Hackeng
Fairy Tale Structures, Social Input and Cultural Guidance: a
Psychonarratological Analysis of Cohesive Influences on
Children’s Cognitive Development
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this essay is to examine how cognitive development in children is stimulated
by their encounter with fairy tales, and which factors that are related to the reading of fairy
tales may influence this interaction between the psyche and literature. To this end the
cognitive development theory by psychologist Jean Piaget is described and components from
the developmental stages he distinguishes are singled out and linked to the structure of fairy
tales as Propp theorises. Additionally, the cultural and social factors that determine which
fairy tales are encountered and how children’s reception of fairy tales can be altered are
briefly outlined in an effort to demonstrate how multiple disciplines interact to establish an
impact on cognitive development.
Name:
Sanne Hackeng
Student number:
3810194
Supervisor:
S.J. Cook
Word count:
9535 excluding works cited
Bachelor thesis English Language and Culture, Creative Writing
1
Hackeng
Content
0
Introduction
3-5
Chapter
1
Cognitive Development
6-11
Chapter
2
Narrative Theory
12-19
Chapter
3
Elements of the fairy tale
20-30
Chapter
4
3.1
“Cinderella”
21-22
3.2
“The Wolf and Seven Goats”
23-24
3.3
“Snow white”
25-26
3.4
“Little Red Riding Hood”
27
3.5
“Sleeping Beauty”
28
3.6
“Hänsel and Gretel”
29-30
Conclusion
31-35
Works Cited
36-38
Appendix
39
Vladimir Propp’s functions
40
The Grimms’ fairy tales
41
2
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3
Introduction
Many developmental psychologists have aimed to describe and explain developmental change
and develop a theory that could make predictions about this change that could be scientifically
validated (Leman, Bremner, Parke & Gauvain 12). Theories of human development have
ranged from behaviorist and maturational approaches to psychodynamic and cognitive
approaches (Leman et al. 12-20). When it became evident that the behaviorist approach to
human development could not explain phenomena such as creative learning, psychologists
turned to the cognitive approach, which was advocated by psychologist Jean Piaget (Leman et
al. 20).
Piaget’s cognitive development theory provides an extensive contemplation of
children’s development, especially when it is considered in the context of children’s literature.
The link between the books children are most often presented with, children’s books, and
their cognitive influences on them seems to have been researched with regard to the influence
of violence on children through media (Drabman & Thomas 418-421) and the notion of
gender roles in children’s books and how they affect children’s conceptions of the world
(Peterson & Lach 185-197). In light of this link, the current essay will not merely consider the
influence of themes and content of children’s books but will explore the possibilities of a
deeper connection between child and literature within the framework of fairy tales. The theory
of psychonarratology expresses this connection, a field that approaches the study of literary
response through a framework of psychological focus: “Psychonarratology is … the
investigation of mental processes and representations corresponding to the textual features
and structures of narrative” (Bortolussi et al. 24).
This method requires a coherent corpus of children’s books to be delineated. The idea
of the universality of children’s development, occurring regardless of culture and place
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(though not unaffected by either), has led to the consideration a universal children’s book
genre: the fairy tale. Many heuristics have been applied to fairy tales regarding their effects on
young minds, such as their archetypal effects as outlined by Carl Jung (qtd. in von Franz 1),
or their effects on the development of the id and ego as maintained by Bettelheim (6).
However, these theories focus on how very specific aspects of children’s minds are affected
by fairy tales. The comprehensive cognitive development theory by psychologist Piaget may
provide for a more complete image of these effects on children due to its consideration of
multiple developing cognitive items. The narrative theory applied to fairy tales in this essay
will be elaborated on in chapter 2.
Additionally, Piaget’s theory supports a potential for interaction between text and
children’s cognitive development levels. According to Turiel, children’s interactions with
their environments are based on the existing organizations of thought (stages or levels of
development) (13). Research shows that children respond differently to the same intellectual
tasks when they are at a different developmental stage: findings from Rest, and Rest, Turiel
and Kohlberg support the idea that there is an interactional relationship between the individual
and the environment that is influenced by the structures of thought (Turiel 14; Rest 86-109;
Rest et al. 225-252). The environment of a child consists of many components, and
encounters with stories are quite common. Logically, Turiel’s statements regarding the
interaction between environment and developmental stage also concern the literature children
are in contact with.
Turiel indicates that a common approach to this subject of interaction is the use of
experiments with children, for instance “the measurement of children’s comprehension of
presented solutions with regard to their moral judgments in different developmental
stages”(qtd. in Turiel 14). This essay, however, adopts a more theoretical and interactional
approach by examining the relations between children’s cognitive development, cultural and
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social influences and the experience of reading fairy tales. The pervading conviction
throughout this essay holds that cultural influences decide what kind of fairy tales children
experience during their developmental progression; social influences guide children’s
perception of the fairy tales through parents’ possible correction of wrongful assumptions
about them; and the fairy tales’ structural components possess the potential to stimulate
cognitive items children might struggle with during the stages. Although the major focus is on
Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory in combination with Propp’s functionalist narrative
theory about fairy tales, social and cultural factors are mentioned and will occasionally be
referred to. The aim of the essay is to distinguish how, and more specifically, which elements
in fairy tales might stimulate cognitive development in children and how this effect is
mediated by interactions with social and cultural factors.
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Chapter 1
6
Cognitive Development
In order to establish how fairy tale properties can stimulate cognitive development in children,
some insight into the concept of cognitive development is required. Research attempts to
describe the development of internal mental processes, including memory, language and logic
(Leman et al. 20). In his cognitive development theory, Piaget specifically addresses the
development of concepts of the physical world such as classification, conservation and
number (Leman et al. 255), as well as “underlying concepts such as schemas, cognitive
organization and adaptation” (Leman et al. 255).
Piaget states that “children actively seek out information and adapt it to the knowledge
and conceptions of the world that they already have: … children construct their understanding
of reality from their own experiences, and organize their knowledge into increasingly
complex cognitive structures called schemas” (Leman et al. 273). His theory emphasizes that
children go through several cognitive development stages (Leman et al. 21), each
characterized by qualitative changes in the way in which they think and understand the world:
as children grow older they progress from using schemas based on overt physical activities to
those based on internal mental activities to understand and interact with the environment
(Leman et al. 235-236). Furthermore, to understand how these schemas change over the
course of the stages and how children understand new experiences, it is important to consider
the concepts of accommodation and assimilation (Leman et al. 235). Assimilation concerns
the application of existing schemas to new experiences, an often successful process. However,
when assimilation cannot be applied to the new situation, accommodation surfaces: the
modification of an existing schema to fit the characteristics of the new situation (Leman et al.
