Children's perceptions of the wold around them (Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Swallows and Amazons) - Essay Example

?Children’s perceptions of, and perspectives on, the world around them are often represented by children’s as inevitably incomplete and therefore flawed. Evaluate this suggestion with reference to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Swallows and Amazons. The two books under discussion in this paper are both classics of children’s literature and have received both critical appreciations by scholars and great popularity with parents and children alike. They are important texts, because they influence young lives at a time when readers, or in many cases also listeners, since books are often read to younger children, still have unformed ideas about the world. This paper looks at the way the children in the novels perceive the world around them and examines their perspectives on that world in each book in turn. The two novels are then compared, illustrating the very different worldwide views that are being conveyed, both through the children’s realistic experiences, and through their fantasies. Finally the overt and covert messages of both texts are discussed, concluding that both books have similar messages in very different historical and social contexts. Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons was published in 1930 in England, at a time when the country was still recovering from the first World War and was engaged in building up military power again, partly to take care of an increasingly rebellious Empire of colonies across the globe, and partly because the situation in Europe was shaping up for further tensions. The children John, Susan, Titty and Roger, are on holiday in the North of England with their mother, but their father is absent on Navy business. Their friends Peggy and Nancy Blackett are the children of local farming people and all of them are confident, well-behaved children of the English middle class. The story is cast in an adventure mode, and a large part of its charm lies in the affectionate depiction of a carefree childhood in tune with a benevolent natural environment of forests and lakes where the children roam free and exercise their imagination. One of the techniques that Ransome uses to engage the interest of the reader is an extended metaphor of American Indian culture. The adults who hover on the fringes of the action are referred to as “natives” and the food is called “pemmican” (Ransome: 1930, p. 58) The adults collude with this fantasy, providing material support when necessary and observing the children from a distance. Ransome himself later described what it was that gave him so much pleasure in writing this tale: “It was just this, the way in which the children in it have no firm dividing line between make-believe and reality, but slip in and out of one and the other again and again and backwards and forwards, exactly as I had done when I was a child and, as I rather fancy, we all of us do in grown-up life. (Ransome: 1931, p. 1) This fantasy world is, however governed by stabilizing rules, such as the hierarchal structure of the sailing roles that the children adopt, for example John is the captain, Susan is mate, Titty is able seaman and little Roger is the ship’s boy. In this fantasy world the children are in control, but they exhibit a phenomenal amount of self-discipline combined with an unconscious sense of superiority, particularly with reference to race, which is quite shocking to a modern reader. The children echo the vocabulary of Empire when they talk about adults as “natives” as for example when Peggy says of the man from the houseboat: “He’s a native, and very unfriendly” (Ransome: 1930, p. 115) or when Titty says to her mother “That means we can’t possibly tell you because you’re a native … a nice native, of course.” (Ransome: 1930, p. 56). The assumption that underlies these dialogues is that natives are by nature unfriendly, not nice, and not to be included in the children’s small society. The political and social assumptions which underpin the children’s attitudes have been much discussed (Bosmajian: 2009, pp. 231-236) showing that they are comfortable with the racial segregation which comes with a colonial world, and yet they maintain social niceties with certain of the “natives” for pragmatic reasons. This hierarchical relationship is not criticized in the book, but it becomes a theme to be played with: there is a nice irony in the fact that the children are the superior beings and the adults are natives, and by definition, lesser beings. Mildred Taylor’s novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is set in a very similar period to that of Amazons and Swallows but it was published in 1976. The setting is the Great Depression in the American South, and once again a family of children and their friends and relatives are the focus of the story. The beauty of the natural world also conjures up at times an idyllic landscape in which children can live out their fantasies but as the title suggests, there are shadows in this story which greatly affect the main characters. The perspective presented in the novel is focused on nine year old Cassie who is part of a loving African American family. Although it is clear that they are poor, since there are always money troubles and the children walk to school without shoes, they are not the poorest family in the area since for generations they have worked hard to buy and then hold on to some farmland. The book has been praised for the way that it “subverts” traditional literature because the way it is written serves to “encourage autonomous action” (McDowell: 2009) in children rather than instil moral values from the adult world. In fact, however, there is a great deal of didactic material in the book, since Cassie and her brothers are constantly given moral advice by Papa, Big Mother and Mama. The parents teach resistance to racial prejudice in their actions as well as their words, as for example when Mama pastes over the offending page of their schoolbooks, or when Papa takes part in the boycott of the shop. In both cases they risk very severe and real consequences, and Mama ultimately loses her job because of this. The world that Cassie lives in is threatening because of forces that she cannot understand. One of the best qualities of this novel is the way that it shows, in a time span of a single year, how a child gains awareness of the