Comparation of the use of fantasy in Tom's Midnight Garden and The Secret Garden - Essay Example

?The use of fantasy within literature is a powerful vehicle for expressing and analyzing many human emotions. In effect, the term “reality” merely helps to differentiate a least common denominator with the experiences that most individuals count as normal. Although it is not the intent of this analysis to define what constitutes reality and what does not, a discussion of how fantasy is utilized in both Tom’s Midnight Garden as well as The Secret Garden will be employed. As one might expect, the degree and extent to which fantasy is utilized in both of these novels barriers. This not only has to do with the fact that different authors are responsible for these respective works; it also has to do with the differential in time between when these books were penned and the growth and development of the genre in which they fall.1 Whereas an absolute and/or concrete definition of fantasy is somewhat impossible to define with regards to children’s literature, many commonalities are expressed by the genre and help to define it. These are as follows: the utilization of many form and narrative techniques, the heightened use of symbolism, and the focus upon the language to create mystique, setting, and sense of time that other functions or genres might otherwise struggle with. Fantasy within children’s literature, although a similar issue, is in fact somewhat different and more nuanced; due in part to the fact that it can be separated into two distinct time periods – the first and second golden age. The first golden age necessarily refers to the period of the late 19th and early 20th century; whereas the second golden period refers to the period of time starting in the mid 20th century and extending nearly until the close of the 20th century. Naturally, for the novels in question, The Secret Garden falls into the first golden age; whereas Tom’s Midnight Garden falls into the second. Hall, Lola, ''A Chance Child': Jill Paton Walsh and the Re-Invention of the Time Slip Story', 2011 Children's Literature In Education, 42, 1, pp. 1-18.  Wallace, Densy, 'Secret Gardens and Other Symbols of Gender in Literature', 1988 Metaphor & Symbolic Activity, 3, 1, p. 135.  Webb, Anton, 'Our Secret Garden', 2011 Reform Magazine, pp. 24-25.  Sullivan, Andrew, 'The Secret Garden', 1989 Kenyon Review, 11, 2, p. 99. From a cursory analysis, the inclusion of the word “secret” in The Secret Garden or “midnight” in Tom’s Midnight Garden present something of an expectation for the implementation of fantasy as a means of bringing about a particular understanding.2 Once again, a non—nuanced approach is presented partly due to the fact that children’s literature is the focus and intended audience for which these respective novels are intended.3 Whereas this might be considered a cheap literary trick in some circles, the use of such terminology within the titles creates an expectation for fantasy and intrigue to define the subsequent pages and chapters of the novels in question. However, even though such an expectation exists, as the reader might expect, a clear level of differentiation exists between the level and use of fantasy that is leveraged and these two novels which are written nearly 50 years apart.4 With regards to The Secret Garden, a sense of fantasy is immediately conveyed to the reader due to the fact that a fantastical representation of an exotic life is presented to the reader. The protagonist, Mary Lennox, is defined as a girl who grew up in the lap of luxury and far off India.5 The description and definition of the luxuries and carefree lifestyle that she lived while there helps the reader to understand the sense of warning and mystique to which she greets the gray and uninviting steps of northern England. However, of all of the literary approaches that are utilized as a means of affecting a sense of fantasy within The Secret Garden, perhaps the most poignant and powerful is with regards to the religious imagery that is presented. Rather than merely attempting to evoke a sense of fantasy based upon the storyline itself and the extent level of mystery and mystique that defines Mary Lennox new life, a clear allusion is made to the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden.6 As such, Mary Lennox is told that she is able to have the run of the house; providing that she stays out from under Archibald Craven’s feet and far away from a caged and walled garden.7 This allusion to the forbidden garden is a direct allusion to the way in which both Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil; represented in the Old Testament book of Genesis.8 By invoking a biblical understanding, the author is able to increase the level of fantasy that is utilized within the storage and provide a sense of awe and wonder that would otherwise not be represented. Beyond the use of this allusion to biblical tradition, the author also utilizes Mary’s profound and imagination as a means of hiking the fantasy and supposed to mystery that surrounds the plot of the novel.9 By attaching