The first literary work in every person’s life is a fairy tale. We probably all remember well how our mother read them to us in our very early years. However, one should not perceive a fairy tale solely as a way to entertain a child or amuse him.
It seems so only at first glance, but upon detailed analysis, we see that such a literary genre performs a very important function, namely, raising a child. Let's remember together how fairy tales made us feel.
The role of fairy tales in the life of the reader
The plot necessarily had negative and positive characters who found themselves in the same life situation or took part together in a certain event. Evil characters hindered the good ones in every possible way, playing various tricks on them.
However, in the end, good always defeated evil, and often won it over to its side. The unformed psyche of a child, using the example of the main characters of a fairy tale, begins to understand what is good and what is bad; how to treat people and how not to; what are real life values and what are false.
Moral values in fairy tales for adults
One should not assume that fairy tales leave a child as he grows up: they accompany a person throughout his adult life. After all, people tend to lose their life guidelines, and these literary works in every possible way help to find them again. Fairy tales for adults contain somewhat transformed moral values of children's fairy tales.
Such works teach a person to be a patriot of his state, to have ideas about true love and friendship. Poetic images of fairy tale heroes make a person think about whether he has forgotten about the main thing in his life - spiritual formation.
After all, very often adults are busy with various everyday chores - work, study and raising children. The spiritual idea of life sharply fades into the background, and ultimately, completely loses its relevance. Fairy tales act as a tool through which adults begin to understand the true values of their lives.
The place of fairy tales in the world of fiction
The fairy tale occupies one of the most significant places in world fiction. Moreover, this genre is a pioneer in the development of the direct literary process in the life of mankind. The fairy tale always went in rhythm with time and fully reflected the dominant guidelines that were characteristic of humanity in a certain period of its history.
This literary genre did not arise out of nowhere. In ancient times, it was oral and passed down from generation to generation. Such tales were called folk tales, since they did not have an author, but were an expanded and modified oral text.
Author's fairy tales first appeared in the 17th century. Charles Perot is considered the father of the classic literary fairy tale; it was he who created the literary construction of the fairy tale, which was repeatedly used by many writers in the future. The fairy tale meets all the criteria of a literary work, the main one of which is a lesson for the reader.
In the text offered to us for analysis, the famous Russian psychologist and teacher Ilya Konstantinovich Barabash raises the problem of the importance of fairy tales in the life of modern man.
This problem is more relevant today than ever, because plunging into the frantic rhythm of life in modern society, we begin to forget about the beginnings, about what helped us in childhood. We don’t think about the fact that something that served us as a support in life before can serve as a guide now. It was fairy tales that laid in us the moral, aesthetic and moral guidelines that guide us to this day.
In order to draw the reader’s attention to this issue, the writer, firstly, talks about how closely we perceived the problems of the heroes: “We were really happy for Ivan Tsarevich, we felt sorry for Little Muk.” This helped us compare their behavior with ours, draw conclusions and act as the hero of a fairy tale would act. Secondly, the author tells us how cunning defeats strength, and courage defeats meanness. Barabash actually lists some of the lessons we learn from reading fairy tales: “The concept of power is relative.
And if you simply unselfishly help someone, then goodness will definitely return to you.”
The author believes that we should look at life through the prism of a fairy tale, but without falling into the power of fairy-tale characters. In other words, we must be able to use the advice that the fairy tale gave us, not forgetting that we still live in the real world, and therefore fairy tale laws do not always work here.
It is not without reason that this problem is considered in the work of Vladimir Blagov “Freedom for the Serpent Gorynych!” Brother and sister, living in a modern apartment, are not interested in books at all. My brother plays on the computer all day long, my sister leafs through magazines - they are not interested in the fictional world. One day, due to a coincidence, they magically find themselves in a classic Russian fairy tale, where they use only their resourcefulness and courage to save fairy-tale characters, and happily return home. Having learned courage, valor and honesty during their adventures, they understand that the world of fairy tales is a fascinating environment where everyone can find an answer to any question that concerns them. Since then they began to pay much more attention to books.
Another example is the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Four children evacuated to London because of the war accidentally find an entrance to a parallel world inhabited by fairy-tale characters. By chance, responsibility for this entire world is placed on their shoulders, and they save it. In the process, each of the children corrects their own major character flaw, and they return back to London as completely different people. Meeting with a fairy tale greatly helped them change their destiny and themselves for the better.
To summarize, we can say that fairy tales really play a very strong role in people's lives. It is not for nothing that the Russian proverb says: “A fairy tale is a treasure of folk wisdom.”
