Childrens Literature Development in Australia - Essay Example

Writer’s name] [Professor’s name] [Course tile] [Date] Children’s Literature: Development in Australia Introduction Literature has always shown man’s true self. Children literature has always been a source of learning, at times they teach people a certain lesson. In this essay by means of three novels the fact that we are defined by our relationships with other people: they challenge and change us and so make us what we are shall be analyzed. In order to analyze the above mentioned statement three novels Saving Francesca, Walking Naked and Just crazy shall be used. Each of these novels depicts the statement. Analysis Saving Francesca "Saving Francesca", is written by Melina Marchetta. Francesca Spinnelli, is the main character in the novel, this novel is an excellent example of how relationships with other people challenge and change us and so make us what we are. All through her 1st year at St. Sebastian, which was a school for only girls, Francesca tackles many problems regarding her relationship to her family. Throughout she is making and losing friends, as well as searching for her own identity. By confronting complicated situations and learning to have faith in herself, Francesca completely changes herself in a year. The entire novel is based on this year. The fact that Francesca completely changes her self in a year can be explained by The theory of planned behaviour (Azjen, p179) as this is what she thinks is required to do , thus her behaviour is planned. Before we go ahead a clear understanding of the model is important, this model is a based on how particular factors will lead to a planned behaviour. An example of this might be the behaviour of going to university. This may begin with the subjective norm of 'my parents want me to get a good job, and so do I'. This would then lead to the attitude 'going to University will be a positive experience; I will meet new friends and learn to be independent'. The perceived behavioural control might lead to weighing up any negatives; 'I might get into debt' with the positives 'I will make new friends'. The behavioural intention 'I will go to University' leads to the person going to University. However, this theory assumes that our behaviour is rational and that our actions are reasoned and predictable... Mia’ mother is the one that pushes her to be so dynamic and take part in every thing but she goes in depressing and Francesca is left alone so ultimately he turned to a planed set of rational behaviuors as explained in the above mentioned theory Throughout the novel we find many incidents of such behaviour like when Francesca and her brother are sent to live with different relatives. Francesca is sent to her Nonna’s, who is delighted to have her. “Stealing one of Mia’s children away from her is like a dream come true” (Marchetta 55). But after two weeks Francesca realizes that this arrangement will only weaken her family and she needs to find a way home. Even when Friends and Francesca’s relationships with them also go through many changes in this story we find her going to rational behaviour when she befriends people she hated when she joined school. Though flashbacks we learn that at St. Stella’s, Francesca’s school until her 11th year, was a much more homogenous environment than St. Sebastian’s. .Even though in more then half of this novel Francesca is sad however she carries on going beyond her limits. Mot of her behaviours like She started dancing in drama class, auditioning for plays, and defending almost all the girls in a school where the majority was of boys., She found out how brave she is, previously she had stopped doing acts of bravery because she wanted to fit in all described the kind of behaviour which this theory explains Without out the safe environment of the school that she had always known and the support of a strong mother, Francesca learns that she can save herself. She becomes a girl who is up to the challenge of helping her family through a difficult time, finding her way successfully in a challenging new environment and making good new friends in the process. Walking Naked Walking Naked is an interesting novel written by Alyssa Brugman. The story of this novel revolves around two stories about teenagers. It sheds light on the problems teenagers face at home and in school as well. It particularly depicts the way relationships with other people or animal: they challenge and change us and so make us what we are. In the novel Walking Naked, Megan’s supposed best friend, Candice, she has a lot of power over other teen girls although they all struggle for it. All the girls want to be a part of the alpha. Megan does not want to lose all that she has worked so hard for. She has fought her way to the top of the hierarchy and doesn’t want to even consider slipping a few rungs down the ladder. Perdita is a threat to Megan’s position and Megan does not like this, for this reason, she rejects Perdita when they are at school. Megan does the same and she falls out with Perdita and is rejected by The Group. Her lust for power has caused her isolation from the people she wished to conquer. Megan, who is torn between friendships. She has to choose either ‘The Group’ that gives power and respect or ‘The Freak’ who is her real friend but brings shame and isolation. This is something that Megan is afraid of; isolation. She has never been rejected before unlike ‘The Freak’, Perdita, who has never been accepted by her peers as ‘normal’. Perdita is a loner but doesn’t want friends as much as Megan. In quote which describes Perdita’s view of Megan in the beginning