By Marilyn Carpenter, Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA
Fairy tales fueled my imaginary life as a child. In my play I became Snow White, Cinderella, and sometimes even the Prince when my friends insisted they must have a turn at the “main parts.” The romance of the tales captured my interest. Waiting for sleep at night, I would create new versions of the stories, always starring myself as the heroine.
My elementary students also enjoyed fairy tales. One sixth grade class, all new immigrants from Viet Nam, became absorbed in The Brocaded Slipper and Other Vietnamese Tales by Lynetter Vuong and Vo-Dinh Mai. After hearing the Vietnamese Cinderella, the title story in the collection, they started an inquiry about other Cinderella stories. That investigation led to a discovery of more than forty other Cinderella stories from all over the world.
My focus for WOW Currents this September will be on fairy tales since I relish the opportunity to explore the genre. I invite you to join in the conversation. What role have fairy tales played in your life? What experiences have you had in sharing them with students? What tales resonate with you? What are your challenges in evaluating and reviewing the tales?
My personal exploration started with finding a definition for fairy tales. In returning to my textbooks of children’s literature, I was intrigued to discover that several terms are used to refer to fairy tales:
- Wonder tales, stories that include the supernatural and magic. Some examples would be Cinderella, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast. Tales can include romantic elements and/or adventures often in the form of a quest. Some tales involve transformations, — the frog becomes a prince, or the beast is transformed through the love and loyalty of Beauty into a handsome prince. Themes in wonder tales include: kindness rewarded; good overcomes evil; the underdog succeeds against overwhelming odds; the prevailing power of love.
- Folktales, narratives that began as part of the oral tradition. Such stories were collected and written down by the Grimm brothers, Joseph Jacobs, Charles Perrault and others. Since the stories were collected from storytellers and then recorded, they have no known author. These stories are found in every culture and often have similar themes, but different settings, like the forty Cinderella stories my students discovered.
- Traditional fantasy, an all encompassing term that includes fairy tales as well as tall tales, fables, myths, legends and others. Such fairy tales feature spare plots. Michael O. Tunnell and James Jacobs write in Children’s Literature, Briefly, “Traditional tales, then, are stories of the human experience told in primary colors, the nuances of life stripped away to reveal the basic component parts: love, fear, greed, jealousy, mercy, and so on. Therefore, traditional stories from around the world are basically alike because fundamental human characteristics and motivations are universal” (p. 102).
- Modern fantasy, refers to stories that have known authors. These original stories have echoes of traditional tales. Examples of modern fantasies that are picture book fairy tales are Rumpelstilskin’s Daughter by Diane Stanley and Dove Isabeau by Jane Yolen. Some modern fantasies are retellings of familiar fairy tales with their spare plot lines fleshed out into novels. Robin McKinley’s retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty, is an example of this trend. Donna Jo Napoli also borrows the plot lines of familiar fairy tales to create absorbing novels that probe the psychological underpinning of the stories. See her Zel, Spinners, Beast, or The Magic Circle. For further reading on Napoli, see: Crew, Hilary S. “Spinning New Tales from Traditional Texts: Donna Jo Napoli and the rewriting of fairy tale.” Children’s Literature in Education 33.2 (June 2002): 77–95.
So, fairy tales are stories that may have stemmed from the oral tradition or may be original stories. We now typically experience both in a written form. Such stories include magical elements. They are often romantic in nature and can involve a transformations, quests or adventures. We have expectations that fairy tales with begin with “once upon a time,” and that the conflict will be resolved and the characters will live “happily ever after.” The authors of Charlote Huck’s Children’s Literature 9th Edition write, “In fact, part of the appeal of the fairy tale is the secure knowledge that no matter what happens, love, kindness and truth will prevail—hate, wickedness, and evil will be punished” (p. 281).