235).
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Piaget describes four stages, and each involves a certain age range. The sensorimotor
period applies to children aged 0 to 2 years. During this stage “the initial cognitive
organizations are constructed that lead to the formation of representational thought and
symbolization” (Turiel 12). Children are confined to action schemas and sensory experiences
and develop object permanence1 and imitation skills as well as the beginnings of symbolic
thought near the end of this period (Leman et al. 237). The second and third cognitive
development stages are both named the concrete operational period. However, these stages
can be distinguished by the different mental representations that children acquire and
experience in these periods: preoperational and concrete operational representations (Leman
et al. 237). The final stage is the formal operations stage, in which children are able to make
use of logical reasoning and possess problem solving skills.
The first concrete operational stage is defined by preoperational mental representations
and covers the ages two to seven years (Leman et al. 237). The term “preoperational” is based
on the notion that children in this stage have not yet reached a point in their development at
which they are capable of operational or logical thought (Doran 63). The second concrete
operational stage is defined by concrete operational mental representations and lasts from age
seven to eleven (Leman et al. 237). The concrete operational stages mark significant progress
in the cognitive development of a child: according to Piaget, in these stages at least ten
cognitive deficiencies and difficulties are acquired or solved (Leman et al. 247-252). These
cognitive processes are addressed in different stages and occur in a fixed sequence, they are
not assumed to develop simultaneously (Leman et al. 237).
1
Object permanence entails that children are able to understand that an object still exists even when
obscured from view, and a more progressed form of object permanence able consists of children being
to pinpoint the location of an object after it has been moved to several different places in their line of
sight (Leman et al. 238).
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First of all, children in the preoperational (concrete operational) period demonstrate
animistic thinking, which means they attribute life to inanimate objects (Doran 63).
Furthermore, children gradually develop understanding of part-whole relationships during this
stage, which is reflected in problems they have with class-inclusion, such as whether a dog
belongs to the class of animals or not (Leman et al. 249). Moreover, children in the
preoperational stage have difficulties understanding object-quantity, which is demonstrated by
their inability to understand conservation. In a task of conservation, when water is transferred
from a wide, short glass to a tall, thin glass, children in this stage will reason that there is
more water in the second glass than there was in the first because the shape makes the
quantity seem larger (Leman et al. 250). Hence, conservation demonstrates the difficulties
children have with estimating object-quantity (Leman et al. 251).
Additionally, children in the preoperational stage are considered unable to understand
reversibility, “the understanding that the steps of a procedure or operation can be reversed and
that the original state of the object or event can be obtained” (Leman et al. 251). Moreover,
children demonstrate a propensity for centration, which means they “focus their attention on
only one dimension or characteristic of an object or situation” (Leman et al. 251). An example
of centration is when a child needs to solve a conservation problem but only focuses on the
height of the water in the glass, at the expense of other aspects that would help solve the
problem, such as the width of the glass (Leman et al. 251). Finally, children in this stage
experience difficulties with understanding the concept of transitive inferences, an example of
which is to understand that even if one person is taller than another, that person might still be
smaller than yet another person (Leman et al. 252).
Children in the concrete operational stage generally manage to grasp some of the
concepts that elude children in the pre-operational stage, such as understanding reversibility
and attending to multiple dimensions at the same time (Leman et al. 252). Furthermore,
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children in the concrete operational stage are able to understand conservation, have no
problems with class inclusion and are able to make inferences (Leman et al. 253). An
important impairment during this stage, however, is the fact that children can only solve
problems and reason logically in this way if presented with concrete reality (Leman et al.
253). Whereas children in the pre-operational stage are mostly unaffected by their inability to
distinguish reality from fantasy, children in the concrete operational stage need concrete
examples to be able to progress cognitively. In this stage, the importance of social input
increases significantly; parents would be sought out more often to provide explanations and
may be considered vital to the task of acquiring the desired cognitive capacities by means of
reading fairy tales.
The fourth and final stage in Piaget’s theory is the formal operational period, which
generally commences around the age of 11 (Leman et al. 237). Children in this stage are able
to consider multiple solutions to a problem, make use of abstract reasoning and are capable of
testing mental hypotheses (Leman et al. 274).
As has previously been mentioned, there are other factors to be considered aside from
the effects of fairy tales on children’s cognitive development. Not only may fairy tales
influence cognitive development, the level of cognitive development may also influence
children’s reception of them. This interactional element is also present in two other, closely
related phenomena of influence on children’s cognitive development, namely in a sense of
reality and level of attention. Piaget maintains, “… the developmental hallmarks of the
preoperational stage preclude young children from the strategies necessary to properly
distinguish fantasy from reality, as developmentally, their ability to process information is
structurally limited. Instead, reality consists of whatever is felt, seen, or heard, at any given
moment” (qtd. in Doran 63). In the context of the current theoretical conviction, this means
that the fact that children are unable to distinguish reality from fantasy during the
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preoperational stage makes the influence of fairy tales even larger. An event in a fairy tale that
might stimulate cognitive development in the child would become as reinforced an experience
as a real life experience would have been.
Additionally, the element of attention determines to what extent children absorb the
stories and their possibly stimulating elements. An interaction between text and cognition is
evident in findings that report, “As children get older, the ability to attend selectively
increases and enhances children’s ability to learn, … selective attention is an important
cognitive strategy (qtd. in Leman et al. 288). Therefore, when children age and progress
through developmental stages, they manage to pay more attention to the fairy tale, rendering it
more effective as time progresses. However, this concept also implies that children who are in
the sensori-motor stage possess very little control over their attention and would be less likely
to be influenced by the fairy tale’s stimulating components. This would pose a problem in the
current research, were it not for the fact that most children are presented with fairy tales from
around the age of three onwards, as has been demonstrated by research into fairy tales that
commonly considers children from the age of three (Dickinson, De Temple, Hirschler &
Smith 323-346; Botvin & Sutton-Smith 377). In light of Piaget’s theory, the sensori-motor
stage will therefore not be considered in this essay.
