Abandonment is an enormous issue that transpires in nearly every fairy tale. It is a subject that is certainly perceptible, but yet not many people take notice to it. Throughout diverse settings there will be different forms of abandonment that take place. Examples from movies such as: Cinderella, Tangled, and The Little Mermaid; and Fairy Tales such as: “Hansel and Gretel”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, and “The Story of Grandmother” will show different types of abandonment while using compare and contrast.
The origins of the word "abandon," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, demonstrate that it has not always had the wholly negative connotations it does today. In the Middle French, for instance, metrè à bandon could have meant both "to proscribe" and "to release from proscription." Abandonment is never accidental, and it is never partial. It is deliberate and it is complete. It is, perhaps, these qualities that account for the reoccurrence of the theme in folklore and mythology, in social science, and in art and literature. According to Claudia Black:
“When children are raised with chronic loss, without the psychological or physical protection they need and certainly deserve, it is most natural for them to internalize incredible fear. Not receiving the necessary psychological or physical protection equals abandonment. And, living with repeated abandonment experiences creates toxic shame. Shame arises from the painful message implied in abandonment: "You are not important. You are not of value." This is the pain from which people need to heal.”(Psychology 4)
Black states that when children are raised without the essential love in their lives they start to feel like they are worthless. When being told your whole life that you are worthless, after time you actually start to believe it. There are two types of abandonment: physical and physiological abandonment. If you live with repeated abandonment, it changes the way that you view the world. There is a pain that you have to heal from.
In movies abandonment takes place in many ways, the main character in Cinderella is abandoned by her father due to death and left to deal with her evil stepmother. Cinderella is a 1950 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Based on the fairy tale "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault. Cinderella is the much-loved only child of a widowed aristocrat. After deciding that his dearly beloved daughter needs a mother's care, Cinderella's father marries Lady Tremaine, a proud and confident woman with two daughters from her first marriage. After