In the story, A Tale About the Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was, things turn out a little different from most of the stories we've read. As we talked about in class, a character who is described as "stupid" and unable to "learn nor understand anything" somehow gets to marry a princess and be the hero. So how should we understand this story? One in which the shining knight is a total doofus?
I look at it as a tale for the rest of us. If you're born to peasants and are more familiar with crop planting than dragon slaying, here's a tale where you can succeed without be extraordinary. In fact, the hero' stupidity is his strength. He isn't smart enough to realize he's supposed to be afraid. He shoves a fake ghost down the stairs. He tells real ghosts that he'll hang them again if they don't leave him alone. He wins the king's daughter by spending three nights in a haunted castle.
In summary, by being too much of an idiot, the hero becomes rich and a king. The moral here seems to be working with what you got. Stupidity can be an asset. Stubbornness as well. Thus, everybody is a little bit special. If you use what you got, and even if it's not a lot, things might just end up as well for you as they did for the hero.
As for his wife, it's interesting that she is the one who gives him the creeps at the end. I'm not sure what to make of that. Is it saying marrying an strong woman a good thing? Let me know what you think in the comments.
-Matt P.
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Ooh, a very interesting take on "A Tale about the Boy Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was"... I would agree from a Bettleheim perspective that this kind of tale permits young children (and even us!) to place ourselves in the position of the protagonist to figure out that no matter what little we have, if we put it to good use, then we can be rewarded, too.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the role of his wife at the end, it is interesting that SHE gives the protagonist "the creeps"... At first, I thought that perhaps the "the creeps" connoted the boy's fear of adulthood (see my blog posting). On the other hand, "the creeps" - since he seems to enjoy the minnows writhing on top of him - could be sexual in nature and would indicate the boy's desire to set out and "become a man". Basically, it circles back to adulthood again - but this time, in a good way.
So the question is: Is coming into adulthood - finding out what "the creeps" are - connoted positively or negatively?