A role of place in the depiction of childhood in childrens books - Essay Example

?In what ways is a strong sense of place important to the depiction of childhood in children’s books? Introduction In the novels Harry Potter and thePhilosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, the strong sense of place is a vital part of the storytelling process as it depicts the nature of childhood through a variety of means. The settings and the attachment to the space in which the story takes place creates a complex backdrop to the action so that the stories can take on another worldliness that is unique and vibrant. Reality and fantasy reflect different aspects of the depiction of childhood. The settings of separation, the distinction between the adult world and the understandings of the child as reflected in the setting determines the importance of childhood through the sense of place. The following assignment will explore the nature of a sense of place in children’s chapter books and the importance that they have in reflecting and establishing themes and instructive purposes in relationship to the depiction of childhood. The nature of the character in relation to the sense of place reveals that the ideas about childhood are related to the identity of characters. Belief systems about the universes that have been created are often defined by how the environment has been established. The aim of this assignment will be to establish the importance of a sense of place in children’s chapter books through setting them in context with themes, character and belief systems that contribute to the depiction of childhood. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone The story of Harry Potter begins with a detailed description of the sense of place in that first part of the story entwines with the magical world that he will not enter again until his eleventh birthday. The description of the very mundane and normal lives of the Dursleys is then punctuated by the development of the story of the event of the death of Harry’s parents. Very quickly Rowling establishes a sense of both places when she writes “Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office in the ninth floor...He didn’t see the owls swooping past in broad daylight” (1997, p. 2) The universe of the magical world and that of the mundane world are very precisely defined so that the events of the mundane world work like a thematic frame against the contrast of the magical world. The dysfunction of the Dursley household is represented by the magical world in which problems can be solved rather than the dysfunction endured. The first discussion of Harry at the age of ten begins by describing his bedroom which was the cupboard under the stairs that was filled with spiders (Rowling, 1997, p. 14). The cupboard seems to represent Harry as his life is closed off and not acknowledged much in the mundane world where his existence means very little. This provides a specific sense of place for Harry, his identity integrally entangled with his setting. His awakening begins when a letter arrives from the magical world which is an intrusion of the magical universe into the mundane world. He is moved upstairs into a proper bedroom, which is very much less a place of identity than the cupboard. It may be considered his gateway into the space in which his magical life will soon be his identity. Watson describes Harry’s story as the Christian quest-romance for his search for his identity and the beginning of that identity is in the cupboard, but cannot remain constrained in that space (2009, p. 288). Zipe also calls Harry a Christian knight and his cupboard and the Dursley home is considered the prison, the “domain of banal reality” from which he must rise to his calling (2009, p. 293). Where the cupboard had meaning for Harry, that meaning for identity was not transferred into the bedroom, but to Hogwart’s where he soon searches for his new sense of self within this sense of place. Fenske discusses the importance of setting as “patterns of contrasts and relationships” and are written with a specific purpose to the meaning of the text (2008, p. 98). Positive and negative spaces are discussed with very specific universal terms that lend meaning to spaces that might not otherwise be familiar. As an example, Fenske writes that Dumbledore’s office has circular and is “full of secrets” which is similar to Gryffindor which is also filled with circular rooms. Negative spaces are described with words such as “dark, cold, very tidy, narrow, and downstairs if not underneath the earth (2008, p. 103). Snapes office, as an example, is downstairs with the dungeons, making him seem negative through the implication of evil. Fenske lists the words that describe positive things as: bright, warm, upstairs, untidy, broad, circular, surprising and modest. Negative words to describe the settings are dark, cold, downstairs, tidy, narrow, rectangular, boring, snobby, and pretentious (Fenske, 2008, p. 103). A discussion of place in relation to Harry Potter would not be complete without a discussion of Hogwart’s. Hogwart’s, School of Wizarding, for all the magical and mystical events that happen within its walls, is still a boarding school. Blake mentions that this use of an antiquated and politically incorrect concept is rejuvenated for the intention of the nostalgic England just like the homes at Pivot Drive where the Dursley’s live imitate older fashioned cottages typical of English life (2009, p. 305). As a boarding school, it represents the separation between childhood perceptions and adult perceptions which is punctuated by the idea of nostalgic England. A running theme in many children’s books is that the adults do not have access to the mystery of the childhood setting. In a boarding house setting parents are completely removed from the action and the sense of place with the adult influence remote from decisions that children believe they must make alone. Gupta, who is not impressed with the novel, does suggest that the setting provides a framework through which to comment on the real world, taking beliefs from reality and reforming them symbolically in the magical realm (2009, p. 297). Gupta goes on to discuss the use of the magical world as symbolic to the acceptance of those things that cannot be understood. After describing the many ways in which the magical world provides no real substance to how things work, the only conclusion one can draw from what Gupta writes is that sometimes what cannot be understood still must be accepted (2009, p. 299). This is something that most children already understand and is furthered by Rowling by focusing on some very dark themes without explaining them away in a way that would likely be an adult response to childhood