Archive for September, 2006

Second Blog

Monday, September 18th, 2006

At first, when I thought of popular forms of text such as fairy tales and lyrics, I did not classify them as what I consider to be literature, but the more I thought about it, the more I am convinced that whether you are reading a novel, singing your favorite song, or reading The Three Little Pigs, there is a message in the text. Though a novel and lyrics are not conveyed in the exact same manner, you can break a book down to see a deeper message just like you can pick apart song lyrics to find meaning. I think that each of the previously mentioned texts are worth teaching.

Why Fairy Tales

Monday, September 11th, 2006

When I was growing up, I was shown stories such as Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, etc. These stories are what most people would classify as a typical fairy tale, but are they too “sugar coated”? Each of the previously mentioned stories has a main character whom is at a disadvantage, goes through a hard time, and ulimately has a “they lived happily ever after” ending; this is our idea of a fairy tale. Some people might hope that fairy tales could become more true to how the world actually is, and i know that life does not always have happy endings, but as a child I enjoyed seeing Cinderella end up with her Prince Charming and I liked to watch as the Beast became a handsome man again. I believe that little children should not be shown extreme dangers of the world through childrens books and movies such as the Grimms Tales presents. They have enough time to learn about how cruel the world can be, some children even grow up with hard times from the time they are born, so we should just keep the fairy tales how they are and let children continue to expand their imaginations and have a sense of peace while they watch and listen to childrens stories.
If we read these stories without any prior preconceptions about how fairy tales are, we might learn that there is a lesson behind each fairy tale. Whether the lesson is to never give up, or be kind to others no matter how they treat you, or to see the good in all people, I think that these lessons are important if you are a first time reader.