Folk Tales and Fairy Tales What makes a

Folk Tales and Fairy Tales

What makes a story a folk tale or fairy tale?

Characters • Characters are simple. • One is good. • One is wicked. • One character is someone of royalty (king, queen, princess, etc. )

Plot • The story begins with “once upon a time” or something similar. • Plots are simple and direct. • Magic events, characters and objects are part of the story.

Setting • They were told as oral stories before they were written down. • They represent our cultural heritage. • Certain numbers like three and seven are often in the story.

Other story elements. . . • They reveal truths about human nature. • The story ends with “…they lived happily ever after. ”

Shrek, the Fairy Tale

Shrek is a Satirical Fairy Tale • Satire: In Shrek, the producers make fun of the structure and elements of the traditional fairy tale

Introduce definitions for four techniques of satire • Exaggeration – To enlarge, increase, or represent something beyond normal bounds so that it becomes ridiculous and its faults can be seen. • Incongruity – To present things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to its surroundings

• Reversal – To present the opposite of the normal order (e. g. , the order of events, hierarchical order). • Parody – To imitate the techniques and/or style of some person, place, or thing.

Introduce definitions for four techniques of satire • Exaggeration – Princess Fiona fights and successfully defeats Robin Hood and all of his Merry Men without any help and without any weapons. – Incongruity • Princess Fiona uses her ponytail to deliver a knockout punch to one of the Merry Men. While frozen in a mid-air martial arts kick, Princess Fiona pauses to fix her disheveled hair before knocking out two of the Merry Men.

Introduce definitions for four techniques of satire • Reversal – The roles of the hero and the damsel in distress have been reversed. In this clip, it is Princess Fiona, the rescuee, who fights and defeats the foe. • Parody – The fight scene is an exaggerated imitation of the martial arts style and special effects used in movies such as The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.