Bruno Bettelheim's The Struggle For Meaning

In “The Struggle for Meaning,” Bruno Bettelheim explores the importance of children reading and being read fairy tales. Fairy tales appear to only entertain the reader, but they may surprise you with other important elements. Through fairy tales children are able to explore hidden messages containing moral values, discovering self worth, intensifying the imagination, and help children deal with internal emotions. Moral values are conveyed through fairy tales as a way for children to learn right from wrong. Fairy tales form situations that children can relate to exposing inner pressures in a way they are able to understand. The situations provide a struggle between good characters and evil characters where they are expected to solve a problem. The evil character usually contains all the power that is used to take over the world or fight huge battles. Even though the evil character usually has more power they always become the loser. The good character usually possesses several qualities the reader is able to identify with which later becomes the hero. These two polarized characters allow the child to comprehend easily the difference between the two. As a result children are able to choose which side
A formation of structure is formed through images the child can visualize daily in turn allowing them to have a better outlook on life. Many children do not realize unconscious thoughts serve as a powerful agent in behavior. Unconscious behavior can become harmful when it becomes part of the awareness and worked through the imagination. Through the imagery of fairy tales the imagination forces positive thoughts and negative thoughts into our minds, but usually the positive thoughts outweigh the negative thoughts by far. To children positive thoughts are more manageable and they will decide to use them as a guide in everyday