The Witch Must Die Book

A noted psychologist shows how fairy tales are a powerful aid to growing up, banishing fears, resolving conflicts, and conquering the darkness that dwells within us. What accounts for the enduring charm of fairy tales? Where in the horror story of Hansel and Gretel's abandonment, and their subsequent committing of murder, does its archetypal power lie? Why do generations of parents continue to read this tale and others to children? In The Witch Must Die, Sheldon Cashdan explores how fairy tales help children deal with psychological conflicts by projecting their own internal struggles between good and evil onto the battles enacted by the characters in the stories. Rumpelstiltskin, Pinocchio, and Rapunzel vividly dramatize lust, envy, avarice, and sloth on a safe stage, allowing children to confront their own "deadly sins." Cashdan offers elegant analyses of how fairy tales speak to basic human concerns, highlighting the roles played by iconic images like glass slippers, gingerbread houses, evil stepmothers, and sorcery. He shows how fairy tales differ from culture to culture, what happens when classic fairy tales are "Disneyfied," and why it is that fairy tales can have a surprisingly salutary effect on adult readers. Not since Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment has the underlying significance of fantasy and fairy tales been so insightfully and entertainingly mined.Read More