Summary:
In Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment Bettelheim claims that the message fairy tales present to children is that problems in life are unavoidable and all part of the life experience but those who meets their obstacles head on will master all obstacles and will end up on top. He argues that the fictional stories cover the basic human problems for example at the beginning of the stories usually there has been a death to a parent. Bruno explores how the issues of the need of acceptance and the fear of death are present in children's stories. He then explains that when one finds adult love the fairy tale illustrates that eternal life is then unnecessary and that the character has reached emotional security. Bettelheim's last argument is that the youthful viewer is attracted to the heroes of the stories and identifies it on their own eventually striving to be like them.
Reflection:
I tend to agree with Bruno Bettelheim's theory. Whenever you watch a fairy tale of course you like the hero of it because they're trying to do the right thing and excel. An idea that is interesting though is the topic of Sleeping Beauty and the new movie Maleficent. In sleeping beauty Maleficent is characterized as an evil witch causing destruction for no reason while in Maleficent Maleficent is wronged by the king and takes revenge but is later remorseful and actually finds she loves Aurora. These two movies display the same character in two different lights. In one movie you hate her and in the next you love her. It could be the fact that its the main character and you like to see the best in them. Like how Aurora was the main character in Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent was in Maleficent.
