2024-09-07 13:45:00
Of Donkey skin in My mother is strangethree centuries of writing have seen many stories for children, read to them at the foot of the bed, that have the power to change their lives. Mirrors of society, they almost always go beyond simple entertainment to become lessons, and are read sometimes as warnings, sometimes as encouragement.
They have shaken generations by inculcating the moral values of their era in children, be it courage, truth or even freedom. But behind the apparent ignorance they often hide (more or less well) complex, sometimes disturbing messages. Let us consider a few examples.
Divorce, jealousy and relationships
If not all the (good) stories pass through this odious triptych, some have become so famous that it is impossible to consider their influence on education.
Little thumbFor example, tell the story of a boy who used his intelligence to save his brothers after their parents abandoned them in the forest (that is twice), and there was no poor person to raise them. He first used stone, then bread, before facing the wrath of the ogre and stealing his shoes from seven places to return home. The ending was sweet, but what a journey! We will understand that it is about facing the problems of life by being brave and courageous. More fatally, that parents can abandon their children, and that is very difficult to hear when you are only eight years old.
Snow Whiteon his part, must face the destructive jealousy of his mother-in-law, who will try in every way to kill him to become the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. Through tactics, and with the protection of seven monsters, the mother manages to win the child, until the beautiful prince brings him back to life. Various interpretations are possible: a meditation on female competition and the eternal search for beauty and youth, initiation into puberty or even an Oedipal story, not all of them happy. The same goes for Sleeping Beautywho is the illustrious representative of passive and reliable princesses. Today, this story, like many others of its time, is clearly hated by feminists.
Inside Donkey skinperhaps the darkest story in this short story, the king lost his wife and promised to marry only a woman more beautiful than him after her. Again, beauty creates evil, because the father decides to ask his daughter to marry him, judging that he is the only one who can surpass his mother. The girl runs away and tries to escape from her own father by asking him to do the impossible. He went so far as to kill his magical donkey, the source of all his wealth, to marry his daughter. That’s when he became Donkey Skin, hiding himself under the skin of the skin. He will end up meeting a young boy, who will let him escape from his father. The ending was sweet, but once again, what a journey! If this can be true for Little Thumb, it’s hard to believe that what we remember from this story is the wisdom of the young woman… Do children really need to face this kind of story to learn from it? Or is it a way for parents to ignore the elderly, or even to prepare for the future?
Adoption, gender change
It is in the first years of our lives that we teach ourselves the most. For better or for worse, we don’t do it alone. Our parents, grandparents, siblings, later friends, school and childhood stories, among others, that help us shape our character, our values, our thoughts. What a suggestion!
Far be it from me to say that Donkey skinread by a ten-year-old, it will no doubt turn him into an ardent defender of sex. However, I wonder about the place of planting ideas as complex and dangerous as this in children’s stories.
Further, he talked about My mother carried me in her heart. This is a version of a girl and her mother, who is as the title explains, did not carry her in her womb. There is no mention of a father, who obviously existed and still has no use. And, there is no appearance of a mother who is a mother, which is undoubtedly the best truth to hide. Other stories make us understand, or even write in black and white, that a family “sometimes it is only one person who creates another person, all alone”.
Finally, it is the turn of My mother is strange. The word speaks for itself: “The church is my mother. With your friends, they do anything! I went to all their shows, they threw off their clothes crying and they were naked on the floor. It’s so funny. » It is worse for those who do not understand, because the kind, today, are the most tolerant. Others are bad people.
Without making them obligatory, many children’s writers try to send more important messages, of courage or freedom, of adventure or love, because there are some subjects that are more meaningful than others, of children worth it.
#childrens #stories #century #values #dangers