Comparing Frankenstein's Fairy Tales And A Dose Of Reality

Many children grow up with fairy tales at their fingertips, and these fairy tales aid the development of the child. The lessons that children take away from these fairy tales consciously and subconsciously change the way that children view certain circumstances. In “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality,” Catherine Orenstein states that the presence of fairy tales has resulted in an indistinct view of reality. Orenstein considers the television shows and movies that portray love at first sight and what constitutes a happily ever after. As a result of this mode of media, many people have an image of what love should look like, but unfortunately life cannot meet these hopes. On the other hand, Maria Tatar claims in “An Introduction to Fairy Tales” that fairy tales “construct the adult world of reality” (307). Both Orenstein and Tatar discuss how fairy tales shape views of reality, but Orenstein develops her thought that they cause a blurry
A words connotation affects greatly the way a reader feels. Orenstein claims that “we first learned from fairy tales: castles and fortunes, true love and romantic destiny, and above all that most perfect storybook union, the “fairy tale wedding”” (284). By using words such as “we,” Orenstein is able to personally appeal to readers. Readers are able to see the issue as not only their own, but it groups them with other people who apparently feel this way too. This technique does not allow readers to see the flip side of the issue because they feel as if everyone is on Orenstein’s side. Tatar uses the same technique of language when she rhetorically asks, “What do we ever get nowadays from reading to equal the excitement and the revelation in those first fourteen years?’ (306). Statements and questions like these leave the audience with a feeling of unity with the author, which provide the illusion that the writer’s views are identical to the readers’