The
happy ending is a
commonly-used
technique in
fairy tales and other such
bedtime stories,
comprising a "
happily ever after" and an
optimistic (or perhaps "
sugar-coated") end.
Most
Disney films
conclude with a "happy ending", since this is in the
vein of "giving the
public what it wants". Example: At the end of
Cinderella, the girl is happy, the
guy is happy, the
villains have received their
comeuppance and everyone lives
happily ever after.
Happy endings are about giving the public what it wants, because no one wants (or so the
media believe/would have us believe) to see a film about the
truth or
real life; a film where the
hero dies, the
girl ends up with the
villain and everyone lives
horribly ever after.
It is important to look at the happy ending in the
context of children's stories, since this
approach is used to
sugar-coat reality in an attempt to convince children that the world is a
happy place and that
everything is going to be fine. It's all
fine and
dandy to create this
ideal and
non-existent world in the minds of children, but what if they actually believe it? What if they can't understand why
nice guys finish last or cannot
comprehend the
unfairness of the world?
The question that one must ask, before opening "
Little Red Riding Hood" and teaching children of wolves that swallow children live and whole (who,
miraculously,
remain live and whole) is: Should we
teach children about the real world from a young age, despite the
cruelty and unfairness that it contains; or convince them of a
magical,
happy place that doesn't
exist and will build up
great expectations of a life
confined to the pages of a book?
To each his own; do what you believe is right for your child. However, I cannot help but feel some
guilt and
unease at assisting in the
creation of a fantasy world in young minds that forms such
naive and
innocent perceptions of a world that can ill afford them.