*aNa*

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid. Almost everyone of us has heard , read, or been told these stories at least once in their childhood. What did we think about these stories when we were younger? Usually nothing more than Walt Disney’s versions of these fairy tales, a story for children to read enjoy and maybe even envy. In most cases these stories also had a lesson to be learned, but isn’t that how lots of things are when we are younger? In the cute little story ways we try to sugar coat situations that children need to be aware of. The situation is there and the children see what happens if someone does the wrong thing, but it is all in a happy ending children’s story book kind of way.
Stepping away from Walt Disney there are these fairy tales out there that aren’t written in this storybook kind of way. They have harsher punishments, more graphics, and less of the princess, “candy coated” elements. Lots of people say they would never read these stories to their children. But why? Yes they might be a little more scary but not enough to scare a child. In some of the other versions the lesson is so “candy coated” that the children don’t even pick it up. So what is the fairy tale used for then? Just a story for entertainment? Or is the parent still trying to get the moral through to their child?
Today this kind of fairy tale could never be read in a public school without causing a riot among parents and the public. Society today seems to try to blind children from most of the dangers and lessons that they should be learning everyday. But is that really working? Children used to get hit in school if they did something wrong, and their parents would even read them stories that had harsh punishments to get the point across. Look at what is going on in the world today with our children. They are getting into bad stuff at such a younger and younger age. So did these stories with harsher lessons actually get the message across to the children? If this is the case maybe we should go back to reading these types of fairy tales.