Fairy Tales: Looking Back... Beginning to End.

I've always been a reader, since I was a little girl.  I'd sit in a comfy chair and drift into all kinds of worlds, any that would take me far away from chores, school, parents and to flying carpets, handsome princes and talking animals.
I feel like a lot of fairy tales have been created to create another world to fall into, and come back to the real world prepared and full of knowledge.  From this class I have learned meaning behinds the objects in fairy tales and analyzed the main parts of the story.  I have learned about the origin of tales and the ideas behind the stories.  Cultures fit into each of the stories and thus we can find out the most important values in each culture.  I learned a lot from all the different guest speakers about their cultures and how they tell their fairy tales.  There is a big difference for all the fairy tales in different cultures and their meanings to us. For example to the bangladesh culture, it is a belief for them unlike us and how we find it almost adorable to see little fairy tale motifs in movies, or even combined all together.

However there are other ways to use fairy tales other than as means of entertainment or teaching small children our values.  We can find our hurt selves in our favorite fairy tales.  Through psychological means we can sort out a mental or hidden problem by discussing fairy tales.  This is very interesting to me especially since it's hard enough to fix some mentally disturbing problems with some therapy.
From the many lessons and discussions in class i'd say some of my favorite activities would be drawing a favorite scene and giving an oral presentation on a small reading about a view point of fairy tales.  I loved watching pans labyrinth and talking about the hidden motifs.  I believe we should talk more about the modern fairy tales happening now a days. Such as in shrek, or the new red riding hood.
Overall I thoroughly  enjoyed this class because of the discussion and all the new things we learned.  I know a lot more about fairy tales then I started off with.

Fairy Tales: Dr. Mian's Lecture

This lecture was a very interesting one because of the cultures these folktales were told in.  It is very different from our way of seeing folktales.  This was very interesting to me because, many people see fairytales as a means of entertainment and small stories made for children to learn rules.  In this culture it's different, they see it as a strong belief for all generations. An example if this strong belief is the Taj Mahal, built out of a story, the tomb proves it real.  The word for fairy tales is "Ropkoth" meaning "beautiful words."   I find this very interesting because that is what fairy tales, it is necessary to inspire us and make us believe in something, because those words are beautiful.  In general, the story-line is based on good vs. evil and greed vs. generosity, vice vs. virtue.  However, in a lot of stories virtue is rewarded, like normal, but evil instead of being turned around and taught is punished and harshly.  Characters in these stories are generally demons and monsters as well as royalty.  This is somewhat normal, as well as talking animals which is very constant in some our cultures stories.  Magic is highly believed in, as well as animal-plant-monster transformations.  For example, a widely known talking animal is the "wise parrot" which appears on several occasions in the Bangladesh stories.  We also reviewed the story of Neelkamal and Lalkamal.  This was a story very similar to some of our culture's fairy tales.  There was a demon queen which is similar to the evil stepmother.  Overall these stories are somewhat similar, the difference is that they believe in their stories more than we do, they have respect for the stories and their origins.

Fairy Tales: Professor Zaru's Lecture

The thing that makes arabic folk tales and fairy tales is how many different types of fairy tales there are.  Because of the diversity in he arab world such as difference in dialects, customs, dress and food, the morals can be rather different and some virtues more important than others.  Folklore can also be told in many different ways like, dance, music and poetry.  There is an oral tradition though, and a necessary storyteller. There are 5 categories of Arab folk-tales, Kalila, Joha, Sirats, Fables of Luqman, and A thousand and one nights.  The interesting thing about A thousand and one nights, is that there are stories inside the main story.

Fairy Tales: jewish Folk tale Tradition

I find that Jewish folk tale tradition is mainly focused on religious aspects of normal life.  It compares the jewish religion to the christian and claims that jewish religion outdoes other religions.  Many of the tales had to point out the necessity of the hero being jewish.  Possibly because in older times the jewish people were disliked and oppressed by other people of different religions.  They, like the sign language community, had to create stories to make them feel better and that they had hope even though they were being oppressed.  Also like the african folk tales brings in wit and smarts to win the hero's tale.  They outdo their villains by being patient, smart, and clever.  Such as in" The Rabbi Who Was Turned into a Werewolf" which was a very great story which played on smarts and patience being the key to being the hero and ending the story rightfully.  However this story also laid out the moral not to trust women for they are truly greedy.  In other stories by jewish folk tale tradition it was clearly a tale to prove that the jewish people were stronger and smarter than the other religions.

