The Child as Hero

In this blog post I will discuss the various roles were children are displayed as leaders in a folk or fairy tale. 

The first example is within the tale of, "Tselane and the Marimo". In this tale, I perceive the kids who found Tselane in the sock to be heroes. These young kids were heroes to me because if they had not found Tselane and told her mother that she was in need of help, Tselane would have most likely been hurt by the Marimo. That part of the story is such an heroic moment the kids literally saved the little girls life in a way, even though they did not physically get Tselane out of the bag, or defeat the Marimo with their bare hands, they still were a vital role in the happy ending of the tale.

Another tale when a child can be viewed as heroic is the tale of "Hansel and Gretel". I chose this story because even though the children are not being attacked by any beast physically throughout the story, they are their own heroes. I say this because when they were left stranded in the woods with no one to help them, they manage to find help for themselves to get back home; then when the kids were taken deeper and into the woods and stranded again, they managed to find some sort of sheltering place to call home temporarily be themselves. Lastly, when the kids were about to be killed by the witch, there was not some knight to come safe them at the end of the tale, they managed to out smart the witch and save themselves. As you can see, the repeated cycle of the kids using the little they had to keep themselves alive can be viewed as heroic. The fact that they also killed the witch that had tried to kill them, by their selves that also shows strength and resembles an heroic act throughout the tale. They were both their own hero's to stay alive.