Once upon a time, there was a lovely maiden, who lived with her father and stepmother. After some time, the young girl, through little fault of her own, was banished to a small room in the house. The young maiden’s father frequently beat her with metal rods and forced her to exercise until exhaustion. The maiden spent all her nights sleeping on the cold, tiled floor covered in a thin blanket. She regularly disposed of her bodily waste in a 5 gallon bucket. After two months, the maiden hatched a plan. She would escape to the attic of the house, climb out the window, and ride her bike to safety. On the fourth day of the second calendar month of the year, the maiden carried out her plan. She rode her bike to a nearby movie theatre, where she received $50 dollars from a concerned couple. Then, she rode approximately 13 miles to a shopping center and bought water, food, a backpack, and clothes. Finally, the girl rode to a small coffee shop and asked the kindly owners to call the police.
This true tale happened in Phoenix, Arizona. On February 4, 2010, the 14 year old “maiden” escaped from the bathroom of her parent’s house. As of February 11th, Scott and Andrea Bass, the maiden’s parents, told investigators that they locked the young girl in the bathroom because she stole food from their kitchen and cheated on a home-school test. This story immediately jumped out to me as a fairy tale for a variety of reasons: 1). The maiden is persecuted under false or unreasonable claims; 2). The stepmother (possibly) tricked or deceived the birth father into turning against his own daughter; 3). The maiden eventually escapes (though typically she is aided by handsome prince or another helper); 4). The maiden meets a donor (or two in this case) and receives some assistance; and 5). The villains are apprehended and, hopefully, punished. This tale is a classic restoration tale. However, to what degree is the maiden restored to her earlier status in society? Though physically, the young girl may be restored, she may never recover fully in terms of her mental and emotional health. This is one aspect that is rarely covered in fairy tales. To what degree is Rapunzel scarred from her secluded life in the tower? Does Little Red Riding Hood experience night terrors from her encounter with the wolf? If these emotional/psychological issues were discussed, fairy tales in the US would often end with the following phrase: “and the doctors believed she would live happily ever after, as long as she continually met with her psychiatrist and took her prescribed medication.” Though truthful, this ending would hardly satisfy most readers. As a result, the common phrase “happily ever after” predominates, allowing readers to believe that even if one suffers a horrendous experience, he or she will be “normal” and free from anxiety, depression, or other mental disorders. What are the consequences of this belief on modern American society?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123594091
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After reading the story from the link you posted, Cara, I was shocked to find that there were other children in the house that were completely unharmed. I definitely agree with your statement that this seems like a sad and scarily realistic Cinderella story, and the fact that the other children are actually treated well makes it even more so.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you in your comment about the psychological issues that inevitably surface from these "fairy tales" due to the brutal experiences their heroes or heroines undergo. In Cinderella, a young girl loses both of her parents and is left with not a single friendly soul to support her, but is instead abused and forced to perform manual labor on a daily basis. She has no family and no one to turn to. The lasting psychological effects of this isolation had to have been extreme if experienced in real life. The same holds true for the other fairy tales in which the protagonists experience hardship.
However, what if these stories are meant to reach out to girls like the one in this article to impart to them that, although they are being brutally mistreated, the future could hold something different and better for them? I think the crucial part of this story is the fact that the young girl escaped on her own. She did not need to wait for someone to rescue her (although I'm sure she desperately hoped for it many times), but in the end she saved herself from the life-threatening situation she was experiencing. It seems from the article that she was abused for a long time, much longer than anyone should be able to endure, so it would seem that it took her awhile to work up the courage to escape. Maybe, if fairy tales more often expressed women fighting for themselves and saving themselves from a cruel situation, she would have believed she could save herself sooner.
Obviously we cannot know to what extent this girl had exposure, if any, to fairy tales, but a young girl who was treated in this way and who knows the story of Cinderella could reassure herself that a fairy godmother or a prince will arrive to rescue her as long as she is complacent and patient. We should instead send the message to children that they sometimes have to take matters into their own hands, and only then will they be able to free themselves from a dangerous situation.
Excellent analysis of this story as a persecuted heroine tale, and you raise a very important idea we've not considered yet about what happens in the "happily ever after."
ReplyDeleteIs it possible to link this idea of psychological damage to Bettelheim's theories at all?
I think that the “happily ever after” point that Cara raised was a very good one. “Happily ever after” is the goal we all aspire to, especially when things are going wrong, but is it really attainable? We have talked in class about how fairy tales are intended to teach lessons, or if you take a psychoanalytical approach how they are able to reflect unconscious concerns and provide guidance on how to deal with life’s problems. They tell stories of heroes and heroines who undergo terrible cruelty and tremendous struggles, but who in the end are able to put all the bad behind them and move forward as though nothing had ever happened.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, people are not usually able to bounce back so quickly and easily. Being neglected like Cinderella, raped like Sleeping Beauty, or stalked like Little Red Riding Hood are not things that are easily forgotten. Traumatic experiences stay with us forever and we may never be able to fully move on, especially not immediately afterwards as happens in fairy tales.
So what does “happily ever after” really teach us? Sure fairy tales teach us strangers can be dangerous and that we can rise up from harsh circumstances, but do these lessons lose something when we cannot achieve that happy ending we see as the reward for our troubles? Along with the unrealistic expectations they instill within us about love this seems like it may be just another way that fairy tales set us up to fail.