human qualities to a red breasted robin which Mary befriends, a level of anthropomorphic development is seen with regards to the fact that Mary is desperately in need of companionship and seeks to define even normal occurrences within the realm of the fantastic.10 However, regardless of the level of fantasy that Mary employees as a means of defining the world in which I herself, the fact of the matter is that each and every one of the situations that she encounters during the course of the novel can be explained within the physical and natural world.11 Whereas the events and understandings that had taken place in the novel were originally attributed to the possible existence of fantasy, a clear and realistic explanation for these was presented to the reader as the story progressed. This is a marked deviation from the way in which the author of Tom’s Secret Garden analyzes, portrays, and ultimately defines the reality of Tom’s experience.12 By comparison, Tom’s Secret Garden, presents a fantastical world that is not entirely dissimilar to the fantastical world presented by Burnett; however, the marked deviation comes with respect to the fact that there is no final explanation regarding the occurrences that have taken place. No rational is given and no understanding is presented to the reader.13 In such a way, fantasy, and an understanding/appreciation thereof, is a fundamental complement of appreciating and realizing the events that have occurred previously within the story. Although the work channels many of Burnett’s original ideas (namely with respect to the fact that an adolescent preteen finds themselves suffering from a particular illness and confined to a large estate in the British countryside), the use and differentials of fantasy that are leveraged as a means of explicating this particular plot could not be more dissimilar. Whereas Burnett utilizes the majority of her text to justify some of the fantasy that Mary originally viewed the world with, Pearce does not employ any such techniques. Rather, the reader is left to juxtapose the seemingly impossible with the reality that is defined in the book itself. As such, no clear explanation is given for the existence of the ghost, the differential in years that separates the elderly Hatty from Tom or the general understanding of how reality and time are defined.14 IN such a way, the Pearce’s novel can be understood to represent a much more deliberate and full use of fantasy as compared to Burnett’s. Moreover, the use of fantasy to explain the plot and development of the story is not a mechanism that Pearce shies away from; rather, she utilizes this as a powerful component of building and defining the story. From a historical perspective, it must be understood that the time in which this novel was panned had a profound impact upon the way in which fantasy and the use and interpretation thereof was utilized.15 Whereas Burnett’s piece was published near the end of the Victorian era, and age that saw the use of science and modernism as a means of defining the world through measurable metrics, Pearce’s work, on the other hand, can perhaps be best understood in a post war era in which the reality and determinacy of science have lost some of the charm that it had previously enjoyed being eras past.16 Although it cannot be definitively proven, is the belief of this author that the horror of the war and the wholesale way in which humans were slaughtered impacted upon the degree to which Pearce and other authors like her, were willing to integrate with a fast and firm definition of reality and the way in which it can impact on the lives of individuals.17 Instead, Pearce chose to pursue a level of explanation that did not championed reason and traditional “reality” as the determinant factors of a well reasoned and efficiently created story. They further impact that could very well have prompted the differentiation between fantasy used in her next novel as compared to Pearce’s novel has to do with the fact that following the second world war, and infinitely increased level of technological advancement was evidenced.18 As compared to prior generations and decades, the rate in which human progress and development took place far exceeded what had previously been seen.19 The nuclear age, the threat of mutually assured destruction, and a litany of other positive and negative eventualities threatened the very definition of reality that individuals had faced previously. Therefore, it is the director belief of this author that these very influences impacted upon the way in which Pearce sought to define the fantasy mixed with reality that exists within her novel.20 Although it might seem as something of a stretch, even though both of these novels fall well within the lines of children’s fiction, the authors that wrote them necessarily were impacted upon by the realities of the time in which they lived, and the social constructs to which they themselves were beholden.21 The theme of fantasy, although distinct and differentiated between these two works hinges upon the degree and extent to which nature itself