Kindness and care as a major theme in Children Literature - Essay Example

Running Head: CHILDREN LITERATURE Kindness and Care as a major theme in Children Literature of the of the Kindness and care as a major theme in Children Literature Children literature plays a very crucial role in the development of children as good citizens of a society. The authors writing the children literature aim at developing such stories and narrations for children that are not only interesting and enjoyable, but also moralistic and educational so that children can implement the scenarios on their own lives. The children literature books incorporated in this paper are Shiloh Season by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Crash by Jerry Spinelli, A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck and Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. The reason for the incorporation of these stories is their treatment of the theme of kindness and care towards other creatures. The theme of kindness and care is common in all the mentioned books. This theme is selected as it is all time implementable on children literature and children are always in need of learning these moral values. The lessons of humanity include teaching of kindness and care towards other creatures, which is represented in all the four books. The characters represented in the books show social responsibility as they are depicted as caring and kind towards those who are in need of support and are less opportune. They are loyal with their families and friends teaching their readers the moral values of friendship, loyalty, care and kindness. Writers follow ideologies of their own in writing children literature and the literary work is the output of social, political and moral beliefs of a writer that is puts forward in form of a story for the children as he wishes the children to learn about his set moral standards (Hollindale 1988, p. 9). The similar theme of the selected works is kindness and care as moral values that the writers want to teach the readers and this depict the ideologies of the selected writers. When children read these texts, they learn about the moral values that are regarded as moral by the writers of the literary works. In addition, children apply what they learn from the written texts on their own lives and try to copy inspirational characters (Bearne and Watson 2000, p. 62). Therefore, the children literature should have moral values that the writers want to apply on the children of their societies. Kindness is one of the main themes in Shiloh Season. Judd Travers is an evil character in the work as he is always busy in annoying and hurting people as he threatens his neighbours, his driving is uncontrolled and irresponsible, he irritates animals, never abides by any law and lastly, he fires at Marty. Marty, considering the characteristics of Judd, tries to apply the technique of petting mean dogs informed to him by a vet. The vet informs Marty that he has to leave food for a mean dog who is trying to hide out somewhere as an initial step. The dog will not accept the food at once, he may take some time, but ultimate, he will have the food because of his increased hunger. With the acceptance of food, he will start understanding and listening to his supplier. With the passage of time, he starts trusting the person offering food. All this process takes time (Naylor 1996, p. 81). Marty and his father assist Judd by contacting emergency doctor when Judd had a truck accident near Marty’s house. They also try to drag him out of the hit truck safely (Naylor 1996, p. 98-99). Later on, when Judd makes progress in terms of health recovery, Marty puts down chicken and bread along with cheering notes for Judd. Marty allows Judd to pet his dog Shiloh forgetting the fact that he mistreated his dog before. Marty sees progress in his efforts towards Judd. Not only Marty, but also the whole town and its dwellers support Judd in his health recovery. Marty and his class fellows make a large card for praying and greeting about the recovery of Judd to him (Naylor 1996, p. 105). His class fellows and neighbours work for supporting Judd together. His neighbours took care of his dogs, drove his tractor, mowed the grass, repaired his truck, removing all the dents from his truck’s body and parked his truck before his house (Naylor 1996, p. 107). Judd’s neighbours were previously terrorized and intimidated because of his carelessness, but when they got knowledge of his accident, they were at once ready for his support indicating towards kindness and care as a major theme of the story. The story, Shiloh Season can be regarded as an illustration of kindness as a power that can change even the evil into good. Marty is a kind and caring character not only towards his family, but also outsiders. As a caring and kind person, he continuously secures his family from Judd who is always ready to cause troubles to other people. Marty loves everyone, but he is also threatened from Judd like other characters of the story. He dreams about Judd Travers threatening him to kill Shiloh, Marty’s dog or Dara Lynn and he is unable to decide because he loves both and evaluates the after effects of his selecting any of the two (Naylor 1996, p. 11). Marty is much more concerned to his family as compared to his dog and he is able to recognize his preference as he says, “maybe one of [Judd’s] stray bullets found her, and I traded Becky for Shiloh” (Naylor 1996, p. 62). Marty is continuously troubled in relation to Judd’s troublesome behaviour and is threatened about Judd’s expected harm to his family. He hides about Judd’s shooting at him from his father because he thinks that his father will do some retaliation act against Judd that will eventually make Judd much angry after which, he can shoot Becky (Naylor 1996, p. 93). The character of Marty is very responsible and caring and all of his actions speak about his care and kindness towards his family and others around him. He is always worried about welfare of his family and other