I think in a lot of these stories the protagonists goes through the journey and returns to status quo without any tangible results, except personally growing up, learning some kind of a lesson and better adapting to the real world. Coraline learns to appreciate her parents better, Dorothy learns that magic can’t replace personal moral growth. Wendy grows up and doesn’t return to Neverland for that reason, same as Pevensies.
Harry Potter would be a good counter example. He’s a hero, he defeats the evil wizard, goes from poor to rich and just stays in the other world, because why not. A lot of Japanese Isekai falls into similar pattern where a young man escapes his dull life to live out his power fantasy with weird sexual undertones.
Any generalization works only to an extent, but it’s safe to say that we tend to teach girls to accept their social status and their reality and be good to others (so, to be good wives and mothers), and boys to achieve, overcome and be socially mobile. Jack can outwit the giant, turn his life around and become rich, while for Cinderella social mobility is only available through marrying into higher class.
(Also, let me plug The Little Black Hen by Pogorelsky, it’s a Russian XIX century literary fairytale of a similar kind. That one has a boy MC!)
I think in a lot of these stories the protagonists goes through the journey and returns to status quo without any tangible results, except personally growing up, learning some kind of a lesson and better adapting to the real world. Coraline learns to appreciate her parents better, Dorothy learns that magic can’t replace personal moral growth. Wendy grows up and doesn’t return to Neverland for that reason, same as Pevensies.
Harry Potter would be a good counter example. He’s a hero, he defeats the evil wizard, goes from poor to rich and just stays in the other world, because why not. A lot of Japanese Isekai falls into similar pattern where a young man escapes his dull life to live out his power fantasy with weird sexual undertones.
Any generalization works only to an extent, but it’s safe to say that we tend to teach girls to accept their social status and their reality and be good to others (so, to be good wives and mothers), and boys to achieve, overcome and be socially mobile. Jack can outwit the giant, turn his life around and become rich, while for Cinderella social mobility is only available through marrying into higher class.
(Also, let me plug The Little Black Hen by Pogorelsky, it’s a Russian XIX century literary fairytale of a similar kind. That one has a boy MC!)