Fairy Tales Affect the Human Psyche

                                                                           Abstract:

By having characters in fairy tales who believe in anything to satisfy human needs in turn effects the psyche of the children who listen to them. Maslow discusses how the human psyche needs to satisfy the physiological needs, the safety needs, the love, esteem, and self-actualization needs before it can obtain pure satisfaction out of life. Maslow explains what these needs are and by applying these definitions to “Cinderella” and “Puss in Boots” it is easy to see why Cinderella and the framers son do and think the things that they do. These fairy tales have such a strong impact on children, they inform the heart as well as the mind. They help children to uncover the mysteries of childhood in such a way that they do not come up with more questions to their initial question. Bruno Bettelheim also analyzes fairy tales and the child’s psyche when he talks about how important it is for children to believe in something like fairy tales. Children learn from these stories and develop their thought patterns around the theories taught throughout these fairy tales. Most fairy tales have a message that they’re trying to explain to children. Fairy tales open doors for children to learn and apply what they have learned to their life. Gale Encyclopedia and Amanda Craig also elaborate on these ideas. So basically fairy tales in themselves achieve needs such as safety, esteem, and love. While also giving children as well as adults something to think and dream about.

                                              Fairy Tales Affect the Human Psyche

        Sometimes we think of fairy tales and think of how much fun they are and miss that they have secret intended meaning. Fairy tales are meant to entertain us by using incredible imagery that just takes our breath away but they also have messages that they try to convey to us. However, since most fairy tales are geared toward the younger generation their explanations for who, what, where, when, and why are presented in such a simple way that most forget that they are trying for more than entertainment. This theory can be backed up by “The Uses of Enchantment” by Amanda Craig and “Fantasy” found in the Gale Encyclopedia. Examples of good fairy tales are “Puss in Boots” and “Cinderella”, found in The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. In these two fairy tales wonderful imagery is presented when they talk of the prince's ball and of the talking cat and all the wonderful activities it does to help its master out but along with being very colorful and imaginative, they both have a moral. The moral is that sometimes people believe what they know they should not because they cannot help themselves; they discover they have an inner need that must be satisfied.

        “Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs” by George Norwood explains this very well. Maslow discusses how the human psyche needs to satisfy the physiological needs, the safety needs, the love, esteem, and self-actualization needs before it can obtain pure satisfaction out of life. Bruno Bettelheim also analyzes fairy tales and the child's psyche when he talks about how important it is for children to believe in something like fairy tales so they can obtain the knowledge needed to make important life decisions. Children learn from these stories and develop their thought patterns around the theories taught throughout these fairy tales. A child’s needs and thought process is also affected by the characters in the story. Each character has a need to fulfill, and through the story shows the child how to fulfill that need. Cinderella shows that she needs to be loved and show the right affection by trusting in the image of the fairy godmother. The farmers’ son shows that he needs to be self-sufficient by trusting in the talking cat to get him to a higher social status. How can someone put his or her whole future into something that doesn’t seem real? They can do this because the human psyche has an instinctive need for comfort and security that can cause them to believe almost anything that might satisfy that need. Having characters in fairy tales who believe in anything to satisfy human needs in turn effects the psyche of the children who listen to them.

        Amanda Craig explains the difference between a story and a fairy tale so well, she says that “Everyone knows that there are two kinds of stories for children: one in which good children live happily doing ordinary things; the other in which life is transformed by magic and adventure. "Fairy tales have such a strong impact on children, they inform the heart as well as the mind. Making a simple story like Cinderella into a teacher that says a prince will come looking for his princess one day and then the little girl waiting will be set and she will be able to live happily ever after. Puss in Boots turns into a teacher about going from nobody to somebody in a short amount of time with a little help from your friends. These fairy tales may present the happily ever after theme at the end but they also convey that the main characters were weak in their psyche to believe in things that were so far from reality. Meeting a dream man and becoming someone important with power almost overnight isn’t impossible but the likelihood of a fairy godmother creating the scene for it to happen and a black talking cat doing all your dirty work for you is beyond the realm of reality. Why did these two trust in figments of their imagination?

