In children you should never let such angry passions rise; their little hands were never made

to tear each others eyes. ~ Isaac Watt We use fairy tales to teach young children morals; however, these fairy tales have a negative effect on children's psyche. The fairytale is often an entertaining story of miraculous and supernatural happenings. Its purpose is to galvanize the depths of our minds in such a way as to make us a part of the landscape, bound only by the limits of our own imaginations. However, it is this very free-for-all fantasy land that poses a very real threat to its intended audience children. Both traditional and contemporary fairytales experienced by children can have harmful effects on a childs psyche. This is especially true when children are exposed to these fairytales during the early stages of psychological development.

When do we most often expose children to the fairytales? More likely than not, we use the tales to comfort children, perhaps to calm them down, in the form of bedtime stories. But, have you ever really thought about the messages given to a child through the words of these fairytales? Snow White advocates divorce and black magic. Theres justified homicide and cannibalism in Hansel & Gretel, mass murder in Blue Beard, as well as betrayal and pre-meditated murder in the Lion King. Is it any wonder, then, that the child comes running or sits screaming and crying because hes afraid to be baked in the oven - or maybe he feared that since Cruella DeVille is so persistent to skin those little puppies, that she might be apt to do the same to little boys! We try to reassure them that it was just a fairytale that it was just make-believe. But

how can we expect a child to take our word that its not real? Especially since we constantly portray ourselves as hypocrites when we threaten that we will get the boogie man after you if you dont eat all of your peas, young man!

Since the early 19th century, many fairytales have been the center of stark criticism causing heated discussion among the worlds leading personalities of the time. Each having opposing views, Dr. Karl Oppel, a German psychologist, and Dr. Bruno Bettelheim, a child psychologist from the United States, were two of the most voiced fairytale experts. Though theses two men were three generations from each other, Dr. Bettelheim drew most of his protests from Dr. Oppels most publicized findings and opinions in a 1903 debate. In his book, The Parents Book: Practical Guidance for the Education at Home, Oppel made his strong argument against telling fairytales to children. He states that we should shelter children from the ugly, illogical, overly violent, and frightening All of which are carelessly portrayed through the fairy tale [fairytale] (Oppel, Should children be). In the text, Oppel goes on to recount a childhood story in which a young man is passing the time away under the gallows, and is amusing himself with several hanged corpses. Later, he takes the corpses from their coffins and lays them with him in bed! Surely this is not the type of image that we want to share with our children. Nor is that of the evil step-mom portrayed as being a blackened sorceress, giants living in the sky that are apt to eat you, or a little man that rips himself in two when you guess what his name is! Think about it: Its a warm summer night and the children are all tired from the days events. Mom comes in, hushes them, and begins to

tell a story of two young children who have become too expansive for their parents to support. This, therefore, justifies the stepmothers decision to murder the two of them. She sends her husband to carry this out; however instead, he abandons them deep in the woods, where, by the way, they are lured to a cabin made entirely of sweets. This cabin, though, just happens to be the home of an evil witch who savors human flesh and whose only intention is to fatten the children, bake them in the oven, and eat them for dinner! And what is the moral of the story-? Stepmothers are evil, Daddy is weak and corrupt, and the child needs to fend for himself in an ugly wicked world! Why would we recite this horrific scenario to children? As entertaining as this fairytale known as Hansel and Gretel may seem, I feel it is causing nothing but chaos for the childs delicate mind.

As people grow up and mature, they seem to forget what the world was like for them as young children. Children are active participants every second of the day. Nothing escapes the attention of a child. Its true that something may not hold the childs attention for very long, but rest assured, nothing in a childs world goes unnoticed. Infact, children experience everything with a heightened awareness simply because they are children. They are learning about their world, leaving no stone unturned, if you will. And everything that they see, hear, touch, and feel affects how they perceive the world that they are living in. Children begin this long process the moment that they enter the scene. To a child, there is only one state of being, that of reality. Therefore, everything we present to the child, in their eyes, is the truth its real. Now, when the child has

established one set of perceived truths, and then handed the fairytale, what is he to do? He has no sense of fantasy and there is no doubt in his mind that the fairytales are trueto-life accounts. Therefore, the fairytale truths are incorporated into the childs current belief system. So now we have 1.) those are my parents, 2.)oh, Im supposed to use the potty, and 3.) these are my magic beans just like the ones Jack got for selling his best friend, the cow. Granted, in most cases the child will not grow up thinking that magic beans will grow into giant beanstalks, but whos to say this wont lead to believing in the supernatural? Is it not true that a very large portion of society bases a lot of their beliefs on superstition? And this is coming from people of all walks of life everybody from the rich and the poor, the street urchins and the high society aristocrats. Most of whom should be able to separate reality and fantasy.