Fairy Tales: Bluebeard

I believe my favorite Bluebeard story is "Fitcher's Bird".  The only reason I look it so much above the rest is because unlike the other stories the younger bride thinks of a way out and a way to change her future and the fate of her sisters.  She outsmarts the villain and I believe that is the thing you need the most in story.  Instead of waiting for someone to save you, you can definitely figure a way out yourself.  She thought about the situation and "put the egg aside, and then examined the house..." she found out another way to be curious and just dealt with the situation with pure thought and cleverness.  The other stories more or less let the young girl be rescued by pure chance and stalling.  The Fitcher's Bird I believe provided more of a moral to the story of Bluebeard, that there is hope.

Fairy Tales: Midterm Exam Story

Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Flower.  Flower was a beautiful kind soul with three older brothers.  One day she went into the forest to find roses for her mother.  Her brothers warned her not to go too close to the river, for it would catch her in it's waves and take her to the sea.  They told her to cross the wooden bridge and give the river some of her bread to satisfy it's hunger.  Flower went onto the bridge and threw a piece of bread into the river.  She quickly  crossed and went to find the roses her mother wanted.  When she came back she had no more bread to give, the river asked her to be with him always, craving the small child's youth and energy.  When he reached for her she threw in a rose and the thorns hurt him.  She quickly ran across and back to her home.  One day her eldest brother went walking across the bridge to cut down some wood for the fire, he gave a piece of bread to the river but the river ignored the bread and grabbed the brother within his waves.  The brother cried out for help.  His two younger brothers came running and tried to grab their brother.  Flower came running and threw a rose into the water.  The river yelled in pain and threw the brother from his waves.  The river cried, "It is so beautiful but hurts me so!"  Flower gently approached the water, "What makes you so hungry river?" The river replied, "I only wish to feel the energy I once had as a young stream, these banks are too small for me now."  Flower asked her brothers to dig deeper banks for the river.  Finally the river was peace and no longer hungered for Flower or her brothers.  Flower traveled many times to the forest enjoying the soft fall of water the river made.
The End

Fairy Tales: Cinderella "rags to riches"

"Rags to riches" is a classic tale in modern stories and movies.  It is an important part of stories perhaps because it is a common problem among all people.  Everyone dreams to be in a higher position.  People are always hoping for something bigger and better.  In the case of Cinderella, it is the hope that there is something better than being held back by a wicked stepmother and stepsisters.  The wicked stepmother, represents the actual mother ignoring a child and focusing more on her other children.  In this story the father is absent.  In the Disney's "Cinderella", Cinderella is a young girl, her father and mother are dead and she and her stepmother and stepsisters are in debt.  Due to this debt they are not able to hire servants and use Cinderella as a their own personal servant since she is not really family and the youngest.  She works so hard and is kind and patient and only hopes for her stepmother to let her become part of the family and go to the ball.  Even after she works so hard, the stepmother says no and ruins her entire evening, it is only when she has finally reached her wit's end when her fairy godmother appears.  However in other stories she achieves her happy ending solely through magic and complaint.  Many dislike this type of story, even if it inspires hope and imagination, they think it's better that children learn that they can achieve things through hard work but only when they get to the end will they get some help.  This part of the concept of "rags to riches" must not be ignored especially with children, they need to learn that it's not so easy to work your way from the bottom all the way to the top.

Fairy Tales: Lecture by Vivian Deitz

Fairy Tales represent many different meanings to people and to Vivian Deitz they represent a connection to the soul essence as well as a connection to the Inner Child.  She believes that in everyone's lives there is a "genie" or transformation awaiting to happen that will heal oneself as well as bring them peace in their life. Without imagination there is no will to hope or dream, and fairy tales give us the creative edge as well as the hope that there is something better in our lives. Albert Einstein also had the some viewpoint, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Carl Jung spoke of the conscious mind and unconscious mind and how it is connected throughout the world.  Deitz then spoke of how our brains work.  There is a left and right side, and the left side is more logical and analytical while the right side is the initiation of creativity.  She spoke of how most people these days are left brained and hardly use their right brain as much as children.