        Abraham Maslow believes that “ We are supposedly rational beings; however, we do not act that way.” (Maslow ) Instead, we believe, think, or do what we have to in order to satisfy our 5 basic needs. Those needs would be physiological, safety, love, esteem, and a self- actualization need. These needs would also be considered prepotent. “ A prepotent need is one that has the greatest influence over our actions.” (Maslow) Therefore Cinderella’s prepotent need was to find true love. She had the “desire to belong to a group such as a family because we need to feel loved and accepted by others.” (Maslow) Since Cinderella lost her mother and father at such a young age and was taken in by her evil stepmother and stepsisters and treated like a slave she had a dyer need to feel love, affection, and acceptance from others around her. So in her mind, she manifested a fairy godmother to satisfy her need. Because her need was so strong she believed with all her ability that her fairy godmother was really there. While in “Puss in Boots” the framers sons’ proponent need was self-actualization. He had the need to “become more…to become everything that one is capable of becoming.” (Maslow) Since he came from a run-down farm where he wasn’t sure how he was going to survive he strived to fulfill his need to be self-sufficient.

        Both of these fairy tales fit the Gals Encyclopedias definition of what fantasy is, and that is “ an important function that helps children confront their fears and desires in a safe context that they can control.”(Gale Encyclopedia) So for Cinderella going to the ball to meet the prince fulfilled her desire to be more than just a housemaid. Her desire became so great that it became a need for her to get out and go to the ball, therefore conjuring up her fairy godmother who made it possible for her to go. “ While fantasies often serve as a means of wish fulfillment, they can also express fears.” (Gale Encyclopedia) Like the fears that the farmers’ son had about not being able to survive with what his father left him when he died. His fear of amounting to nothing became so great he developed a need to self-actualize himself. Therefore conjuring up the talking cat that allowed him to achieve his need of high stature and never needing anything again. So here their desires and fears have manifested themselves into these indisputable needs to better their lives, where they conjure up images, more commonly known as imaginary images or friends, that they can confide in and trust to help them achieve their goals.


        In Bruno Bettelheim's essay “ The Child’s Need for Magic,” he goes in-depth into how important an imagination and fairy tales are to a child. “Fairy tales leave to the child’s fantasizing whether and how to apply to himself what the story reveals about life and human nature.” (Bettelheim 56) This is saying that a child will develop based on what he hears and decides how to apply it into his life based on the story.

        “However, realistic explanations are usually incomprehensible to children, because they lack the abstract understanding required to make sense of them. While giving them a scientifically correct answer makes adults think they have clarified things for the child, such explanations leave the young child confused, overpowered, and intellectually defeated. A child can derive security only from the conviction that he understands now what baffled him before- never from being given the facts which create new uncertainties.” (Bettelheim 57)

        This was his most powerful point of view because he says exactly what fairy tales do for children and that helps them understand adult concepts. Fairy tales help children uncover the mysteries of childhood in such a way that they do not come up with more questions to their initial question. Therefore, they make discoveries about the real world while developing an imagination and a sense of creativity, which will in turn help them throughout their life.

