Fantasy Used to Create Meaning in Bedtime Stories

The movie Bedtime Stories stars Adam Sandler as a hotel handyman who gets overlooked repeatedly as being a possible manager for the hotel. He often represses his emotions on the issue, even though it is clear that he has higher desires and perhaps should get a better chance. He does this until he babysits his niece and nephew. When he is telling them a bedtime story, he allows his emotions and feelings to come out as he put his life into tall tales for the children to hear.

Here Sandler lets his emotions out, but also uses them to teach his niece and nephew life lessons. For example, he talks about how some people who work hard and are deserving often get overlooked just because they do not have the best resume or reputation. He is referring to himself as being someone who should be looked at for promotion in the hotel, but he puts this message and his story into a made up story about a king choosing a new knight, but choosing the one who is more handsome and beloved. When he says this, his niece and nephew get upset and say the other knight is works harder and is more deserving (the character depicting himself) should get a chance, so Sandler alters the story to give both knights a chance.

The next day, this exact thing happens. Sandler is given a chance to earn the right to be a manager. From then on, Sandler tells this children taller and taller tales and everything he says in the stories happen in real life. This is similar to the film Big Fish we watched in class where the father would tell the son tall tales, but the son never believed him. The son thought his dad was lying, but he was not lying, just exaggerating to teach his son lessons. The same way Sandler is telling his niece and nephew made-up stories, but they do hold some weight as far as preaching the importance of fairness, work ethic, and perseverance.