Fantasy And Children During The Spanish Civil War

In most, if not all the films viewed in this class, the common event that is going on is the Spanish Civil War. This event affected everyone. For adults, I believe that realism is the best way to deal with history, but since children are the focus in most of our movies, I think that fantasy is best and I will be defending it from the standpoint of a child. This paper will examine why fantasy is the better approach when dealing with history. Fantasy is best because it allows for children to understand what is going on, fantasy gives a different perspective on the situation, and it sheds light on how children were affected during the war. Although adults might believe that realism is the best way to deal with history, I think that fantasy is best, especially when children need to understand as well. “Pan’s Labyrinth” allows one to see what was going on during/after the war, but it did it in a way that could also be

So many times children are looked over because they might not have direct hits from the war. Because they saw so much cruelty children had to find a way to deal with the war in a way that would not harden their hearts. This is especially true for the main character, Ofelia in the film “Pan’s Labyrinth”. Savannah Blitch writes about the experiences of Ofelia in an article she wrote. She is speaking of an interview that del Toro, the writer of the film, is doing. It says, “…Ofelia not only defends her brother but her own innocence and her right to keep something sacred to herself, outside of destructive binaries.” (Blitch 6). In the film, Ofelia had to defend her innocence. While this story is fictitious, this is the case for so many children during the time of the war. They had to defend their childhood. They had to find ways to cope with the harsh realities of war and the people who took part in