Something today happened which made me realize how certain books from the very beginning try and influence our thinking. Right from the very start, the people around us try and impose their thinking and experiences onto us and so does the books. I used to think that the books are usually neutral but, today while reading a fairy tale story to a kid, I realized how our opinions about things and people are shaped from the very beginning. How fairies and princess are always very pretty and beautiful and how step-mothers are always very cruel. Over the last few days, I have been reading different fairy stories to a 5 year old little girl. Whenever she looks at the pictures of a fairy or the princess in the story book, she is always fascinated with the looks and never fails to comment on the good looks of these characters in the picture. Today while I was reading to her and as I mentioned a step-mother, she immediately said that the step mother must be very cruel and would not treat her step-child nicely and would be rude to him/her. This comment of her made me think about how from the very beginning, we link certain specific attributes to certain people and thereby our reactions and impressions are based accordingly thereby making us prejudiced or biased. And that is where our impressions and perceptions about people starts building up!