Updated: 2017-05-10
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Every fairy tale teaches something. Even in the most terrible fairy-tale world there is a brave hero who fights with the most powerful and incredible monsters and always defeats them. At the same time, he performs heroic deeds to save someone. Various creatures and objects come to his aid. The assistants of the positive heroes are wise old men, old women, fantastic creatures, heroes, animals and birds: “Sivka-burka”, “duck with the golden egg”, “wonderful chicken”, etc. And sometimes inanimate objects come to the rescue: a tablecloth self-assembly, boots - walkers, living or dead water. These creatures or objects return good for good.
A fairy tale has a direct impact on the formation of personality. In our inner world, as in the fairy-tale world, Courage and Cowardice, Greed and Generosity, Pettiness and Generosity, Faith and Rationalism, and other qualities coexist. A fairy tale helps us choose our ideal and hold on to it - at least internally.
People of all ages love to read fairy tales. There are fairy tales that will be interesting only to young children, and others for a wider age group. For example, there are fairy tales for very young children. In them, the little listener learns about the world around him, moving from simple to more complex - through comparisons and relationships. In the fairy tale “The Three Bears,” the relationship between the size of an object and the age of the characters is clearly described, and that for Mashenka what suits her age is Mishutka’s accessories; in “Turnip” we observe the order of characters “from great to small.” These fairy tales teach consistency and develop intelligence.
So we can conclude that a fairy tale plays a huge role in the life of every person. Even in childhood, she teaches us kindness, decency, courage, helps us understand what is good and what is bad, and contributes to the general development of intelligence.
Read along with the article “Essay on the topic “The role of fairy tales in human life”:
Share:Kineva Irina Vladimirovna,
Teacher of GBDOU No. 18 of the Kirov district of St. Petersburg
“The brilliant, best gold in the world is the gold that sparkles in children’s eyes and rings with laughter from children’s lips and the lips of their parents.”
K. Andersen
Fairy tales have accompanied people for centuries. It not only contains magic and adventure, it contains life itself. It’s not for nothing that they say: “The fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows.” Indeed, fairy tales are one of the instructive moments. Almost every fairy tale provides a life lesson. And this is especially important for a child.
The texts of fairy tales evoke intense emotional resonance in both children and adults. The images of fairy tales simultaneously address two mental levels: the level of consciousness and subconscious, which creates special opportunities for communication.
The fairy tale contains information in symbolic form about:
How this world works;
What “traps”, temptations, difficulties, obstacles can be encountered in life and how to deal with them;
How to gain and value friendship;
What values should you follow in life?
How to build relationships with parents;
How to fight and forgive.
Fairy tales are the basis of “moral immunity” and the maintenance of “immune memory”. “Moral immunity” is a person’s ability to withstand negative influences of a spiritual, mental and emotional nature emanating from society.
Fairy tales return the child to a state of holistic perception of the world. They give the opportunity to dream, activate creativity, convey knowledge about the world, about human relationships.
The attractiveness of fairy tales for the development of a child’s personality is as follows:
lack of didactics and moral teachings in fairy tales.
The most that the fairy tale genre can “afford” is a hint on how best to act in a given life situation. The events of a fairy tale flow naturally and logically from one another. Thus, the child perceives and assimilates the cause-and-effect relationships that exist in this world.
lack of clear personifications.
The main character in a fairy tale is a collective image. The names of the main characters are repeated from fairy tale to fairy tale: Ivanushka, Alyonushka, Marya. The absence of rigid personification helps the child identify himself with the main character. Using the example of the destinies of fairy-tale heroes, a child can trace the consequences of one or another person’s life choice.
figurativeness and metaphorical language.
Each fairy-tale situation has many facets and meanings. A child or an adult, reading a fairy tale, unconsciously draws out for himself the meaning that is most relevant to him at the moment. Thanks to the multifaceted meanings, the same fairy tale can help a child solve problems that are relevant to him at different periods of his life. Observing the destinies of the main characters, living; fairy-tale situations, perceiving the language of fairy-tale images, the child largely forms a picture of the World for himself and, depending on this, will perceive different situations and act in different ways.
psychological security.
The sign of a true fairy tale is a good ending. This gives the child a feeling of psychological security. Whatever happens in a fairy tale, everything ends well. It turns out that all the trials that befell the heroes were necessary in order to make them stronger and wiser. On the other hand, the child sees that the hero who committed a bad deed will definitely receive what he deserves. And the hero who goes through all the trials, showing his best qualities, is sure to be rewarded. This is the law of life: how you relate to the World, so it treats you.
the presence of mystery and magic.
These qualities are characteristic of fairy tales. A fairy tale is like a living organism - everything in it breathes, at any moment any object - even a stone - can come to life and speak. This feature of the fairy tale is very important for the development of the child’s psyche. By reading or listening to a fairy tale, the child “gets implanted” into the story. He can identify himself not only with the main character, but also with other animated characters. At the same time, the child develops the ability to decenter, to take the place of another. After all, it is precisely this ability of a person to feel something different from himself that allows him to feel the multifaceted nature of the World and his Unity with it.
