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| This is the book from home |
As I get older, in some ways, I
become more nostalgic. I want to see the shows and reread the stories that I
remember vaguely from my childhood. At home, I have a large book that contains
a collection of different fairytales. Throughout the book are beautiful
drawings to illustrate the tales. Last year I returned to this book because of
readings in my dual-credit English class.
We were reading a section over the Cinderella myth, which included some
works by Bettleheim and others. We had to write an essay over the topic and in
the course of writing I really began to reassess all of the “children’s”
fairytales that I had read.
Fairytales are, in actuality, very
violent! Throughout the whole storybook that I received when I was about 1 year
old, someone always died, usually a violent one. Tales from A Thousand and One Nights contained
people chopped up then sewed together and people burned alive by oil. “The Little Match Girl” had the main
character freeze to death. “Rapunzel” had the prince fall from the tower and gouge
out his eyes on thorns. The list can go on.
Why do we supply such stories to
children? People always talk about
sheltering the innocent. So we give them
fairytales and sing songs like “Ring around the Rosy” and “Rock-a-by Baby,” one
that is a reference to people dying in the Black Plague and the other about a
baby in a tree falling when the tree breaks (think of the words). When the story is said/sung with a smile and
sweet words our minds skip over the meaning/violence we just witnessed. Kind of makes you wonder what else you missed
in that which you embraced so enthusiastically.
In case you don't know the story:
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