How Shrek is Different from Conventional Fairy Tales
‘Shrek’
The fairy tale is one of the most common and worldwide types of children’s entertainment through centuries. According to Marcia R. Lieberman, the effects are gargantuan, as she relates: “Children learn behavioral and associational patterns, value systems, and how to predict the consequences of specific acts or circumstances. Among other things, these tales present a picture of sexual roles, behavior, and psychology, and a way of predicting outcome or fate according to sex, which is important because of the intense interest that children take in ‘endings’; they always want to know how things will ‘turn out.’”(Lieberman 384). Likewise, fairy tales teach children not only the ordinary lessons, such as good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior is punished, but also traditional gender roles, as well as what class, race, and is valued in our society. Especially, for girls, many fairy tales tend to determine a woman’s value on her beauty and their gender behavior through the female characters such as princesses they want to be.
The fairy tale exists as a common cultural tool that reinforces traditional masculinity and femininity, or gender roles. Children can relate to characters in order to identify the proper gender behaviors from the fairy tales. For instance, Cinderella is portrayed as weak and powerless heroine in the story. Cinderella is harassed from the wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Soon a prince is appeared and rescues her and lives together happily ever after. There is an issue with their depiction of women, which is negative of stereotypes. Fairy tales usually portray that men are strong, smart, and in power while women are passive, and powerless and they depend solely on a man to save their lives. In the end of the tale, the “angel” heroine are rescued from the evil character and always has a happy ending, which send the wrong sense of reality to the young girl that they need to be rescued by prince, not successful on her own accord.
The
The fairy tale is one of the most common and worldwide types of children’s entertainment through centuries. According to Marcia R. Lieberman, the effects are gargantuan, as she relates: “Children learn behavioral and associational patterns, value systems, and how to predict the consequences of specific acts or circumstances. Among other things, these tales present a picture of sexual roles, behavior, and psychology, and a way of predicting outcome or fate according to sex, which is important because of the intense interest that children take in ‘endings’; they always want to know how things will ‘turn out.’”(Lieberman 384). Likewise, fairy tales teach children not only the ordinary lessons, such as good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior is punished, but also traditional gender roles, as well as what class, race, and is valued in our society. Especially, for girls, many fairy tales tend to determine a woman’s value on her beauty and their gender behavior through the female characters such as princesses they want to be.
The fairy tale exists as a common cultural tool that reinforces traditional masculinity and femininity, or gender roles. Children can relate to characters in order to identify the proper gender behaviors from the fairy tales. For instance, Cinderella is portrayed as weak and powerless heroine in the story. Cinderella is harassed from the wicked stepmother and stepsisters. Soon a prince is appeared and rescues her and lives together happily ever after. There is an issue with their depiction of women, which is negative of stereotypes. Fairy tales usually portray that men are strong, smart, and in power while women are passive, and powerless and they depend solely on a man to save their lives. In the end of the tale, the “angel” heroine are rescued from the evil character and always has a happy ending, which send the wrong sense of reality to the young girl that they need to be rescued by prince, not successful on her own accord.
The
Bibliography: Lieberman, Marcia R. “‘Some Day My Prince Will Come’: Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale.” College English 34.3 (1972): 383-395. Shrek. Dir. Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. Dreamworks, 2001. Disney 's The Little Mermaid. Prod. Walt Disney. Disney, 1989. DVD.