In considering the influence of fairy tales on the cognitive development of children,
the omission of social and cultural influences would lead to a rather incomplete image. The
social influence consists mostly of the parents’ impact on the reception of the fairy tales. After
all, often parents or other carers play an instrumental role in reading books to young children
and provide feedback for their child if or when they misunderstand something.
With regard to cultural influences, according to Rogoff, Cole and Shweder and
colleagues “Researchers who have undertaken cross-cultural studies of Piagetian concepts
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associated with concrete operations have demonstrated the importance of culture in
determining what concepts will be learned and when” (qtd. in Leman et al. 253). “This
connection between cognitive competence and the cultural context in which development
occurs” (qtd. in Leman et al. 253), is also applicable to the area of children’s literature. The
importance of both social factors and cultural influences on children’s development is aptly
summarized by Bettelheim when he speaks of giving meaning to the life of a child: “…
nothing is more important than the impact of parents and others who take care of the child;
second in importance is our cultural heritage, when transmitted to the child in the right
manner. When children are young, it is literature that carries such information best”
(Bettelheim 4). Piaget himself stresses the importance of social influence on the development
of children as well: “Social life is a necessary condition for the development of logic. We thus
believe that social life transforms the individual’s very nature” (qtd. in Rogoff 33).
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Chapter 2
Narrative theory
Fairy tales have not always been part of the children’s literature field. Originally, fairy tales
evolved from folk tales that were intended for an adult audience: “fairy tales have been in
existence as oral folk tales for thousands of years and first became what we call literary fairy
tales during the seventeenth century”(Zipes Breaking 2). In Breaking the Magic Spell, Zipes
summarizes the process through which the folk tale has advanced over the years to result in
the fairy tale that is known today: “Originally, the folk tale was (and still is) an oral narrative
form cultivated by non-literate and literate people to express the manner in which they
perceived and perceive nature and their social order and their wish to satisfy their needs and
wants”(7). The original folk tales were altered according to the needs of the historical eras and
communities as they were passed along the centuries (Zipes Breaking 8). More specifically,
the changing purpose of tale telling has constituted a factor for alterations to the tales,
unbound by continent or time; for example whether the goal was to entertain or to convey
religious history or messages (Thompson 5). Furthermore, Zipes maintains that “Literary fairy
tales are socially symbolical acts and narrative strategies formed to take part in civilized
discourses about morality and behaviour in particular societies and cultures” (Myth 19).
In the field of narratology, the realization of the diversity within the genre of folk
tales has lead to a prioritization to classify its subgenres (Propp 4-5). Several theorists
assigned classes to folk tales2. However, the boundaries between classes outlined in these
2
Miller classified tales of everyday life, fairy tales and animal tales (qtd. in Propp 5), an
approach similar to that of the mythological school of the folk tale which classified folk tales
into “mythological”, “about animals”, and “about daily living” groups (qtd. in Propp 15). A
problem with this approach is that these categories regularly overlap, as tales relating to
animals often also contain elements of the fantastic, or everyday (Morell and Tuck 9).
Another approach is Wundt’s division into mythological tale-fables, pure fairy tales,
biological tales and fables, pure animal fables, genealogical tales, joke tales and fables, and
moral fables (qtd. in Propp 6). The same criticism on Miller’s division applies to Wundt: the
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theories have proven ambiguous and consequently other approaches were to be considered
(Propp 7). The classification of folk tales according to plots is another endeavour deemed
generally impossible by Propp: “If a division into classes is unsuccessful, the division into
plots signals the beginning of complete confusion”(6). Subsequent research into the subject of
fairy tales gave way to a new approach that combined Aarne-Thompson’s list of folk tale
types with the theory that fairy tales could be deconstructed into so-called motifs, in which
recurring functions of the dramatis personae can be identified (Propp 18). With a more viable
approach, it would be easier to distinguish subgenres of the folk tale, consequently also
identifying what a fairy tales consists of.
A narrative structure theorist invented this approach: Russian formalist Vladimir
Propp. In his work Morphology of the Folk Tale (1958), Propp is concerned with the analysis
of fairy tales (Propp 14). He emphasizes the function of the motifs within the tale as a whole,
and maintains that all folk tales can be traced back to a limited number of parts and a limited
number of actions that appear in a fixed order (Brillenburg Wurth and Rigney 171). The fairy
tales Propp uses in his analysis are identified by Aarne and Thompson as folk tale types 300749, titled Tales of Magic (Aarne & Thompson 19). In their book The Types of the Folk Tale,
Aarne and Thompson classify the basic motifs of thousands of folk tales (Brillenburg Wurth
and Rigney 169). The concept of motif constitutes an overarching theme within the theories of
both Vladimir Propp and the categorization of folk tales by Aarne and Thompson. Motif
forms the building block for Propp’s functionalist approach and differing motifs ensure a
divergent tale type according to Aarne and Thompson. This focus on motifs arose from the
realization within the field of ethnology that variants on the same story emerge in different
cultures (Brillenburg Wurth and Rigney 169). It is, however, important to realize that
concept of pure depends mainly on personal interpretation, and animal tales can contain moral
elements and vice versa (Morell and Tuck 10).
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although Propp’s theory starts out from the concept of the motif, he surpasses that level of the
smallest unit by defining motifs in terms of their function (Propp 6).
As has previously briefly been touched upon, Vladimir Propp’s theory centres on the
notion of functions of the dramatis personae within motifs in fairy tales, these identified as
such by Aarne and Thompson (Propp 18). More specifically, this entails that within a fairy
tale’s progression, actors perform essentially the same actions, regardless of differences in
shape, size, sex, occupation and various static attributes (Richardson 73-74). According to
Propp, fairy tales can exhibit 31 different functions and everything but these functions is a
variable in them. Not all of these functions may be found within a single fairy tale, but their
order of appearance is not affected by the absence of some (Richardson 74). Another layer to
this theory concerns a table of 150 elements, which are labelled according to their bearing on
the sequence of action, that all fairy tales are composed of (Richardson 74). An example that
demonstrates the terms function, motif and element is the following sentence: “Baba-Jaga
gives Ivan a horse”(qtd. in Richardson 74). In this example, the motif encompasses the entire
sentence, which is then reduced further to four elements, namely Baba-Jaga the donor, Ivan
the recipient, the horse as the gift and ‘gives’ signalling the moment of transmittal [the
function] (Richardson 74). A detailed list of Propp’s recurring functions can be found in the
appendix.