is “Perdita knew who I was and she thought it was bad” (Brugman p 10) The fact THAT the choice between Perdita and the group confuses can be explained by the help of Festinger’s 'Cognitive Dissonance' theory. At times we are confused between two relationships one is what the society requires from us and one is what require for our selves. according to Festinger ( 1957) this confusion regarding a choice to do or not to is Dissonance , basically When an individual holds two thoughts or cognitions that are polar opposites, this causes 'psychological discomfort or tension'. We aim to reduce this by giving less importance to one cognition. This is a way to rationalise our behaviour. When Megan chooses to be close friends with ‘The Freak’ although she knows that by doing this she will not be popular any more she. These results in a lot “I didn’t want to sit with the group. I didn’t want to sit with any other group” (Brugman p64) thus for first time in her life she confronts the issue of going through rejection. This makes things clear for her; she now knew exactly who her true friends were. Just Crazy Just Crazy is written by Andy Griffiths. The book has 9 stories however in every story a boy named Andy does something naughty, that act done is usually due to some relationships with other people or animal: they challenge and change us and so make us what we are here it may be noted that Andy is naughty due to the relationship with Danny his friend and at times even his strange family. All of these tales which explain how we change due to our relationships can be described by the help of Rosenberg & Hovland (1960) propose the tripartite model of attitude. According to this model, an attitude can only be assessed through three different reactions to an object, situation or person. These three reactions are cognitive, affective and behavioural. They are all related but independent of each other. The novel is based on 9 tales about Andy, when he was just thirteen. Andy along with his closest friend Danny utilize their naughty personalities to constantly discover innovative and thrilling things to do like riding the garbage truck just for fun, getting rid of band aids by the help of vacuums, flying by means of weather balloons and a lot of other helpful life skills. Andy’s strange family enhances the probability of making a few uncomfortable thing realities and thus turning life into a crazy chaos. One of the crazy things his family makes up is about not emptying the wheelie bin. They say that if he doesn’t empty the wheelie bin, he’s putting the whole earth at risk of dying. The talented and quirky illustrations are by Terry Denton and they line the border of each page. The stories are like children’s crazy dreams and wild imaginations. The first story is Band-Aid where Andy has had a band aid stuck to his skin for six months…and it's time to take it off. Except his idea to get if off leaves him with 2 black eyes. In this story it was due to his mum that he had to act like this. As he says” it’s mum’s fault if didn’t cat like they cost a million dollars I would be bale to change them more often” (Griffith p2) In the 2ndstory The Dog Ate it, Sooty who is Andy’s dog, eats Andy and Danny's homework and the boys try everything they can to get it back. This was another example of how peers can change our behavior into being naughty. In the 3rd story A Crazy, Bad, Dumb, Bad, Bad, Dumb, Crazy, Bad IdeaIs Andy and Danny proves why tying four giant weather balloons and two enormous bunches of helium balloons to your backpack is a crazy, bad, dumb, bad, bad, dumb, crazy, bad idea, thus again it was his friend who caused to act in this manner. In the 6th story Pinchis, Danny by accident gulps down Andy's new goldfish, thus Andy is so fuming that he punches Danny s hard that his head falls off. Here once again it can be noted that his friend Danny causes him to act in this manner. And in the ninth story Mud men, Andy along with his father run all the way through peoples garden covered in mud. Although in this book all the tales in the are clearly imaginary it is related strongly to real life situations. The events on the other hand are very embellished which that his relationship with his father caused him to act naughty. Conclusion Literature teaches what really is happening around us. It shows us our true face. When talk about relationships weather it e relationship with parents or peers they always tend to change us, at times it even controls the way one acts . Sometimes it’s for the good and at times it makes us bad. Thus it is save to conclude that after analyzing three famous novels , Saving Francesca, Walking Naked and Just crazy, the fact that We are defined by our relationships with other people: they challenge and change us and so make us what we are is quite true. Work Cited Ajzen, The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 50, 1991 pp179-211. Cited in Psychology: An integrated approach (1998). Brugman Alyssa; Walking Naked, Perfection Learning 1993 pp10-64 Festinger Leon , A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance Stanford University Press 1957 Griffiths Andy; Band Aid, Just Crazy, MacMillan UK 2001 p2 retrieved from http://andygriffiths.com.au/books/justcrazy-extract.pdf on 3rd November 2009 Marchetta Melina; Saving Francesca , Knopf Books for Young Readers 2004 pp27- 91 Rosenberg, M.J. & Hovland, C.I; Cognitive, affective and behavioural components of attitude.1960 In C. I. Hovland & M. J Rosenberg (Eds.), Attitude Organization & Change: an analysis of consistency among attitude components New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Read More