Reference To Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Children have always been associated with stories. Fairy Tales inspire imagination into them. Grimm’s Brothers made them popular and Children’s Literature became an acclaimed genre. The close association of fairy tales with special reference to Grimm’s Fairy Tales has made it easier for their broader cultural meanings to be disguised but certainly not denied in childhood. Anthropologists argue that culture is a pattern of behaviour within a society promoted not by biological inheritance but ways of acting and thinking learned from society (Quinn 1997). Broader cultural meanings are a magnified field of thought process in children. Fairy Tales make a significant contribution to it as children are very closely connected to the stories they hear from their adults. Hence the impact of these stories becomes a major cause of concern as to whether they have deviated these children or totally denied them facts from their own cultures or the broad aspects of cultures of the world. Snow White and the seven Dwarfs, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Frog King, Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty have certainly conjured up pictures with specific cultures in the minds of children but that is not to say that these same children have been refrained from facts of other cultural issues. The stories collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early 1800s serve up life as generations of central Europeans knew it—capricious and often cruel. The two brothers, patriots determined to preserve Germanic folktales, were only accidental entertainers. Fairy Tales Once they saw how the tales bewitched young readers, the Grimm’s, and editors aplenty after them, started "fixing" things. Tales gradually got softer, sweeter, and primly moral. Yet all the polishing never rubbed away the solid heart of the stories, now read and loved in more than 160 languages. (National Geographic). It is agreeable that vast popularity of these fairy tales played with childhood psychology to make them believe and think of prototype images of people. Stories like Cinderella, Snow-white, Hansel and Gretel support the negative figure of the bad mother portrayed by Grimm’s in their stories. Children learnt from these stories but they were not the only media by which cognition was imbibed by children. So it cannot be true that these stories have marred their opportunity of learning about the world and its culture. A counter research dedicated to the study of children’s literature remarked “In many ways children's literature and fairy tale stories are on odd pairing, children's books and especially picture books after all are supposed to be child friendly, where as many fairy tales, including many of the ones that can be found here are not exactly child friendly”. The concepts of beauty, ugly, good, bad, handsome prince and cruel witches, impostors, dark jungles etc have created a typical culture in thought and behaviour of children. No doubt Cinderella creates an image of beautiful, dainty, naïve Girls. To add to it, she is good hearted, good natured but helpless and tortured by the foster sisters, who are invariably ugly and their mother who is the epitome of cruelty provokes similar behaviour in them. They try to fit into these fairy tale figures too. This has indeed disguised their faculty of social thought. Fairy Tales It has surely deviated them from logical reasoning. But it has also given them an exposure to the variety of people in the real life. It is this very disguise from the truth that attracts children to these stories.” Fairy Tale stories are Fantastic Journeys, Fairy Tales are a passing of culture, and the most famous fairy tales were penned by people whose intention it was to bring about social and moral growth.”(Why children’s literature…). Fairy Tales are an interpretation of prevalent cultures. They adapted their story versions to the suitability of children in that area and time otherwise they would not have gained so much popularity. Reaching out to the levels of masses especially those of children through stories was a natural process of growing up. So all children inculcated whatever they read or heard in these stories. This did deviate them from facts and knowledge about history, science, literature, religion and social status of many societies as nowhere do we see the mention about which king ruled the place where Hansel and Gretel lived in their cottage. It does not state which period of time it was. The illustrations do not reveal any of these perspectives. So children are left ignorant about them. But that does not mean that it was an intentional barrier for their learning. They were limited by it but they were certainly not shunned by information that was not claimed in the fairy tales. Yes, because of the dominance of these stories on the minds of little children, it did make it easier for writers to mould their minds in the way they wanted but moulding did not result into stunted growth or denial of it in any way. In fact these stories gave them food for thought. A hope in times of despair and a ‘fairy’ to depend on when they were Fairy Tales sad. Imagination was aroused, faith was invoked and positive outcomes were looked forward to in their day to day behaviour only because all stories had a happy ending. ‘They lived happily ever after’ endings gave the children optimism. Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, invoked a sense of calm and patience in dainty girls experiencing a life of hardships in family relationships. These stories gave these little girls a respite from their unhappy days as they too thought that some handsome prince would rescue them and that they would live a happy life later. Why Children’s Literature points out “This is the world of fairy tales, a strange world of magic and unparalleled human emotion. These stories are often the raw uncensored fears of the humans who created them, from dark woodlands to cannibals, incest, and wicked stepmothers, these stories tell of human history and human thought as few other things can. For as means of humanity folktales are not the thoughts and aspirations of one person but of generations upon generations of people. And each person has their own hopes, fears, and dreams. The fact that so many people have touched on fairy tales makes their interpretation in the historical purposes very difficult. For many Symbols that made the first story significant have been altered, or taken out completely, replaced by new thoughts”. Grimm’s fairy tales have also been referred to as horrors of childhood by many other contrary points of view illustrated by research. These articles claim that the fairy tales invoke horrors in children as they depict pictures of children being tortured by their own family members, by brute kings and queens, by curses which would come true and by witches and cruel step mothers. These stories talked about betrayal and distrust which had a malignant effect on children, they accuse. True to some extent that Snow white is betrayed by her own father and loyal courtier as she is abandoned in the deep jungles. That the curse