Modern narratology has its roots in the work of Russian Formalists, and Propp’s
theoretical convictions were a great contribution. He was one of the first narratologists to
uncover structures underlying folktales, and to describe them using both formalism and
symbolism (Cavazza and Pizzi 1). By means of this approach, Propp managed to assemble a
taxonomy to outline the principles underlying the basic fairy tale structure. The fact that his
theory provides a generally applicable method for classifying fairy tales makes it the most
suitable for the purpose of this essay: examining how and which fairy tale elements stimulate
Hackeng 15
cognitive development in children. As this objective concerns a rather broad spectre of factors
and research fields, a corresponding, widely applicable literary theory was required. In this
context, Greimas’ theory regarding narratology has been considered. The underlying structure
in his theory is based on the concept of desire: six variable roles form an action schema about
desire that is at the core of every story it is applied to (Brillenburg Wurth and Rigney 172).
However, this theory is meant to provide a structure for stories in general, whilst in this essay
the focus lies on fairy tales. In a sense, Greimas’ theory is both too limited to provide for a
suitable theoretical frame, since it cannot be captured in a taxonomy like Propp’s theory, and
too general for the purpose of this essay, as it does not specifically delineate fairy tale
structures and consequently offers little insight into their systems.
Finally, Piaget’s cognitive development theory and Propp’s functionalist approach
to fairy tales share the element of fixed sequence: Piaget maintains that the cognitive
progression of children happens according to the passing through stages (Leman et al. 237).
This makes it impossible for a child in an early stage to have cognitive abilities that are
typically associated with a later stage in the development process (Leman et al. 237). The
same assumption underlies Propp’s theory, which entails there is a fixed order to the functions
that underlie a fairy tale motif (Propp 24). The only difference between the two theories is that
it is possible for functions to be absent in a fairy tale, whilst the skipping of a stage in
development is considered impossible. The similarities between the theories with regard to
identifiable components in a fixed sequence might facilitate the uncovering of any patterns of
relation.
Research into fairy tales does not only concern the genre’s structure and
classification. After the establishment of the fairy tale, many authors and collectors from
different parts of the world endeavoured to collect them from within a certain culture. Some
have attempted to make these fairy tales more suitable for a child audience (Zipes Complete
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24). One prominent example of such an effort is the collection and Bowdlerization of fairy
tales from Germany by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Of the two brothers, Wilhelm
Grimm was responsible for more refinement to the style of the tales and he made the contents
more suitable and acceptable for a child audience (Zipes Complete 25). Some of the other
changes they made to the fairy tales they collected consisted of establishing clear sequential
structure in the tales (Zipes Complete 25), for example the addition of logical steps and
actions by fairy tale characters3; “the desire to make the tales more lively and pictorial by
adding adjectives, old proverbs, and direct dialogue; the reinforcement of motives for action
in the plot; the infusion of psychological motifs; and the elimination of elements that might
detract from a rustic tone”(Zipes Complete 25). Moreover, the Grimm brothers took care to
remove erotic and sexual elements from the tales so as not to offend middle-class morality
(Zipes Complete 28). The Grimm’s collection of tales had gained quite some popularity in
Germany and German principalities by the 1870s, and even became incorporated into
teaching curricula during that time (Zipes Complete 29).
However, the main reason for the use of the Grimms’ fairy tales in this essay lies in
the fact that the tales, since the start of the twentieth century, “enjoy the same popularity in
the English-speaking world [as in Germany and German principalities]” (Zipes Complete 29).
Considering a reading audience in both German-speaking countries and English-speaking
countries makes the Grimms’ collection very suitable for the purposes of establishing how
fairy tales stimulate children’s cognitive development. The tales’ widespread popularity might
ensure conclusions about these tales provide a convincing representative of the fairy tale
corpus; this is illustrated by the fact that the Grimms’ collection has been translated into 160
languages (O’Neill 1). Moreover, the decision to analyse the Grimm’s fairy tale versions was
based on the notion of their relative proximity to the original folktale versions. More
3
These additions were meant to clarify several original tales that progressed from an brief
introduction to the proposal of marriage within two sentences
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contemporary versions of some of the fairy tales examined in this essay have been provided
by the Walt Disney franchise. According to O’Neill, “In the United States the Grimms'
collection furnished much of the raw material that helped launch Disney as a media giant”(1).
It could be argued that Disney tales would offer a proper alternative to the Grimm
stories as they are circulated through multiple media outlets, and have been censored more
thoroughly in order to be politically correct and without violence. However, as Vladimir
Propp’s taxonomy is based on premises regarding folk tales, it seemed that fairy tales with
features closer to these roots would render more accurate research results. Additionally, since
the Grimm brothers assembled their collection in a time when mass oriented sales were not
yet the norm, it seemed plausible their versions would make for purer fairy tales without the
connotations of the commercialization the Disney franchise has introduced. According to
Zipes, “Fairy-tale scenes and figures are employed in advertisements, window decorations,
TV commercials, restaurant signs, and club insignias” (Breaking 2). He argues that “in this
century at least, so many people know fairy tales only through badly truncated and
modernized versions that it is no longer really fairy tales they know” (Breaking 5).
The range of fairy tales children are exposed to during childhood is culturally
dependent. Perhaps in some cultures, certain fairy tales are considered inappropriate for
children or are reserved for older children only. This would impact the notion of cognition
stimulating fairy tales negatively, since no exposure or late exposure would eradicate any
possible effects. However, the Grimms’ tales popularity and translations into multiple
languages, which prove they reach an array of countries, decrease the probability of culture
forming such obstacle.
Finally, the fairy tales examined in the current analysis are German fairy tales. The
German word for fairy tales, Märchen, is agreed to be the most suitable term in the discussion
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of describing tales such as “Cinderella”, “Snow White” or “Hansel and Gretel”(Thompson 8).
