HERO'S JOURNEY IN FAIRY TALES

   

Freeimages/DomagojTelisman

Like dreams, stories have symbols. Some stories are about the hero's journey and the hero is going through a bunch of difficulties. But, the hero can solve all of them and at the end of the story the hero returns to the starting point with a learning process.

   But, what happens if at the end of the story the hero doesn't have any spiritual growth?

   Very often, I ask counselors and storytellers their opinion about telling stories to children with scary wolves and non happy endings. The topic is really controversial. Some say that stories should not scare children. Some say that wolf exists, it is just a metaphor of difficulties and danger. Therefore, with these stories children can learn to solve problems from early ages.

   This week a friend of mine told me a beautiful story. The the plot was fantastic. But, the end of the story surprised me a lot. After a fantastic journey, the hero comes back home with no learning process. At the end, parents were just waiting for the hero. That's it! There was no explicit reward in the hero's journey. Listening to the end, I felt distressed for a moment. In my mind, I quickly changed the end. But, I thought that a child is not capable to do it. Children listen to the story and their unconscious mind get the symbolic elements that the storyteller is telling.

   I realized how important it is to be aware of the moral in the story, and how important is to be consistent. We should always ask ourselves, what is the symbolic element of this story? What is the hero's goal doing his or her journey? What is the outcome? Then, we can let children's unconscious mind feel free to dream. Stories are told to learn, imagine and grow. The goal is not to scare them.

   Now, telling stories with wolves doesn't fright me any more. Limited and no rewarding endings does it much more.