Fairy Tales

As I'm sure is the same with many other girls my age, my experience with fairy tales came primarily through the film medium. I learned about princesses and their prince charmings, toads and trolls, dragons and wolves, all through Disney films or other kids' movies. Every once in a while, being a child who frequented the library, I would pick up a book version of a story I was well acquainted with, however this versions haven't stuck with me.

Like I mentioned in class, the one fairy tale that has stuck with me most is that of Thumbelina. I suppose the reason why I esteem this story more so than Disney adaptations is because of her troubling journey for home and her Prince Charming.

All heroines in such tales have a journey to complete, but Thumbelina's differs somewhat. To begin with, Thumbelina had a home and a mother she loved; she wasn't orphaned or stuck with a step-parent that hated her. She met Prince Charming very close to the beginning of the tale. She thinks her happy ending has occurred, and then BAM--she is kidnapped by a toad with a crush, and her world comes crumbling down.

Instead of journeying for happiness, she is attempting to return to happiness. All the while, she deals with tough challenges that are actually awesome metaphors for real life troubles. We aren't dealing with poison apples here. Thumbelina is kidnapped by a jealous frog, showing the troubles in love and relationships when there are more factors than just two people who are perfect for one another. She is later picked up by a Beetle who has her perform in his club as eye-candy (for once, a heroine is openly objectified) until the bugs who attend the club realize she isn't actually of their kind and call her ugly (the heroine being considered ugly? What?). Later, she finds shelter with a field mouse who wants her to marry a blind mole who is financially successful; the pressures of giving up the hope of true love and settling for security are argued.

With Thumbelina, we see a true heartbreak; one that is believable, even if it does involve a Prince Charming (this at least keeps the story in the fairy tale realm).

I suppose the reason why I enjoyed the fairy tales so much was not so much for the love story involved, but for the inclusion of personified animals and out-of-this-world situations that differed from the more reality-based books and stories. Fairy tales help us remember stories and morals using metaphors and imagery, just like anything else with literary merit.