can be seen as both the question and the answer to the hardships and troubles that plague the respective protagonists.22 Moreover, rather than merely attributing the healing and calming power that nature could play in heightening the experience of fantasy, the authors of both of these works utilized simile and metaphor to effect such an end. For Burnett, simile was conceived by attributing human like elements to the garden itself. Says Burnette, “And the sun felt warm upon his face, like a hand with a lovely touch”.23 Further in the story, when describing the way in which the trees themselves interacted with nature, Burnett notes, “(the) branches had crept from one tree to another and made lovely bridges for themselves”.24 Although it may seem as of little importance to the reader, such delicate and thoughtful use of simile and metaphor allows the reader to attribute a magical feeling of fantasy; even when the natural elements themselves are most responsible for this; rather than some ethereal or mysterious power.25 By much the same token, Pearce does not leverage simile to the same degree or extent as does Burnett; however, her use of simile and metaphor are more poignant and specific to key periods of plot progression and revelation. For instance, one of the most poignant moments of metaphor usage that exists with regards to the progression of Tom’s Midnight Garden is with respect to the way in which Tom hugged the older woman. Says the author, “(Y)ou know, he put his arms right round her and he hugged her good-bye as if she were a little girl”.26 Regardless of the way in which these elements are used by Pearce, it must be realized that the central element of fantasy is most affected by her focus upon nature and the way in which the setting itself impacted upon Tom and all of the “magical” elements of the story that subsequently came to be presented.27 Lastly, whereas the use of fantasy within Burnett novel can escape the criticism and censure that many literary critics might placed upon it due to the fact that any and all instances of fantasy are readily explained and elaborated upon, Pearce’s work does not meet the same standards. This should not be understood to say that Pearce was somehow inferior to Burnett’s; rather, it merely underscores the fact that a new standard for fantasy and the means by which children’s literature could present such topics and discuss them could be achieved. As such, the differentiation that has been defined and elaborated upon within the course of this brief analysis is indicative of different approaches made by these respective authors. Bibliography Abrams, Allen, 'The Books Children's Previews: June' 2012, Bookseller, 5521, pp. 30-31. Basley, Carla, 'The Squirrel Wife' 2007, Publishers Weekly, 254, 48, p. 70. Burnett, Frances, 'The Secret Garden', 2007 Saturday Evening Post, 279, 2, pp. 96-98. Burnett, Frances. The Secret Garden. Edition. 2013CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Cooper, Shirley, 'Tom's Midnight Garden', 2000 Horn Book Magazine, 76, 6, pp. 650-651. Davies, Marisol, ''A Bit of Earth': Sexuality and the Representation of Childhood in Text and Screen Versions of The Secret Garden', 2001 Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal Of Film & Television, 48, p. 48 Donnelly, Doug, 'Big questions for small readers', 2000 Commonweal, 127, 20, p. 23. Ellis, Seth, 'Missing from the Meadow: Philippa Pearce, 1920-2006', 2012 Horn Book Magazine, 83, 3, pp. 245-248. Fox, Anita, 'The Secret Garden's Perennial Wisdom…for Parents', 2012 Horn Book Magazine, pp. 47-50. Gelo, Frank, & Harris, Ronald, 'The secret garden', 2009 Family Medicine, 41, 6, pp. 391-392. Gonzalez, Kurt, 'A not-so-secret garden', 1997 Cortlandt Forum, 10, 9, p. 214. Gunther, Allen, 'The Secret Garden Revisited', 1994 Children's Literature In Education, 25, 3, pp. 159-168. Krapp, Josephine, 'Fantasy', 2005 School Library Media Activities Monthly,21, 7, pp. 38-39. Macaskill, Henry, 'Secret Gardens', 2000 In Britain, 10, 6, p. 46 Maclean, Kyle, 'Behind the garden gate', 2008 In Britain, 76, 5, pp. 38-42. Marshall, Bartholomew, 'Policy, pundits and the professionals – the battle for education's secret garden', 2005 Critical Quarterly, 47, 3, pp. 102-108. Masson, Samuel, 'LIBRARIES: STRONGHOLDS AND GARDENS OF THE IMAGINATION', 2000 Aplis, 13, 4, p. 152. Parravano, MV 2011, 'A Traveller in Time', Horn Book Magazine, 87, 6, p. 140. Pearce, Philippa, Tom's Midnight Garden (Archway). 1989 New Ed Edition. Oxford University Press. Stevenson, Lyle, 'Literary Ladders in the Golden Age of Children's Books', 2011 Sewanee Review, 119, 3, pp. 428-444. Sullivan, Andrew, 'The Secret Garden', 1989 Kenyon Review, 11, 2, p. 99. Van Gelder, Larry, 'A Clock Strikes 13 and Leads to a Victorian Garden', New York Times, 2001 151, 51918, p. E4. Walker, Alice, 'A Review of: "The Secret Garden: Temenos For Individuation. 2004."', Psychological Perspectives, 48, 1, pp. 163-165. Wellington, John, 'Exploring the Secret Garden: the growing importance of ICT in the home', 2001 British Journal Of Educational Technology, 32, 2, p. 233. Read More