Me Manifesto:

Fairytales

BY
CHARISSA CAMPBELL

Fairytales
Once upon a time there was a person whose head was
full of wonderful stories. They would tell their stories around
town and lots of people loved them. People would hear these
stories and pass them on to other people and children they
knew. However, one day the creator decided that they wanted
to share their talent with the world so everyone could enjoy
the stories, and even make stories for themselves.
The creator called the stories, Fairytales. A fairytale has
several elements that make it as such and the creator has been
kind enough to share them with us. A fairytale begins with
"Once upon a time Take little Red Riding Hood for example, Once upon a time there was a dear little girl who was
loved by everyone who looked at her, but most of all by her
grandmother, and there was nothing that she would not have
given to the child. Once upon a time is a classic way to start
a fairytale. It leaves the door wide open for endless possibilities.
Fairytales also happen long ago in a far away place.
This adds an element of mystery to the story. So you never
know exactly when or where the story takes place. Could this
place actually exist? Thats for you to decide.

Now some may say that fairytales are just a sub genre of
fantasy while others argue that its a genre all by its self. And
this is why, Fairy Tales have fantasy and make believe in
them. They also tend to have the fantastical element of magic.
Often in the form of some transformation like, Beauty and the
Beast or The Little Mermaid. But thats not always the case,
take Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for example or Sleeping Beauty.
As any good fairytale there is both righteous and evil,
hero and villain, good and badyou get the point. You need
opposition in all things. Yes, you could have a story that was
all happy and nothing bad happened, but wheres the fun in
that?
And whats a story without a little conflict. In Fairytales
theres always some sort of a problem that needs to be solved.
You have the obvious damsel in distress, the Im running
away from my problems, and the ever so important item that
is lost or yet to be found that will save someone. And some
times you get a combination thereof. There are plenty more
scenarios but these three are a good start.
Speaking of three, three is a magic number. Not literally
but you will often find some set of three in a fairytale. Lets
look at some examples. First, Rumpelstiltskin: "I will give you
three days, time," said he, "if by that time you find out my
name, then shall you keep your child.. In Cinderella (Grimm
version) the festival lasts three nights. And then theres

Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I think this one explains itself.
Lets now move on and talk about our characters a little
bit. In fairytales there is usually some sort of royalty at least
somewhere in the story. It could be a beautiful princess or a
handsome prince, a wicked king or queen. Even if theyre not
very important, they have a tendency to be somewhere in a
fairytale.
Some other characters you might find in fairytales are giants, elves, talking animals, witches, fairies, goblins, dragons,
or mermaids. Thats the wonderful thing about fairytales is
that you can let you imagination run wild.
One of the things that most fairytales contain is a moral.
A moral is the reason behind the story, a lesson of some sort if
you will. Some fairytale will encourage you to listen to your
parents, not talk to strangers, or not to tell a lie. Parents
would tell these fairytales to their children to persuade them
to behave. You can find lessons in a lot of stories but fairytales
happen to be know for their lessons.
So now we come to a close. Our lesson learned, the kingdom saved, the dragon slayed, and the boy gets the girl. And
they all lived happily ever after. Once the conflict has been
solved and all is right with the world again a fairytale ends
with that phrase followed by The End
However, there are exceptions to these rules. Not all fairytales follow these guide lines, some dont have lessons and are

just for entertainment and not all fairytales end happily. With
how the world is and how trends change so does writing. It
seems that fairytales run in a cycle depending on the current
trend. Some of the earlier well known fairytales are given to us
by the Brothers Grimm. Their storys often had gruesome
things happen in them and the stories endings were anything
but the sweetly perfect ending that Disney has given us. But it
seems now that we are cycling back to the not so happy endings for our fairytales. The beautiful thing about creating
something is that yes there are guide lines but there is also wiggle room for you to express your creativity.
The creator has graciously given us the ground work, the
foundation, for us to create beautiful stories. We can use what
the creator has given us or we can build something entirely
new. Now its time for you to go and create your own story.
The End.
Examples
Here we see several elements of a standard fairytale in
just the first few lines of The Princess and the Pea. Once
upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all
over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he
wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to
find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came
home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to
have a real princess. This paragraph shows the Once upon a
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time element and the royalty aspect. Also we are given a setting, the princes castle, but we dont know the time or place.
This next excerpt is from Cinderella by the Brothers
Grimm, Then the maiden was delighted, and believed that
she might now go with them to the wedding. But the stepmother said, "All this will not help. You cannot go with us, for
you have no clothes and cannot dance. We should be ashamed
of you." On this she turned her back on Cinderella, and hurried away with her two proud daughters.
As no one was now at home, Cinderella went to her
mother's grave beneath the hazel-tree, and cried, "Shiver and
quiver, little tree, Silver and gold throw down over me. Then
the bird threw a gold and silver dress down to her, and slippers embroidered with silk and silver. She put on the dress
with all speed, and went to the wedding. In this passage we
see the magical element come into play with the tree giving
her a gold and silver dress and the silk slippers. We also see
the good and evil come into play with the evil step mother is
still refusing to let Cinderella go to the wedding even though
Cinderella has done everything the step mother has asked.
Moving on to The Frog Prince, As soon as it was light
the frog jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the
house.
'Now, then,' thought the princess, 'at last he is gone, and I
shall be troubled with him no more.'

But she was mistaken; for when night came again she
heard the same tapping at the door; and the frog came once
more, and said:
'Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.

He told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy,

who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated
so to abide till some princess should take him out of the
spring, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep upon her bed
for three nights. I bet you can get this one on your own but
Ill help you out anyway. The Frog Prince displays many fairytale elements but well focus on the talking animals part and
the rule of three. Even though we find out in the end hes a
prince who was turned into a frog it still count because up until that point, hes just a talking frog. And the curse was broken after three nights of eating, sleeping, and living with the
princess but not a moment sooner.
Finally lets take a look at The Ugly Duckling, But what
did he see in the clear stream below? His own image; no
longer a dark, gray bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at, but a
graceful and beautiful swan. To be born in a duck's nest, in a
farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from
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a swan's egg. He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and

trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the
pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam
round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks,
as a welcome. And here is where we get our moral. The moral
of this story is to never give up on your dream or yourself. Its
okay to be different and sometimes it takes awhile to find
where you belong but you will find your place in this world.

Works Cited
Andersen, Hans Christian. "Short Stories: The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen." Short Stories: The Ugly Duckling by
Hans Christian Andersen. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. <http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/UglDuc.shtml>.
Grimm, Brothers. "Cinderella." Cinderella. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. <http://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/cinder.html>.
Grimm, Brothers. "Short Stories: Little Red Riding Hood by Brothers Grimm." Short Stories: Little Red Riding Hood by Brothers
Grimm. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. <http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LittRed.shtml>.
Grimm, Brothers. "Short Stories: Rumpelstiltskin by Brothers Grimm." Short Stories: Rumpelstiltskin by Brothers Grimm. Web.
27 Mar. 2016. <http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Rum.shtml>.
Grimm, Brothers. "Short Stories: The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm." Short Stories: The Frog Prince by Brothers Grimm. Web.
27 Mar. 2016. <http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/FrogPrin.shtml>.