The last time I was in Salt Lake City, I had a conversation with my friend Flieswithoutwings about how romanticized a lot of children's stories are. Obviously a lot of them are rags-to-riches stories that follow a simple format: Girl lives in poverty. Girl meets prince, often without realizing he's a prince. Girl falls in love with the prince. Girl marries prince and leaves her life of poverty behind once and for all.
I think we all know how well that would play out in the real world.
It's funny how you never hear about a middle class girl who meets and marries a middle class boy and lives happily ever after. Nobody wants to hear about that. I think this is just more proof that money really does buy happiness.
Similarly, you never hear about the girl who remains single and lives happily ever after. See ladies, you need a man if you ever expect to be truly happy.
My favorite stories are the ones with the evil step-parents. We all know there are often problems with people getting along with their step-children, but to actually want the children dead? Seriously, how hot must Hansel and Gretel's step-mom have been in order to get their father to leave them in the woods to die?
It makes me realize that I'm going about it all wrong. The way to become immortalized in stories is not to accept my youngest as my own, it's about trying to feed him to the wolves every chance I get.
3 comments:
And then there are the Chinese stories that usually have a tragic ending like having the star crossed lovers commit suicide, or one of them flying up to the moon to be stuck there forever. I've quit watching Chinese movies because they always have tragic endings, even the comedies.
I agree though, maybe if our children had practical fairytales to listen to, they would be better prepared for the mundane, the trials, the poverty.
That is why I like the children's story The Paper Bag Princess...have to love a strong young woman who knows her own mind!
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