Conformity In Maria Tatar's An Introduction To Fairy Tales

People all over the world tend to toss their morals aside in order to conform to the influences of society or a higher superior. However, people below the chain of authority, especially the youth, struggle the most in attempt to triumph over these types of situations. Although conformity often helps society function correctly, there becomes a problem when a person’s identity becomes too infatuated within a higher authority that they disregard their own personal morals. So why in a society principled in independence and freewill do people eagerly toss morals aside in order to conform to a superior? It seems as if even though the face of morality does not disappear, individuals still willingly set their beliefs aside in order to please an authority figure. So through these circumstances does one triumph or does the …show more content…
Identity and morals go hand in hand and tend to influence a person’s conscious decision. Maria Tatar’s article, “An Introduction to Fairy Tales” addresses how morals and personal values shape the decisions made by the public, especially the lives of children. The issue being addressed lies on how children learn through fairytales and develop moral direction because of the “powerful therapeutic value” within the story telling (308). This article compliments Jan Stets article, "Understanding the Moral Person: Identity, Behavior, and Emotion" because of how Stets addresses morals through the lens of an identity theory in sociological social psychology. Stets explains that an identity activated and laced with morals tends to make the moral standards of a person emerge and are then maintained or challenged in different circumstances. She states, “[i]dentity theory helps identify the internal dynamics of individuals as moral persons by apprehending their self-views, behavior, and emotions within and across situations” (Stets). Stets tells the