Other words that attempt to describe abovementioned kind of folk tales often convey some
meaning that is either too general, like the French conte populaire, which can be applied to
almost any kind of story, or too specific, like the English fairy tale, which implies the
presence of fairies whilst the majority of these tales include no fairies (Thompson 8). There is
a structure in Märchen tales that is reflected in most well-known fairy tales today: “[it] is a
tale of some length involving a succession of motifs or episodes. It moves in an unreal world
without definite locality or definite characters and is filled with the marvellous. In this nevernever land humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms, and marry princesses”
(Thompson 8). In most fairy tales nowadays, the opening sentence ‘Once upon a time, in a
kingdom far, far away….’, reflects the lack of definite location and reality. In the interest of
examining non-commercialized tales that mostly adhere to this definition of Märchen and are
close to their folk tale roots, this essay centres on the Grimms’ rendering of these ‘fairy tales’,
instead of on that of the more recent Disney franchise.
The selection considered within the theoretical framework of Jean Piaget and
Vladimir Propp has been narrowed down to six rather famous tales: “Red Riding Hood”,
“Snow white”, “The Wolf and the Seven Goats”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Cinderella” and
“Hänsel and Gretel”. These tales have also been incorporated into the Disney franchise, due to
which it is likely the tales are familiar even if they are not exact replicas of the Grimm tales.
Aside from their widespread fame, the fairy tales for this essay were selected for their
commonalities in underlying structure: “each narrative begins with a seemingly hopeless
situation and … the narrative perspective is sympathetic to the exploited protagonist of the
tale”(Zipes Breaking 9). The tale of Little Red Riding Hood does not completely adhere to
this principle, as no hopeless situation initiates the story. However, once she has undertaken
the endeavour of walking to her grandmother’s house and has met the wolf, it becomes clear
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both Red Riding Hood and her grandmother are facing a difficult situation. Furthermore, near
the end of the story, Red Riding Hood once again encounters a wolf, and is hunted by him
(Grimm 456). Since both mentioned structures are present in the story, it has been included in
the framework for analysis.
Research into the effects of fairy tale literature on children’s cognition must draw
upon both psychological and literary theories. This research will be conducted through a
qualitative analysis of several well-known fairy tales. The analysis of the fairy tales will
consist of two components: firstly, the fairy tale will be explored to see whether there are any
components in it that might have affiliation with a difficulty or problem from one of Piaget’s
stages. Once the components have been identified and described for each fairy tale, the next
step is to identify Propp’s functions in them. Additionally, the findings from the fairy tales
will be compared to discover whether a pattern or connection can be distinguished in
combinations of functions and Piaget’s elements, that influences children’s cognition. Finally,
the influence of social factors will be taken into account during the identification of
difficulties and problems from Piaget’s theory.
For all in-text references of the format (Grimm …) throughout this essay is meant (Grimm
and Grimm …). Due to layout shifts this error could not be rectified in time.
4
Hackeng 20
Chapter 3
Elements of the fairy tale
In order to present a coherent overview of the findings from the analysis and facilitate the
process of uncovering connections between fairy tale and narrative theory, a brief listing of
Propp’s 31 functions is provided below (see table 1). A more detailed list of functions may be
found in the appendix.
Table 1
The 31 functions within fairy tales according to Vladimir Propp
1. Member of family absents self from
16. Hero and villain in direct combat
home
2. Interdiction announced
17. Hero branded
3. Interdiction violated
18. Villain defeated
4. Villain tries to meet
19. Initial lack liquidated
5. Villain receives information
20. Hero returns
6. Villain attempts trickery
21. Hero pursued
7. Victim deceived
22. Rescue of hero from pursuit
8. Villain harms family
23. Unrecognized, hero arrives home or
other country
8a. Member of family lacks or desires
24. False hero
9. Hero approached about lack
25. Difficult task
10. Seeker decides on counteraction
26. Task resolved
11. Hero leaves home
27. Hero recognized
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12. Hero tested: prepares for magical
28. False hero exposed
agent
13. Hero responds to test of donor
29. Hero given new appearance
14. Hero gets magical agent
30. Villain punished
15. Hero transferred to object of search
31. Hero marries and ascends throne
Source: Propp, V. “Morphology of the Folktale.” Indiana University Research Center in
Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics, 1958. Print
“Cinderella”
The first fairy tale appears to contain several elements that might stimulate cognitive
development in children. First of all, the animals featuring in the story are named and each is
characterised as a different variety, but it is simultaneously made clear that they belong to the
same class of animals: birds. “You tame pigeons, you turtle-doves, and all you birds beneath
the sky, come and help me to pick”(Grimm 47). These bird varieties are called upon again
elsewhere in the story, reinforcing how they are all in the same class of flying creatures, but
are still from different kinds amongst that class. Children in the preoperational stage generally
have difficulty with class inclusion and may well get confused when asked whether a
subspecies belongs to a certain class of animals (Leman et al. 249). Both the mention of
different varieties of birds and the repetition of these varieties whilst maintaining they are all
in the same class offers a teaching moment to those children struggling to understand. Parents
might help their children process that there are different subspecies within a class of animals
and help them distinguish those by repeating the described characteristics or linking the
mentioned subspecies to another experience the child has had with birds.
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A second cognitive element that features in “Cinderella” is the concept of
reversibility. Cinderella’s fate leads her from being the fortunate daughter of a rich man to
being the mocked household maid; “They took her pretty clothes away from her, put an old
grey bedgown on her, and gave her wooden shoes … there she had to do hard work from
morning till night …”(Grimm 47). From that low position Cinderella makes her way up to
marrying a prince and living once again in splendour and riches with the help of animals and
magic gifts. This plot demonstrates to children that it is possible to reverse the conditions of a
certain predicament to a state similar to one previously experienced. Additionally, as in many
other fairy tales, multiple characters and events in the story require the attention of the reader.
It would therefore be impossible for children to keep track of the story if they were relying on
centration: it would make the plotline difficult to understand. The influence of parents could
help children sort out what dimensions of the story to pay attention to and could emphasize
which elements are more central, and which elements are negligible. This way, children learn
to embrace a non-centred approach to events and additionally train their capacity for directing
selective attention. Finally, the concept of transitive inferences is reflected in “Cinderella” by
the emphasis on different feet sizes and how one foot can be bigger than another, yet still
smaller than another. The two stepsisters both have bigger feet than Cinderella, however, the
toes of the one sister are larger than those of the other, whereas the heel of the sister with
smaller toes is larger than that of the sister with the large toes. This is a good example of
transitive inferences and how one object may vary in proportion to multiple other objects.
