NOT a Fairy-Tale Red Flag: A Collection of Fairy Tales with Psychological and Cultural Analyses

As a child, these stories seemed like simple fairy tales—about princesses, love, and the unchanging “and they lived happily ever after.” But what if the familiar plots are much more complex than they seem?

Why does The Little Mermaid give up her voice? What is Red Riding Hood really looking for when she goes through the forest? What does the silence of the Tsarevna the Unspeaking tell us? And why is the monster from “The Scarlet Flower” far from the most frightening hero in this story?

After each fairy tale, you’ll get a psychological or cultural studies analysis: it will help you see familiar motifs in a new light and read children’s stories with an “adult” perspective. More often than not, the most unexpected meanings and lessons are hidden right in the fairy tales that were once told before bedtime.

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