Even though I do not agree with large parts of Bettelheim’s essay, I still have to assent to his main point: that fairy tales do have value in the upbringing of children. Not only do they help children to develop imagination and intellect but also to develop an understanding of good and bad, of right and wrong – moral values without our society couldn’t exist. In Bettelheim’s opinion this effect is achieved by exposing children to the “bad”, to death, murder and violence – all very common topics in the folk fairy tales. But what we should keep in mind is that in these classic folk fairy tales the good does not always win. Like Darnton mentions in his essay, the original ending of “Little Red Riding Hood” was that the wolf eats everybody – he is the winner. Thus, the message of the story must have been something like “stay away from wolves” or “don’t talk to strangers” or similar. But what this story also conveys is that you win if you are bad, so to say if you become the wolf. Thus, the Disney versions of fairy tales Bettelheim despises so much might have more value to the upbringing of children than the original folk fairy tales. They clearly show what is bad and what is good and make children wish to be one of the good ones as it is them who finally win. Even though this is clearly not as it is in real life, it still conveys the right values – a feature many of the folk fairy tales clearly lack.
In my opinion, many of these folk fairy tales do not fulfill the standards of modern parenting anymore. More modern versions like the Disney movies are much more appropriate for today’s society that is on average definitely much less violent than the societies from which the folk fairy tales emerged. Thinking of Darnton’s essay, we can definitely see this point. He uses folk fairy tales as a mirror of society and shows that murder and violence were much more common back then – also the reason why they are such important topics in the folk fairy tales. As these things are less common today, it isn’t necessary to expose our children to topics like that to such a degree anymore. Maybe Bettelheim should have thought of how culture had been changing during the last 300 years before declaring antiquated stories as the cure for modern problems with raising children.
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"[Darnton] uses folk fairy tales as a mirror of society and shows that murder and violence were much more common back then – also the reason why they are such important topics in the folk fairy tales. As these things are less common today, it isn’t necessary to expose our children to topics like that to such a degree anymore."
ReplyDeleteI'm not a history major, but I wouldn't be so hasty to say that violence and murder are drastically less common than they were in the days of yore. Perhaps as Vanderbilt students living in a relatively closed community, we are not exposed to it as others are. Quite the opposite, it's easy to believe that a kid growing up between red and blue street violence in Compton, CA has likely seen murder in close proximity.
Remember, fairy tales weren't the stories of privileged people; the ones telling the stories then would likely work a minimum wage job or walk the tight rope that is the poverty line today. Likewise, the "enlightened" ones of that time would now be in our shoes, going to school at places like Vanderbilt.
Don't get me wrong, I still agree that Bettleheim is misguided in his thinking that exposure to stories' unfavorable sides will solve all our children's developmental issues. Nonetheless, the current dilution of all things sinister is hardly the answer either. I wish I knew what the answer actually is, so I could sell it to a publisher and be financially stable for life.
I agree that contemporary versions of fairy tales (a la Disney) are way more user-friendly than the ones from the Grimm brothers that showcase violence to such a large degree. I found it interesting when you pointed out that the good character is only guaranteed the moral high ground and not "winning" in the end. I never thought of how children in the time of Grimm would have perceived the wolf as victorious and tried to become big and bad themselves.
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