Propp’s proposed functions:
1 -2 -3 -6 -7 -8a -12.7 - 13.7 - 14.5 – 15 -18.2 -19.4 -20 - 21.1 - 22.4 – 23 - 27- 28- 30- 31
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“The Wolf and Seven Goats”
Several cognition-stimulating elements also occur in the fairy tale of “The Wolf and Seven
Goats”. Children might better understand the concept of part-whole relationships due to the
distinction made between the goats and the wolf. Both kinds of animals are described, first the
wolf: “… you will know him at once by his rough voice and his black feet” (Grimm 15). The
voice reference may seem incorrect with regard to the real world, but, disregarding the fact
that the wolf can actually speak in the fairy tale, it makes sense to describe the sound wolves
make as “rough” (Grimm 15). Then, in comparing these two features of voice and feet
between the species, it becomes clear that mother goat has a “soft, pleasant voice” (Grimm
15), and white feet. The attention given to the distinction between the class of wolves and the
class of goats should help children learn both the concepts of class-inclusion and part-whole
relationships: the wolf and goats belong to different species, but they are all part of the
overarching class of animals. Furthermore, the difficulties with object-quantity and
conservation preoperational children experience are addressed through the wolf’s act of eating
six little goats. This event demonstrates that even when a transition to a different physical
space takes place, the little goats still maintain the same object-quantity as they did in the
original space. Their re-emergence in the same object-quantity disputes the idea that children
might have gotten due to their stage, that the object-quantity of the little goats had become
smaller after the shift to a more confined space.
Additionally, this same event of the goats being eaten demonstrates how it is possible to
reverse a situation or state: the goat children are restored to their original state of not-havingbeen-eaten when they are rescued from the wolf. Finally, two other cognitive elements from
Piaget’s theory feature in the story: centration and transitive inferences. The multitude of
characters and events does not allow children to focus on one dimension only, just like in the
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story of “Cinderella”. Parents might direct children’s attention to crucial elements of the story
to help them understand.
Furthermore, “The Wolf and the Seven Goats” provides an excellent example of the
concept of transitive inferences. When the wolf enters the house, all little goats seek a place to
hide: “One sprang under the table, the second one into the bed, the third into the stove, the
fourth into the kitchen, the fifth into the cupboard, the sixth under the washing-bowl, and the
seventh into the clock-case”(Grimm 15). These hiding places are of different sizes, and as
such suggest that the little goats also differ in size: the seventh goat child fits in the clockcase, but it might be assumed that the first goat child, who sprang under the table, would not
have fit in there as it chose a roomier hiding place. Moreover, the little goats that hid in the
stove and the cupboard would have to have been small enough to crawl in there, but would
still have been bigger than the seventh goat child in the clock-case, but also potentially
smaller than the goats in the bed or in the kitchen. In this manner, the story introduces
children to the concept of transitive inferences.
Propp’s proposed functions:
1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -8a -11 -18 -19 -30
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“Snow white”
The story of Snow white supports three of the cognitive markers as proposed by Piaget for
children in the preoperational stage, and also appeals to the logical reasoning and
consideration of multiple solutions to a problem of children in the concrete operational stage.
Just like in “Cinderella”, in “Snow White” the problem children have with class-inclusion is
addressed; again different kinds of birds are mentioned in the context of the overarching
animal class they belong to. “And birds came too, and wept for Snow white; first an owl, then
a raven, and last a dove”(Grimm 108). The distinction made between these subspecies should,
especially in combination with other fairy tales that outline the differences and connecting
factor between subspecies, provide children with an increasing awareness of both class
inclusion and part-whole relationships.
Furthermore, children face the problem of understanding reversibility several times
within this one story. Snow white is almost killed twice, the first time by being suffocated
with lace “But the old woman laced so quickly and so tightly that Snow-white lost her breath
and fell down as if dead… and as they [the seven dwarfs] saw that she was laced too tightly,
they cut the laces: then she began to breathe a little, and after a while came to life
again”(Grimm 106). During the stepmother’s second trick, “hardly had she put the comb in
her hair than the poison in it took effect, and the girl fell down senseless”(Grimm 107), she is
thwarted by the seven dwarfs again when they “looked and found the poisoned comb”
(Grimm 107). These two instances of close calls with death, ultimately the reversal of the
near-death state to the original one, exhibit how reversibility is indeed possible. If
preoperational children, before reading this story, believed that actions and states were
irreversible, this fairy tale should prove them wrong. This element gains an even stronger
emphasis due to the stepmother’s final attempt to kill Snow white: she then appears to truly
have succumbed to this tragic fate and has been on display in a coffin for a long time when a
Hackeng 26
prince finds her. He moves her coffin, and as a result, the piece of poisoned apple that was
lodged in her throat comes loose and she revives once more (Grimm 109).
Moreover, the repetition of the tricks of the stepmother and the cautionary words of
the seven dwarfs in “Snow white” provide children in the concrete operational stage with
evidence of logical reasoning. Whenever the stepmother has consulted her mirror for an
answer to “Who in this land is the fairest of all?”(Grimm 105-108), she comes up with a new
idea to kill Snow white. Children who read the story might start building connections between
emotion and following action plans due to the repetitive pattern of the causes and effects.
Additionally, the different ways in which the stepmother approaches Snow white each time in
an attempt to kill her give children an example of what it is like to think of multiple solutions
to solve a problem. However evil she may be, the Queen stepmother is very resourceful and
an encounter with this level of reasoning might enhance solution-directed thinking in children
if parents properly guide them in their attempts. Finally, the cognitive problem of making
transitive inferences is addressed by means of the beds of the seven dwarfs. As Snow white
tries them, “none of them suited her, one was way too long, another too short, but at last she
found that the seventh one was right, and so she remained in it …”(Grimm 105). This
illustrates that the bed Snow white has chosen has several properties and relations to other
beds, and not just one: the bed she picked is smaller than the bed that was too long for her, but
is longer than the bed that proved to be too short for her. As this is quite a difficult problem to
apprehend, it would be helpful if parents assisted children in their reasoning about Snow
white’s choice for a bed.