        Fairy tales are significant to children because they give children an imagination, and then expand upon it so that they may develop a better one throughout their adult life. Imagination is a very important attribute to have; it allows the mind to wander off and think about whatever it feels the need to think about. It also contributes to the understanding of right and wrong and to the realities of day-to-day life and the events that may occur. Most fairy tales have a message that they’re trying to explain to children. Most of the time it is a message that is hard to comprehend when told in blunt adult terms but when told in fairy tales, the message is geared toward smaller minds. Fairy tales make everyday life sound fun and uses a lot of fantastic imagery that for a child is easy to understand because it is related to something a child would know about. They also build up a child’s creativity and that is something that can be carried throughout one’s life. Just by depicting a pumpkin turning into a carriage and a little cat defeating a chameleon ogre gives a child the ignition to create his own fairy tales out of his own experiences. “Fantasy provided through fairy tales…can play an important role in helping children interpret events in their lives and deal with fear, anxiety, anger, jealousy, and other frightening emotions.” (Gale Encyclopedia) This fantasy then extends into creativity that will help the child as he or she grows up with schoolwork as well as in the workforce and surely comes in handy with relationships. Fairy tales also give children a chance to sit down with someone they know and hear a part of history that has been passed down from generation to generation. “Cinderella” and “Puss in Boots” are over 100’s of years old and have been passed down so that all those children who come afterward can enjoy those timeless classics and learn their indisputable lessons of life. On every generation it leaves an imprint in the minds of all those it has touched; and with those imprint, in the minds of children, they start to understand what was once a mystery to them. Fairy tales are also good for grownups to hear as well because they bring them back to their youth and lets them remember all their good times in life. They remember the first time they heard Cinderella and how she swept her way into the prince's heart. They remember the words he spoke when the clock struck midnight, “ No one else shall be my wife but the maiden whose foot fits this golden shoe.” (Brothers Grimm 90) Or they remember sitting there listening to “ Puss in Boots” and dreaming about the day their cat starts talking and says “Listen, there is no need to kill me…. Have some boots made for me instead? Then ill be able to go out, mix with people, and help you before you know it.” (Brothers Grimm 652) No matter what fairy tale is being read there will always be something that imprints an image on the mind of the reader of the child listening. Fairy tales are just one of those things that are so significant because they give people young and old something to dream and think about.

        In conclusion, no matter what fairy tale it is they all have a character in it that has a need to full fill. Whether it be a physiological, safety, love, esteem, or a self- actualizing need there is still that desire that drives to make life better. While the main character is achieving his or her goal to become a better, more well-rounded person the child listening to the story is learning how to achieve those goals as well. Fairy tales open doors for children to learn and apply what they have learned to their life. It allows them to grow as a child and make decisions for themselves that best fit what they need in their life. Fairy tales also in themselves achieve needs such as safety, esteem, and love. When a parent sits down to read a fairy tale to a child they are assuring the child that no matter what happens in the story they are safe. The story also can give a child self-esteem, the child may think if Cinderella can become a beautiful princess after being a housemaid then its all right if their not the most beautiful they could still end up a happy young woman with a great guy. Or let the child know that even if they come from a poor background they can still become very powerful, well known, and wealthy. They can also feel love when someone reads to them. They feel accepted and part of a group or family. So fairy tales can affect the human psyche on many different levels from the characters to the children listening to the story, and no matter what the fairy tale has a creative way of dealing with the problems presented.


                                                                  Works Cited:

• Bettelheim, Bruno. “The Child’s Need for Magic.” The Conscious Reader. Eds. Caroline Shrodes et al. 8th ed. Neesham heights: Allyn and Bacon, 2001. 56-63.
• “Cinderella.” The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Zippes, Jack (translator). Bantam Books: New York. November 1992.
• Craig, Amanda. “The Uses of Enchantment.” New Statesman. Issue: December 4, 1998
• “Fantasy.” Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood and Adolescence. Gale Research, 1998 
• Norwood, George. “Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.” Http://www.connect.net/georen/maslow.htm. June 1996. Last accessed May, 2001.
• “Puss in Boots” The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Zippes, Jack (translator). Bantam Books: New York. November 1992.

What's To Blame?

                                               Violence and Crime: What’s to Blame?

