Through the introduction, Bettelheim argues that fairy tales should be read over other child literature due to their more realistic reflections of reality, of hardship and turmoil. Bettelheim argues that fairy tales can aid in resolving a child’s unconscious turmoil and unconsciously provide them with solutions to their existential anxieties. He doesn’t, however, give any examples of child literature that he deems unuseful. From what I understand, his argument revolves around fairy tales reflecting reality more realistically than other child literature due to its representation of conflict and anxieties. There are pieces of child literature that are not necessarily fairy tales that also include conflict and address anxieties that children may face. What would he consider a piece of child literature that doesn’t share the same realistic qualities of a fairy tale?
What interested me most about the introduction to this book was the different cases that Bettelheim discusses near the end of the girl who loved “Hansel and Gretel” and the boy who would have someone read “Rapunzel” to him. The general moral of these fairy tales are often quite apparent when you read them, such as good will succeed and evil will lose, however, the examination of how these fairy tales have affected children unconsciously is not something I would have expected.
Bettelheim also discusses how fairy tales can help to develop a child’s sense of morality. To them these heroes and villains are stripped down to good and evil. The simplicity, Bettelheim argues, is what allows children to identify with them. However, they do not identify with whether they are good or bad but rather who they would like be to be and act like. In most fairy tales, the hero wins while the villain loses, and what kid would want to lose, so of course they identify with the hero. So instead of being told what is moral and immoral, a child is able to develop their own sense of morality in who they identify with in the fairy tales and how those characters act. Amoral fairy tales on the other hand do not really reflect the moral standards of society, however, they do teach children other lessons that aid in the development of a child’s personality.