Propp’s proposed functions:
1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6.1 -6.2 -7.1 -7.2 -7.3 -8 -8a -9.6 -12.2- 12.7 -12.8 - 13.1 -18.5 -19.3 -19.8 -20 30- 31
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“Little Red Riding Hood”
An examination of Grimm’s story of “Little Red Riding Hood” also reveals some of Piaget’s
notions. In the story, the wolf disguises himself as Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother
after he has eaten her, and awaits the girl in her grandmother’s cottage in order to eat her too
(Grimm 55). He succeeds, but then a local huntsman discovers him and rescues her and her
grandmother. This is another example of the possibility of reversibility: Little Red Riding
Hood and her grandmother’s situations are reversed, and all is back to its original state.
Furthermore, in this story, there are many elements that make up the plot, so for children to be
able to understand the story they need to pay attention to multiple dimensions. The assistance
of parents would be useful to this end, as they can guide their children through the story as
many times as is needed and provide explanations when necessary.
Propp’s proposed functions:
1.3 -2.1 -3 -4.1 -5.1 -6 -7.1 -8.12 -8a -9.2 -10 -11 -12.8 -13.1 -15.2 -15bis -18.5 -19.4 -20 21.4 -21bis -22.4 -30
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“Sleeping Beauty”
The Grimm brothers’ story of “Sleeping Beauty” is similar to that of “Little Red Riding
Hood” in the sense that the same two cognitive components as identified by Piaget feature in
it. The concept of reversibility is touched upon by two different events in the story. When the
twelve fairies that were invited to the castle bestow their blessings on the newborn child, the
thirteenth, scorned fairy appears and invokes a curse over the child out of anger for not having
been invited to the party: “The King’s daughter shall in her fifteenth year prick herself with a
spindle, and fall down dead” (Grimm 100). The last one of the invited fairies then manages to
alter the curse by saying that the princess will sleep deeply for a hundred years, instead of
dying (Grimm 100). This alteration shows that something that seems inevitable may be
changed back to an altogether less permanent state, which calls upon the concept of
reversibility. When Sleeping Beauty, and indeed, the entire court wake up again after one
hundred years, the full impact of reversibility is demonstrated: everyone returns to their
original, pre-curse state of active living. Finally, as with all fairy tales examined in this essay
so far, children are confronted with multiple dimensions within one story, and may learn to
grasp that outlook in order to understand the story.
Propp’s proposed functions:
1 -2 -3 -8 -8a -9.4 -10 -15.2 -19.4 -19.8 -26 -31
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“Hänsel and Gretel”
When the main characters Hänsel and Gretel have succeeded in escaping from the cannibal
witch, they encounter the obstacle of what appears to be a lake from the story’s description. In
order to reach the other side of it, they call upon the white duck they see in the water to see
them safely across (Grimm 35). At this point, Gretel demonstrates a solid knowledge of
object-quantity estimation when she replies to Hänsel’s request to come sit with her on the
duck’s back: “No, … that will be too heavy for the little duck; she shall take us across one
after the other” (Grimm 35). Apparently, Gretel understands that two people make for a
heavier weight and larger object-quantity than one person alone, and is able to act on the
assumption that there is a certain limit to the object-quantity the duck is able to carry at one
time. This insightful moment is not the only instance of logical reasoning in the story: the
trick of dropping stones Hänsel develops for his sister and him to be able to find their way
back home is one such example, and also draws on the principle of thinking of multiple
solutions to a problem, which is a characteristic of children in the concrete operational stage.
Other instances of thinking up a solution to a problem are presented in the way Hänsel
continuously stretches out a thin bone for the witch to feel when she is trying to assess how
fat he has become, and in the way Gretel cunningly feigns a lack of knowledge regarding the
oven and goads the witch into positioning herself in such a way that she can push her inside
(Grimm 34-35). These examples of logical reasoning and solution-directed thinking may
stimulate children in the concrete operational stage to further develop these abilities.
Finally, both the cognitive items of reversibility and the problem of centration are
reflected in the story. It appears the children face a grim future, having been abandoned in the
woods on their own twice, however, they manage to escape and even return home with such
wealth that they remove the original cause of their abandonment: poverty. This plotline
reveals a return to the original situation, contradicting pre-operational children’s reasoning
Hackeng 30
that reversibility is not a possibility. Additionally, this story contains characters, situations,
locations and repetitive elements, making it a necessity for children to take multiple
dimensions into account rather than rely on centration.
Propp’s proposed functions:
1 -2 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -8a- 16 -18 -19 -20 -30
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Chapter 4
Conclusion
This analysis has demonstrated that, in fact, there are many cognition-stimulating elements
present in fairy tales. Some, namely the concepts of reversibility and centration, feature in all
six fairy tales. For children in the preoperational stage, it means that these fairy tales are likely
to have a stimulating effect on the acquisition of those cognitive concepts. Their encounter
with centration could additionally provide practice in directing attention to the stimuli of their
choosing. This exercise is expected to have an enhancing effect on their attention-directing
skills.
Furthermore, the elements of class-inclusion and part-whole relationships are present
in “Cinderella”, “The Wolf and Seven Goats” and “Snow white”. Children’s fairy tale
encounters with these preoperational difficulties might increase their awareness of
classification systems and facilitate an understanding of the underlying structure of part-whole
relationships. An additional aid for the developing minds of preoperational children manifests
through the presence of transitive inferences in three of the tales. This is a difficult concept to
grasp, since it is generally quite abstractly presented. However, the fairy tales offer some clear
examples of the item, and this combined with parental guidance might trigger a better
understanding.
