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My Fairy Tale Story, Essay Example

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One Child to Save Them All

If one child is all it takes to make a difference, why did it take the eating of many to figure it out? Fairy tales such as, “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids,” make me think about the wholly unrealistic, and at times utterly laughable situations, that writer’s put into their stories. Beyond being a source of amusement, some of the violence in what is touted, as a “children’s” story is surely something that should be discussed given factors such as who the audience is and what is acceptable violence for this same audience. I tend to think of fairy tales as stories that might teach a lesson, but that always have a happy ending. If that is the case, then how, is it advantageous for the wolf in this story, and what does he learn? I think that, “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids”, is a story that could be told through a different lens, depending on how I wish to have it depicted for different audiences.

The Brother’s Grimm wrote the Fairy tale entitled, “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids”, in which one-child remains after a brutal attack by a savage and conniving wolf. In this story, the mother has to go out, and before she leaves she specifically warns her children about the wolf. She instructs them about how to recognize that it is the wolf at the door, rather than their mother at the door, so that they are not tricked into opening the door. She instructs the kids that the wolf will not have a soft voice like hers, or white paws like hers, so this is how they will be able to tell whether or not it is the wolf. Realistically speaking, what mother leaves her seven “young” children at home by themselves with a “wolf” prowling the neighborhood? Naturally, the wolf comes, and through a series of deceptions, part of which are aided by the kids themselves, he manages to get in to the house and eats six of the seven kids whole. The kids unknowingly aided and abetted this “criminal”, by telling him all of the things he did not have right in order to be their mother. A god question to ask might be, why were they talking to a stranger through the door, knowing that there was a wolf in the neighborhood? The mother returns to find her house in a shambles, and all of her children but one, eaten by the wolf. What does this mother do, but go after this horrible creature that harmed her kids. She finds the wolf, and carefully cuts open his stomach while he sleeps and saves her children. She then fills his stomach back up with rocks and sews it back up. Once the wolf wakes up from this extremely heavy nap, he ends up drowning in water because of the weight of the stones in his stomach. The challenging part of this is that I feel a little sorry for the wolf, as he does not learn from his crime, but only pays for it with his life. I also wonder what was happening with that seventh kid during all of this and how the young kids fared once the ordeal was over.

Greek mythology gives an indication of where a story such as, “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids”, may have originated, in the story of the God Kronos. Because Kronos lived in fear of a prophecy that his own son would overthrow him, he swallowed each of his children as soon as they were born. His wife, Rhea, was devastated but managed to save the youngest, Zeus, by hiding him away on the island of Krete. Instead, she fed Kronos a stone wrapped like an infant. Zeus grew up and forced Kronos to “disgorge his swallowed offspring”, thus returning his siblings to his mother. It is fairly obvious in a story such as this that there are many similarities that would indicate that one was a predecessor to the other. Again, one child beat the odds and saved the others and the hearts of their mother’s.

Both the story of, “The Wolf and the Seven Kids”, and the story of Kronos, share many details that are extremely unbelievable yet significant to the overall message of the author’s stories. Both of these stories hinge around a multitude of children having been born, but only one “surviving” the deadly peril. I find it intriguing that although “one” is left standing in both stories, only in the Greek myth do we hear anything more about the “one”. In the first story with the wolf and the kids, there is hardly any mention of the one that was left at home after the attack. This kid must have been traumatized, and I would like to have read more about this kid and what happened to him, after it was all over. I can imagine that this kid might have been touted as a hero for living and being able to tell his mother what happened in order to save his siblings. It is possible that this kid could have been hiding so well, because he was so scared, that his mother did not find him right away and assumed that he had ended up the same way as his siblings. Another significant point for discussion with these stories might be the obvious thirst for power that both of these “villains” appeared to have. Kronos wanted to hold on to his power at all costs, including that of his children. The wolf was just that, a wolf. However, the very fact that the mother had to warn her kids indicates that he was a threatening presence of which they were well aware. It is one thing to look at the “villains”, but there is also the “saviors” or mothers as they are depicted in these stories. Both of these mothers put themselves at risk to save their offspring in one way or another. They defied the danger and risk, to make it count in the end, which is exactly the type of “hero” I would want in a story of this type.

While both of these stories have the same basic message, I would like to hear a more modern version of this tale. I would enjoy having the children outwit the wolf by having enough sense, or training by their parents, to call for help in the Wolf and Kids version. I would have also liked to see the mother assert her rights when it came to having her children “eaten” by her paranoid husband. Perhaps a phone call to the local hospital to have him committed secretly would have been a fascinating change to the tale. Also, both of the mothers fight for their kids in the end, but it is extremely likely that if the Kid’s mother cut open the wolf’s stomach he would have bled to death, not to mention that she would have needed a handy and exceptionally strong narcotic to keep the wolf out of commission during “surgery”. The believability undoubtedly goes down significantly, when I consider things such as stomach acid and the ability to have swallowed these kids whole. Alternatively, perhaps the version of the story in which the wolf simply puts the kids into a bag and drags them away to eat later might be a more plausible storyline for me. What about the one kid? Why is this kid not more of a hero and how was he treated that way after all of this was over? What about the son of Kronos? I think the stories should have ended with these two being recognized as heroes by their families and communities in order to get the happy ending that I would prefer. Also, one version of the story that I found compelling gave an alternate ending in which the wolf lives as a better “person” because they teach him how to be the right kind of “person”. I think this provides a better alternative to the death of the wolf, and allows for learning that forgiveness is important as well.

In my version of the fairy tale, “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids”, I would want the overall lesson to be themed in a more modern story setting and theme. Teaching my children how to be safe at home if they are alone, what to do in emergencies to protect themselves, and how to forgive and teach those that hurt us, are all themes I would want included in my story. I would also want to make the point that one child is all it takes to be a hero, even if eating several children is what it takes for one to stand out in the crowd.

Works Cited

FanFiction.net. Retrieval Date 17 Sept. 2010 http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5928031/1/The_Wolf_and_the_Seven_Little_Kids_II

“The Wolf and the Young Kids” Wikipedia. Updated 9 Sept. 2010. Retrieval Date 17 Sept. 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_and_the_Seven_Young_Kids