FREE ESSAY ON LESSONS OF LIFE

LESSONS OF LIFE

Lessons of Life
Steve sat at the dinner table eating breakfast with Steve's little sister, Jessy, sat
across from him. "Steve", she said, "where's skipper?" "He's gone now" I said. "Is he up
in heaven? I want him back." "Me too," Steve said. "I miss him a lot," she said. "I
know," Steve said, "so do I." Death is a hard concept for a small child to grasp. Its
difficult to explain how someone can be here one day and gone the next. Children
sometimes do not fully understand it, but when a loved one such as a parent dies a child
can be devastated. Loss is something that everyone has to deal with at some point in his
or her life. Fairy tales help children deal with life's difficulties such as death and
separation anxiety by exposing them to it at an early age.
Separation from a loved one is a common problem in many fairy tales. Often the heroine is
separated from her lover, her parents, or the world that she grew up in. This is the case
in the fairy tale "Thumbelina". Thumbelina is taken away from her home and wanders the
strange outside world for months. Eventually, she meets a mouse who has it arranged so
that Thumbelina is to marry a mole and live underground for the rest of her life.
Thumbelina is distressed because "she knew that after she married the mole, she would
never again see the sun and the flowers or hear the birds sing" (Eisen, 301-302). In the
Fairy tale "Rapunzel", Rapunzel experiences separation anxiety twice in her life. First
she suffers separation anxiety from the rest of society and then from her lover. Rapunzel
is locked up in a tower deep in the forest by a witch and isolated from all human
contact. Rapunzel betrays the witch and lets a young prince in the tower. Her second
episode of separation anxiety occurs when the witch takes her away form her lover. Upon
discovering her secret the witch takes Rapunzel to "a bleak desert place where the poor
girl was to live in great sorrow and misery" (Eisen, 98). In the fairy tale "Hansel and
Gretel", the children suffer separation anxiety from the rest of society and their
father. Hansel and Gretel are led into the woods and left for dead by their parents. The
children get lost in the woods and wander around for days searching for a way home. "They
walked all night and the next day from sunrise to sunset, but try as they might they
still could not find a way out of the forest" (Eisen, 90). This fairy tale exposes
children to the possibility of being separated from their parents as well as their peers.
In the fairy tale Cinderella, Cinderella is forced to do slave work for her stepsisters
and is forbidden from participating in certain community activities. She feels separated
from the rest of the world. The anxiety is so great that she burst into tears. All of
these fairy tales directly confront children with the possibility of being separated from
loved ones or from society altogether.
Many fairy tales also deal with the death of a parent or the threat of death on the
heroine. In "Sleeping Beauty", the heroine is foretold that on her fifteenth birthday
"she will prick her finger on a spindle and fall dead" (Eisen, 22-23). The princess and
the entire kingdom fall into a deep sleep that lasts for a hundred years. Children are
able to understand what death is like since it is compared to a long period of sleeping
and being inactive. In "Hansel and Gretel", the hero and heroine are faced with the
possibility of death. The old witch locks Hansel up in a cage. She feeds him good food
and tells Gretel that "when he's nice and fat, I'm going to eat him up" (Eisen, 93).
Eventually the witch decides to try to cook Gretel but she outsmarts the witch and shoves
her into the oven. "The witch screamed horribly, but Gretel didn't open the door until
the witch was dead" (Eisen, 93). Death is a huge part of "Hansel and Gretel", from
starving to death, being eaten by wild animals, being eaten by a witch and burning to
death in an oven. Death also plays a large role in "Snow White". The jealous stepmother
wants Snow White killed because she is more beautiful. Children are not only exposed to
death but also cruel intentions of an evil person. The queen eventually poisons Snow
White and she "fell to the ground dead" (Eisen, 122). Young children are confronted with
the heroine of the story dying as opposed to a wicked old witch dying. In
"Rumpelstiltskin", the heroine of the story is also confronted with death. The king tells
the millers daughter that if she cannot spin the straw into gold then "by tomorrow
morning, you will pay with your life" (Eisen, 128). Children are exposed to the
possibility of a good person dying rather than an evil person dying, just as it can occur
in real life.
Fairy tales are invaluable tools used to teach children about life and prepare them for
obstacles that occur later in life. Most children first experience the death of a loved
one when a house pet dies. Children see the animals not as pets but as a member of the
family. It is hard to loose a loved one, but it is a fact of life. That is where fairy
tales come in. Children can be prepared for these obstacles that occur later in life.
Fairy tales help children deal with death and separation anxiety among other difficulties
that life provides.
Bibliography
Works Cited
Anderson, Hans Christian "Thumbelina." A Treasury of Children Literature. Ed. Armand
Eisen. Boston: Arial Books, 1992. 296-303
Black, Shelia "Sleeping Beauty." A Treasury of Children Literature. Ed. Armand Eisen.
Boston: Arial Books, 1992. 20-36.
Grimm "Hansel and Gretel." A Treasury of Children Literature. Ed. Armand Eisen. Boston:
Arial Books, 1992. 86-95.
Grimm "Rapunzel." A Treasury of Children Literature. Ed. Armand Eisen. Boston: Arial
Books, 1992. 95-100.
Grimm "Snow White." A Treasury of Children Literature. Ed. Armand Eisen. Boston: Arial
Books, 1992. 112-128.
Grimm "Rumpelstiltskin." A Treasury of Children Literature. Ed. Armand Eisen. Boston:
Arial Books, 1992.128-136.