Whether “The Tinder Box” is suitable for young children or not?
In my opinion, fairy tales for children should provide them some moral guidance through good major characters in order to let the children learn from the stories which teach them to be good persons. Then, they will gain love, wealth, and happiness ever after.
But, after reading “The Tinder Box”, I thought this could not be a good fairy tale for children because of its nonsense and lack of morals. I found the soldier who is the major character misbehaved by killing and punishing other characters with unreasonable factors. This may let the kids misunderstand the actual moral dimension of society.
First of all, the main character or “the hero” of this story often performed such a violent action. For example, he killed the witch for the tinder box and used his dogs from that box to do wrong deeds like kidnapping the princess from her place just because he wanted to achieve everything he wanted and finally he got them all. This habit of the “hero” has directly impacted to children’s perception which believes that using violence to solve problem in one of the most successful choices. Furthermore, Children will view violence as an acceptable way to settle conflicts. When their point of view toward is turned into the positive way, it will lead to subsequent aggressive behavior, aggressive ideas, arousal, and anger, and a negative effect on helping behavior (Bushman, 2006). As American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, American Academy of Family Physicians, and American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Congressional Public Health Summit, 2000) stated that Media violence affects any age, but young children are most vulnerable to the effects of media violence (Bushman, 2001) because they are more easily impressionable. They cannot easily discern motives for violence and learn by observing and imitating. Moreover, they have a harder time...