bettelheim wins

Just within reading the first few lines of Bettelheim and Darnton’s essays, one can see how very different they are. Even just the tone that the essays are written in is evident within the first few paragraphs. I agree that Darnton writes in a more intellectual way, but I feel that he is too wordy before getting to a point he is making. I also agree that Bettelheim’s essay is much more “dry”, but I feel like he hits upon his points faster and more effectively than Darnton. He also writes in a way “more everyday/conversational language”. And I think being a Child Development major and having read and studied a lot about how children’s minds are very influenced by what they read, see, and interact with, I find Bettelheim’s essay more productive in helping me understanding fairy tales as more than just children’s entertainment. I mean I definitely understand it more than Darnton’s essay. Bettelheim states that among the most important and hardest part of rearing children is helping them find meaning in life- what is their purpose in life? How can he better learn to understand himself and others? How can he learn to relate and live in harmony with others? I took a children’s literature class last spring semester, so I completely agree with Bettelheim when he says that young children are most heavily and greatly influenced by literature. They will learn a lot from what is read to them and what they will eventually learn to read. Thus, I strongly believe that since fairy tales do teach somewhat of moral lessons in the end, they do help to stimulate development in the minds of children. Also many times, fairy tales will have a concept of what is right and wrong, good and evil, and even to some extent the roles of masculinity and femininity (although many are of extreme stereotypical roles of men and women, but at least it does offer some insight into how boys and girls should be acting and behaving- like what is expected and deemed “appropriate”). Fairytales also introduce to children that there is evil in this world, because it can be hard sometimes for parents to just jump into that topic of how the world is not all that golden and jolly; the reality is that there is a lot of bad in this world, mixed in with good and righteousness. Fairytales are able to communicate to the mind of young children in a way that sometimes just lecturing to them wouldn’t. This of course is not to take the place of parents disciplining and teaching their children what is right and wrong, and righteous and evil, but it does offer another resource, a more creative and entertaining way, for parents to teach and raise their children. So a fairytale is everything but just children’s entertainment; it is satisfying, enriching, educational/intellectual, and a huge added bonus, it is also entertaining!