people as compared to his own self. When Marty’s sister Dara Lynn injures herself by dislocating her toe, Marty is at once ready to help her as he holds her foots and tries to fix it (Naylor 1996, p. 59), which can be understood as an indication of care and kindness. Another incident of his kindness and care of his family and friends is when violent dogs come into his yard. He tries to help everyone in the yard as initially, he grabs Shiloh and Becky and leave them on the porch. Later on, he takes a baseball bat and tries to save Dara Lynn by swinging the bat to keep the dogs back off (Naylor 1996, pp. 72-73). For protecting his sisters, he did not care for his own injuries. All his actions show his loyalty, care and kindness towards his family, friends and other people indicating towards his kind character. His character is quite educational for children reading the book as he informs them about moral values of his acts. Smidt (2012) informs that young children learn the moral values that the writers want them to learn through their words and portrayed characters (p. 36). Therefore, the character of Marty shows children about their own expected personalities in a society. The book, Crash depicts Penn Webb as a kind boy as he is always patient and caring towards other people. However, in contrast, Crash is portrayed as an evil boy who is continuously busy in torturing Penn and hates nearly everyone. Penn after coming to a new town asks Crash to be his friend and have a dinner at his home (Spinelli 1996, p. 11). Penn informs Crash that his asking of Crash to be a friend and have dinner is similar to the culture in North Dakota. Later on, Penn and his family also ask Crash to make friendship with other people as well. In response, Crash is always negative and rejects the very notion (Spinelli 1996, p. 28). All of the family members of Penn wished Crash’s company in all the family fun and they wanted to make him feel as a family member. After hearing about Crash’s grandfather’s illness, all of them got ready to reach him along with food (Spinelli 1996, p. 110). Like Judd’s neighbours in Shiloh Season, the family of Penn always tries to reach everyone in need. Kindness as a theme is quite evident in the story and is represented by many characters. As a reward and with continuous effort towards befriending Crash, Crash as a last resort became Penn’s friend. Crash, who is initially portrayed as a negative and evil character, eventually becomes good and recognises the significance of his family and friends in his life. At a juncture, Crash accidently injures his grandfather and he had a stroke. Crash is quite ashamed of his act and tries to console the situation by buying a pair of shoes for his grandfather as a gift. He ponders over his mistake continuously and realises that he would be nothing without his family. This happening brings transformation in Crash’s personality and he is all of a sudden a good boy who is caring and loving towards his family and friends. Penn’s role in enabling him to be a good boy cannot be negated likewise because it was all their goodness transferred to Crash. As an act of care, he makes catfish cakes for his sister on her birthday. In reality, he is not perfect in making the cakes; however, he tries to make his sister happy with his care towards her. Previously, his grandfather used to make the catfish cakes (Spinelli 1996, p. 128). Crash learns that he has to be loyal and courteous towards his family. He along with sister tries to make his grandfather happy with their acts as he and his sister climb their grandfather’s bed and claim themselves to be the captains of the bed (Spinelli 1996, p. 147). Crack takes the responsibility of a caretaker for supporting his grandfather in his health issue. His taking over the role of a protective caretaker is an indication of his kind and caring attitude towards his grandfather. Like Crash, his mother also realises her lack of attention towards her children because of her over committed life for which, she seeks forgiveness indicating her kind behaviour towards her children (Spinelli 1996, p. 160). Crash invested his sneaker money to buy paints for his mother pointing towards his commitment and care for his family. As a character, Crash develops to be a very kind and caring boy. Along with Crash, other characters like Abby, Penn and all other characters show kindness as a central theme of the story indicating that the story as a whole is enough instructional for children reading the book to learn about moral implications of kindness and care (Smidt 2012, p. 29). In the work, A Year Down Yonder written Richard Peck, the character of Grandma is depicted as the one demonstrating the characteristic of care towards other characters of the story. She facilitated the poor as she separated those who could not pay and spared them while she took more than a dime from the capable ones at the Legion Auxiliary Lunch (Peck 2000, p. 48). After collecting all the money, Grandma deposited all the money to a needy woman whose son got harshly disabled during the war. Grandma took care of the needy woman as the woman has no one to support her or her son (Peck 2000, p. 51). Grandma used to go to such needy persons who are visited by no one as she visits Old Man Nyquist in case of tornado hitting the town (Peck 2000, p. 121). Grandma not only visits the Old Man, but checks other people also such as Mrs. Wilcox (Peck 2000, p. 123). After being ensured about the safety of other people, she becomes relaxed. Mary Alice appreciates her Grandma’s care and kind-heartedness towards other people. She learns from her Grandma a lot. She learns to honour and have concern for others just like her Grandma. Considering her accountability and love for her grandmother, Mary Alice as a good granddaughter takes care of her Grandma as well as other people. Initially, Mary feels embarrassment because of her Grandma when she starts living with her. She feels shame when her grandmother attempts to put her name down with the support of janitor (Peck 