Fairy Tale Lessons

Tina Phillips

“If you do the right thing all the time, you won’t learn.  That’s why characters in fairy tales do the wrong thing.  Really, the moral is, don’t listen to your parents.”

Director Catherine Hardwicke on her movie Red Riding Hood
W Magazine, March 2011

Hardwicke puts a moody and supernatural spin on this fable.   But the basic premise of most fairy tales remains the same – parents are either absent or dead.  How else can little ones have wild adventures?  My real life kids want adventures too.  They build forts and want to go places without us.  They seek independence yet circle back to the familiar.  There’s a real life moral in fairy tales – venture out and be brave.  Has a childhood fairy tale stayed in your memory?

 

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