questions. Sometimes people are not treated well. Sometimes people die. Why is not as important as how it is managed and that is a very strong theme in the novel in which the place has a central thematic importance. Swallows and Amazons The sense of place for Swallows and Amazons is an adventure story based on the special connection that children have to nature that often gets lost in adulthood. Hunt provides a very good example of how the imagined and the real come together when the scene with the storm is discussed. He writes about the experience after the storm when the ‘natives’ arrive, meaning the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Dixon, and that in a combination of imagined and real elements, the security of the children is reflected in the way in which they define their sense of place (2009, p. 179). The children relate their experiences to their imaginings, but also refine them through the setting in which they have both created through their imagination and to the realities in which they find themselves. Blyton’s work on The Famous Five 1; On a Treasure Island has similar ideas about childhood and the wonder of nature, but drives her story through a different approach to the sense of place. The narrative is primarily dialogue that is set on the traditions of oral recitation rather than through revelation that is more common in literature (2011 [1942], p. xi). The setting is discovered through the dialogue rather than through the descriptions that are in Ransome’s book (2008 [1930]). The differences between the two works can be used to understand how a sense of place is sometimes more a specific part of the work, acting sometimes as an exterior character that creates a more or less specific depiction of childhood. This is how the natural environment exists within Swallows and Amazons, the world interplaying with the characters and helping to drive the action forward by firmly placing the children in the space of childhood understanding. Tucker writes that “An atmosphere of only partial truth is typical of Ransome’s books” (2009, p. 188). This environment that mixes the truth and the imagined provides a space that is almost an entity within the story. Without the lakes and the islands, the story would be literally flat and without a space in which to find pirates, treasure, and meaning in the competition that breaks out between the children. The belief system about the fantasy that is created in those realms is subject to the geographical space in which the children are creating their world and being intimately connected to the space and meaning of childhood. The imagined that is woven into the real world is how the sense of place, meaning in this case their position within the world, comes alive around the children. They live in a world of privileged upper middle class where their needs are unquestionably present and the expectation of love and nurture is clearly fulfilled. Most of the challenges that are met are created in the act of play, a complex world emerges around them and creates a space in which all things imagined can be experienced in one way or another. Reflections to other literary works provide context for the evolution of the play for the characters and the environment is what inspires those reflections (Haslam, 2009, p. 174-175). Hunt discusses the nature of the child/adult dynamic and that there are differences in the Blackett home from the Walker home. Where the Walker home is idealist, the Blackett home is not the same sanctuary (2009, p. 181). In creating a contrast in the home life of the children Ransome creates a reasonable argument for how the behaviours are different between the two sets of children. Swallows and Amazons, though named for the names on their dinghies, are identified as those that can fly and those that must fight their way into adulthood. Although they escape in their dinghies to new worlds of adventure, they are still carried there with the frameworks of their childhood. Each set of children is set within the mould that has been outlined for them through the nature of their families. This helps to define the sense of place in which the children find themselves, their story as entwined with their realities as their fantasies, showing their childhood within the context of their environment. Conclusion The idea of the sense of place is a feeling of environment and identity and how the two combine through character, theme, and belief systems to depict childhood. Harry Potter uses both the sense of the English identity and the identities that he has within the spaces of the Dursleys, Hogwarts, and his position in relationship to his past in order to seek out his sense of self within the world. The division between the adult world and his world helps to define his position and what his fate will bring to him. In Swallows and Amazons, the children are positioned within the world as their home life reflects upon the way in which they act out the world they have created on the island environments. Childhood is depicted as a space in which the real and the imagined have overlapping boundaries. The importance of the sense of place provides for context for the fates of those in children’s fiction as the enormity of life becomes boiled into imagined or magical spaces as well as the real world where very real events affect the space of childhood. References Blake, A. (2009). Harry Potter and the Reinvention of the Past. in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 303-310. Blyton, Enid. (2011 [1942]) The Famous Five on a Treasure Island. Hachett: Hodder’s Children’s Books. Fenske, C. (2008). Muggles, Monsters and Magicians: A Literary Analysis of the Harry Potter Series. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Gupta, S. (2009). The Unthinkingness of Harry Potter. in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 297-303. Haslam,S. (2009). Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons: Introduction. in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 173-177. Hunt, P. (2009). The Lake District Novels in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 178-187. Ransome, Arthur (2008 [1931]). Swallows and Amazons. London: Random House. Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York, Scholastic, Inc. Tucker, N. (2009). Arthur Ransome and Problems of Literary Assessment in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 188-193. Watson, N. J. (2009). J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Introduction in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 287-289. Zipes, J. (2009). The Phenomenon of Harry Potter or Why all the Talk in Montgomery, H. and Watson, N. J. (eds) Children’s Literature: Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 289-296. Read More