Milan’s Kravetz, Period 6, 10/02/23

 As The Fairy Tale Unit comes to an end, this course has already influenced my critical perception and introduced a new way of thinking to me. In the beginning of this unit, I believed there is not anything new I can learn about fairy tales, since I read them ever since I was a child. However, I was most definitely proved wrong. In the previous week, the class read “The Oral and Literary Fairy Tales”, within Jack Zipe’s essay, Breaking the Disney Spell for homework. This piece of writing really intrigued me; it was interesting to read about the origins and transformations of the fairy tale. I had no clue that they were initially published for adults, since they were so symbolic and could be read through various perspectives, making them dangerous. 

Growing up, I read a multitude of fairy tales and wished to be immersed into that kind of magical and perfect lifestyle. As a child, reading fairy tales taught me about honesty, sympathy, and compassion for others. However, now my understanding of fairy tales has changed. By analyzing them more deeply, I noticed that they reinforce the concepts of rags to riches, patriarchy, greed, and “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”. For instance, all the Cinderella stories we had to read shared the same theme: rags to riches. The protagonist goes from being a neglected, hopeless girl to a queen or a girl marrying an eminent man, living happily ever after. 

Not only did we read these different Cinderella stories to analyze the different meanings behind them, but also to contextualize our understanding of culture and apply the new literary theories that we were just taught. All our ideas and reflections would then be transferred onto paper, specifically onto a colorful mosaic display. This would be our Fairy Tale Stained Glass Project, which was due this weekend. The critical theories are meant to dissect any given literary text, proving that there is not just one correct way to view a piece of literature. I learned that we can perceive text through the lens of a psychological state, environment, sociological ideologies, identities, etc. Ultimately this project and class, in general, so far taught me that there is not just one way of looking at things. There is a limitless amount of correct ways a reader can interpret a story. I will not only apply this practice to future texts, but also outside the classroom by looking and examining situations from various interpretations. Things that might seem to be irrelevant or unimportant at first, might carry a much deeper meaning to them with further analysis.