Usage of Magic and Supernatural Elements in Childrens Literature - Research Paper Example

The Use of Magic/Supernatural in Children’s Literature Children’s literature as a recognized genre didn’t truly begin until sometime around the mid-1800s. This was during what is now termed the Victorian period and was a period largely characterized by a shift in every element of society. Not only were people’s livelihoods changing from primarily rural to primarily industrial, but long-term social organization was shifting as business replaced nobility. Science was beginning to explain some of the great mysteries of life in a way that didn’t depend upon the church and political structures throughout the world had seen significant changes within living memory. Women began to slowly make their voices heard as an oppressed gender and philosophers were beginning to gain a greater understanding of the workings of the human mind. The child, often considered either a sinful and wild creature or a miniature adult, was beginning to be recognized as something still developing. There was a “veritable explosion of information about this period of physiological and cognitive development in human beings” and literature became “a central vehicle for expressing ideas about the self and its history” (Steedman 5). Although perhaps initially introduced as a means of breaking with the strict moralistic attitudes of the past, the use of magic and the world of the supernatural proved effective in teaching children in a way they could understand. Breaking from the ‘normal’ world with the introduction of the supernatural or the magical realm makes it possible for authors to personify various behaviors, values and character traits and thus give children more accessible avenues to complex concepts in keeping with their varying levels of understanding. Cognitive ability begins with birth, but improves upon skills acquired during the preschool years to apply to things outside of the self. There are four main categories of skills developed during this period (Santrock 1997). The first of these are self help skills in which the child learns to take care of their everyday needs such as dressing themselves. They also learn social help skills in which they begin to perceive the importance of helping others through activities such as household chores and demonstrating their ability to think outside of themselves. School skills are introduced in which the child learns the academic tools necessary for success in that arena, particularly in developing the analytical skills necessary for logic and mathematics. The final main category is play skills, in which the child further perfects previously learned skills by participating in play and physical activity, placing themselves in situations in which they must analyze situations quickly and accurately. They also significantly improve their speech and communication skills and comprehension, vocabulary, pronunciation and sentence construction during this stage of development, becoming more and more able to discuss issues they are dealing with and less inclined to tantrums as this frustration is relieved. These are all ideas brought forward in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan (1904) as well as Roald Dahl’s story The BFG (1982). At its most fundamental nature, Peter Pan is all about the relationship between the world of fantasy and that of reality. The primary action is focused on exploring the consequences of completely rejecting reality in favor of living in a world of fantasy. Peter Pan, the primary character, has so utterly rejected reality that he has stopped aging, trapped in the timeless world of Neverland. This alternate world has a number of possibilities in it, many of which seemed to be formed by the imagination of Peter Pan himself. The world is populated by Indians, mermaids, fairies and the murderous band of pirates led by Captain Hook and his henchman Smee. Peter is assisted in his continuous battles against these other entities by his Lost Boys, boys that he has brought from the ‘real’ world who were lost by their parents and are no longer wanted. Exploring Neverland, it becomes clear that a great deal of what is found in the world of fantasy is based upon what is known about the real world, but twisted slightly to more appropriately match Peter’s understanding. At the same time, this exploration into the world of fantasy also presents a useful commentary on just how much of our reality is actually based upon fantasy. “Peter Pan is a wish-fulfillment story about the triumph of youth over age which caught the mood of the new young century” (Wullschlager 126). It is a child’s fantasy of war where the evil Captain Hook and his pirates are defeated by Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. By blending magic and fantasy with reality, Barrie points out that the relationship between the real and the fantasy is closely intertwined, not just on a physical level as shown through the delightful antics of the children, but also on an emotional level as people use fantasy to hide from their realities and reality to hide from their fantasy. While children are able to grasp the concept that Peter Pan and the Lost Boys could not really fill up on imaginary food, adults are able to grasp these finer nuances of what it means to mistake magic for reality or vice versa. This approach was perfect for its time period as it met with the hope and optimism of a new century and attempted to discover a means of ‘speaking’ to the child audience on a level that they could understand. In The BFG (1982), Dahl immediately introduces the element of the supernatural as he tells the story of a ‘runty’ giant who kidnaps a young orphan girl in the middle of the night. Sophie had accidentally witnessed him at work as he blew something into the windows of children on her street one night and the giant kidnaps her to keep her from telling anyone about him. In doing so, he reveals an entirely new world to her. This world is one in which giants twice as tall again as the BFG routinely scour the world for tasty human treats to eat at night and then spend their daytimes sleeping in the bright sun of their homeland or fighting with each other. Through his revelations to Sophie, the BFG is clearly not accepted