Why I Love Fairy tales

Why I Love Fairy tales

Every time I tell someone else that I love reading fairy tales, I always have to face verbal or nonverbal ridicule. Everyone seems to agree that only little children like to read such silly things. However, I still love it.

Why? It is really hard to say. I am looking for the reasons all the time, and recently I seem to find one.

This possible answer is in the American drama, Once Upon A Time, which I am quite fascinated by these days. In this drama, Mary, a beautiful woman teacher, gave a story book to Henry, a shy and lonely little boy in her class. When she was asked how a book is supposed to help, she answered easily, “Stories are a way for us to deal with our world, a world that doesn’t always make sense.”

She added, “I gave the book to him because I wanted Henry to have the most important thing anyone can have…hope. Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing.”

I have to say that I am touched by these words, totally and deeply touched. I used to like the famous movie The Shawshank Redemption, which seems to have nothing in common with fairy tales. However, the main character of this movie, Andy, said, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Isn’t it exactly what fairy tales want to express?

We all need a hope to live on. Hope is bread and wine for our souls. We can tolerate the tough life right now, because we hope our circumstances would take a favourite turn one day, just like Cinderella. We keep calm and optimistic after disasters, since we know the poor Snow White, who is chased and killed, will be found and saved by Prince Charming at the end. Those who do bad things all always receive punishment, and those who do good would get rewarded finally, so we learn that we should keep being kind to get a better life.

Excellent stories are always more than stories. Andersen once said that his stories were written not only for children but also for adults, because he wanted to give these grown-ups something to think about when they have to listen to tales together with their children. As a matter of fact, he proved that stories can be so charming and meaningful that you can read them from 8 years old to 80 years old.

So I recommend you to read stories wholeheartedly, or just do not release your scornful expression when you hear someone saying that he loves fairy tales.