Fairy Tales are a necessity because they dare speak the truths that the world never wants to hear;
That adults are cruel to children.
That you will suffer injustice, but that doesn't give you the right to be unjust to others.
That there are negative consequences to indulging vices.
That upholding moral principles is always the better path, even in the face of hardship.
That you will die someday.
And that inspite of all the bad in the world, it is worth persevering and finding the love and joy that is out there.
"And I think it possible that by confining your child to blameless stories of child life in which nothing at all alarming ever happens, you would fail to banish the terrors, and would succeed in banishing all that can ennoble them or make them endurable. For in the fairy tales, side by side with the terrible figures, we find the immemorial comforters and protectors, the radiant ones; and the terrible figures are not merely terrible, but sublime. It would be nice if no little boy in bed, hearing, or thinking he hears, a sound, were ever at all frightened. But if he is going to be frightened, I think it better that he should think of giants and dragons than merely of burglars. And I think St George, or any bright champion in armour, is a better comfort than the idea of the police."
C. S. Lewis, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children"
Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.
-G. K. Chesterton