            
         The American culture is surrounded by violence in the media, in our neighborhoods, and in the privacy of our own homes. Just one thing or person never causes violence either; it is always created by a group of people who have issues they have yet to deal with and too much time on their hands. Is violence ever the fault of someone or do we just point the finger at someone so we don’t have to think about the fact that it might be because of us? Maybe we create violence so we have something to complain about, for if society were perfect, then there would be no need for the five o’clock news. Maybe we create gangs to replace our existing families because our existing ones are not giving us what we need. Crime arises every day and we report about it. Gangs get made every day and we accept them as part of society. The products of violence are more a result of our own doing combined with a general acceptance for these actions. Any other reasons are more stereotyped excuses to pass specific blame onto more generic causes.

        There are many examples to be found which can defend the unresponsible parties being subject to ridicule for the current violence problems today. However, equally representing the points that blame such establishments are as follows; “We live today in a culture steeped in violence. From movies and television to music and video games, violent images so pervade American popular culture that many of us feel immune to their effects. But recent studies show we are anything but immune.” (Electronic Media) For no ligament credit should the movies or media take responsibility for violence? Gangsters, for example, more times than not, look to their homes for such knowledge concerning bank robberies, not the television or media. “But recent studies show we are not immune to violence.” Does are becoming desensitized to violence have that much of an effect on it? For no movie can be considered worse than that of everyday life. For example, violence occurs in the news every day, which is more than in any television show or movie, it occurs in the streets of our neighborhoods, in our schools, and even in our own homes where abuse takes shape in every way. So that statement proves what, that America watches too much television. This just helps proves that we spend too much time absorbed in violence and paying attention to what actors are trying portraying. “Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness.” (Klite, p32) Extensive viewing of home violence tends to make depressed and very violent children as well, but we hear more about media censorship than we do about abuse in the home censorship. America watches too much television and not enough time attempting to make peace with each other on a daily basis. America then turns around and blames such television for their aggressive attitudes toward life.

        Socio-economic factors are listed as some of the reasons for the rise in gang activity in the past years. The American society emphasizes on material goods and status. For those who come from a poor background crime and violence are the only ways they see they can gain that higher, more desirable status society says we should all have. “Children who are brought up in broken homes and unhealthy environments where the parents sit at home watching television collecting their welfare checks end up having no value structure instilled in them at all.” (www.onetime.simplenet.com) After all of that, we still blame the television and the media for our societies violence problem. For there’s no way to tell which came first; violence on television or violence in the media caused by people of today.

        As every day goes past the rate of crime in major cities is increased for no apparent reason. Take Los Angeles as one such example, criminal and gang activity in this area has reached an all-time high. There are around 700 active gangs in the Los Angeles area and the numbers keep going. In most active gangs, ninety percent of the members are arrested by the age of eighteen, while ninety-five percent of them do not finish high school, and sixty-five percent of them are dead or in prison by the time they hit their 20th birthday. (Braidhill, p5) Should we let ‘gang banging’ be considered any different than any other equal opportunity event in society? Let’s make that equal opportunity too. In today’s society, we now have female pioneers shattering the ceiling of the gang culture creating their own equally separate union for crimes. Gangster girls may still be uncommon but they are nonetheless just as dangerous as men. Gangsters usually join a gang to become a part of that gang family. Doing this mostly due to lack of affection or attention at home or sometimes due to more violent reasons such as abuse or neglect. Lack of those things can, therefore, create a void that becomes something so needed that they will take attention from whoever will give attention to them. This unfortunately results in spending little time caring about the consequences that may arise from their “trying to fit in to get attention’ misconception. So when all is taken into perspective, girl gangsters are just as bad if not worse than male gangsters are. This can be attributed to the fact that most females go through adolescents deprived of being able to feel and express themselves the way that they need to in order to grow and develop in a mature fashion. When deprived of certain psychological needs, the mind usually tends to react by rebelling against what is holding it from what it needs. Being deprived of those needs most commonly leads to depression, addiction, eating disorders, and unplanned teenage pregnancies. The single determining factor of violence among youth is not income or race but family structure. (www.onetime.simplenet.com) If a child is depressed and is not getting the love and attention it needs from its family, the child will attempt to look elsewhere for it. Gang members are just looking to find the answer to their adolescent identity crisis when they commit whatever crime they commit.