of the witch who was mistakly not invited for the king and queen for their baby’s birth day eventually came true in the story Sleeping Beauty. True that Rapunzel was imprisoned in a high tower far away, unreachable by any and true that Cinderella was tortured by her three sisters and foster mother. But the happy endings in all these stories nullified the negative effect on children. This is a curious, slight but dense study, filled with revelations and contradictions that ultimately do not advance our understanding of the Grimm’s' fairy tales. If anything, Kudszus's book provides some interesting linguistic insights into the tales with a dose of psychoanalytic comments. Strangely, the thesis of this work is announced only in the final chapter: "The plots, behaviors, and aberrations that manifest in the only slightly concealed terrain of fairy-tale infamy obscure a terrifying underworld. The readings performed in this study strive for their intrinsic breaking points. The generous use of animals, even the ugly frog, made children think about these creatures with a kinder heart. This disguised the ugliness of their appearance but emphasised an inner beauty of every thing around them. Children did begin to think that way, it did camouflage their wisdom but they were certainly not stopped from thinking of a frog to be a frog because they were influenced by Grimm’s fairy tales. Fairy Tales The Grimm’s fairy tales added a new dimension to their thinking instead of limiting it. It is only because of these fairy tales that children could think beyond prevalent situations. This would give them an attitude of fearlessness and risk as adults. These stories did restrict the geographical boundaries of readers but they also gave them a travel without actual efforts. Dreaming of lands which were different, the mystique of something that was not within their reach created a sense of awe and nourished a hope in them that they could some day live in better places and meet finer people in their lives. Discussing about the relative cultures or disguised cultural information in these fairy tales This is a curious, slight but dense study, filled with revelations and contradictions that ultimately do not advance our understanding of the Grimm’s' fairy tales. If anything, Kudszus's book provides some interesting linguistic insights into the tales with a dose of psychoanalytic comments. Strangely, the thesis of this work is announced only in the final chapter: "The plots, behaviors, and aberrations that manifest in the only slightly concealed terrain of fairy-tale infamy obscure a terrifying underworld. The readings performed in this study strive for their intrinsic breaking points. Childhood is a phase of innocence with a clean mental slate. It is a soft ground for any inscriptions. Physical, geographical, social surroundings quickly emboss culture in this stage. So do stories and literature. Visual and performing art is a natural talent in most children. They express and learn from graphics, pictures and sights. These are their Fairy Tales primary media of communication. Childhood is the threshold of an adult life and therefore what is learnt or taught in this age is of vital importance as an adult. Fairy tales play a significant role as they are an inane part of this life. Close association with these makes them live the part they have identified in these stories. The Grimm’s fairy tales have captured the essence of this particular trait in childhood and have made fairy tales heart to heart part and parcel of their lives. They have made a strong connection to each child through their stories. Childhood has a strong bond between fairy tales especially the Grimm’s fairy tales. So, it is easy to govern them through these stories. This is the easiest medium to reach them and to help them reach out to the world outside their own. These stories become the culture of all children and dominate their childhood. The narrations of these stories through imaginative figures, imagery, witchcraft and unreal situations have helped in drifting them from actual circumstances. Broader cultural meanings of childhood may include issues concerning law and order, religion, wars and peace, history, era, science, literature, art and music as well as the philosophies pertaining to each of these cultures in different countries of the world. These have surely been disguised by Grimm’s fairy tales but they have certainly not taken away their basic right to learn or being taught about broader cultural aspects in any point of time. Why children’s literature elaborates about the need of children’s stories in Introduction to Fairy Tale Interpretation as “Once upon a time people told each other Fairy Tales stories for entertainment and perhaps to some extent to help transmit their culture, for in the clash of cultures as was occurring in Europe throughout the age of fairy tale people will often define themselves by such stories. However as they passed their stories on from generation to generation something happened, their cultures changed, over and over again the concerns and thoughts of the people changed, some of these changes took years, others were dramatic from conversions to new religions, famines that drove them from their homes, and invaders from other lands. And as these people changed so did their stories, morphing and evolving, these stories passed from culture to culture from person to person, and as they were passed on. Such stories will always reflect the time that they come from they will reflect in some way thousands of years of human history, for the thoughts, fears, hopes, dreams, and lives of thousands if not millions of people back each story. Childhood has an advantage of a long future ahead and to make this future a pleasant milestone to look forward to, no matter how gruesome or happy the present was to them, is the most acceptable reason of these fairy tales in childhood. Not just childhood even adults need stories to divert their minds off the real world. Then why not minds and hearts of these tender children? It is easier to nourish them with close association to stories. Disguise, works in their favour. It is true that these stories hide the broader cultural meanings from them but if the outcome of such a disguise is ultimately positive, the world has more to praise the Grimm brothers for than criticise their fairy tales as an easy ground to disguise broad cultural meaning to their world. Fairy Tales Works Cited Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales. 21 April 2009 from Reference & Research Book News November 1, 2005 | Volume 21, Number 1, 2007.21 April 09 2005 Book News, Inc. Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. 21 April 2009 from Scherland, J. The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Pantheon Books In. New York. (1994). Strauss. and Quinn, N. A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning. (1997). Terrors of childhood in the Grimm’s' fairy tales. (Brief Article)(Book Review) 21 April 2009 from 21 April 2009 from < http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/index2.html> Why Children's Literature and Fairy Tale Stories? 21 April 2009 from Read More