Finally, in “Hänsel and Gretel” and “The Wolf and Seven Goats”, the preoperational
issue of object-quantity is addressed. Gretel’s assessment of the duck combines this item with
logical reasoning and should therefore provide quite a valuable stimulus to children’s
cognitive development, both in the preoperational and concrete operational stage. In “The
Wolf and Seven Goats”, the problem of object-quantity is approached through use of the
conservation principle, when the little goats are transferred to a smaller physical location but
still emerge in the same quantity when they return to their original surroundings. These
Hackeng 32
combinations of cognitive elements may support children’s acquisition of the underlying
principles due to the connections they demonstrate, whilst still offering clear examples of the
separate components. Only one of Piaget’s proposed cognitive items, animistic thinking,
remains undiscovered in these tales. This absence might me due to the current choice of fairy
tales, or the item might generally be missing from fairy tales structures. A way of examining
which it is, is to conduct a larger research project that includes a wider variety of tales and
collections.
It appears from comparing the analyses of the fairy tales to the functions identified
in them, that there is no direct connection between the number of functions and the
corresponding cognitive elements present. The incorporation of many functions in a story
does not entail that it will also contain many cognitive components: “Little Red Riding
Hood”, for instance, has only two. However, this does not imply that fewer functions in a
fairy tale would infer there are many cognitive items present: in “Sleeping Beauty”, there are
fewer functions but also only two cognitive items. A proper conclusion would be that there is
no identifiable correlation between number of functions and cognitive items.
Another possible angle to discover patterns or connections is to compare the functions
and cognitive elements occurring in the tales. Disregarding the occasional absence of a
function, all the fairy tales contain functions one to eight, which delineates the story from
“Member of family absents self from home” to “Villain harms family member” (see table 1).
Moreover, function 30, “Villain is punished” is another function that is consistently present.
Finally, in every tale but one, both functions 18 and 19 are accounted for. There is some
correspondence between these functions and the cognitive elements. From a broad
perspective, in all tales that feature functions one to eight, 18 and 19, and function 30, the
concepts of reversibility and centration are present. However, this occurrence does not
necessarily imply a connection. Since the instances of de-centration vary in place within the
Hackeng 33
tales, sometimes encompassing the whole of one, it is difficult to match function to cognitive
element. Reversibility, however, may be matched to some functions. As instances of
reversibility occur in most fairy tales after the defeat of the villain, function 18, and after a
lack has been liquidated, function 19, a possible conclusion would be that this is a pattern of
functions and cognition elements in fairy tales. There are no other significant patterns or
connections to be found due to the inconsistency of cognitive items in tales and seemingly
unrelated functions.
It appears that Grimm’s fairy tales are mostly beneficial to children in the preoperational
stage: they reproduce many concepts that are difficult for them to understand. Exposure to the
preoperational elements in the tales may also render an enhancing effect on concrete
operational children’s cognition; however, this would likely take the form of confirmative
evidence of their own thought processes. “Snow white” and “Hänsel and Gretel” present
children with concrete operational items such as logical reasoning and problem solving,
providing them with examples of these skills. Parents might help children make these
examples more concrete in order to further their cognitive development. Finally, children in
the formal operational stage may benefit from the fairy tales they have encountered by
recalling instances of logical reasoning or another item present that could help them solve a
current problem or explain a situation.
Although the theoretical approach of this essay has rendered significantly positive
results, it is important to consider its limitations as well. The theories that equip the current
research, Vladimir Propp’s narrative theory and Jean Piaget’s cognitive development theory
are relevant to the subject and interesting to consider. However, an exploration of other
theories may also offer insight into this particular subject. Although Piaget has greatly
contributed to the field of cognitive psychology, some of his notions have been challenged
over time and continue to be up for discussion (Leman et al. 244). The same idea applies to
Hackeng 34
Propp’s theory: the fact that there are multiple options to go from as a starting point is a
drawback and simultaneously an advantage to preliminary research efforts. The narrow range
of analysed fairy tales poses another limitation to the current essay. Since only part of the
Grimms’ collection has been considered, it would be difficult to draw conclusions that could
be generalized to all fairy tales or that could support the creation of the ideal cognition
stimulating fairy tale. However, for the purposes of this essay, discovering how fairy tales
may stimulate cognition in children, the chosen fairy tale framework suffices. Finally, this
research centres on a qualitative approach, and the lack of quantitative evidence makes it
difficult to validate the results and enable the elimination of factors on an empirical basis.
The time frame and expectations that apply to this essay have accumulated in a fairly
cursory research. However, this first exploration does offer knowledge on the subject and
leaves space to future research for an expanded undertaking. For instance, Leman and
colleagues mention that “Piaget’s ideas have relevance to both education and counselling,
which may in turn affect children’s social and emotional functioning” (257). His theory has
also been frequently associated with educational practices, for instance with the Montessori
school system (Leman et al. 257). Moreover, for therapists, an understanding of the
capabilities and limitations that come with these stages might help generate an effective
treatment method for children in need (Leman et al. 257).
The idea that literature that is already very popular could be used for the purpose of
stimulating the development of the young mind offers a range of opportunities for both
normally and abnormally developing children. A next research effort might draw on
theoretical essays such as this one to formulate a fairy tale that specifically aims to stimulate
cognitive elements in children. An application of that kind might prove useful in both
educational and counselling contexts. Research that combines theory with empirical testing
and evidence, is executed on a larger scale, and takes multiple collections and fairy tales into
Hackeng 35
consideration to provide for a more global representation of cultures might be able to render
such an application. It appears there have been no other attempts to examine the influence of
fairy tales on children’s cognitive development for the purpose of composing a cognitionstimulating fairy tale. However, as earlier research has proven that children’s literature can
have an effect on their cognition (Bhavnagri et al. 1), and Piaget’s theory may support
treatment for children (Leman et al. 257), perhaps the findings from this essay could provide
some foundation for further research.
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Appendix
1. Extract from Propp’s book with detailed descriptions of 31 functions
2. Grimms’ fairy tales that were used for analysis
Hackeng 40
31 functions by Vladimir Propp
(Propp 24-41, 46-57)
Hackeng 41
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Some of the names have been adapted to their more recent titles in this essay:
“Briar-Rose”  “Sleeping Beauty” (Grimm and Grimm 100-101)
“The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids”  “The Wolf and Seven Goats” (Grimm and Grimm
15)
“Little Snow-White”  “Snow white” (Grimm and Grimm 105-108)
“Little Red-Cap”  “Little Red Riding Hood” (Grimm and Grimm 55-56)
“Cinderella” (Grimm and Grimm 47-49)
“Hänsel and Gretel” (Grimm and Grimm 33-35)