An Articulation of “The Struggle for Meaning” by Bruno Bettelheim

I don’t like children. It’s not a secret; I have never liked kids. I always have the hardest time talking to them and I find them rather confusing. Despite all of this, I find their minds very intriguing. There are so many pieces that contribute to the expansion of the adult’s mind. Many psychologists say that being exposed to certain things at a young age influence how children’s brains mature. Bruno Bettelheim in his essay, “The Struggle for Meaning”, lays out what the mind of a child needs to experience. His career as a clinical psychologist and his work with mentally disturbed children establish his credibility in this department. Using the techniques that he learns in the field, Bettelheim is able to assert a deeper insight on what is best for the developing child. Although he takes his time to establish his argument, Bettelheim is knowledgeable on how fairy tales are good for the developing mind of the child, contrary to whatever agenda parents may push upon their children.

Bruno Bettelheim’s essay does an amazing job of elaborating all of the great aspects of fairy tales. From the very beginning, the title, “The Struggle for Meaning”, alludes to the idea that fairy tales are misunderstood (Bettelheim 269). It’s an important tactic. The target audience here, the parents, already have their minds made up on whether fairy tales are good for their children. However, Bettelheim attacks this before the reader even gets into the essay. He’s already using persuasion that shows the reader that it’s likely that their preconceived notions are, undoubtably, wrong. At the end of his essay, Bettelheim uses a sort of call-to-action to bring home his point. It’s another “in your face” method that I believe is really useful in proving his audience wrong. He explains that fairy tales are vital because it presents children with real life confrontations that they wouldn’t see anywhere else otherwise (Bettelheim 273). Bettelheim uses this to emphasize that children need fairy tales. His methods of persuasion are effective in presenting his audience with a claim supported by reliable evidence.

However, I would like to point out that the one thing that Bruno Bettelheim does poorly is getting to his argument efficiently. His essay is a little more than four pages and it’s evident that he doesn’t really begin to present his argument until nearly a page and a half in. Although Bettelheim provides some context that is useful, like his explanation of how children live in the present (Bettelheim 270), he fails to be concise in his writing. In the introduction of his article, he spends nearly a paragraph affirming his dissatisfaction of what children are reading these days (Bettelheim 269). This seems hardly relevant to me and it undermines his argument. The idea is to supply the reader with dependable evidence to support his claim of why fairy tales are necessary for the mind of a child. The introduction of his essay isn’t all bad. For those who are going into this article with little to no background knowledge on Bruno Bettelheim, he iterates that he works as a teacher and therapist to disturbed children (Bettelheim 269). Presenting personal background information is important for an essay like Bettelheim’s because it proves to readers that he is a professional who knows exactly what he is talking about.

Though I would like to say that Bruno Bettelheim had an amazing essay, I can’t. There were several substantial missteps that Bettelheim made that could have been easily avoidable. Ignoring writing hiccups, Bettelheim made a strong argument. He supported all of his claims with sufficient (and relevant) evidence and used tough argumentative tactics to convince even some of his most stubborn readers that fairy tales are useful. Against the beliefs of thousands of parents across the world, I believe that Bruno Bettelheim’s essay explaining the importance of fairy tales is acceptable and does a good job of undermining his audience.

 

 

Works Cited

Bettelheim, Bruno. “The Struggle for Meaning.” The Classic Fairy Tales, edited by Maria Tatar, 1st edition, Norton, 1998, 269-273.