Comparison of Russian and American tales

 Object of the research – American and Russian tales.  Subject of the research – similarities and differences of Russian and American folk tales.

 The main objective of our research is to find out what is a fairy tale and compare some Russian and American folk tales.  The hypothesis of the research: If we compare Russian and American tales, we’ll find out that they have some similarities and differences.

A fairy tale is a genre of literature, usually with fairies, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants, witches, mermaids.

The first fairy tales were spoken from mouth to mouth.

Classification of Tales by V.Y. Propp:  folk tales,  fairy tales,  realistic tales,  cumulative tales.

The Similarities : The structure of the tales: not very big size, simplicity, elementary plot. The beginning : the soldiers came from the war. The culmination: the soldiers cooked the tasty dish. The epilog: the soldiers are full and took the “main ingredient” with themselves. The main characters are people. Both belong to the realistic type.

The Differences: Porridge was cooked. Soup was cooked. The soldier was met by the old woman and old man. The soldier was met by the whole village. The “main ingredient” was an axe. The “main ingredient” was a stone. The soldier picked up the axe from the old people and took it with himself. The soldier brought the stone with himself.