Fairy Tales

The idea of a fairy tale has changed radically over the last two centuries. It has gone from meaning a lesson that should be taken seriously to the stuff of fluffy and wimpy stories of magical princes and princesses where nobody gets hurt and no one dies. In the story Fitcher's Bird, there are many lessons that children can learn. The first is if a stranger or in this case a disguised beggar comes up to you it is best to not talk to them or go with them. They may seem to be wonderful or offer you candy or riches, but chances are they want to hurt you like the mean sorcerer. Next, there is the classic problem with going specifically where you are told not to go when the person who told you not to go there is away. In the story, the daughters who open up the door that they were forbidden to open were chopped up with an axe. A child probably wouldn't be chopped up, but the idea is the same; if you are told not to go somewhere, there is probably a very good reason for it. This older and more graphic version of a fairy tale is more effective because it uses fear to prevent children from doing bad things instead of making it all fake and Walt Disney-ish.