Most fairy tales that are published today are in the form of picture books. These stories feature illustrations that expand the text, providing details about the characters and the setting that flesh out the narrative. Finally, fairy tales can be found in all cultures. Here are some favorite fairy tales with lush illustrations:
- Africa – Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe
- British Isles – The Black Bull of Norroway: A Scottish Tale by Charlotte Huck
- China – Yeh-Shen by Ai-Ling Louie
- Europe – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs translated by Randall Jarrell
- The United States – Dawn by Molly Bang
Next week I will explore the value of fairy tales. I look forward to your comments.
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- Themes: Marilyn Carpenter
- Descriptors: Books & Resources, WOW Currents
I am reading a lovely new novel, Serendipity Market by Penny Blubaugh, about telling stories. Ten are invited to the Serendipity Market at the end of the world, to share their stories and help balance the world’s spin. Readers who are interested in fairy-tale retellings will definitely want to read Serendipity Market, and it could work very nicely with middle-grade and older students.
Marilyn, I find it interesting that you “create(d) new versions” always with yourself as the heroine. Do you think it tells something about your personality? I imagine some children may re-create the stories and have themselves always as the antagonist. I winder if some brain research has been done studying the roles one puts themselves into. Fairy tales to me were told to me as a child through Disney films. Which I now feel that I was robbed as a child of the exploration of my own imagination.
Laurie,
I will put Serendipity Market on my list of books to read. Thanks for the recommendation.
James,
My childhood versions of fairy tales starring me tells a lot about my personality but even more about how such imagined roles helped me survive a childhood centered around a home where children were to be “seen but not heard.” Through reading and the spark that reading provided my imagination I was able to escape from an overbearing, opressive parent. I don’t know about brain research on this topic, but I do know that Bruno Bettelheim writes in his groundbreaking book, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, about the ways that fairy tales help children surmount difficult challenges. Stay tuned for next week’s blog for more on this topic.
Marilyn- Perhaps it speaks to our age as I too, or rather all the children in my suburban neighborhood would reinact fairy tales for our families. One of the neighbors had a cement “deck” with stairs leading down to the lawn. That served as our stage. We would assign roles, practice and even have our parents costume us before presenting our play to all the neighbors. I hadn’t thought of that for years until your post, but it was a big part of neighborhood “play” when I was young. Somehow I don’t think a lot of kids today are putting on plays for their parents and neighbors. (I may be a little out of touch since I live 1/2 mile from my nearest neighbor).
Barbara.
I volunteer in a 2nd grade classroom and the children are eager to present plays. Reader’s Theater is very exciting to them. I wonder too if they are able take part in plays at home? Does anyone know if children of today present plays for their families or neighbors?
I don’t know children who put on plays for their families, but a lot of my young acquaintances incorporate fairy tale characters into their imaginative play. These are mostly girls, mostly acting out the role of princess.
My childhood memories of fairy tales are a bit darker. When I was eight or nine years old my grandfather gave me a Reader’s Digest collection of fairy tales. These were older versions, not yet sanitized by Disney. I adored them in all their bloody, violent glory (I’m not sure what this says about me). It seemed so fitting that the evil characters would be harshly punished, often executed in brutal ways. My preteen self was quite satisfied at the very black and white view of world these fairy tales represented.
Janine,
Bruno Bettelheim writes about the importance of fairy tales in providing a moral compass. Your reference to the evil characters being harshly punished is not always present in modern versions of the tales. Snow White by Randall Jarrell has such a harsh ending. The iron slippers are heated in the fire and then strapped on the witch who dances in them until she dies. In several of the Grimm versions of Cinderella, the evil stepsisters use a knife to trim their feet to fit the glass slipper. Are these versions being read in classrooms today?
Janine/Marilyn,
I wonder if you feel that those versions SHOULD be read in elementary classrooms. I also wonder if they are read in elementary classrooms if they could be compared to violent video games in desensitizing youth.
James,
I think these versions have a place in the classroom. However, I know teachers are sometimes reluctant to share such stories. The tales I mentioned, Snow White and Cinderella are not for young children. I have shared them with children 5th grade and up. Just as Janine mentioned there is a satisfaction in seeing evil get its due. Who is reading these stories and what is the response of your students? Can they be compared with the violence in video games and on T.V.? How?