To live a good and happy life, one must own up to their true beliefs in order to come to a peace within them. In Susan Cooper's Dreams and Wishes: Essays on Writing for Children, she states "Fantasy goes on stage beyond realism, requiring complete intellectual surrender" (Cooper 85). She goes on to say, and which I think is inspiring and very important, "And what do we, and they find when we read fantasy? The escape and encouragement are there, for sure – but in a different form. This time, when we depart from our own reality into the reality of the book, it's not a matter of sleeping across the street, or into the next county, or even the next planet. This time, we're going out of time, out of space, into the unconscious, that dreamlike world which has in it all the images and emotions accumulated since the human race began. We aren't escaping out, we're escaping in, without any idea of what we may encounter. Fantasy is the metaphor through which we discover ourselves" (Cooper 85). .
I think this is extremely important because I've always wanted to know why fantasy and fairy tales are told, and why children love stories so much. To take a child, or the reader to a different parallel place in the universe, better known as Kronos and Kairos, is what makes children, and even myself so attached to certain books. I remember when I was a little girl my childhood consisted of several books that I developed a huge level of attachment for. As a child I absolutely loved to read, and I think a lot of children are the same. Children's minds aren't fully developed, so they like the idea of these books taking them onto a wonderful journey, and that is why fantasy stories are told. .
Not only do stories take us readers on a journey, they're written to entertain and instruct, to give us a vision, to teach us a life lesson somehow, and tell the truth from the natural world.
