Idalmi Abreu

For the research essay I decided to use as topic: Fairy tales and children’s development. For this essay I chose “Snow White” as my fairy tale because I want to discuss about the Disney Walt Snow White version, which is the regular movie that some of us grew up watching and Bruno Bettelheim’s version which discusses about how fairy tales can relate to children psychological development. Both versions have their own unique style and I’m interested because I want to explore them deeply and have better understanding. In my research, I will be using a primary source which will be focused as evidence of the Walt Disney version, and a secondary source which will be used in the Bruno Bettelheim analysis. I found some articles and Journals that I will be used as my sources.

“Little snow white” by Bruno Bettelheim’s is a psychological interpretation of the fairy tale Snow White. In this interpretation Bruno argues and compares the fairy tale with the reality as well as how children can visualize the fairy tale. Bruno shows how the fairy tale relate to reality by mentioning words like maturity, narcissism, sexual etc, these words are not in the fairy itself but in the meaning of the story and what some characters means. In the kids situation, they will see Snow White as “happily ever” fairy tale, because their not mature enough to understand what’s the meaning behind the story. However the story gives a message that some kids can comprehend  which is that we can make mistakes over and over again until we learn the lesson, for example when snow white is told to not open the door because the queen wanted to kill her, she opened the door three times, and each time she was about to die. “Snow White and the seven Dwarfs” is a poem by Anne Sexton that reviews the original tale by the brothers Grimm’s. Sexton in the poem refers to snow white as cultural expectations of female beauty and sexuality, she describe snow white as a beautiful but fragile figure, because of snow white’s innocence. The poem ends with a insinuation that mirrors will influence women. The difference between “Little Snow White” by Bruno Bettelheim’s and “Snow White and the seven Dwarfs” by Anne Sexton, is that Bruno  uses more reality language in his interpretation, plus he tries to shows why some fairy tales might not be good to kids. And Sexton reviews how snow white is a symbol of beauty and female expectations.

The story ” A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’connor explores violence, goodness, sin and redemption. The author shows suspense in the essay which gives an overview of the story, but it has interior feelings. My interior feelings about this story are empathy, darkness and self observation. The main characters are the grandmother and the family which are identify as the “good” ones and the misfit as the evil character. However, throughout the story, the readers can experience racism, lies, disrespect and manipulation from the grandmother and the family. The character’s reaction  to the violence, as well as the Misfit’s calm detachment from his actions, give a dark sense to the reader. At the end of the story, it evoke a sense of existential realization and empathy; the grandmother’s final recognition of the Misfit as “one of her own children” carries a change of tone in the story, which lead to the moment of empathy between the grandmother and the Misfit. The realization that the boundaries between good and evil  are not clear at all, and it gives a tone of self observation.

“Why do I love you so much” is a greeting card that express a love and romantic emotion. It’s very specific regarding to the message the writer wanted to deliver.  “Why Do I Love You So Much?  and “How do I love thee” by William Shakespeare, relate because both express romantic emotions and feelings, but differently.  In “how do I love thee” in my opinion the writer express it, by using non-romantic words, but in a elegant way that reader knows that the poem is about romance and love “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate” (Shakespeare) in this quote the reader can sense the romance and love, because the writer use imagery to deliver what is written in the poem and it’s lovely significance. Then in  “Why do I love so much” the writer uses specific phrases that demonstrates love and romance,”Why Do I Love You So Much? Because you’re a part of my favorite memories as well as my most important dreams” in this quote, the writer use specific romantic  words that describe the love he/she is feeling.

The story Oedipus the King show how power, guilt, ignorance and pride can have impacts over the King. In the story there are timeless human experiences that are shown. Oedipus embodies the classic characteristics of the tragic hero, and his downfall follows accordingly. Out of a genuine concern for the suffering of his people, he attempts to discover the cause of the plague in order to end it. His anger and the decisions he makes while trying to do the right thing, did not go the way he expected. However his downfall was not because of his attitude, but because his pride and self-confidence, and  the hard truth that he had to face when he found out he killed his father and married his mother. In fact in the process, he behaves so arrogantly that he is blind to his own role in the plague, repeatedly referring to himself as “distinguished” and boasting about saving the city once already.  Each decision he makes to avoid fate ultimately serves to fulfill the prophecy.

