Fantastic Fantasy

 

Fantastic Fantasy 

1. Cinderella tried the shoes which fitted her perfectly to everyone's surprise. The Prince was overwhelmed with happiness. They married and lived happily ever after. (From "The Fairy-tale of Cinderella")

 

2. The princess kissed him with love and the Beast turned to a handsome, tall, smart and fair lad. They married and happily lived ever after. (From "The Fairy-tale of the Beauty and the Beast ")

3. The Little Mermaid drank the potion and turned herself to a sea foam bereaving the loss of the Prince as he married a princess in spite of the mermaid taking all the pain to flatter him. (From

"The Fairy-tale of the Little Mermaid

Wonder what this is? Do you get anything in common in these fairy-tales? Who is the target audience to these tales? What is the intention behind these stories? Let's discuss!

These children-targeted tales are a few samples from the basic lessons of reading mixed with the imaginations of the listeners or readers. When a child is exposed to such stories, or to say any stories, his/her brain starts mixing the words with colors and shapes with the words to visualize, thus, adding to their mental growth. There are umpteen lessons that could be inculcated through these fables.

Children are highly energetic that they live multiple lives with their imagination. They fly in the air like feathers, change their form like clouds, blow up themselves like giants, shrink like Alice... to create a wonderland around. When they read or listen, they live a million lives before they grow up. In fact, George RR Martin said, "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies" and the saying needs no explanation.

The impact a story creates in the mind is not always about the imagination and values but also the concepts. If the above-mentioned fairy-tale conclusions are over-looked, the stories are filled with fantasy, magic, imagination, poetic justice and so on. But beyond, there's an underlying concept of inculcation through these storylines.

Everyone around us know that a family is the smallest unit of a society that starts with a marriage. However, most of the fairy-tales which are targeted to children inculcate love at first sight, marriage, heart-break and melancholy due to rejection or a happy union due to a transformation to a smart man or a beautiful girl. Now the question is: Is this inculcation of dependence on a person to start a family and the concept of fair skin and beauty more important to children at such tender age of 4-8? Can't a man or woman without an outward beauty live happily ever with another person? Why is the inculcation of marriage or a wait for an attractive lifepartner a basic line of a story? Why should all these stories end with a wealthy protagonist?

To be precise: if Beauty married the Beast as it is, couldn't she ever live happily because she's already in love with his character? If the Little Mermaid was rejected by the Prince who is a human being, why did she long for his love and change to a sea foam? Instead, she could have become a Mermaid who is happy in her own skin and lived each moment like a happy child.

Emerson said, "A man is known by the books he reads." The choice of fairy-tales for children is left to the discretion of the parent but what is the other choice around?

This world needs young writers to bring out new concepts of dream, imagination, fantasy, reality, hard-work, success and new reasons for happiness other than wealth and power. May the concepts be myriad! The blooming generation is still waiting for a change! Let's think and create for the betterment. Let's learn to live because, just like a reader, a writer also lives millions of lives while he/she creates..