Reader-Response Theory
“Fairy-Tale Logic” by A. E. Stallings is a very short poem. Her writing is very straight forward. She doesn’t use long lines or fancy words to hide the meaning. The meaning in the poem has cleverly been placed both directly on the surface and hidden between the lines. After reading this poem a few times, I realized that she wrote this poem to inspire unique thought processes from her readers. I find that the poem at hand is written more as a question than a message. The question that comes to mind for me is “Because of the gruesome tasks many characters are faced with in fairy tales, have they really been created for learning?” If the viewpoint Stallings portrayed is accurate, it is hard to …show more content…
Her goal was to make the reader find a new perspective, or “ look through a different lense”. I have enjoyed and love fairy tales throughout my entire childhood. Their purpose is to teach children some sort of moral lesson through evil, heroics, and fictional creatures. A majority of the time, these stories are as far from reality as you can get. I think Stallings wrote this poem to expose these kinds of backwards ideas. The poem begins with a title that outlines the storyline of the poem right away. “Fairy Tale Logic” brings up a matter of misconception. The title of the poem fits well with the poem’s content. But once I understood the actual meaning of the poem, it is almost like Stallings is taking a jab at fairy tales in general. The title brings to light a very clear fact: the logic is relevant to In lines 13-14: “The will to do whatever must be done: Marry a monster. Hand over your firstborn son”, she exposes the norms of fairy tales, the outlandish actions taken by the characters in order to do what is right. Reading this makes me feel that no matter the situation, according to fairy tale logic, you must go to great lengths to save yourself. In line 2-3: “Gather the chin hairs of a man-eating goat, or cross a sulphuric lake in a leaky boat.” This line talks about the logic of some characters in order to solve the problems that may arise.