The song The Son of Superman (Le Fils de Superman) shows the negative affect that fantasy verses reality has on children. In it, there is a little boy who has just turned eight years old. To celebrate his birthday, his parents take him to see New York City, the city of Superman, because their son is such a fan. The first day there, the boys father comes across a superman costume and purchases it for him. That evening, the boy decides that he wants to where the costume as pajamas. This is where the harm fairytales has on young children comes into play. Wearing his superman costume, the little boy believes he can fly like a bird, fly like his hero, Superman. He quietly moves to the view window, without waking his parents, and jumps from the fiftieth floor of the

hotel, plunging to his death. Though the song is fiction, it is a very real possibility, and all because of the incapability of the child to draw a line between fantasy and reality.

Another point about the fairytales that we tell children, could they be an underlying factor in youth violence? Sociologists have conducted hundreds of studies to determine if there is a relationship between violence presented through media and reallife juvenile violence. Over 217 studies performed from 1980 to 2006, indicate a positive and significant correlation between [media] violence and aggressive behavior in youth (Zipes, 43). The following is an excerpt from Blue Beard.

[She threw herself at her husbands feet, asking pardon with tearsbut Blue Beard had a heart harder than any stone. You must die, madam, and at once!Seizing her by the hair with one hand, and with the other brandishing the sabre aloft, he made as if to cut off her headThey plunged their swords through his body and left him dead. The poor womenhad not the strength to rise] (Blue Beard).

Clearly, violence like this has to affect a child psychologically as well as emotionally and socially. College English professor, Jack Zipes , shared the feeling to some extent that Blue Beard is an overly violent story for children. Siding with Dr. Bettlehiem however, Zipes pointed out that one theory about this [the violence] is that children need ways to understand the things they fear,stories provide a harmless way of making sense of the world. Bettelhiem argues insistently of the reasons children

need to experience fairytales. He feels that fairytales do not define or influence a childs perception of reality, poking fun at parents who claim that fairytales do not render truthful pictures of life as it really is and those who feel that they are lying to their children by telling them these fantastic and miraculous events in fairytales. Bettelhiem even goes as far as to scold parents for further watering down of these tales to make them seem nicer or kinder, more child-friendly (Bettelhiem, 117). He claims that the only truth in fairytales is the truth of our imaginations, which is such a contradiction on his part. The imaginations of children are limitless, and because they do not yet understand the concept of fantasy when they are young, their minds should not be led in such a way as to frighten or mislead them of the real world. In Bettelhiems book, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, he has this to say:

[that a struggle against severe difficulties in life is unavoidable, is an intrinsic part of human existence but that if one does not shy away, but steadfastly meets unexpected and often unjust hardships, one masters all obstacles and at the end emerges victorious. These are crucial issues that these tales teach our childrenthe fairy tale [fairytale]confronts the child squarely with the basic human predicaments] (Bettelhiem, 9).

According to Dr. Bettelhiem, the polarity that fairytales offer also is a major plus in telling both the contemporary and traditional tales. The characters are either all good or all evil never both at the same time. He says this allows the child to easily comprehend

the difference between the two. Again, people in the real world arent always just bad or just good; looks deceive. After reading Dr. Bettelhiems book, I have to strongly disagree that the fairytales, with all their negative influence, can help a childs development. Especially it being a so-called necessity. Do we really want to tell our children about Mother Trudy, the woman in the Grimms Kinder und Hause Marchen who turns disobedient children into logs and warms herself as they burn in the fire? Can we expect them to realize how odd it is for a woman whose husband is a mass murderer to cry and beg for forgiveness for opening the door that contains the evidence of his crimes?

Childhood is the most important time in a humans life. A child is fascinated with every aspect of each day that he experiences. This is the very reason that time moves more slowly during those childhood years. Think, for example, how long a summer seems between one school year to the next, or how long the actual school year seems compared to the last. The routine experiences in childhood are so vivid: when you were very happy, sad, or angry, those emotions colour everything and effect how people, places, and events are perceived. This, in turn, creates disillusioned memories and misleads the childs view of what is real and what is fantasy. Jack Zipes writes that, When I was a child, I experienced many fairytales in one form or another and was often scared by their horrible expressions (Zipes, 139).

In finishing, I find that telling young children fairytales, with very few exceptions, is not acceptable. The images that are continually projected through the words of the

fairytales are too often misleading and destructive to the healthful development of the child psychologically as well as emotionally. I dont mean to say that we should keep fairytales from our children altogether. Perhaps when the child reaches the age of 11 or 12, then should he decide to experience the numerous fairytales available, that right would be his. I feel however, that in this case, the child will see how silly and strange the stories are and would dismiss the tales. with the added development and age the fairytales would be taken as just thata fairytale.