Fairy Tales and the Ordinary

Throughout G.K. Chesterton’s book, Orthodoxy, there are statements that can be puzzling when first read. His book ranges from topics about fairytales to romance. These statements can be confusing to the reader at first because they are looking at them with reason. Chesterton shows us in his book that not everything should be looked at solely with materialistic things and reason. Rather, he believes that the world should be looked at with imagination and youthful wonder. He demonstrates this by using topics such as everyday occurrences, fairy tales, and the ordinary. 

G.K. Chesterton’s book is the account of how he came to believe in Christianity. He talks about how people who believe in materialistic things do not believe in a living world. Chesterton says, “all the towering materialism which dominates the modern mind rests ultimately upon one assumption; a false assumption. It is supposed that if a thing goes on repeating itself it is probably dead; a piece of clockwork. People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun was alive it would dance” (55). In this case, the people that have a materialistic view believe that in order for something to be alive then it should change continually. He responds to these people by saying that it is the opposite and that the reason we do not do everything the same every time is because we are too weak or not enthusiastic enough to do the same thing continually. We get tired of doing the same thing everyday and we try to become unique and different every day. He then looks toward what God does. He rises the sun everyday and makes every daisy and it never gets old to Him. Everything he does is with such great detail and we are unable to do this because we do not have enough desire or energy. When we look at life in a materialistic way, we miss out on how God works and that He keeps a daily schedule like raising the sun. 

Chesterton has always loved fairy tales and telling stories. He says, “ The things I believed most then, the things I believe most now, are the things called fairy tales. They seem to me to be the entirely reasonable things” (44). At first, this statement can turn some heads and think this guy is crazy but he did not look at life rationally. He believed in magic and not looking at things with a materialistic view and reason. He sees things in this world, like God’s daily work, that can not be described using reason and he describes it as magic. He says, “In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician” (56). In all good fairy tales, there is a narrator that keeps the story going and keeps the readers involved and interested in the story. He believes that God is the storyteller of this world. He believes in fairy tales because of the ethics that they teach. They teach chivalry, love, magnificence, and life and death. The way of fairy tales is the way Chesterton believes we should think and look at our life; not of reason but of elfland ethics. He says, “I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been meekly ratified by mere facts” (45). This way of thinking for Chesterton is that some things can be thought with reason but not with laws. He looks at the world through imagination. If you can think of something in another way then that specific occurance and can not be considered a law. He looks at things through magic and mystery. 

Another thing that Chesterton believes is that the ordinary is actually the most extraordinary. It does not take something extraordinary to be considered interesting. It can be seen in fairy tales all the time; an ordinary man sets out to save the princess and with saving the princess he becomes extraordinary. Chesterton says, “Ordinary things are more valuable than extraordinary things; nay, they are more extraordinary” (42). In everyday life, the extraordinary hides in the ordinary man. Jesus was extraordinary that was turned ordinary so that we were able to strive to be like Him and become extraordinary. Christians are not what the materialist people would call extraordinary and we certainly do not fit in. Chesterton found that this is what sets us apart and what gives us optimism. He says, “The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do not fit in to the world” (75). We are able to have this optimism because we know of a God that is supernatural and that we have faith He can bring us through anything. Chesterton and the Bible talk about being like a child; Chesterton said that children were able to read a normal story and never get bored and the Bible talks about having faith like a child. In Luke it says, “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Luke 18:17; ESV). Chesterton believed that you should look at the world with youthful wonder and then you would be able to fully understand the world and receive the kingdom of Heaven. Whenever we stop trying to become extraordinary and become comfortable just being ordinary, then we will understand how extraordinary we are because of how God made us. 

G.K. Chesterton lived in a fairy tale world of his own that allowed him to understand some parts of the world more fully. He was able to understand that God was the puppeteer of the world and that he rises the sun and moon every day and night. He found that every daisy and object in the world was made uniquely by God. He learned valuable life lessons like chivalry and love from fairy tales. He learned that the extraordinary was ordinary and the ordinary was even more extraordinary. He was able to learn all of this by looking at the world not by reason or with a materialistic view but with imagination and youthful wonder.