Part 1: Chapters 1-7 Summary and Analysis

Part One: A Pocketful of Magic begins with Bruno Bettelheim quoting Charles Dickens on fairy tales. Dickens said: "Little Red Riding Hood was my first love. I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss."

Dickens' statement backs up his belief that any child who is robbed of fairy tales suffers the loss of valuable learning experiences.

Bettelheim refers to the poet Louis MacNeice who believes that fairy tales can be more significant and have deeper roots than any novel. Fairy tales allow the child to discover his own identity and help form necessary experiences associated with character development. Fairy tales bring about the belief that no matter what happens there is always a reward as long as one does not try to avoid the struggle to get...