What is the difference between a story and a fairy tale and other literary forms

The division of literature into types of narrative forms and genres is often very conditional. And if, for example, the story from the novel can be distinguished by volume, then sometimes more complicated situations arise. So, to understand how the story differs from a fairy tale, only an analysis of the content of a work can help.

What is a story?

First, you need to determine the main features of the story. In itself, this genre in Russia did not exist until the nineteenth century, and was only a subspecies of the story. However, the boundary between these two varieties of prose is still very vague.

Most of the stories are based on a certain life story that happened to the protagonist, which could happen in reality. This is the main thing, than the story differs from a poem and a fairy tale, where situations can be fictional and completely unreal. The number of main characters and described storylines is an indirect sign that helps not to confuse this small literary form with a story where the described heroes and situations are few.

The main thing (and sometimes the most difficult for the author) in the story is its brevity. In a very small volume of the narrative it is necessary to fit that basic idea, which the author wanted to disclose in his work. In such a situation, there is no possibility for extensive descriptions of the hero's thoughts. Instead, more attention has to be given to details, making them vivid and characteristic.

Difference from a fairy tale

The most important thing is how the story differs from the fairy tale, this is the realism of the plot and the characters. The fairy tale is by nature a fictional adventure story, which is designed to convey to the reader (more often than not the child) a certain thought.

The target audience of fairy tales dictates the principles of narration. Every hero here is not just an ordinary person, but a certain symbol that embodies a certain character trait (cunning fox, wicked wolf, cowardly hare, modest stepdaughter, brave prince and the like). So the child from the very early age is taught the concepts of good and bad, the consequences of certain actions and lay the norms of morality.

Remember, than the story differs from a fairy tale, from own experience. Many traditional fairy stories are similar to each other and are subject to a certain pattern. If the story tells only about a single scene from the hero's life, then the fairy tale is always a chain of events experiencing the character and either changing his life for the better (if the character was originally kind) or helping him to become different.

When asked how the story differs from the fairy tale, the answers should be sought in legends that have come down to us from the depths of centuries, because they became the ancestors of the stories that we are now telling the children.

The difference between fiction and fairy tales

There is one literary genre, in the example of which it is difficult to determine what the story differs from a fairy tale. It's about science fiction, where the world is the fruit of the author's imagination, and the narrative is literally imbued with conventionality and symbolism.

To accurately determine what a fairy tale is different from a fantastic story, you can look at the place and time of the action in the work. The events of fairy tales most often occur in the olden time or do not have a time reference, whereas fantasy prefers to predict future events or represent other planets.

Another difference between these genres is that tales in their finale usually contain a pronounced morality, and fantastic stories show us what can happen in the future or what life might be like in other worlds different from ours.

The world of the fairy tale is magic, miracles and humanized animals (sometimes even objects), while the story, even the fantastic one, is based on the narrative with a minimum of expressive means. This is what distinguishes the story from a fairy tale.

Difference from the novel

The short story is a short prosaic form, like the story, but it has a number of differences from it.

The brevity and brevity of the narrative, characteristic of the story, is even more pronounced in the story. There is no place for the author's image of the character and the description of his psychological state. Instead, the center of the narrative is an unusual event, a plot that keeps the reader's attention.

A catching tie, a dynamic plot, an unexpected ending - these are the three bars on which the story is built. The main theme here is clear, without any double interpretation (which is permissible in the story). The style of writing novels is usually neutral, but the story can be humorous, philosophical, hard or melodramatic, depending on the author's idea.

Difference from poems

The poem is almost impossible to confuse with the prosaic form, which is the story. Poems are characterized by a rhythmic construction of the text, in which the stressed and unstressed syllables clearly alternate, forming a poetic dimension.

Usually a poem is divided into segments - stanzas - from several lines, the endings of which rhyme among themselves. However, there are also white verses, rhyme in which there is no.

Symbolism, a description of the experiences of the lyric hero and a deeply personal description - that's what is always characteristic of poetry.