Bettelheim

I found Bettelheim’s “The Struggle for Meaning” to be more productive in helping me think about fairy tales as more than just children’s entertainment. I think this is because Darnton’s essay was about the oral tradition of fairy tales and the adult content they originally had. This argument did not help me as much because it focused on fairy tales in the past. On the other hand, Bettelheim presented a view that I had never considered, and one that is relevant to fairy tales in the present time. His argument was that fairy tales provide children with access to deeper meaning, arouse their curiosity, and stimulate their imaginations. Additionally, fairy tales can teach children “about the inner problems of human beings, and of the right solutions to their predicaments in any society” (Tatar, 270). This helps me most to think about fairy tales as more than just children’s entertainment because it presents a latent function, one that I had never thought about before. Fairy tales play an extremely important role in the lives of children by teaching them about the difficulties of life and making moral decisions.