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The Uses Of Enchantment By Bruno Bettelheim Summary

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Fairy tales are a big part of our childhood, they are the first window to real life. In the excerpt “The Uses of Enchantment” by Bruno Bettelheim, he points out all the benefits fairy tales posses and their significance to our development. He argues that classical fairy tales in contrast to modern stories have more of the “existential anxieties and dilemmas” of life kids need to familiarize in order to have the ability to understand and have a “satisfying independent” life. Undoubtedly, modern fairy tales sanitize every unpleasant aspect of the story and leave the story as a complete fantasy leaving out any realistic aspiration. Consequently, leaving kids thinking life is an easy open road without any significant bumps. Meanwhile, classical fairy tales deal with dilemmas like morality, death, evil and love. …show more content…

Yet we are giving our kids a disturbed version of the real world we make them think life is easy and at the end we all live “happily ever after.” A big contribution to this is the stories we read to our kids, stories that have been designed to be the soothes and comforting for our children. An example of how we are purifying fairy tales is Disney stories, they make the old classical stories the cleanest possible leaving out important details and making the struggles the characters go through very unrealistic and unable to relate

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Spitz quotes directly from another author, Marina Warner, stating how fairy tales are “ stories that try to find the truth and give us glimpses of greater things…this is the principle that underlies their growing presence… “ (Paragraph 2). In Cinderella, the Grimms’ specifically use fairy tale conventions to give audiences the ‘glimpses of greater things’. Every single convention was utilized to draw back to the idea that one must disregard the frivolous forces of life and live their most sincere self, essentially allowing for audiences to use Cinderella’s story as a baseline of comparison towards their own lives. Spitz continues to remark that “An educated adult will listen with a gnawing deep-down feeling that the story merits attention and bears a species of uncanny truth” (Paragraph 8). If an educated adult were to read an article that stated their lifestyles were outright incorrect and they must disregard vanity and act more genuine, they would feel shocked and feel less inclined to listen.

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This outcome shows that only the right person was allowed through, and this prince did not have ill intentions toward sleeping beauty and just wanted to save her life. The author then goes on to mention how this kiss, which many think is inappropriate, can be explained as "giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. " Parents and teachers looking at the bigger picture of fairy tales or teaching them a modern retelling, as the author suggests, can teach kids important moral lessons that will help them in their growth. Some major claims of this essay include the author talking about the evolution of children's fairytales over the past few decades and how certain fairy tales have evolved to fit certain standards and retell beloved classics to educate children better. Next, the author uses motivational appeals by encouraging the audience, which is mostly parents and educators, to find other ways to teach fairytale topics.

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Many families have many traditions, but one tradition that is common among all households is that they read fairy tales to their children right before they put them to sleep. They do this to fill their minds with good positive thoughts and leave them with something to think about. Religion dictates the characteristics of familiar fairy tales as religion provides a moral and ethical framework for having a good life, an ideal goal parents want their children to have. On the whole, fairy tales are constantly changed to adhere to cultural or social beliefs that are deemed important by diverse people in a community.

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These stories are embellished until the no longer resemble their original state. Fairy tales are stories, often full of mystical creatures, are told to tell a lesson and often provide a clear stance between

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Daniel Ziccardi Stories typically read to small children are full of wonder and adventure to fill the child's imagination. Fairytales do exactly that. Fairytales are generally taught and read to children at a young age, either as fun stories or to teach meaningful lessons. They are extremely important in early childhood and contribute to a child’s identity and who they are. Fairy Tales teach a multitude of things such as, teaching children meaningful lessons and good morals, they make good stories for children, and they let the viewers imagination run wild.

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Movies based on the fairytales are made like this so they could have a moral at the end of the story and usually those morals are necessary in a child’s upbringing. For example: kindness, friendship, respect, bravery and

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Through imposing on traditional stories the “happily ever after” ending Disney created series of idealised fairy tales, that created unrealistic expectations in different areas of

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During the time of a Great War or great economic despair, people seek release from their anxieties in fantasy. Movies, plays, books, and other diversions drew people out of their own lives and into a safer, more glamorous world. For instance, Horatio Alger, Frank Capra and Walt Disney were known to showcase positive, idealized, and overly optimistic pictures—fairytales, some argue—that moved and inspired audiences, hence the prominence of the traditional, fairytale genre. And a trademark of this genre is having a feel good, happy ending. This appeals to mostly children and some adults, but it does not attract everyone, for some storytellers have separated themselves and have purposefully gone against this genre of storytelling by taking the controversial “anti-fairytale” approach, ending stories with a downbeat,

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The light bulb, the wheel, concrete, The Star Wars Series , The Twilight Saga, the cell phone, and almost all man made goods have been invented through using imagination. We use our imagination for so many things throughout day without realizing it. Imagination is better than knowledge for the reason that , hundreds of prosperous fiction novels, movies, and television shows were made using imagination, utilizing imagination sprouts creativity in the mind, and imagination leads to success. Fairy tale origins are dated back to a time when people’s imaginations soared. From, “Cinderella,” to, “Little Bo Peep,” fairy tales were used through imagination and have become one of the most successful ways to bring people all over the world joy.

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A lot of fairytales, at least in their original forms, tend to be places where layers, nuance and complexity are rarely found. Heroes are universally good, villains are universally bad, and the unkindness the villain

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These stories are about finding a magical instrument and some powerful characters that will enable themselves to transform along with their environments and cultures. Zipes says “Fairy tales begin with conflict because we all begin our

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