Deitz also spoke of magic and how it is a metaphor for the power of the human mind overcoming all obstacles.  Fairy tales amuse us with magic and all the events that occur in a fairy tale because there are so many unlike in our normal lives of, waking up, going to work/school, eating dinner, going to bed.  Through fairy tales we hear a wild story that captures our attentions as well as with magic which amazes us because it is unusual in our world. She then went on to talk of our personal genies.  Our personal genies represent our talents possessed but not used.  When we don't acknowledge our personal genies we ignore our authentic self.  We all need to acknowledge our personal genies so we can free ourselves and  follow our feelings.  She then went on to talk about Aladdin the velveteen rabbit fairy tales.  Aladding was all about how children act out their depression and are given the chance to start over, it also acknowledges his imagination and ability to use the talents he secretly possessed but never used. The velveteen rabbit was about the transformation of anxiety to optimism.  How after a transformation the child is well and grown up, and the use of his genie or transformation initiator also got a pat on the back and became real.  Deitz then talked about the different stages and conflicts that children deal with at certain ages, which makes it difficult for them to get along in life but it also gives them certain stories to read to help them get through their conflicts.  Overall I enjoyed the lecture very much, especially hearing about the velveteen rabbit because it was one of my favorite childhood stories.  I am fully ready to open up to my own personal genie.

Fairy Tales: ASL and folktales

I learned a lot of interesting things from Mr. Ricky Rose and Dr. Mark Rust about the ASL community as well as how they tell stories of many varieties.  Literature itself is generally composed for the eyes and not the ears.  Dr. Mark Rust composed a comparison of traditional literature and visual literature.  Traditional literature  the poetry creates images through the words, and how the poem is supposed to be read.  Prose in traditional literature also creates images through words in the paragraphs.  In visual literature, poetry is all about hand motions and emotions on faces as well as whole body movement.  Prose is also about motion, or how they are making videos from books, and movement of body for papers.
Literature has not made it easy for the ASL community to get involved.  In 1996 they removed ASL from "invented languages" to the Indo-european languages.  It goes against everything people have believed for such a long time, so it has been hard to accept their language as important as others.  Many believed that because people couldn't understand or because they didn't speak back, they were unintelligent.  However, thanks to the technology developments they are able to get more involved and communicate with each other.  The way that the ASL community tell stories is very interesting.  For example, how they tell narratives is just to inform each other and to be funny.
How the ASL community tells folktales is very interesting.  They change the stories around to make fun of the hearing community, which is very interesting but also reflects the oppression against them from so long ago.

I believe that the way the ASL community tells other from their community stories or their children stories is very interesting.  They put a lot more of themselves into it rather than just reading to them from a book.  It is almost a performance and stories form their community can be passed around as jokes about the hearing community, but it makes everything interesting and clever.  The stories that both Dr. Rust and Mr. Rose told us where very impressive and interesting.  It was more entertaining than any other story i've heard because it was a performance that was really impressive with emotion and passion put into every word.  Also the fact that in stories they do different perspectives.  It's very clear to tell which person is talking or moving.  It's like watching a movie, and there is a lot of build up.  There are perspectives as well as slow motion, close up, pan out, and many other different perspectives that can be told through sign language.  If only all stories were so moving and exciting to watch as well  as feel.

Fairy Tales: "Sonne" by Rammstein

Sonne by Rammstein

In this video there are many similarities to the fairy tale of Snow White.  For example the men who perform in the Rammstein's music video, are smaller then the girl who turns up at their door.  She looks like the classic disney snow white.  The men resemble miners, which in the disney movie is the job of the dwarves.  They give her jewels and all they work for and she gives them their fantasy in this music video.  The resemble, the sun to their Snow White.  They also show a brush and apples in the music video which are supposed to represent poison.  They also show her in front of a mirror, perhaps already her step mother.  The miners treat their Snow White as gold, the sun and their jewel which they will gladly work for.  They also show a very different scene of her snorting or taking a line of gold.  In the end, the show her getting a drug overdose of gold, perhaps overdoing her beauty and vanity is what kills her.  This music video in their own way represent the cycle of Snow White and her step mother.  She is caring and beautiful, but then gets so involved with her beauty it becomes like a poison and kills her in the end.  The "dwarves" bury her in a  glass coffin surrounded by apples, representing purity and life through its many seeds which grow into trees.  Finally one apple breaks the coffin and lands in her hands, this representing another start on life.  Or perhaps the falling from the "sky" to the ground is one's grip on reality.  Either way at the end, she comes back to life which is what happens in the story.  I liked the modern take of this music video on Snow White.  It is interesting to see a woman take so much from the dwarves, and be their shining sun and yet die because of her own need for beauty, however it portrays the real cycle of Snow White perfectly.

