One of my favorite books as a little kid was The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.
From my (very foggy) memory, the book follows a fish with all these rainbow, sparkly scales who has no friends, as all the other fish have dull scales and no one looks like our colorful fish. Eventually, the fish starts giving away his fancy scales to all the other fish and ultimately gains some friends.
Undoubtedly, the book teaches some very important lessons about vanity, generosity, and the fact that friendship doesn’t come for free. But, a while back, I saw something that pointed out the flip side of the book: the idea that you need to make yourself “less” to fit in and look like everyone else and have friends.
And it’s not a one time phenomenon – I recently saw something else that pointed out the same thing about Goldilocks and the Three Bears: the entire story revolves around a girl who goes into someone else’s house, sleeps in their bed, eats their food, and is still somehow the hero.
Same pattern with Jack and the Beanstalk: Jack climbs up the beanstalk and ends up in the giant’s home. Instead of leaving, Jack returns again and again to steal the giant’s wealth, nearly dying in the process. Yet in the end, he emerges unscathed and lives comfortably off of the giant’s treasures, while also killing the giant, who was leaving peacefully until Jack trespassed and stole from him
Stories like Rumpelstiltskin and Disney’s Little Mermaid have similar, but different issues. Both stories follow and glorify main characters – the girl who promises to spin straw into gold despite not being able to and Ariel who cuts a deal with Ursula and then attempts to renege on it – who make promises and cut deals without having the commitment to see them through and live up to their word.
By no means am I saying that all – or even these – fairy tales and children’s stories are bad or not worth reading. In fact, the opposite is true: all these stories contain important morals and values, whether that be the importance of generosity (Pfister’s The Rainbow Fish or Goldilocks) or the fact that you can rely on your family in times of crisis (The Little Mermaid).
But at the same time, even the simplest of stories – quite literally children’s stories – have so many shades of gray in them. They’re not straightforward, clear cut, black-and-white stories. You could very easily make an argument that several of these protagonists aren’t actually “good,” especially in the classic definition.
It is these stories – more than any others – that emphasize to me how much nuance and hidden perspective there are in every aspect of our lives. So the next time you look back on your favorite childhood story with nostalgia, remember that there’s More to the Story: more to read, more to analyze, and more sides to understand and empathize with.
