The Importance Of Fairy Tales

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
The introduction of the book The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim focused on the benefits of fairytales on child development. Bettelheim talks about how important developing the child's imagination is. Developing the imagination allows children to process what they see in the world and process what they hear in stories. This gives them a good grasp on their conscience (11-12). Fairy tales allows for children to learn about problems in the real world and ways to deal with them. Bettelheim says that there is a fine line between a story holding a child's attention and not; the story must be entertaining but by arousing their imagination
Folktales are early fairy tales and they are important because it allows them to pass down history and cultural traditions. Fairy tales are important because they give children and adults glimpses into other people’s lives and shows that everyone deals with problems. Fairy tales address problems that people today deal with, “fifty or more fairy-tale books have been published in the United States which re-create traditional tales to address contemporary issues” (10). This is an important fact because it shows that fairy tales are not outdated, the issues they address are still relevant today. This goes to show that the problems we deal with in society are still prevalent; therefore fairy tales are still helpful in teaching problem solving strategies and techniques. Author talks about how fairy tales used to be most importantly used to pass down traditions and teach problem solving skills, but now the value of them is reducing as it becomes more about revenue and appealing to the most people. Fairy tales now are told not to teach a lesson but to entertain an audience. This is somewhat similar to what Bettelheim said because he said that it is important to entertain the audience but it is more important that it develops their conscience. This author is saying that at one point tales were told for this reason but that is no longer the focus.
The king figure in fairy tales for example stand for more than high power. They often idealize the dreams of lower class people. Kings would embody the ideal reality that everyone was striving to achieve. This was partially only achievable because the people writing these stories are within the lower class so fairy tales were their way of escaping their real lives. This would give a voice to their aspirations and give them an escape from their simple lives. Characters outer appearance correlates to its inner appearance. A mean witch is often dressed in dark colors because she has bad intentions. A king iss dressed well because he is the image of ultimate success. Characters are not the only aspects of fairy tales that have multifaceted meanings. Fairy tales teach lessons of self-control to develop skills to help children have control over themselves as well as their surroundings. Fairy tales ending in showers of wealth and glory are common because they teach nonmaterial rewards like pride are more important than material wealth. This book is interesting because it focuses less on how important fairy tales are to the development of children and more that fairy tales are more complex than they seem to be. They teach lessons beyond role modeling; they teach lessons about creating and executing a plan, standing up for others and believing in yourself. Author touched on points