Fairy Tales: Poem of the Butterfly Lovers

She hid behind a boys smile
but felt a girl's flutter
the boys smile hid her hearts desire
when once he knew
he loved and asked to be only hers
but fate would not permit him to
he died without her by his side
on her wedding day she cried
as she neared his grave
in robes of white
she begged him, please
to take her with him
their love so strong
gave them both wings
butterflies flying away on the wind.

Fairy Tales: Beauty and the Beast and Cupid and Psyche

The Greek tale has a lot in common with different variations of Beauty and the Beast. A couple of things they shared with some tales would be the constant throughout most of the stories, such as the fear of being with someone who you do not know fully.  There seems to be a fear of being with a beast or a monster.  It was rumored that Psyche's destined husband was a cruel monster. She was also the youngest and most beautiful of her sisters.  Her parents were also punished and lost their daughter, and fearing for her.  The sisters were cruel and made her doubt the beast as well as dared her to doubt her love for her husband and break a bond with him.  This was also the case in the french version of Beauty and the Beast.  However her curiosity makes her sneak a look at her husband without his consent and she loses him.  This was also in the story of Urashima the Fisherman. Beauty and the Beast carried a lot of little things from Cupid and Psyche with curiosity and the plot by the sisters as well as the overall idea of learning to love.  I feel that what Cupid was really trying to teach Psyche was that falling in love doesn't mean basing it off looks but the inside, and that just because she saw him she might only love him for looks.

On the other with Beauty and the Beast is being afraid of what the beast really is but just by telling from the outside.  As with Cupid it is perhaps the idea that you might be fooled by his voice and must judge him by looks.  It is all a question of uncertainty among women who are forced into a relationship with a strange man, who are deeply curious and yet disturbed by what they see/hear.

Fairy Tales: Red Riding Hood

This cartoon represent a realists idea of what other wolves and people might think of the story of Little Red Riding Hood.  In this picture we can clearly see a normal wolf, however standing and talking, remarking on the wolf from Little Red Riding hood.  He is remarking on the odd way that the other wolf is dressed.  In our world, as opposed to the fairy tale world, he would be considered "gay" or gender confused.  Another modern example of this, is in Shrek, the wolf is referred to as a "gendered confused wolf".  However, the wolf in the above cartoon says that the original saying "wolf in sheep's clothing" is still acceptable in our world from the fairy tale world but the red riding hood wolf doesn't make sense.  So basically, the wolf is questioning the purpose of having a gender confused wolf in this fairy tale.  What possible lesson could it stand for, for our children?  This is  a social comic based on the question of morality in this fairy tale.  I enjoy this cartoon for the constant confusion of the importance of this story, especially to the extreme of a wolf disguising himself as a grandmother, solely by just putting on an old woman's clothing.  However according to some psychoanalysis data that there was some importance of how the wolf has some pregnant envy, how he wish he could have a child, or be pregnant.  There are still many who question the importance of the fairy tale.
http://www.cartoonstock.com/cartoonview.asp?start=4&search=main&catref=ksmn1516&MA_Artist=&MA_Category=&ANDkeyword=little+red+riding+hood&ORkeyword=&TITLEkeyword=&NEGATIVEkeyword=
by Kes

Fairy Tales: "Fairy tales and Psychology"

The relationship between fairy tales and psychology has many connections by consciousness, psychosexual stages of development, and defensive mechanisms.  Carl Jung also came up with idea of the collective unconscious and many archetypes that appear in fairy tales.  The collective unconscious is proposed to be an experience or memory that all of us share, for example we all have the experience of being embarrassed once in our lives and it is something that lives in our unconscious.  It might be believed that fairy tales are related to our dreams and that might be how they were written and why the relate to all of us in way or another.

