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…  Bruno Bettelheim in his article ‘The Struggle for Meaning’ ( 1999 ) mentions the features that a child can gain from fairy tales that can help him to understand and to find meaning in life. Bettelheim is right in saying ‘Nothing can be as enriching and satisfying to child and adult alike as the folk tale.’ ( 1999,270 ). With the help of fairy tales children gain some crucial features, they understand themselves and the society, learn and develop imagination, develop their intellect. In addition they gain moral education. Fairy tales are vital for children to help them make their ability to find meaning in life advanced, develop their imagination and get ready for real life.

         Parents have an important duty to help their child to find the meaning in life while bringing up them. A child must develop his inner resources and go above the limits of his life, his self-centered position in life for finding deeper meaning. For the meaning, according to circumstances, first  people around child, second culture then literature have important effect on child. Child learns bad or wrong behaviours, norm, values form people around him, like his parents and friends. Culture transmitted to child affects the child on accepting mores, norms, rules of the society. Literature is important when the child is young; but for most children  literature fails to develop their mind and personality. Books at school that child reads teach him only necessary skills without grasping the meaning. However finding meaning is vital for children in his childhood. To capture child’s attention and interest, the story has to entertain him, make him curious, help him develop him intellect and suggest solitions to his problems. As it mentioned above nothing can enrich and satisfy children than fairy tale.( Bettelheim, 1999, 270 ). Fairy tales help the children to find the deeper meaning which is vital and meaningful for them at the stage of developmentın fairy tales there are too many satisfactory solutions for children’s life  and a lot of ways  to access the deeper meaning. &%&//

       Children not only learn the way of finding meaning in life, in addition they learn how to develop their imagination. As a result of reading fairy tales , children start to think better, then they develop their critical thinking. Van de Wissel is right in saying ‘The fairy tale can be a powerful means for developing the imagination.’ (1998,18). Most children imagine while reading fairy tales. If a boy is reading ‘Sinbad’, he is in Sinbad’s world, struggling for goodness, fighting with enemies or if a girl is reading ‘Snow White’, she imagines herself as she is waiting for her prince that comes with his white horse. All of these lead to develop their imagination. According to Bettelheim to enrich children’s life the stories that children read have to stimulate their imagination. ( 1999,270 ). Fairy tales achieve stimulating children’s imagination and capture children’s attention and interest.

         Fairy tales help children to develop their imagination by giving them good images. However Dr. Karl Oppel says ‘Many fairy fill the imagination with horrible images, within terrifying figures.’ ( 1903,7 ).  It is true that in  many fairy tales there are horrible images and these images affect children in a negative way.ın Rapunzel there is an old,bad witch that everyone is afraid of her, in ‘Little Red Ridinghood’ there is a bad wolf that tries to kill and eat people and in ‘Cindirella’ there is an evil stepmother. Like these there are many bad images in fairy tales; but as Van de Wissel says ‘The fairy tales require a careful selection because there are many among them that fill the imagination  with much too nasty things.’      ( 1998,20 ). It is obvious that some fairy tales give wrong images to children; but choosing the appropriate ones is important.

         In addition fairy tales prepare children for real life. Children will become aware of the resources they have that can help them to find meaning in life and cope with their difficult inner life’s and real life’s problems. In fairy tales there are many difficulties that the main character faces, also  in real life children can come across difficulties like these in fairy tales. Fairy tales help children try to deal with life’s problems therefore children can improve  their ability to solve problems. Bettelheim says ‘The child needs to be given  the chance to  understand himself in this complex world with which he must learn to cope.’ ( 1999,270 ). By  reading fairy tales children come across different situations. In fairy they see  different people from different parts of the society, their behaviours in some situations and their ways of  giving solutions. Furthermore, as it is known in most fairy tales there are many messages for children that they cen use in real life. Children can be aware of these with the help of fairy tales. To illustrate, if  the child reads ‘Little Red Ridinghood’ he will learn not to trust strangers, to obey his parents’ advices. In another fairy tales like ‘Rapunzel’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ , and to name a few, there are many messages and solutions for children. With these children will gain ability to cope with difficult problems in life. As mentioned above negative images and bad sides of life can be in fairy tales. However, many parents do not want their child to know or to come across the actions that make  him in trouble. As Bettelheim says ‘The prevalent parental belief is that a child must be diverted from what troubles him most: his formless,nameless anxieties, and his chaotic, angry, and even violent fantasies.’(1999,272)

Children will not come across only wishfulfilling images in real life.