Adult v. Children’s Interpretation Fairytales: when someone says that word, the first thing that might come up in your mind is probably kid’s reading Cinderella. Fairytales’ simplicity and accuracy in delivering a moral to young kids and adults is wonderful. We’d give an adult a eerie look if we caught them reading a kids book on the train to themselves. The reason behind our thought is cause it’s a kids book why would an adult read it but behind all this is the difference of interpreting stories for adults and children.
Stories like Juniper Tree, Snow White, and Little Red Cap include hidden messages through violence and imagery and dialogue. Fairy tales teach children how to grasp the meaning and power behind storytelling. In this paper I will discuss the vast ways in which a child and adult interpret fairytales. Its important to discuss both point of views because the people who write these children books are adults so we must understand what is meant when the author is writing and how he/she expects the audience to interpret the reading.
Telling or reading fairy tales to children while they’re developing helps them grasp the meaning behind a story and even relate to the message of the story. “The more simple and straightforward a good character, the easier it is for a child to identify with it and to reject the bad other” (Bettelheim, 10). By differentiating the good and bad and showing kids that the good get rewarded and the bad are punished makes them determine that good is what they’re supposed to be. Sometimes a message in a particular fairy tale speaks to a child directly and resonates with them very deeply without them even knowing.
Maybe they were going through something on their own that they couldn’t put into words but these fairytales help them express themselves. Sometimes it’s easier for a child/adult to confide in a story’s message when it’s simplified or reversed, or the situation is removed from what they’re currently facing. Like Bruno Bettelheim said, “more can be learned from them about the inner problems of human beings, and of the right solutions to their predicaments in any society, than from any other type of story within a child’s comprehension”.
By saying this he simply means these fairy tales help both adults and children overcome inner difficulties in their lives that they maybe were embarrassed to express. Snow White has a connection to other fairytales; in the way the fairytale was setup the beginning is similar to other fairytales. In the opening of Snow White the real mother was sewing and cut herself and her blood fell on the snow and she said, “If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood” (Grimm, 11).
In the Juniper Tree’s opening it has the real mother peeling an apple and she cuts herself and says, “If only I had a child as red as blood and as white as snow! “(Grimm, 2) Children will read this and some will realize the pattern but others wont even be alerted, adults would look at this in a way as blood of a mother fell blood is the color red and usually in fairytales means menstruation blood and thus maturing. Stepmothers are looked as replacements that try to tear the kids apart. Fathers are usually absent as they are looked as always working.
These two interpretations is what I would expect children to notice but the young boys in fairy tales are showed as protectors of families and shows how they also mature into manhood, which I only expect adults to realize as they read. In Juniper Tree when the boy leads the family back into the house for dinner it shows that the boy is looked to as the new man of the house and it tells little boys what their place in a family is. Snow White a tale about another “evil stepmother” but this one poisons her stepdaughter (Snow White).
In this version of Snow White her mother dies and she is forced to accept her father’s new wife because like many other fairy tales the father is absent throughout the story. The stepmother has a magic mirror, which never told a lie she would ask it, “Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who’s the fairest of them all? ” (Brother Grimm 11). The mirror would tell her she is the fairest of them all until Snow White grew older, then the mirror would say “My queen, you are the fairest one here, but Snow White is a thousand times more fair than you! ” (Brother Grimm 11).
The queen from that moment on would covet little Snow White. The queen was so envious of Snow White that she had got someone to try and kill her and bring back the heart and liver of Snow White to prove she was dead. The huntsman when trying to kill Snow White felt bad for poor Snow White as she begged for mercy and because she was so beautiful he let her escape into the woods. Snow White came across a cabin and went in, she eventually met the seven dwarves because that was their house and she agreed to cook and clean in exchange for a place to live and protection.
Again it is seen here that a female went from an unsavory living condition to still not having a voice, cooking and cleaning in the house, which is what most women did. Snow White isn’t as bright and independent as Cinderella. Throughout the story Snow White had got into some sort of trouble and needs to be saved and the only hope she has is her beauty. When Snow White was about to be killed by the huntsman he felt bad for her because she was so beautiful, when the dwarfs found her in their cottage they were astonished by her beauty, and again when the prince saw her body in a coffin and decided he must have her.
