The uses of enchantment

▪ Our key aim is to find meaning in life- want to make a significant contribution ▪ The importance of moral behaviour ▪ Communicate in a way that reaches the child’s mind as well as adults ▪ Feed imagination/ aids socialisation ▪ Tolkien- Fantasy, recovery, escape & consolation ▪ Hero projected into danger without reason ▪ “Consolation is the greatest service a fairy tale can offer” ▪ Children need stories to be repeated to them to fully understand ▪ Deal with universal inner human problems rather than external life ▪ Fairy tales are a unique art form- open to interpretation- can take different things away from it ▪ Children curious about outside world and future life- engaging ▪ Have great psychological meaning to people of all ages and genders- irrespective of the sex of the story’s hero ▪ Therapeutic – find their own solution ▪ “Today children no longer grow up within the security of an extended family, or of a well-intergrated community.”- important to show children they can make it on their own (confidence/ reassurance) ▪ For children, literature is the most effective in communicating information ▪ Most children’s literature shallow in meaning- learning to read devalued- adds nothing to importance of life ▪ What should they gain from literature? “access to a deeper meaning” ▪ Reading vs telling – need to be repeated ▪ Telling allows for flexibility ▪ Has to be an inter-personal event ▪ Myths- similarities/ differences ▪ “The trouble with some of what’s considered “good children’s literature” is that many of these stories peg the child’s imagination to the level he has already reached on his own.”

▪ Have turned into “empty-minded entertainment” ▪ Disney studios have kept fairy tales alive and breathing

▪ Fears- Separation anxiety/ independency (loss of parents) ▪ To hold child’s attention- must be relatable- see p.5 ▪ “speak to his budding ego and encourage its development, while at the same time relieving preconscious and unconscious pressures.”

▪ Similar to dreams and daydreams ▪ “It is here that fairy tales have unequalled value, because they offer new dimensions to the child’s imagination which would be impossible for him to discover on his own.”

▪ Simplify all situations- easier to understand ▪ Play a huge role in personality development ▪ Can gain better solace from fairy tale than adult reasoning and viewpoints ▪ Piaget- animistic thinking- no clear distinction between objects and living things ▪ The importance of fantasy ▪ A language of symbols- know it’s not reality ▪ Sigmund Freud- id, ego, superego ▪ Chesterton- children love justice, adults prefer mercy ▪ “Fairy tales don’t teach about specific conditions in modern mass society. But teach how to handle inner problems of human beings” ▪ Parents believe they are “fantastic rather than true”- “false” information- realistic explanations incompetent ▪ Parents believe children should only be exposed to the sunny side of life – nourishes mind in a one sided way- life isn’t always sunny ▪ Shows children they will face hardships/ basic human predicaments- be able to deal with this ▪ Parents want children to believe all men are good- counterproductive because children have a naughty side- believe they are a monster ▪ Parents hesitate to tell “gory and threatening stories” ▪ Parents sometimes painted as villain ▪ Piaget- animistic thinking- negative? False hope?

▪ Threatening figure magically changes to friend- dangerous?

▪ Parents who were read fairy tales are more likely to see benefits ▪ Everyday events lead to great things- encourages child to trust real small achievements

▪ Parents believe mind will be overfed with fantasy- neglect reality – but those who believe in magic stop believing as an adult ▪ Some believe stories encourage violence – have “violent, anxious, destructive, sadistic imaginations” ▪ Ephraim Biblow- ‘imaginative play and the control of aggression’research ▪ “Once upon a time”- deliberately vague- leaving concrete world ▪ Tale endings bring back to reality- hero finds way home ▪ Illustrations in books are distracting ▪ John Ronald Reuel Tokien agrees ▪ “a fairy tale lose much of it’s personal meaning when it’s figures and events are given substance not by the child’s imagination, but by that of an illustrator.”

▪ Good and evil given human forms ▪ How they reflect people- themselves- “child’s wishful thinking get embodied in a good fairy; all his destructive wishes in an evil witch; all his fears in a voracious wolf…”

▪ Child splits themselves- blame evil version- don’t believe it was them ▪ In fairy tales children’s anger has no consequence- only adults ▪ How characters reflect others i.e. mother and evil stepmother ▪ Characters are typical not unique- can picture themselves as hero ▪ Good always wins out, evil-doer is punished ▪ Children learn morality- identify with character most attractive to them- hero ▪ Amoral fairy tales- assurance that one can succeed ▪ Juxtaposition of different characters- polarities make it easier to see difference ▪ “reassures, gives hope for the future and holds out a promise for a happy ending”