Studies in approaches to literature for children in fairy tales include consideration of social and psychological aspects, symbolism, strategies, and ethics. My approach is the examination of the structure, pattern and hero in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s, classic fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel.
Unlike most fairy tales where the hero leaves home on a journey of choice, the protagonists, Hansel and Gretel are forced into their journey through a magic forest where their maturation includes learning about themselves under unpleasant circumstances. As with most fairy tale structure, they encounter two vertical moments where decisions must be made, which will result in either their survival or demise. The first resolve involves Hansel s resourcefulness and cleverness to use pebbles as markers to lead himself and his sister out of the forest and back home. The second choice is to continue into the woods after being unable to implement a scheme to maintain a link to home and the forest.
In using the metaphor of a severed umbilical cord between parent and child, Hansel’s two attempts to insure his sister and his link to their father, calls attention to the children’s inability to take care of themselves, and their resistance to this journey. Hansel and Gretel’s lack of competence to face the dangers in the supernatural forest, their inexperience to face real or imagined life problems, and their failure to arm themselves with protective potions, staffs, or amulets leave them vulnerable to the enchantment of the forest.
As anticipated in fairy tale structure, Hansel and Gretel's second decision becomes the third sequence, which leads them to their capture by the wicked witch. In this sequence of events, Gretel redefines her role as a protected female by her brother Hansel, to that of protector--a she-hero. Gretel is forced to decide the unpleasant fate of the witch in order to save herself and Hansel. Gretel's ingenuity to coerce the witch into the oven saves her sibling, rewards their perseverance with riches, and the opportunity to go home. Gretel also demonstrates a mystical wisdom her brother lacks when she employs a white duck to carry them across the lake. Gretel is obviously the character to whom major change is noticed. She learns she has the ability to think, which ultimately saves their lives.
Hansel and Gretel's return home to find their step-mother dead and their remorseful father grieving for them, ever since his poor judgement to leave them in the woods, suggest a possible moral, which offers the reader determination.
The Grimm's fairy tale does not comply with the "Once upon a time..." initial structure of most fairy tales, but the tale does challenge the reader to guess the moral or the meaning for the telling of this story. Moreover, a reward for the reader's insight is hinted: "My tale is done.... Whoever catches it [the mouse?/the tale's moral?] can make a big fur cap of it [be rewarded for their wisdom]." Imaginatively, the hidden messages implanted in young readers minds will be that they too have the ability to think and to decide on possible solutions in similarly unpleasant circumstances. As Hansel and Gretel learned they could survive on their own, the development of character has also been achieved in fairy tale frame.