When the prince decided to have her and the servants carried her away they tripped causing her to release the poisonous apple she choked on. Snow White is not as independent and a hustler as Cinderella, Snow White has most thing come to her because of her beauty while Cinderella went to the ball going against with what her stepmother said and still got the Prince. The Brother Grimm’s version of Cinderella was first published in 1634. Children mostly see Cinderella as a tale about a girl who isn’t reated nicely and finds true love despite the fact she doesn’t look like a princess and falls in love and lives happily ever after like how all kids expect fairytales to end. But in the original story, Cinderella’s mother passes away and the father like most men back in the day look for a new wife to help raise the children. Cinderella’s father is very absent throughout the fairytale and leaves Cinderella in the hands of the “evil” stepmother.
I say “evil” because in fairytales the mother who replaces the real mother are often looked to as just a replacement so they tend to be stingy to the fathers children. It’s shown in Cinderella because Cinderella is turned into the maid of the family. The stepmother brings in two daughters herself into the family who mistreat Cinderella profoundly. When the Prince is having a ball to look for a wife, Cinderella asks her stepmother if she can go and her mother responds, “Here, I’ve dumped a bowlful of lentils into the ashes.
If you can pick out the lentils in the next two hours, then you may go” (Grimm, 8). The stepmother had Cinderella working a task that seemed impossible so she could not go to the ball. Cinderella completes this task more then once but her stepmother still came up with another excuse to keep her home. She had her as what seems like a maid even though she is allowing her own daughters go to the ball. The story ends with Cinderella going to the ball and dancing with the Prince and later on getting married to him.
Children would assume she lives happily ever after but that may not be the case, as it wasn’t stated clearly. Some children most likely see Cinderella as a bad girl because she was not supposed to go to the ball however from a more adult perspective the fairy tale can be teaching children to be obedient and be a confident. Cinderella did not directly disobey her stepmother because the stepmother told her she could go to the ball if she picked out the good lentils, which she did from the help of nature when the tamed birds helped her.
Her stepmother also told her she had nothing to wear so she could not go but Cinderella again with the help of nature got a dress from the branch she planted. Cinderella can also be about inner beauty. The moral of Cinderella can be looked to as in some ways, equality, and no matter how hard you try to be someone else you will never succeed because you cant changes what’s in you. Children will see Cinderella as a story who’s moral is simply don’t treat anyone wrong or there will be consequences just like all fairytales.
An adult will look at it as inner difficulties and a much more complex moral. This is shown when the prince goes around looking for who the shoe fits and when the step sisters try it on its too small and so their mother told one to cut off her toe and the other a part of her heel saying to both that, “once you’re a queen, you wont need to go on foot anymore” (Grimm, 7). Both step sisters got onto the horse but on their way two doves would sing: “Roo coo coo, roo coo coo, Blood’s in the shoe: The shoes too tight, The real brides waiting another night. (Grimm, 7)
This briefly explains the part of don’t try to be someone you’re not as the punishment for the step sisters is having only one normal foot and later on when Cinderella and the Prince are getting married they had doves peck one eye from each sister which leaves them partially blind for their wickedness and malice with blindness for the rest of their lives. This tells the young audience that everyone is to be treated equal or punishments are being awaited in the long run. This tells the elder audience basically the same thing but the difference is adults relate to this through their own personal reality problems.
Imagination and unreal worlds are often connected with children and fairy tales are therefore often seen as entertaining stories with moral lessons for children. But the lessons fairy tales teach are in many cases relevant for adults. Today most people see fairy tales as children’s literature, but this has not always been the case. Once fairy tales were an art shared by people of all ages and social classes. Children often play and make up their own stories, they use their imagination and fantasy is a part of their daily life.
The way fairy tales are built up appeals to children because it gives them an opportunity to learn and understand. Children need guidance. One of the ways fairy tales can teach children things and entertain them is by guiding them through the stories. Fairy tales are for everyone. They are stories of the people; their roots grow deep into our roots and society. Though we have changed their original purpose and associated them with children stories, they aren’t any less meaningful. Fairy tales simplicity to read is very much so misunderstood when it comes to morals and meanings as they mean so much with so little.
