First promt...also a little late

Hi All, Sorry my post is a day late…I was a little mixed up about the deadline. Anyway, I find the Darnton essay to be most effective in dealing with fairy tales as more than children’s entertainment. Bettelheim grapples with the fairy tale genre as appropriate literature for children because of its underlying messages and their significance in shaping children’s understanding of the world. I find this problematic, however, because I believe, as a child is consuming a fairy tale, they would not be consciously aware of the resulting self betterment from the story. To them, it is merely a source of entertainment. Dartnton, on the other hand, gets at an important point by examining the cultural origins of several different fairy tales. He makes it evident that fairy tales have only loose origins and their plots, characters, etc. can be altered to fit a certain context. For example, he mentioned that the village party, rather than the ball, is the location where Cinderella looses her slipper in the Chinese version of the tale. Psychoanalysts of the past have also looked at fairy tales for deep interpretation and analysis. Therefore, while in our modern, literate society, fairy tales have become associated with the notion of children’s entertainment, they have had many different audiences over time and they can be altered to fit any sort of context.