        Violence gives people not only gang members a sense of power, and power is the one thing that all people are trying to grasp in order to feel in control of what is occurring around them. Personally, I feel that gang members just have a lot less pride and feel that to get love and attention as well as fit into society they need to perform acts of violence. Many times the parental figures that care enough to make excuses to do it to cover up their own neglect. “So when violence among youth does erupt, as in the recent school shootings, parents look for a cause and blame the pale imitations of violence that their children watch on television. In contrast, anyone who has ever experienced real violence knows that the only two or three minimal scenes spread throughout the course of a story could hardly impact the thought process to the degree in which it rationally decides to bomb a school.” (Rhodes, p2)

        Perhaps a possible solution would be to spend more time away from the television and actually paying attention to our families then maybe we could breathe a little easier about gang's forming, crimes occurring, or violence arising. Violence is something that we create and accept every time we watch the news or commit a crime ourselves. Giving enough space for violence to occur just proves that without violence our society could not survive. Society would then be perfect and a perfect society would never last. Even gangs give our society another dimension that we accept and live with every day. I stress this question, which came first violence in the media or violence?


                                                               Works Cited:

• Braidhill, Kathy. “Where the boys are” Los Angeles Magazine, Jan. 1998: p45-55
• “ Girl Gangsters” The Electronic Text Center. Apr. 1999  <http://www.onetime.simplenet.com/girlies.html>.
• Klite, Paul. “ Media can be antibiotic for violence” Quill 88 Apr. 2000: p32-35
• Rhodes, Richard. “The Media- Violence Myth” Rolling Stone 854 Nov. 2000: p55-59
• “ We already have the solution to violence on tv.” Electronic Media 19 Oct. 2000: p8

Beneficial Arrest

                                                        Wanna-Be Rebel With A Cause

        I think everyone at some point in his or her life wants to be a rebel or date a rebel. I think it is completely natural to want to go against society and parental obedience. We may not realize it at first, but at some point in time, we need to feel that rush. Think about it. It gives a sense of power, a sense of excitement, it gives people something to talk about, and it gives the bad attitude that everyone respects, right? Rebellion, the one thing people are two-sided about. They love to hate it and they can’t live without it.

        When I was thirteen years old and in the eighth grade that is exactly what was on my mind all the time. How I could become a rebel with a cause. I was one of those little girls who were spoiled as a child because I was the only child. So when it came to friends I always wanted them, and when it came to what click of friends I didn’t want to see myself with any other click than the one that had the most respect. The West View Rough Riders, the badasses, the thieves, the hoods those were the kids I wanted to hang out with. They were the exact definition of cool. They had their own crew of dedicated followers, they always had something to do, they never had a dull moment, and they had the attention if not respect of just about everyone in the school. I was way too immature to realize that all the talk about them was trash and that all they did was wrong just to get attention. To me, they were who I looked up to. I never was one to say “ Hey I’m gonna be like Mike.” and look up to stars in Hollywood. It was all about the fact that they were the center of all the attention and that was where I wanted to be. I started hanging out with Miss Jewels and Pam. They weren’t the school's head badasses but they were up there in the click and the fact that I was in good with them said something for who I was. They were the girls who got me started, got me in, and got me my very first relationship with a black man, Justin. At that time, that was the ultimate thing to choose to do. Not only was it taboo in society but my parents flipped. They weren’t racist, so they said, but they believed what society believed and that was that interracial couples should not be. What would people think, would they think of my parents as cool and ahead of the times or completely out of their minds for letting me do such a thing? It didn’t stop at that. When I started dating Justin I acquired all his friends and all his traits and his basic way of life. Justin was the ringleader of the pact. He was to the guys what Miss Jewel and Pam were to me. They all looked up to him. He was the one smoking weed, getting straight A’s in school, the one with all the friends, and the one with the ID to get the cigarettes for the rest of us. The sheer fact that he could have anyone was amazing, to spite controversy, and the fact that he picked me over all the other girls was the greatest thing next to the invention of the phone. Our relationship lasted for about 6 months and then he cheated on me and I found out. He thought because I was blond I wouldn’t catch on, I showed him. Regardless of that incident, we remained best friends for years and it turned out to be the best thing, us breaking up. I became the best girlfriend with the girl he cheated on me with and she was probably the biggest influence on my life next to my family. Dana was her name and her status was above that of Miss Jewel and Pam. It was the height of my popularity at school. People asked about me, people wanted to be friends with me, people wanted to be like me. It was everything I was waiting for. I just took it too far.

