Through seemingly simple and harmless stories, books and movies are sometimes used to propagate deceptive ideas among children. Many of the fairy tales, such as “Hansel and Gretel”, “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “The Frog-Prince”, are still popular today. These ancient stories from German and Danish folklore were collected by Christian Anderson and the Grimm brothers in the early nineteenth century. Although these stories are read out to children without much deliberation, they can adversely affect young minds by introducing and reinforcing many false ideas and biased notions. Let us analyze how.
Misogynist Narratives
The Grimms’ fairy tales, as they are commonly known, frequently portray female characters as heinous or dangerous. A favourite theme of these tales is to have evil witches as antagonists. For instance, we encounter terrible witches in “Hansel and Gretel”, “The Magic Herbs”, and “Snow White”, just to name a few. Such portrayals clearly reflect a dark period in European history, when thousands of women were burned to death or otherwise killed in notorious ‘witch-hunts’ across the continent. There is also the concept of the wicked mother. Women are often shown to be spiteful of their children, and in particular, jealous of their beautiful daughters. It is shocking to note that in the original versions of both “Snow White”, and “Hansel and Gretel”, it is the real mother who is wicked, although most adaptations of these tales turn her into a step-mother. Such narratives can negatively influence how children come to perceive women.
Glorification of Monarchs
The monarchs are viewed as almost sacred, and the price of offending them is massive in these tales. For example, in “King Throstle-Beard”, a woman makes fun of the king’s chin; in retaliation, the king subjects her to various forms of injuries and troubles that are disproportionate for merely poking fun at someone. In the tale, “The Shoes that Were Danced into Holes”, the king announces the death sentence for whoever undertakes to solve a trivial mystery about his daughters’ shoes but fails in it. Such stories convey lessons of inequality to the young: the kings are shown to have an inherent right to act haughtily, flaunt their so-called nobility, and subject others to torture or even death for small offences or failures.
Materialism
These tales typically glorify wealth and luxury. Marrying a prince or princess is often the ultimate goal and the only means of fulfillment in life. Sometimes, even moral values are sacrificed in pursuit of a higher status. In the well-known tale “Rumpelstiltskin”, the greedy king takes the girl into captivity and tells her to spin an enormous amount of straw into gold overnight or face death the following morning. When the girl is deemed successful in her task for three consecutive nights, the king offers to marry her, and she happily agrees – without so much as questioning the king’s arrogance or trying to make him feel remorseful. On the other hand, the ‘funny little man’, who actually does all the work for the girl in return for her jewellery, gets laughed at by everyone. Such ‘lessons’ can make children indifferent to their values and blur their sense of justice.
Obsession with Beauty
The heroine, whether she is a princess or a poor oppressed girl, has to be extremely beautiful. Anything less is unacceptable in these tales – no other quality of hers is worth the attention of the charming prince. In the tale “The Goose-Girl at the Well”, when the heroine disguises herself as an unattractive cottage dweller, the hero secretly mocks her; but when he sees her without disguise, he is astounded by her beauty and desires her. As a consequence of such characterization, the sympathy of the readers is always meant to be with the beautiful girl who, in the end, gets everything, while a plain-looking girl is never worthy of attention. This can falsely ingrain in the minds of young girls that they have to be very pretty and meet the modern ‘standards’ of beauty, in order to lead a happy life.
Reliance on the Supernatural
Children are undoubtedly intrigued by the supernatural, but the reliance on magic, enchantment, and miraculous fulfillment of wishes is far too great in these tales. The protagonists are frequently led out of precarious situations by mythological creatures, instead of coming up with clever ideas themselves. This undermines the importance of wisdom, creative thinking, and hard work; children may feel encouraged to wait for things to happen by themselves, rather than exerting their energies. Another consequence of the supernatural element in these stories is that once children enter adolescence, they simply discard these stories – and any valuable lessons learned through them.
It is thus important for parents to share those interesting and inspiring stories with their young ones that equip them with the best morals and provide them valuable insights. In particular, there is a need to produce quality literature for children that is in harmony with Islamic values and principles. Even though children today spend much time watching videos and playing games on their screens, there is no alternative to a good bedtime story – and the love of books can only be nurtured among children through stories that teach them wisdom in an entertaining way.
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