Covid-19 was a pandemic that affected the modern world.  A lot of people died because of it and everyone was scared and desperate for the virus to end. It was very new that we would have worldwide  pandemic, which made us be in quarantine and most other countries were in curfew like Dominican Republic. In the story “Oedipus the King” people from Thebes were suffering from a devastating plague and were very desperate for help. The king Oedipus was a noble king and when the people of Thebes saw Oedipus as a God and hero, because he was  intelligent, brave and he cared about Thebes and because he saved them once. The difference between the people of the story and us is that they went to oedipus to ask for help because they saw him as a “hero”, and they had the faith that Oedipus could save them again from the plague. But for us was different, because we were unprepared and also we didn’t have a “hero”, we felt isolated because of all precautions we had to take before going out, a lot of employment were hold, shortage of certain products, airports, restaurants and stores were closed, etc. I think we behaved accordingly to what was happening, keeping in mind all the precautions and warnings that professionals said keep ourselves safe, like wearing facemasks, gloves, hand sanitizer  and not going out if it was not necessary.

The story “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and  the poem “The Wife” by Emily Dickinson, both reflects freedom, , independence in women and the unfairness that marriage holds. In the poem, the poet seem to identify how a single women transform  herself after marriage, as it seem in “The Story of an Hour” which mentions how free,relieved and excited  Louise felt after finding out about her husband’s false death. In the poem says “dropped the plaything of her life to take the honorable work of a woman and of wife” and i believe the meaning behind this quote is that woman get married and become wife,where back in those times they were not free or being under the man’s command. Also in the story there is a quote that says  “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself” which means, that now Louise will be living for herself, free and independent and not under a man dominance. I think both the story and the poem echoed because both talks about how woman used not to be free when they got married in the 19th centuries, and how a person could find liberty by it’s couple’s death.

The lesson is an story by Toni Cade Bambara, which talks about the injustice, classism and social inequalities. Today we were assigned to discuss how does this quote “Literature adds to reality; it does not simply describe it” by C.S Lewis about literature embodied in “The Lesson”. This quote to me, is the  an appropriate description of the importance of  literature in our lives. Literature not only describes reality but also adds to it, and it picture the thinking patterns and social norms prevalent in society. story talks about social and racial inequality back then, and how Miss Moore, the children’s teacher, is pointing it out to the children by taking them to a trip to the city. And this is the connection between the lesson and how literature have influence in our lives.

This week we read the story “Salvation” by Langston Hughes. In the story the narrator talks about his childhood experience in religion and faith. When I was 9-12 years old, there is a church next to my house and  I used to go very often. At that time I could not understand very well about religion, since in Dominican Republic people practice different religion, making the people who didn’t have any religion believe in theirs and act like the others religion are “bad” or “fake”. The church I used to go was a christian church, therefore my religion or believe was christianity.  All my christian neighbors used to say that if you want to be save you have to repent and convert to christian. Once I was in church and the paster pointed at me and asked me if I was ready to repent and convert to christian and I said yes, even though I didn’t want to be christian yet. After i got home I felt so guilty because we can never play with god and his rules, and I ask for forgiveness, because I knew that what I did was wrong. In the story  of ” salvation”, the narrator says “I was saved from sin when I was going on thirteen. But not really saved”, this connects with me because like Langston, I also lied to the church and everyone in the church, I felt guilty and embarrassed. Also we read the story “Araby” by James Joyce. the story shows desilucion, emotion and sensitiveness. The narrator has an active imagination and a sense of wonder. He imagines that the bazaar he could get a gift for the girl he’s attracted to,  he is met with the truth that life is often disappointing. In fact, he knows so little […]

The story ” The handsomest Drowned Man in the World” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” have a deep meaning regarding to people’s imagination. I think the professor assigned this story as our first class because it argues about how a great person can change others, even after death, and inspire them to be better people. In the story it shows how a dead man change a whole views, he was a very “big man” compared to rest of the village, they would’ve wanted him to be small like the rest, but after his death a woman from the village had an internal feeling  of changing  their surroundings instead. I think we were assigned for this story first to show us how valuable something that we don’t find important can be, and how little things can change our life or the way we think. It also shows how to be genuine, help and understand people.