The father of psychoanalysis Freud and Jung both studied fairy tales to better understand the human mind.  For example, a lot of fairy tales such as Hansel and Gretel represent the transformation from the oral psychosexual stage to a higher stage of development.  The oral stage representing the time whe children are very dependent on their parents for food and care.  The go through the experience of being pushed out into the world.  This is also a good tale to represent Freud's theories on how the relate to the "id" the pleasure principle of our brain.  The "id" is best represented in small children because all they do is think of what they want, for example, food, toys, and attention.  In this tale they are forced to act on their "ego" which is their reality principle, which means they have to be acting upon their thoughts.  Hansel did this in the first part of the story by realizing he would have to find the way home and left pebbles to find his way back.  Gretel used her ego at the end of the story to get them out of trouble.
Their are also archetypes that represent something in all the stories they appear in.  For example, their is the primeval forest which appears a lot in fairy tales represents the unconscious.
Some psychologists use fairy tales in psychotherapy.  Adults have favorite fairy tales as well, and can enjoy them as much as children.  A favorite story can represent a reason why they like hearing the story. A specific character can represent someone in their life.  They can also see themselves as the enemy which must be defeated.  Because of what and who characters represent in our lives on the psychoanalysis front, it is easy to find a source of pain or a hidden secret within the fairy tales a person enjoys or dislikes.
I enjoyed Dr. Mazeroff's  lecture, and learned where to connect the dots in fairy tales. I also saw a lot of connections in the defense mechanism developed in the mind, in some fairy tales.  Also how he related the archetypes to those seen in the modern fairy tales like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.  Also how some of the archetypes represent the unconscious or our darker side.  There is also the same type of family romance in fairy tales but explained in a simpler way.  Everything in a fairy tale is explained simpler than in real life which is why it is so easy to get inside someone's  through their fairy tales.  Fairy tales are a simpler version of how our lives should be with the small exaggeration of marrying a prince and being very wealthy, sometimes all we can hope for is to succeed as far as we can.  That is what fairy tales give us hope, through the fairy tales that are mentally right and great in preparing us for the future.
Fractured Fairy Tales: Hansel and Gretel

Fairy Tales: A Definition

Are fairy tales just stories to tell children?  To keep them preoccupied and fall asleep? Fairy tales are much more than they seem.  There is a great difference between the modern fiction stories now and fairy tales.  Fairy tales are very old and have been verbally passed down in time.  These fairy tales are not just stories but an art.  You might assume legends would be a like a fairy tale but they aren't.  The characters in a fairy tale are very simple, and unlike a regular human they are very simply good or evil, there is no middle.  Also, all the creatures that appear in a fairy tale are normally in the fairy tale world.  Like in a legend, if some creature appeared many people would fear it or be in awe of it but in a fairy tale creatures are normal.  Legends take place in our world, while fairy tales take place in their own little world.  In fairy tales, while the characters are simple they also have little emotion if any.  Characters also barely have any background, these stories just happen at a certain time and its a specific event that is really the fairy tale.  These fairy tales influence children, and help them develop themselves.  Young children are very fragile and can easily be influenced however with the simplicity of fairy tales, they prove to point them in the right direction.  The child finds it easy to identify with the hero, and through the fairy tales conquers his fears.  This is why children sometimes have a favorite story because they are dealing with the same things in the story and feel strength from the hero in the story going through the same things.

 This is another thing that defines a fairy tale, the hero must go on a quest and through many obstacles to receive his reward and/or happy ending.  This is something the child can relate to, but it also teaches them that without confronting their fears or getting away from home that there is no chance of reaching that happy ending.  Fairy tales, are so much more then just silly little stories, they represent a deep influence on children that helps to shape their personality and outlook on life.

Fairy tales: The Beginning Blog

I chose this class on fairy tales because it made me curious about what more I could learn about fairy tales.  I mean, if they are the gates into another world, I was curious to see how they had become that way and what the world was all about.  I enjoy fairy tales for the number one reason: the create a life I have never lived, but could know.
In this class on fairy tales, I am hoping to find a deeper meaning to the fairy tales, fully analyze them and appreciate them for how they were created and for their purpose.
My favorite fairy tale would have to be Beauty and the Beast.  I enjoy thoroughly the disney story of Beauty and the Beast.  I enjoy the part where Belle gets lost in the woods, and finds herself in an enchanted castle owned by the mysterious beast.  I love how she despises him at first but then learns to see past it and gather courage in front of the beast and asserts herself into a more important role in the castle.  The love between them is truly fairy tale, which is why I love the key line in it "...for who could could ever love a beast?" it would seem so unreal, but it happened and it turned out to be the most romantic stories of all time.  He changes for her, and she in turn learns to see past his face. Beauty and the Beast