| ABSTRACT BELIEF, ORIGIN AND MORAL MESSAGES DELIVERED THROUGH CHILDREN’S STORIES AND HOW THEY CAN HELP A SPIRITUALLY CONFUSED PERSON FIND PEACE IN THESE TROUBLING TIMES. One’s beliefs and reasoning are mainly based on their childhood influences. Some of the most influential material for children includes stories such as “The Chronicles of Narnia”, “Grimm’s Fairy Tales”, “Velveteen Rabbit”, and “Mother Goose Tales”. All these stories have a common theme of spirituality. By addressing the reality of the characters’ worlds as being magical and supernatural, the author, inadvertently influences children, to believe in a supernatural world (Myers, 2013). The magically beautiful nature of the world presented in the tales, brings one’s attention to the realization the child’s malleability with regards to belief and reasoning. Many of the fairy tales suggest the origin of characters based on a supernatural being. The life of these characters is endowed with the being in question. Therefore, it is important for the readers to align themselves with this notion to understand the content. Accordingly, the content of the fairy tales can help in molding the spiritual beliefs of an individual. Most children have been found to believe in fairy tales without question (Myers, 2013). Despite the fact that most people change this belief once they become adults, they have been found to have that inner belief of a super human being in a spiritual realm. This can be traced back to the fairy tales addressed herein. The content of the fairy tales can help an individual find peace at a time of trouble because one learns to turn over their problems to a spiritual realm. This is consistent with the fairy tales having spiritually superior characters consistently save their partners or provided their partners with help. The said characters have also received help from unseen powers that can only emanate from the spiritual realm. This gives the spiritually confused person with the much-needed hope and thus the capacity to believe in spirituality. Reference Myers, B. K. (2013). Young children and spirituality. Routledge. PROFESSOR’S RESPONSE TO ABSTRACT so are you going to research Narnia? this would be an especially interesting story…i wonder what the origins of the story are…CS Lewis was so well read…there must be a lot of critical literature that would address the “origins” of Narnia…you will have to really focus on the origins issue in order to understand the context of the story…the contemporary culture of Lewis’ England at the time the story was written is also well documented and used to explain the significance of this Christian allegory…I think as long as you make clear your definitions of “fairy tale” versus “myth” you can use that structure to make your analysis and understanding of the story clear…here’s an interesting article about the origins of fairy tales in general… https://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-ogden/fairy-tale-true-story_b_6102602.html Research Assignment Instructions and Rubric The Research Paper. The research essay is an original essay where the student poses a research question, gathers materials, focuses the research, shapes the argument, and frames the material in relation to the larger themes developed in the course. For this essay, students will pursue their own research interests that build on the issues discussed in the course, as detailed in their annotated bibliography. You should cite sources from a variety of types of texts (books, journals, websites, etc.) with a full works cited page, including any class readings that you use. Your essay should have a clear thesis statement in the introduction, and a clearly flowing argument with sufficient supporting examples, quotes, discussion and analysis. The Research paper should be at least 2500 words in length and include MLA style and format with reference/bibliography page. Folk/fairy tales are told and retold throughout history, changing in style and elements to reflect the contemporary morals and values of the people telling the stories. Find a folk/fairy tale story that has evolved and continues to be told today. Research the history of the story. What were the original sources? What kind of changes occurred and why? What are the current forms of the story? Todays media as illustrated by a number of the blogs I’m following (you can too!) display all of the new techniques for fusion of old stories into new forms. A great example of this is the manga/anima stories from the Japanese epics/folk stories that are told in cartoon forms and used in many online games. One of the main reasons for their appeal, I believe, is their use of graphic imagery. The purpose of the research page is to develop your research and writing skills. I’d like you to select at least one folk/fairy tale to research. Using images as a starting point, describe the way that the images appeal to either belief or reason. Whenever you use an image, try to describe the image as if the viewer couldn’t see it. Then you will begin to frame your image within a rhetorical context (audience/author/message). You should use the text of the folk/fairy tale to support your claims. Step One-Introduce the topic of your research. It’s usually best to write this introduction in a final draft where you know exactly what your essay contains. But for early drafts, you can at least make a statement of purpose, like the following: The purpose of this essay is to chart the historical and cultural evolution of the story of the “Three Little Pigs.” See https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Three_Little_Pigs.html For an example of a page that does exactly this! Step Two-Continue to try to collect images that might be included in a multimedia representation of the story. These will also be part of your Annotated Bibliography. You should immediately consider the restrictions/limitations to the kind of media that you can use that will be suitable to a Word/Page document type. That will affect your choice of materials and how they are presented. Step Four-Post your final version on Livetext. The final version should have a reference page in APA style format at the bottom of the work acknowledging sources, including images! As you research your topic, simply compile a list or urls/documents/images that you may use in your research paper. As you focus on a specific set of the above resources, then begin to summarize their content in terms of the four main elements suggested: • (a) evaluate the authority or background of the author, •(b) comment on the intended audience, •(c) compare or contrast this work with another you have cited, ¥ or (d) explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic. Annotated Bibliography instructions 1. Locate and record citations of peer reviewed articles that may contain useful information and ideas on your topic. Briefly examine and review the actual items. Then choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic. 2. Cite the article using the MLA format. 3. Write a concise annotation that summarizes the central theme and scope of the article. Include one or more sentences that ¥ (a) evaluate the authority or background of the author, ¥ (b) comment on the intended audience, ¥ (c) compare or contrast this work with another you have cited, or ¥ (d) explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic. For more information see Critically Analyzing Information Sources. 4. For this assignment you also have to choose the article you think is strongest and the one you think is weakest and explain why. |
