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Arriving at the twentieth century, the rise of nationalism has begun, causing two world wars, and an infinity of regional and internal conflicts. This friction between various types of self interest pushed some groups of people to spread unreal fairy tales which demoralize other groups of people. In consequence, fairy tales were abused in order to change reality, to twist truth, and to implant wrong prejudices among children, which grow with them and become unchangeable. The ability of fairy tales to be used in such ways made them hidden weapons that were used, and are still being used to achieve immoral goals, under the pretext of “education”.
The use of half-truths and untruths in tales, which reflect a society’s culture and common feeling, and bias against some other cultures, is far away from the idealistic principles on which “fairy” tales were based. The intended twisting of realities and mixing of events in some of the Walt Disney tale such as “Prince of Egypt”, or in the German and Austrian anti-Semitic tales, or even in the racist anti-black tales, does really aim to gain some strategic political positions by its tellers. Such fraudulent presentations provided with modern media technology, are definitely successful in persuading children that what they contain is truthful.
While children who are often exposed to such ambiguity grow up, a deep belief in the morality of the deceptive fairy tales that they have already watched is gradually amplified among them. This is how hatred and xenophobia are created using that kind of biased tales.
A remarkable part of the modern “fairy tale” can be completely deceptive. When American Indians are shown as the “bad”, and the Europeans invaders are shown as the “good” in a cowboy animated tale, a feeling that Amerindians are culpable begins to affect the audience, who are mainly children. That means then that our children are gradually being exposed to doublespeak and twisted parole.
Myths, legends, folk fantasies, tales and stories, all have unknowingly been born before the beginning of recorded history. Our ancient human ancestors used to have a primitive, yet simple way of life. That primitive, yet simple life of our grandfathers, was-as in any period of time-also filled with injustice, threats, dishonesty, betrayal, cowardice and perhaps all other vices. Moreover, the largest part of the people used to spend their whole lifetimes in their native regions, due to the lack of transportation devices, and to the poverty and the limitation of the ancient means of communication.
This stream of circumstances has pushed fair, wise and especially old experienced people, to compile and pass on tales that encompass their dream of an extraordinarily perfect world. Through these kinds of simple and histrionic tales, both children and adults have been taught and educated. Each society had its own skill of transmitting moral messages through fairy tales, but at the end, all of those tales were essentially dedicated to the teaching of wisdom and values.
The immense progress of communications and transportation technology provided fairy tales with illustrations, animation and special effects that are able to effectively influence children. Some intellectuals believe that actually, fairy tales are beginning to deal more with fun and entertainment. Hence, they gradually lose that kind of “respect” offered from the audience. On the other hand, others see that fairy tales are a crucial factor of implanting creativity, imagination and ambition into children, and is responsible for teaching children to differentiate between virtue and vice.
Even if the existing shape of modern fairy tales has some disadvantages, they do possess more important advantages, whose absence shall severely affect the behavior of children.
Fairy tales go along with civilizations. In ancient Egypt, the famous morphological legend of “Isis and Osiris” was a true example of a fairy tale, in which the fight is between good and evil, and in which good is triumphant. One other spectacular ancient oeuvre is “The Iliad and The Odyssey” of Homer the Greek, which is considered as the best collected group of ancient mythological fairy tales.
Moreover, the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, described an absolutely imaginary fair world in his immortal oeuvre “Utopia”. In addition, fairy tales are the most valuable heritage linking our modern world to our deep past. Hence, how can anybody think that it is possible to erase fairy tales from our life, and to lose then one of the most valuable features of our culture?
Fairy tales are accorded a major role in the definition of a country’s culture and folklore. In his essay "Happily Ever After . . .Fairy Tales, Fables, and Myths”, H. Nicolas B. Clark, the literary theorist says, “Folklore was accorded a vital role in defining the texture of a country's cultural heritage, and stories began to be recorded, collected, and published.” People sharing a same culture use fairy tales as a permanent and effective medium to preserve their national heritage.
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Writer Profile
Saladin
My name is Ayman el-Hakea, I am a Construction Engineering graduate from the American University in Cairo. My origins date to an interesting mixture of Yemeni, Moroccan, Albanian, and Egyptian ancestors. I always try to be a moderate Muslim, I like animation, geopolitics, comparative religion, and football. I like to be with "people"...and I hope my writing isn't boring for anyone.
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