Fairy tales are divided into traditional (folk) and original. There are several types of folk tales:
everyday (for example, “The Fox and the Crane”);
fairy tales-mysteries (stories of wit, stories of the cunning);
fairy tales and fables that clarify some situation or moral norm;
horror tales, stories about evil spirits;
fairy tales-parables;
tales about the interaction of people and animals;
tales about animals; mythological stories (including stories about heroes);
fairy tales, fairy tales with transformations (“Geese-swans”, “Little little havroshechka”, etc.).
Each group of fairy tales has its own age children's audience. Children 3-5 years old most understand and relate to fairy tales about animals and fairy tales about the interaction between people and animals. At this age, children often identify themselves with animals and easily transform into them, copying their behavior.
Starting from the age of 5, the child identifies himself mainly with human characters: Princes, Princesses, Soldiers, etc. The older the child gets, the more pleasure he reads stories and fairy tales about people, because these stories contain a story about how a person knows the world.
From about 5-6 years old, the child prefers fairy tales.
In the process of purposeful work with fairy tales, during a discussion of a literary work, comparison of fairy-tale situations with real ones, based on personal observations and experiences of children, a consciously correct attitude towards the phenomena, objects of animate and inanimate nature that make up the immediate environment of children is formed. The ability to fairly evaluate the actions of not only the heroes of fairy tales, but also their peers, and, sometimes, adults is developed; the ability to understand what is good and what is bad is formed; what is possible and what is not.
Thus, a diverse fairy-tale world awakens the child’s imagination, gives rise to cognitive interest in the real world, arouses in children energy, readiness to fight for truth, justice, freedom; gives the first concepts of good, evil, justice. Through a fairy tale, the child begins to understand the laws of the world in which he was born and lives!
Fairy tales are indispensable in a child's life. Their role is very high. They are not only a means to captivate a child, but are also capable of developing him, educating him and solving his psychological problems.
A large number of images of fairy tales developed in ancient times, in the very era when man’s first ideas and concepts about the world arose. Of course, this does not mean that every magical fantasy originates from the depths of centuries. Many images of fairy tales developed in the relatively recent past. In each new era, a fairy tale had certain fantastic material, which was passed down by generations from old people, preserving and developing previous oral and poetic traditions.
The Russian people have created about one hundred and fifty original fairy tales, but there is no strict classification of them yet.
Fairy tales are specific artistic works of folk art. Each of them has its own idea, which is clearly expressed in all versions of the same fairy tale plot.
Fairy tales as individual phenomena of art can be compared only according to significant historical, folklore, ideological and figurative characteristics.
The people understood that they do not achieve justice through miracles, that real action is necessary, but the question is - what kind? Fairy tales do not answer this question. Storytellers wanted to support the very desire of the people for justice with magical storytelling. The successful outcome of fairy tales is undoubtedly utopian in nature. He testified to the time when the people were painfully searching for a way out of tragic social conditions.
The fairy tale also established its own poetic forms, a certain composition, and style. The aesthetics of beauty and the pathos of social truth determined the stylistic character of the fairy tale.
There are no developing characters in a fairy tale. It reproduces, first of all, the actions of the heroes and only through them the characters. The static nature of the characters portrayed is striking: a coward is always a coward, a brave man is brave everywhere, an insidious wife is constantly engaged in insidious plans. The hero appears in a fairy tale with certain virtues. He remains like this until the end of the story.
Russian beauty and elegance distinguish the language of fairy tales. These are not halftones, these are deep, dense colors, emphatically defined and sharp. The fairy tale talks about a dark night, a white light, a red sun, a blue sea, white swans, a black raven, and green meadows. Things in fairy tales smell, taste, have bright colors, distinct shapes, and the material from which they are made is known. The armor on the hero seemed to be burning with heat, he took out, as the fairy tale says, his sharp sword, and pulled a tight bow.
A fairy tale is an example of national Russian art. It has its deepest roots in the psyche, in the perception, culture and language of the people.
The fantasy of fairy tales was created by the collective creative efforts of the people. Like a mirror, it reflected the life of the people, their character. Through a fairy tale, its thousand-year history is revealed to us.
Fairytale fiction had a real basis. Any change in the life of the people inevitably led to a change in the content of fantastic images and their forms. Once having arisen, fairy tale fiction developed in connection with the entire set of existing folk ideas and concepts, undergoing new processing. Genesis and changes over the centuries explain the features and properties of fiction in folk tales.
Having developed over centuries in close connection with the everyday life and life of the people, fairy-tale fiction is original and unique. This originality and uniqueness are explained by the qualities of the people to whom the fiction belongs, the circumstances of its origin and the role that the fairy tale plays in people's life.