Propp vs. Aarne and Thompson

I thought that our discussion in class about the classification of fairy tales was really interesting particularly because as I have been reading a lot of the fairy tales I have kind of been trying to figure out which ones fit together and have common themes. It was interesting to read about two different people who tried to classify these fairy tales but in a very different way. Although the work of Aarne and Thompson is impressive, I think that I would agree with the way that Propp classifies fairy tales. Although Aarne and Thompson pick up on motifs that are important to not in fairy tales, they have thousands of motifs that they have come up with so the process of classifing and grouping fairy tales really doesn't have much of a point. On the other hand, Propp classifies his fairy tales by the actions that are in the stories. This seems like a much more effective way. Still though, he has 31 functions all of which are hard to keep in memory while reading the fairy tales. I think that the most effective way to classify these fairy tales is by the shortened Propp technique, the protagonist has a lack of something, that lack of something leads them to a quest, on the quest a magical helper is encountered, the protagonist is subject to one or more tests, and then their is some sort of reward for the completion of this test. I think for the most part when classifying fairy tales this is the quickest, most effective way to classify and think about the story while you are reading and taking mental notes.