2000, p. 8). She takes no notice of the social customs previously, but after her positive reception of her Grandma’s hard work and concern towards other people, her attitude changes. Later on in late winter evenings, she began to miss her and wished to be with her for her safe arrival back to home (Peck 2000, p. 64). To convert and bring changing in Mary, her grandmother tries to make her “a halo so Carleen Lovejoy in all her tinsel wouldn’t outshine” at the Christmas pageant (Peck 2000, p. 68). Grandma collected some money by putting up skins for sale and she invested all her money on buying a ticket for Mary’s brother for the pageant. In addition, she got another ticket for Mary to have a round trip to Chicago where Mary could spend her Christmas with her parents. Mary knew that her Grandma spent all her money obtained from selling skins in making them happy (Peck 2000, p. 73). Mary’s Grandma is very caring and kind towards her grandchildren as she shows her love and care by buying tickets for the children to make them pleased. Like Grandma, the character of Mary also becomes kind and caring as she supports her Grandma in her clothes’ washing and hair washing (Peck 2000, p. 96-97). After listening about tornado’s slashing through the town, Mary becomes worried about her Grandma and runs towards her home to ensure about her safety (Peck 2000, p. 118). When Mary is finally ready to go to Chicago, she informs Grandma about her importance in Mary’s life showing her concern towards her Grandma. Mary’s attitude towards her Grandma shows her concern towards her Grandma’s security and contentment. She wants her to be alright. Karen Hesse in the story Out of the Dust portrays many characters that are kind and considerate for other people, which is quite educational for the child readers. The characters depict about societal responsibility of people. Billie Jo is a kind character who dislikes people killing rabbits, but she seems somewhat pleased to consider that their meat is used by poor families in need of meat (Hesse 1997, p. 7). Billie informs about her mother, “Ma donated: three jars of apple sauce and some cured pork, and a feed-sack nightie she’d sewn for our coming baby” (Hesse 1997, p. 16) to some needy people who required her assistance. Billie’s mother appears to be very kind as never refuses any help to the needy as once a boy is in need of some food and he begs for it, his mother has nothing to give, but she makes the child sit there and have some milk and biscuits (Hesse 1997, p. 58). Billie and his father become much broken hearted when they lose Ma and their coming baby brother. They leave baby’s clothes in the church when they find an infant baby on the steps of the church (Hesse 1997, p. 185). Billie and his family are portrayed as kind and caring figures who care for everyone around them ignoring their own needs. They never let any needy person go away without any assistance. They always offered help to other people teaching the lessons of kindness and concern towards other people of society. Like Billie’s family, other members of their community also do the deeds of kindness, which can be regarded as an attention gaining example of supporting each other. Even the people who are poor and unable to provide assistance, are ready to assist others reaching over and out of their limits. The town people raise money for various social purposes such as they collected “thirty three dollars for infantile paralysis” (Hesse 1997, p. 115). With governmental assistance of food supply for hungry school children, the bakery and farm holders send loaves of bread and milk from their own sides as an act of kindness. The children had good meal to have and they felt happy to attend their classes (Hesse 1997, p. 117). A migrant family reached in Billie’s school in a quite depressed and forlorn state, Billie’s teacher allowed them to stay as per their will and convenience. In addition, students of the school bring them “fixings for soup” and shared their lunches with them. In addition to food, students also provided toys and clothing for the children of the family (Hesse 1997, p. 121). During a dust storm in the town, a funeral procession was allowed to enter in a woman’s house who happily allowed all of them in (Hesse 1997, p. 164). Kindness is the central theme of the story as each and every person shows kindness in the story not only towards family or friends, but each and everyone whether he is from the town or some outsider. Anyone who requires assistance and help is provided with it. All the four books of children literature depict kindness as a moral value that the children should be taught so that they become good citizens of a society. Children literature is instructional and teaching as children not only get enjoyment while reading the books, but also these books have lessons and morals for children (Smidt 2012, p. 37). All the books point towards kindness and care as moral values that children and adults should acquire while dealing with other members of the society. Children books also have pictorial representations in the books that develop children’s interest in reading. The images also speak as it is said that pictures also tell stories and do not require words (Lewis 2001, p. 17). There are similar themes in children literature as writers aim at providing assistance to youngsters to develop as good citizens. Bibliography Bearne, E. and Watson, V. (eds). 2000. Where Texts and Children Meet. Routledge, London. Hesse, Karen. 1997. Out of the Dust. Scholastic, New York. Hollindale, P. 1988. Ideology and the Children’s Book. Stroud, Thimble. Lewis, D. 2001. Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: picturing text. Routledge, London. Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. 1996. Shiloh Season. Aladdin Paperbacks, New York. Peck, Richard. 2000. A Year Down Yonder. Puffin Books, New York. Smidt, S. 2012. Reading the world: what young children learn from literature. Stoke on Trent, Trentham. Spinelli, Jerry. 1996. Crash. Yearling, New York. Read More