Arthur Schlesinger's Essay What Great Books Do For Children

J. R.R. Tolkien once stated, “ “Pay heed to the tales of old wives. It may well be that they alone keep in memory what it was once needful for the wise to know” which acknowledged the effect folklore has on cultures. In society it appears as if people hold on to their past and have trouble letting go of what was. They choose to remember the past instead of moving on to the future. The same can be said of a culture's view on folklore. Folklore is the history of a society, it tells their story and people have trouble letting go of their foundations. Granted, there is something special about a culture's folklore. It gives society a backbone. It gives people something to hold onto when all else seems to fade away. But although it seems society

This is shown by author Arthur Schlesinger, in his essay What Great Books Do for Children. He states, “A children’s story that promotes the idea- both unrealistic and undesirable- that young women should wait for a handsome prince to carry them off to a happily-ever after marriage in a magnificent castle” (Schlesinger 618). From this statement, it could be inferred that folklore may play a part in a person's view on the tradition marriage. If folklore influences culture strongly, and if a person is brought up being told tales where marriage is defined as a man and a woman, then it may influence people to be opposed to homosexual marriage. But if allowing gay marriage to be legal is society evolving, then folklore which opposes it hinders cultural evolution. Erich Fromm, in his essay Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem, elaborates on this same idea. He states that obedience to our past, and obedience in general, is held as a virtue in culture. Therefore, disobedience in our culture is a vice which we are supposed to strive away from. In his article, Fromm explores how, when obedience goes against morals, being disobedient can be considered a virtue. If our morals goes against being obedient and if we are being held back by our obedience, then disobedience can bring about an improvement

This idea is evident in Schlesinger’s essay when he talks about the influence that folktales, told by his mother in his youth, had on him. He goes on to state, “My mother gave me an appetite for books as well as a capacity to read them quickly. “Perhaps it is only in childhood that books have any deep influence on our lives,” Graham Greene has well said. “... In childhood all books are books of divination, telling us about the future…””(Schlesinger 617). This statement acknowledges that folklore has a heavy influence on the youth, and, consequently, has a heavy influence on society. This could cause one to infer that there can be an obedience to one's past because of the influence that folklore may have on the youth. But authors Lee Ross and Richard E. Nisbitt, in their essay The Power of Situation, contradicts the idea that one has to be obedient to their past. The authors claim that a person’s past does not dictate their actions or conscience for present decision. They say that the situation is the deciding factor in one's decision, not their personal qualities. Therefore, each new situation affects our actions and determine our emotions, not our character traits. So our situations in which we act are influenced by current behaviors and affect our choice to obey or disobey (689). By