As I'm sure is the same with many other girls my age, my experience with fairy tales came primarily through the film medium. I learned about princesses and their prince charmings, toads and trolls, dragons and wolves, all through Disney films or other kids' movies. Every once in a while, being a child who frequented the library, I would pick up a book version of a story I was well acquainted with, however this versions haven't stuck with me.
Like I mentioned in class, the one fairy tale that has stuck with me most is that of Thumbelina. I suppose the reason why I esteem this story more so than Disney adaptations is because of her troubling journey for home and her Prince Charming.
All heroines in such tales have a journey to complete, but Thumbelina's differs somewhat. To begin with, Thumbelina had a home and a mother she loved; she wasn't orphaned or stuck with a step-parent that hated her. She met Prince Charming very close to the beginning of the tale. She thinks her happy ending has occurred, and then BAM--she is kidnapped by a toad with a crush, and her world comes crumbling down.
Instead of journeying for happiness, she is attempting to return to happiness. All the while, she deals with tough challenges that are actually awesome metaphors for real life troubles. We aren't dealing with poison apples here. Thumbelina is kidnapped by a jealous frog, showing the troubles in love and relationships when there are more factors than just two people who are perfect for one another. She is later picked up by a Beetle who has her perform in his club as eye-candy (for once, a heroine is openly objectified) until the bugs who attend the club realize she isn't actually of their kind and call her ugly (the heroine being considered ugly? What?). Later, she finds shelter with a field mouse who wants her to marry a blind mole who is financially successful; the pressures of giving up the hope of true love and settling for security are argued.
With Thumbelina, we see a true heartbreak; one that is believable, even if it does involve a Prince Charming (this at least keeps the story in the fairy tale realm).
I suppose the reason why I enjoyed the fairy tales so much was not so much for the love story involved, but for the inclusion of personified animals and out-of-this-world situations that differed from the more reality-based books and stories. Fairy tales help us remember stories and morals using metaphors and imagery, just like anything else with literary merit.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Celebrity Authors & The Quality of Children's Lit
I must admit, I'm a bit stumped as to how to relate Linda Sue Park's article "Star Quality" can be discussed in terms of our previous readings. This is because none of our books were written by celebrities; thus, I will turn my attention to the care and detail with which these adolescent lit books were written.
Park claims in her article that the children's publishing industry edits their manuscript with care, and it should be so. To present children with sub par writing just because they wouldn't notice is an insult to their intelligence. Authors and publishers should provide high quality books to children so that they learn what good writing is.
On a general level, I'd say that the books we have read as a class fulfill this requirement. The quality of writing is good and acceptable; while not all of them could perhaps be considered great pieces of art, they do follow good grammar, syntax, and structure. They do not shy away from tough topics, as we see in Amari's rape in Copper Sun or the death of Gillian's mother due to AIDS in Something Terrible Happened.
There are certain things that could be fixed to improve the quality. One thing is something that I griped about in earlier blogs--Amari's mother's obvious show of theme: "We would never judge someone by the color of their skin." Lines should not be dumbed down force the child to understand what they're reading. If they are presented with a challenge, their analytical minds will grow deeper. Additionally, I think that these books could have offered more challenging vocabulary. Given the multi-cultural focus on much of these books, readers are given several words to consider from other languages--Spanish in Esperanza's Rising and Creole in Fresh Girl--but I do think more challenging vocabulary in the English language would be appropriate.
Overall though, I do think that quality of these books is proven through the fact that we, as a college class, can read and appreciate them (with the exception of Twilight and Harry Potter, which I do believe we read just to critique popular reading).
Park claims in her article that the children's publishing industry edits their manuscript with care, and it should be so. To present children with sub par writing just because they wouldn't notice is an insult to their intelligence. Authors and publishers should provide high quality books to children so that they learn what good writing is.
On a general level, I'd say that the books we have read as a class fulfill this requirement. The quality of writing is good and acceptable; while not all of them could perhaps be considered great pieces of art, they do follow good grammar, syntax, and structure. They do not shy away from tough topics, as we see in Amari's rape in Copper Sun or the death of Gillian's mother due to AIDS in Something Terrible Happened.
There are certain things that could be fixed to improve the quality. One thing is something that I griped about in earlier blogs--Amari's mother's obvious show of theme: "We would never judge someone by the color of their skin." Lines should not be dumbed down force the child to understand what they're reading. If they are presented with a challenge, their analytical minds will grow deeper. Additionally, I think that these books could have offered more challenging vocabulary. Given the multi-cultural focus on much of these books, readers are given several words to consider from other languages--Spanish in Esperanza's Rising and Creole in Fresh Girl--but I do think more challenging vocabulary in the English language would be appropriate.
Overall though, I do think that quality of these books is proven through the fact that we, as a college class, can read and appreciate them (with the exception of Twilight and Harry Potter, which I do believe we read just to critique popular reading).
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The element of the "High School Students' Responses to Alternative Value Stances Associated with the Study of Multicultural Literature" that distinguishes it from other articles on teaching multi-cultural literature is that of decentralizing the ideology of white dominance in the school setting and in analyses of literary characters.