        It was late March and I was starting to spend an obscene amount of time up at Dana’s’. To be honest, everybody was. It was the place to be. Her parents were the coolest and no matter what was going on with us they were always understanding and following with the punches. They were the ideal parents; they cared yet they never showed it in public. Therefore not to embarrass their kids. Anyway, Miss Jewel at the time was dating this guy named Dave. He was tall, skinny, and had the worst family life. Then there was Dana’s long time friend Connie. She was a winner and a half; she came from a coke-addicted household with nothing but the clothes on her back and the voices in her head. Pam was around but not as much as the rest of us were. Justin couldn’t stay away for a day. He always had at least two of his boys with him and not a day went by that he didn’t go to see his woman. Romantic don’t you think? It was March 31st when I accomplished my greatest feet, with the helping hands of Connie and Dave. Out of all my friends I had to be with those two pathetic excuses for human beings. We were supposed to stay at Dana’s that night but unfortunately, some rumbling through their walls was occurring and that wasn’t the day to stay. Connie, Dave, and I all were out of a place to crash so we decided to walk. We walked and we walked and we walked some more. We walked all night, I don’t think I ever exercised so much in my life. We walked to the Denny’s about 5 miles from Dana’s house, we walked to this apartment complex where we got about 2 hours sleep in the basement in the laundry room, and in the morning we walked to my destiny. Mind you at this time Miss Jewel and Dave were having a tiny tiff over this guy he was completely jealous of. Who truthfully didn’t even want anything to do with Miss Jewel except being friends with her. When we got to the destination it was shaped in the form of a beautiful ranch house. It was even more beautiful on the inside with its modern yet antique furniture and fixtures. Just to add a side note we were not allowed in this house. We never asked permission to enter it. Never intended to enter it with innocent intent. We basically broke in and robbed this house. I must say it was one of the lowest points in my life. However like I always wanted it gave me the popularity that I longed for. The price I paid to get it was more than I bargained for. When we got in this house we stole whatever money was lying about and the family credit cards. With them we went shopping.

        Breaking and entering, robberies, credit card fraud, receiving stolen merchandise were the charges. The expressions on my parents’ faces were priceless. They were Kodak moment materials all the way. We found me an attorney, went to court, got charged with misdemeanors, and sentenced to 100 hours community service one-year probation, and restitution. The crime happened in less than five hours yet I paid for it till I turned eighteen this past summer. After I was caught I was put on house arrest, that was by far when I learned the most. There was no textbook in the world that would teach me the cruelty of life and the consequences of making the wrong choices. I look back on it now and even though it was only five years ago it still feels like a lifetime ago. I feel like in five years, I did twenty years of growth. After that, I stayed friends with Dana and some of Justin’s’ friends but for the most part, I learned that popularity is just a high school image that fades with the babyface. It was a beneficial arrest in the sense that I got to find out who I really was and what was really important to me. Popularity wasn’t as important as my freedom. I love the thought of a bonified rebel but I think I’ll leave it to the movies and live my life to its fullest potential the legal way. I also learned something even more precious and that’s that my parents could never be Dana’s and I fully appreciate that.

        In conclusion, rebellion is something I will love to hate but something I’m glad I choose not to live without.