by the other giants and is outcast from them not only because of his physical differences, but more importantly because of his steadfast refusal to eat human ‘beans’ and his lifelong desire to bring joy to the lives of others. When Sophie comments that eating humans is wrong because the humans never did anything to the giants, the BFG points out “That is what the little piggy-wig is saying every day … He is saying, ‘I has never done any harm to the human bean, so why should he be eating me?” (91). Perfectly suited to the 9-12 year old age bracket, The BFG remains focused on what the child can comprehend at this stage – the development of the four main skill categories – while removing them to a supernatural world in which gross exaggerations can be used to illustrate these ideas. Although this type of approach can have a negative effect in that children begin to associate all individuals who are not dressed well with unacceptable behavior for instance, they are able to gain deeper understanding into what it means to help others or to work for one’s community. The story provides little clue as to its time setting other than the use of helicopters to transport the giants to their new home in the pit, but its tone and language style cause one to think of it as set at least a century or so back in time. However, its clever use of existing and made-up language saves it from rejection by the average child and makes it a good choice for classroom use. Teens obviously possess better thinking skills than younger youth. These advances in thinking include reasoning skills and the ability to mentally conceptualize multiple options and possibilities. This includes a furthered logical thought process and the ability to reason hypothetically. It involves asking and answering the question, ‘what if?’ Teens also develop abstract thinking skills. Abstract thinking means thinking about concepts, things that cannot be seen, heard, or touched such as faith, trust, and spirituality and a heightened level of self-consciousness, yet are still likely to believe that everyone else is as concerned with their thoughts and actions as they are. They also believe that no one else could have ever experienced similar feelings and emotions as they do and may become overly dramatic in describing situations that are disconcerting to them. Teens are quick to point out to friends and peers behaviors that are and are not acceptable, to mention inconsistencies between adults’ words and their actions and have difficulty appreciating an opposing opinion (Huebner, 2000). Adolescents have a universal need to ‘fit in’. Four major recognized psychosocial issues that teens deal with during their adolescent years are establishing an identity, autonomy, intimacy and general need for achievement. Though adolescents spend increasing amounts of time with their friends, they still are inclined to make decisions regarding values, education and long-term plans based on the ideals they learned at home. The recently very popular book series Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling used magic as a means of capturing children’s imaginations and introducing them to a world in which many things are possible. Building itself as a bridge between childhood and into adolescence, the series explores the developing knowledge of Harry as he learns about magic and about himself. While the very familiar world of the ‘muggles’, the average, everyday, non-magical variety of human, rely upon technology and science to accomplish their daily activities, the wizards and witches manage to bring magical powers to bear on these same issues using different tools, such as magic wands, ‘floo’ powder or magical devices like broomsticks and special motorcycles. The worlds coincide to such an extent that it requires active participation by all of the members of the wizarding world to keep their existence a secret from the non-magical variety. The pre-school shopping trip, for instance, takes Harry down “an ordinary street full of ordinary people” until they reach “a tiny, grubby-looking pub” that only Harry and Hagrid seemed to notice. “The people hurrying by didn’t glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn’t see the Leaky Cauldron at all” (Rowling 68). Even within this hidden nook in the busy muggle street, the entrance into Diagon Alley remains hidden behind a special brick wall in the alley behind the pub. Although she book starts in the ‘normal’ world, an element of the unreal and fantastic is introduced as Mr. Dursley makes his way to work. “It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar – a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Dursley didn’t realize what he had seen – then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn’t a map in sight” (Rowling 2-3). This incident alludes to the childhood suspicion many of us have had in which it is believed that the moment our backs are turned, the lights are off or the door is shut, the toys in the room will come into life of their own. While this series is well-written and highly suitable for introducing a number of important concepts into children’s considerations, it is probably not acceptable for classroom use because of the issues involved with some families and religious concerns about magic. Young Adulthood is usually more concerned with social and cognitive development than the physical development that dominated the earlier stages. The developmental tasks of this phase of life as defined by Robert Havighurst take on the form of determining and obtaining an occupation, marriage, having children, managing a home and achieving social success through civic and other roles (Craig & Baucum 2001). The transition between adolescence and young adulthood is often considered to be the focus of the hero’s journey. The hero’s journey has been called by a number of different names, perhaps the most accurate of which was employed by psychologist and theorist Carl Jung. Terming the process ‘individuation,’ Jung separates the concept of the journey from the concept of the hero. Individuation is the three stage process by which Jung indicated we matured into full adults. The first of these stages is when we become aware that some kind of action is required. “Some kind of shock occurs that makes one