deep social malaise of racism. The book is shocking because it does not gloss over horrific events like lynching, murder and unlawful imprisonment. Much has been said about the “realism” of the worlds which the children in both books encounter. (Tucker: 2009, pp. 188-193; Maybin: 2009, pp. 237-246) It is true that the Swallows have to get to grips with camping in the woods at night, sailing dinghies across a lake, cooking real food on a campfire etc. The realistic depiction of these activities is both educational and entertaining for children. Social realities in Ransome’s works are, however, taken for granted. Susan will do the cooking, because she is the oldest girl, and John will of course be the leader because he is the biggest, strongest boy. The world outside Wildcat Island is distant and benevolent, and all of the thrills are contained. There is no real danger in the world that Ransome’s children inhabit, other than that of the natural elements. The pirates, the natives, and the spying and excitement are all part of a world of play. Even the characters of the adults have a certain devil-may-care sketchiness about them. At the opening of the book the father is asked to give permission for the children to stay overnight by the lake (a dangerous proposition in any social situation) he writes a telegram saying “BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS” (Ransome: 1930, p. 2) which Roger, being the youngest, does not understand. This is clearly an adult-to-adult communication in which the father tells the mother that the educational value is worth the risk to the children, but the way it is presented to the children gives them a supreme confidence in their ability and a fear of being “duffers” or stupid, incompetent people, but no fear of drowning itself. Roger is told that he can accompany the older children so long as he does what they tell him to. There is no hint of any danger to them from any deliberately evil external source. The world of the Swallows is flawed, but not in any catastrophic way, since the children are privileged and protected. Only a politically aware adult reader can detect some of the falsities and shortcomings of this depiction of English childhood. No doubt modern parents add severe warnings when they read this book to young children, but they may not be so aware of the hidden prejudices that it promotes. In Cassie’s world the same kind of authentic detail about the physical world is present, and the reader can almost feel the dry red dust in summer or the “fine red clay that oozed between our toes and slopped against our ankles as we marched miserably to and from school” (Taylor: 1976, p. 8) In Mississippi of 1933 there are also frequent nightmares which intrude upon the children’s lives. The shadowy “night men” are mentioned, but Cassie, and through her eyes also the reader, is not sure exactly what or who these frightening figures are. All that Cassie knows is that sometimes terrible things happen at night. This resonates with the natural fear that some children have of the dark. As the book progresses she gradually begins to link the atrocities which befall African American people she knows, to the actions of powerful white people. The book expresses her fear, but most importantly, also her indignation at the injustice of it all. When directly faced with oppression Stacey and her brothers find ways to become actively involved, as for example when they bring the white children’s school bus to a halt, or when Cassie overcomes Lillian Jean Simms. The two novels deal with many similar issues like growing up and learning to be independent, distinguishing between fantasy and reality, and learning to operate successfully in both realm. Adult support is taken for granted in both cases, but ony in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is there any conscious confrontation with the most dreadful realities of the world outside the small families and their friends. The Swallows revel in thoughts of pirates, or of being stranded on a desert island, but their imaginations are fired buy fictional accounts. Cassie is haunted by images of a dark reality. The perspective that Ransome gives is a shared one, showing how each child reacts to events. This allows a wide age-range of responses, and both male and female child and adult views. The picture of the Swallows world is therefore well rounded, but not tied to any one child’s view. By focusing mainly on Cassie, in contrast, Taylor makes the gradual and very painful discoveries much more individual and personal. This gives the later novel a great deal more force. Most telling of all is the way that the two books end. Titty wants to come back to the island every year “for ever and ever” (Ransome: 1930, p. 404) while Cassie reflects on the things in the night and would not pass, while worrying about the fate of her brother’s friend T.J. The focus in Ransome’s book is on an idealised childhood, while in Taylor’s book the focus is on the child’s awareness of an endless struggle that faces African American children and adults alike. References Bosmajian, H. (2009) A Search for Law and Justice in a Racist Society, in H. Montgomery and N.J. Watson, Children’s literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 231-236. Hunt, P (2009) The same but different; conservatism and revolution in children's fiction in J. Maybin and Watson N. J. Children’s Literature: Approaches and Territories. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 70-84. Maybin, J. (2009) Mildred Taylor Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Introduction, in H. Montgomery and N.J. Watson (eds) Children's literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 237-246. Mcdowell, K. (2009) Child agency in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976) in H. Mongomery and N.J. Watson (eds), Children’s literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 237-246. Ransome, A. (2001, [1930]) Swallows and Amazons. London: Red Fox Classics. Ransome, A. (1931) “Swallows and Amazons”: How it Came to be Written. The Horn Book, Vol 7, pp. 38-43. Available online at: http://www.allthingsransome.net/literary/sa_how.htm Taylor, M. (2003 [1976]) Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. London and New York: Puffin. Tucker, N. (2009) Arthur Ransome and problems of literary assessments, in H. Montgomery and N. J. Watson (eds) Children's literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 188-93.  Read More