Tales and Nursery Rhymes Children's Rhymes and Research Paper

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Tales and Nursery Rhymes

Children's rhymes and fairy tales serve as a fun and interesting way to teach children moral lessons At least, that's the modern interpretation of what nursery rhymes and fairy tales are meant for. The history of nursery rhymes and fairy tales is a lot darker than their modern use suggests. They are filled with violence and abuse. These relics of the middle ages and renaissance are filled with references to death, plague, and in some cases, even torture. This paper will take a look at several nursery rhymes and classic fairy tales and evaluate their hidden meaning.

A beloved children's nursery rhyme is the old woman who lived in a shoe. The first image that comes into one's head when this rhyme is mentioned is that of a kind old lady chasing after her myriad of children. But closer analysis of the rhymes reveals something more dreadful. The nursery rhyme goes,

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn't know what to do;

She gave them some broth without any bread;

Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed. (Alchin, 2009)

This rhyme is clearly promoting domestic abuse, specifically child abuse.

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The old woman in the shoe has so many children that she cannot adequately feed them all, and in an effort to keep their wailing about their hungry to a minimum, she beats them to sleep. When reading with a historical context in mind, the rhyme makes sense. Hunger was a common sensation up until recent history, so were big families, since many children died in their early years families had many children to compensate. Since money was sparse for many families, therefore so was food. In order to keep order in the house, whippings were probably used liberally. Another rhyme….....

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