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The Reality Behind Mythology and Fairy-Tales

Even in such an advanced world that we live in, we are still deeply connected to our mythological beliefs and fairytale stories.

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The Reality Behind Mythology and Fairy-Tales
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"Myths are the stories we tell ourselves to explain the world around us and the world within us.” - Pamela J. Smith.

Pamela Jaye Smith, a renowned mythologist said in one of her interviews that writers are intuitively writing the same old wonderful mythical stories, fairy tales that we have all heard when we were children. A majority of us don’t even realize that what we watch on TV are so similar to the old folktales, myths and even fairy-tales. It is, therefore, evident that even in such an advanced world, we are still deeply connected to our mythological beliefs and fairy-tale stories.

Mythology is simply about humans; it is something that helps us discover the various meanings of life, love and tragedy. Myths are terribly misunderstood by people since today’s world in tunes us with scientific views often resulting in the loss of the true meaning of myths. Human beings are make-believers and myths are our canvas. Myths have been generated since a very long time ago when our existence was still questionable, and people wondered about the various aspects of life. Like a novel, an opera or a ballet, myths are make-believe: a game that transfigures our fragmented, tragic world, and helps us to glimpse new possibilities by asking "what if?"-- a question which has always provoked some of our most important discoveries in philosophy, science and technology. Humans have been crafting myths and because of these myths that make us question with "what if", we discover deeper and mysterious sides of life. Since human beings are different from other animals, we are born to find meanings, desire happiness and be resilient. The purpose of myths are crucial in these findings because they are something unavoidable for humans and even today people use mythology, just in an updated version.

Fairy-tales are forever. They have been shared and passed down from generation to generation, translated versions throughout various countries. These ancient tales are not really created only for children, they are indeed stories that revolve around the various feelings of humans like fear, joy, hope, etc. and also inevitable circumstances which in fairy-tales are called “fate”. Fairy-tales act like a bridge that closes gaps between generations and the same stories that we heard when we were children might have been crucial to us all along. Realistic explanations are usually incomprehensible to children because they lack the abstract understanding required to make sense of them. Without fairy-tales, it would probably be very complex for young children to understand what the meaning of life involves.

Fairy tales and myths are undeniably existent in today’s world simply because they have always been. People still share fairy-tales, written or oral, they still talk about myths and watch movies which have mythological themes. Even fairy-tales talk about the feelings and realities of being human beings. In the TV show, "Once Upon A Time", before the airing of the first episode, I noticed a short statement to audiences on the screen. It said that “One day they found themselves trapped in a place where all their happy endings were stolen. Our World.” From watching the first whole episode, I realized that Storybrook had normal people living in it, and even though they didn’t know that they’re trapped in our world, they still lived normal lives like any of us do. This tells me that fairy-tales may be correct and that we could very well be characters from fairy-tales, where we are continuously fighting for our happy endings. A lot of the characters from fairy-tales, like the wicked stepmothers, the innocent princesses and the princes in shining armor are still relevant in the real world. There are accounts of stepmothers' horrifying acts on their stepdaughters, young innocent girls falling victims to horrible crimes and yes, true and unconditional love does exist. Subconsciously, we are in our own fairy-tale--searching for our happy ending.

Mythology has been with us even before an understanding of biology, physics, chemistry, philosophy, psychology etc. It is the main branch of science and although ignored by most people, the value of myth is very important for all humans. In the same way, fairy-tales revolve around stories that we have heard when we were children and since it addresses various emotions, it is like a

bible for understanding the complexities and deeper meanings of life.
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