Allow me to connect the article with Fresh Girl: a high school classroom would need to discard their socially "white" ideas of behavior because the classroom depicted in the novel is consists primarily of African American, Haitian, and other minority characters. For a classroom that is highly segregated, but is inherently based on a social/racial hierarchy of the orderly, competitive White social type on the top, it would take some new thinking to understand a minority classroom such as the one in Fresh Girl. Conversely, it can be considered that given the absence of white students, other cultures take on the dominant social role, such as the more financially successful African American students, who top the social hierarchy, often looking down on those like Mardi who are "fresh off the boat." White students discussing this book may relate to these equally dominant characters, despite the different in race, because they relate in certain areas of their social roles and behaviors.
However, socially dominant White students may also relate most to Mardi because of her academic competitiveness; despite the disadvantage of coming to New York speaking Creole, she teaches herself English at an intensely impressive rate and scores top grades on all of her English assignments. This article showed to us that White students tend to value competitiveness when they don't fully consider the institutional frames that affect how characters act above an individual level, feeling that all races should compete on an equal level.
A teacher teaching this book would have to understand these limitations of analytical thought, even if the classroom in question is racially diverse. The teacher would have to realize how each race would analyze and judge a character and his/her behaviors, and work to make the students take a step back and consider things outside of this fixed and racially-blind discourse of how adequate characters should act.
Allow me to connect the article with Fresh Girl: a high school classroom would need to discard their socially "white" ideas of behavior because the classroom depicted in the novel is consists primarily of African American, Haitian, and other minority characters. For a classroom that is highly segregated, but is inherently based on a social/racial hierarchy of the orderly, competitive White social type on the top, it would take some new thinking to understand a minority classroom such as the one in Fresh Girl. Conversely, it can be considered that given the absence of white students, other cultures take on the dominant social role, such as the more financially successful African American students, who top the social hierarchy, often looking down on those like Mardi who are "fresh off the boat." White students discussing this book may relate to these equally dominant characters, despite the different in race, because they relate in certain areas of their social roles and behaviors.
However, socially dominant White students may also relate most to Mardi because of her academic competitiveness; despite the disadvantage of coming to New York speaking Creole, she teaches herself English at an intensely impressive rate and scores top grades on all of her English assignments. This article showed to us that White students tend to value competitiveness when they don't fully consider the institutional frames that affect how characters act above an individual level, feeling that all races should compete on an equal level.
A teacher teaching this book would have to understand these limitations of analytical thought, even if the classroom in question is racially diverse. The teacher would have to realize how each race would analyze and judge a character and his/her behaviors, and work to make the students take a step back and consider things outside of this fixed and racially-blind discourse of how adequate characters should act.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Research proposal
Upon reading Ann M. Martin's A Corner of the Universe for our literary circle book reviews, I became intrigued with how Hattie Owen, the 13-year-old protagonist, looked upon her uncle Adam who was suffering from either Autism or Schizophrenia. Unlike her parents and grandparents who were afraid of him and what others might perceive of him, Hattie was more open-minded; she wanted to show him off. She wanted him to have the same rights as any other adult. And more interestingly, she even related to him, and questioned her own mental health.
Hattie's perspective has inspired me to take a deeper look at how mental illnesses are portrayed in child and adolescent literature. Hattie was accepting and curious, willing to learn more. But this is not always the case. Mental illness, being a stigma in society, can scare children. For instance, the children in To Kill a Mockingbird feared Boo Radley because of rumors of his insanity.
A step further from studying how adolescent characters perceive the mentally ill is looking at how many young characters are in fact mentally ill themselves. This can range from autism to self-esteem illnesses, such as anorexia or the tendency to cut oneself (both of which are unfortunately quite relevant to teenage life).
The handling of mental illness and the treatment of characters who are victimized must be difficult for the authors who decide to take on the challenge. But this difficulty is only increased when the author must consider how a young audience will react, and how their parents will feel about the material that their kids are reading. Additionally, such an element as mental illness must carry along with it particular themes that the author hopes that the reader will take away from the work, and I believe it would be interesting to research the methods in which different adolescent literature authors approach and construct these characters, stories, and themes.
Hattie's perspective has inspired me to take a deeper look at how mental illnesses are portrayed in child and adolescent literature. Hattie was accepting and curious, willing to learn more. But this is not always the case. Mental illness, being a stigma in society, can scare children. For instance, the children in To Kill a Mockingbird feared Boo Radley because of rumors of his insanity.
A step further from studying how adolescent characters perceive the mentally ill is looking at how many young characters are in fact mentally ill themselves. This can range from autism to self-esteem illnesses, such as anorexia or the tendency to cut oneself (both of which are unfortunately quite relevant to teenage life).
The handling of mental illness and the treatment of characters who are victimized must be difficult for the authors who decide to take on the challenge. But this difficulty is only increased when the author must consider how a young audience will react, and how their parents will feel about the material that their kids are reading. Additionally, such an element as mental illness must carry along with it particular themes that the author hopes that the reader will take away from the work, and I believe it would be interesting to research the methods in which different adolescent literature authors approach and construct these characters, stories, and themes.
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