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Karlie Wittkamper
Yoojin Jang
ENG 106
26 April 2020
The Effects of Fairytales on Children
Childhood stories such as Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Rumpelstiltskin may

seem like meaningless plots and characters, but they have a much greater impact on our lives

today. Growing up, many children read fairy tales and create an ideal picture of the world,

which aids the development of their imagination. These children will also learn how to

problem-solve and grasp society’s reality. Although skeptics proclaim that fairy tales are

destructive to society and harmful to youthful minds, these same stories are the essential

building blocks on which a child meets their first hero and battles the villain, allowing them to

expand their creativity, understand human relationships, and transition them into real-world

situations.

Students are always being told to “use their imagination” to create new processes and

techniques to improve daily life. But what if they did not have a strong imagination to begin

with? Fairy tales are one exercise that strengthens our brain’s potential and allows us to unlock

creativity in our mind by defying what we know as fact. Fairy tales teach us new emotions, art

forms, and perceptions. Dr. Carina Coulacoglou, a psychologist from the London Institute of

Education, confirms this by saying:

As in other areas (for instance, art) containing symbols, fairy tales deal with deep perceptions,

anticipations, longings, and fears. Sensations, institutions, feelings, and thoughts are combined

to provide the child with symbols in the form of concrete images. The child therefore finds the
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tales more understandable, than other forms of communication. Furthermore, fairy tales

contain symbols and use them in an exhortatory and instructional fashion, which makes it likely

that the child will incorporate them into the developing ego (Coulacoglou 37).

Fairy tales entice the idea of going outside of the box and creating new ideas. For

example, a child that reads these stories can indulge in concept that grass could be purple or

that horses could fly. Whatever it may be, juvenile or not, ruptures the notion that concepts

cannot be questioned. After all, innovation stems from theories being assessed and analyzed

until a new idea evolves to common fact.

Although an expansion of the imagination is vital, an understanding of human

relationship will carry a child through their whole life. An article written by Telegraph.co.uk

goes on further by stating,” Fairy tales give children a way, through stories that are safely set

apart from themselves, to understand some of the really confusing and difficult feelings that

they can’t yet articulate for themselves (Telegraph.co.uk, “What We Can all Learn from Reading

Fairytales”). The ability to evaluate the relationships in one’s life is crucial to determine if they

are healthy and beneficial. In the story of Beauty and the Beast, the reader is taught that

friendship can be created by anyone who makes them feel valuable and important. These

stories also teach children what an antagonist’s characteristics are and how not to act towards

their family and friends. Besides the relationships that are directly involved in a child’s life daily,

fairy tales are the only other outlet for them to see different family and friend structures,

whether the relationship is healthy or not.

As well as being in these relationships, these tales allow the child to release their

emotions and understand clear communication. Dr. Coulacoglou supports this by stating, “Fairy

tales disregard logic and encompass a mixture of feelings and reflect universal values including

hatred, envy, kindness, and forgiveness, which the tales’ originators integrated delicately”

(Coulacoglou 31). These types of emotions show the reader that these are all normal to feel in

their real-life relationships. Not to mention, the child sees how the characters deal with all their

tough situations and form their own process to cope with the curves life throws at them.

Furthermore, fairy tales transition a child into adulthood and into real-life. The idea of

Interpretive Reproduction is the process of bringing a child into adult culture using creative

outlets. William A. Corsaro, a sociology professor at Indiana University, uses this concept to

explain the relationship between fairy tales and coming of age. It is no secret that fairy tales

have themes and lesson to be learned. One of the first things that comes to mind when thinking

of a specific fairy tale is the ending, which is usually where the lessons are presented. These

lessons are shared between anyone who reads that specific story. This then creates a culture,

where the readers are using their knowledge of all the lessons they read, as guidelines to

society. Corsaro confirms this by saying, “Interpretive reproduction places special emphasis on

language and on children’s participation in cultural routines…providing the framework within a

wide range of sociocultural knowledge that can be produced, displayed, and interpreted”

(Corsaro 19).

With that established, it brings together the concept that when these children read

these stories, which then create a culture upon the lessons in the tales, it allows the child to
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transition into society seamlessly. And within these fairy tales are real world scenarios that the

child gets exposed. This creates a smooth shift into adulthood and into society.

With all this being said, there is opposition to the positive effect’s fairy tales give to

children. One of the most common reason that there is negative emotion towards fairy tales is

the gender roles of women in them. In most, if not all, women are portrayed as the weak and

less fortunate character that needs saving, by a man. This is thought to teach young girls that

they need a man to escape tough situations and that they cannot achieve their dreams by

themselves. An article written by Olivia Petter states this quote from Dr. Victoria Showunmi

“This places a large amount of unnecessary stress onto both sexes and in particular women as

they believe that they should take up the western traditional role of being a woman,” explains

Dr Victoria Showunmi, who lectures in gender studies at UCL.(Petter, “Five Reasons to Stop

Reading Your Children Fairytales Now”, Independent.co.uk). Of course, this is not a message

that should be sent to young kids. However, children do not interpret it like this. They see a

character, female or not, in some sort of trouble and they are rooting for anyone to help this

character out. Children do have the social knowledge to pick up on these stereotypes, however,

it is important for the parents to explain and enforce the perception they want their kids to

have. It is essential for the parents to explain that a female character does not need a male

character’s help. Leilani VisikoKnox-Johnson, a writer for the University of Hawaii at Hilo,

reinforces this idea by writing:

Thus, it is important to be in tune with what books they[children] are reading and the

life situations they are experiencing, especially with younger children because they are
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especially susceptible to believing what they read or hear. It would be beneficial for parents to

talk with their children about what they are reading (VisikoKnox-Johnson 78-79).

Therefore, the benefits displayed earlier outweigh the fear that these fairy tales are

teaching young kid to continue the stereotype.

All in all, fairy tales are essential to a child’s development. It provides them with

essential skills that they will be able to use throughout their entire life, such as expansion of the

imagination, an understanding of human relationships, and transitions them into adulthood and

reality. Fairy tales should continue to be taught to children all around the world; for which it

gives a sense of unity to the world and, as said before, a sort of culture. With that said, every

child want to be able to see themselves in their favorite superhero and root for them

continuously.
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Works Cited

Coulacoglou, Carina. Exploring the Child's Personality: Developmental, Clinical, and Cross-
Cultural Applications of the Fairy Tale Test. Charles C. Thomas, 2008.

“Part Three: Children's Cultures.” The Sociology of Childhood, by William A. Corsaro, Second ed.,
SAGE, 2018, pp. 107–221.

Petter, Olivia. “Five Reasons to Stop Reading Your Children Fairytales Now.” The Independent,
Independent Digital News and Media, 18 Oct. 2018, www.independent.co.uk/life-
style/health-and-families/fairy-tales-children-stop-reading-parents-body-image-gender-
roles-women-girls-sexism-a8067641.html.

VisikoKnox-Johnson, Leilani. “The Positive Impacts of Fairy Tales for Children.” Hilo.hawaii.edu,

“What We Can All Learn from Reading Fairy Tales.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 29
June 2018, www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/family-time/benefits-of-reading-fairy-tales/.
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