aware of the self” (Garbis, 2002). This shock initiates the maturation process typically around the early teen years and is an essential element of the hero journey. The second stage is termed the initiation stage and it usually takes place during the teen years as individuals begin separating from their parents. It is during this phase of the individuation process in which the primary action of the hero myth occurs. “Jung says that unless we pass through this second stage the individual can’t really become an adult. The function of the hero myth is to develop a person’s awareness of his strengths and weaknesses in order to face life’s problems” (Garbis, 2002). Within this myth, the death or near-death of the hero functions as a key to the concept that the individual has gained maturity and has been reborn into the image of the father or mentor. This third stage of the individuation process is known as transcendence and is that stage in the maturation process in which the unconscious and the conscious minds merge to enable the person to experience their full potential. J.R.R. Tolkein introduced these ideas in his novel The Hobbit. Gandalf, the mentor figure of the novel, begins the adventure by selecting Bilbo Baggins as the thief to a party of dwarves, thus beginning the initiation process. Although Bilbo is not a young hobbit, he is no more aware of his true self than a teenager as Gandalf announces, “I have chosen Mr. Baggins and that ought to be enough for all of you. If I say he is a Burglar, a Burglar he is, or will be when the time comes. There is a lot more in him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself” (Tolkien, 1980: 19). Bilbo must then undertake a long and treacherous journey in which he is placed in peril many times and must make full use of his abilities, physical, cognitive and social, in order to escape. Eventually, he is knocked unconscious during the great war near the end of the novel and awakens to discover himself whole and free to return home a wiser and richer man, ready to undertake the raising of a new generation of hobbits in the adoption of one of his nephews, thus signaling his final transcendence into adulthood. The main social issue surrounding the Young Adult concerns sex. This is the first occasion in life that people are both physically mature enough to have sex and cognitively sophisticated enough to contemplate it. According to Erikson, this stage is characterized by the question of intimacy or isolation as the individual determines whether they prefer the opposite sex or the same sex, how they react to this realization and whether they will be able to give and receive love and make long-term commitments to relationships (Craig & Baucum 2001). A failure to successfully navigate this crucial issue, according to Erikson, will leave an unhappy, very lonely adult who is unable to connect with others in any meaningful, significant way. They are either promiscuous in their relationships due to their inability to commit or they are exclusionary in that they completely reject relationships and others who have them. This is one of the primary themes through Stephanie Meyers’ novel Twilight. The book tells the story of a modern-day teenaged girl who goes to live with her father in a small town in northwestern Washington. Because she’s moving from the warm and dry climate of Phoenix, Bella doesn’t expect she’ll like living with her dad, but moves there to try to give her mother some time with her new husband alone. One boy in her new school, the dazzlingly handsome Edward, first seems to hate her and then seems strongly drawn to her and Bella discovers, to her surprise, that she is drawn to him as well. This relationship is forbidden though because Edward himself is a vampire constantly hungry for her blood and Bella is an especially fragile human, constantly involving herself in accidents. As the couple falls irredeemably in love, they must also face the dangers of other vampires operating in the region, eventually leading to Bella offering herself up as sacrifice to save those she loves. Throughout the story, Meyer emphasizes through her characters the importance of choice in determining what kind of person you want to be even as she emphasizes the need to practice restraint and good judgment in making decisions that will affect you for a lifetime. In presenting the possibility that alternate worlds may exist right alongside the one we have come to accept as ‘reality’ yet in which many of the same major themes and problems occur, fantasy provides ample opportunity for storytellers to challenge the status quo or the social expectations normally given a particular situation. For example, it seems common modern knowledge that a young boy, raised in abuse and neglect throughout his early childhood, would naturally become some sort of criminal element by the time he reached his teenage years. In challenging the norms, authors using magic or the supernatural in order to tell their story appeal immediately to a child’s imagination, regardless of age, and introduces worlds in which all things are possible. In doing so, they are able to demonstrate that strange or different is not necessarily bad even as it tends to encourage the strange or different to try escaping into a world of fantasy to avoid a harsher reality. Works Cited Barrie, J.M. Peter Pan. New York: Signet Classic, 1997. Craig, G & Baucum, D. Human Development (9th Ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc, 2001. Dahl, Roald. The BFG. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982. Garbis, Michelle R. Archetypes. (2007). Huebner, Angela. “Adolescent Growth and Development.” Family and Child Development. Virginia: Virginia Tech, March, 2000. Meyer, Stephanie. Twilight.. New York: Little Brown, 2005. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone. New York: Scholastic Books, 1997. Santrock, John W. Life-Span Development. (7th Ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill College, 1997. Steedman, Carolyn. Strange Dislocations: Childhood and the Idea of Human Interiority, 1780-1930. London: Virago, 1995. Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit. New York: Ballentine Books, 1980. Wullschlager, Jackie. Inventing Wonderland. New York: The Free Press, 1995. Read More