"The Sociopsychological Analysis of Folktales" Response (2)

The one element that struck me the most upon completion of J. L. Fischer's essay "The Sociopsycological Analysis of Folktales," was his effective use of both sides of the argument throughout. Every aspect that he touches upon, be it Folktale history, innovation, symbolism, or even something as simple as the definition of said work, features a strong opinion backed up by multiple sources, followed up by the opponents' argument along with several more relevant sources included to support those claims. By doing this, Fischer is able to present multiple views on his topic while keeping the bias at bay. As for the content of the piece, I really enjoyed the muliple facets of Folktale explored by Fischer, and it certainly opened my eyes to just how many components crucial to the Social and Psychological value exist in such a small tale. I especially like how the author chose to break up Folktales for analysis: The tale itself, the model personality of the intended audience and narrator as well as the social system currently in place. In my opinion, this makes it that much easier to prove the thesis of the paper, which is determining the Social and Psychologcal importance of these various myths and tales in existance. Finally, I found Fischer's contrast between fables written and spoken to be very interesting. In my own personal experiemce, I have witnessed people alter their recount or story one too many times in an attempt to appeal to those listening, killing off a sigificant amount of validity in the process. Written tales, as Fischer states, are done largely in a private setting, where it can remain free from alterations and changes, which I agree is the more effective way of truly getting the value of a story. All in all, I enjoyed both the style and content of this essay, I look to model my future pieces in a similar fashion as well.