Children's Literature - The Use of Realism and the Fantastic - Assignment Example

Childrens literature: the use of realism and the fantastic Introduction Children’s literature comprises numerouswritten works issued to amuse, entertain and instruct children and youth. Classical examples of literature, books with pictures and simple stories, fables, fairy tales and retold legends and stories are encompassed in a genre of children’s literature. We’ll consider the aspect of realism and fantastic in children’s fiction. This topic is of high relevance, because it explores basic topics which organize and influence youth themes, which appear on literary and cultural background. Realism and fantastic go side by side in children’s literature. Real events and historical fact can be mentioned in children’s literature but the use of fantastic makes persuasion of plot easier and more interesting. Fantastic elements make books for kids more picturesque and multi-sided. On the examples of “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Philippa Pearce, “Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor and “Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone” by J. Rowling, we’ll consider the use of realism and the fantastic in each book. The authors discuss the problem of adolescence through such frameworks as self-identity evoking, social agency and subjectivity in certain cultural sphere. The authors use different tools and methods in order to widen their readers’ audience such as symbolical representation of reality and space, metamorphosis, time-slip, ghosts, an apparition of a living person, transparency and others. With the help of fantastic tools authors can endow their heroes with incredible, supernatural gifts that exist next to normal realistic life. We get acquainted with fantastic realism, which is the best didactic kind of literature. As we shall see, in spite of magical elements and fantastic processes, the authors want in their books to bring to young readers deep and profound thoughts and ideas. Modern world requires subjectivity and strength even from the youngest representatives of human race. Brief overview “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Philippa Pearce is a literature masterpiece. Unreality and metamorphosis lead us into the world of mystery. Children consciousness is explored. Though this book refers to children’s literature, not every child can grasp the main idea of it. The main idea is in time transient and human mind metamorphosis. Tom, the main hero of the book, with the help of magic clock discovers a new world and mysteries, which require rich imagination and experience. “Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor is an outstanding piece of literature work. The author writes about the development of integrity and subjectivity of a child on the background of Afro-American family story. This book is also focused on children’s consciousness. Mystification appears when heroes of the book learn the world and history. They become grown-ups very quickly and through their imagination and fantasy they get acquainted with ‘grey’ world. “Harry Potter and philosopher’s stone” by J. Rowling is a masterpiece of fantastic and realism. Fantasy world is of primary concern for the author. This is a projection of reality, a prism through which a world of adolescence and eternal themes such as life and death are revealed for young readers. Children’s minds penetrate into existential sphere. Profound thoughts of life and death, the primary role of nature in a human life make this book guidance for self-development and maturity. The discussion of realism and fantasy on the examples of these books was chosen not in vain. The authors of all three books show child protagonist’s development using different elements, and showing multi-sidedness of children’s nature. Comparison of the books Children who are able to grasp the main idea of “Tom’s Midnight Garden” by Philippa Pearce will never forget this book for sure. Tom was puzzled by the clock from the house of his aunt and uncle. This thing was the only one interesting for him in that old house. Naturally, when any child is told that something is forbidden he will disobey. So did Tom, when he was told that this clock was owned by Mrs. Bartholomew and he couldn’t touch it. When it was striking thirteen, Tom found himself in a beautiful and mysterious garden. There he gets acquainted with Hatty, a girl from another time, his future friend. Time is a leitmotif of the novel and it differs from the real world. Its pace is different, it moves backward and forward. On this background Tom finds out much new about himself, about his life and how to reach across time. The author intrigues readers with time manipulation. The book reflects reality and fantasy. We can sum up such issues as time, ghost, reality and even metamorphosis of old lady’s fantasy in this book. Questions on time and space, relationships between Tom and Hatty are dramatic aspects of this example of childrens fiction. Realism and fantasy interweave first in Tom’s desire to play. Like every child, he needs space and friends for his play. A decisive point when Tom decided to touch the clock is the fact that it strikes thirteen at midnight. Finally, thanks to his curiosity Tom finds himself in a picturesque and blooming garden, instead of dark and gloom back yard. Here starts fantasy! We can see that his wishes come true. He finds a place to play, he finds new friends. Unfortunately (or happily for him) only a girl can see him. Though he seems to be a ghost for her, because he can walk through walls and doors, and cast no shadow or leaves no footprints. But, these kids have a lot of fun together. They are hiding, climbing trees and they have a perfect time together. Then something strange happens. Tom’s friend grows up very quickly though they see each other every day. Here we see fantasy again. But generally, the whole book is saturated with English flavor. “Toms Midnight Garden” by Philippa Pearce is a literary classic. It reflects love to gardens of Englishmen and a zest of ghosts complete our vision of England. Time travelling, magic clocks are fantasy, but they add zestful details to this fiction. “Tom’s Midnight garden” is a time-slip narrative (Montgomery, p. 203). The author shows that childhood is a transient phase of life that can never be revisited (Montgomery, p. 204). While reading this book we feel constant motion of things, their fragility and disappearance. In a metaphoric way, the author opens mysterious worlds of past and present. Their events and heroes interweave and influence each other. The intense power of metaphor is the main tool, which helped Pearce to create both realistic and fantastic worlds (Rustin, p. 207). Reality of human relationships and detailed depiction of characters are projected on unseen parallel of mystified world. The reader is captured whether all these metamorphoses really appear or they are just kinds of young boy’ (Tom) and old lady’ (Mrs. Bartholomew) imagination. Child’s imagination takes him two generations back and he finds himself pleased and fells comfortable there. He doesn’t want even to return back home. An issue of what is alive and what is dead constantly evokes. Tom misses his brother Peter very much and this sorrow makes him closer to Hatty, who misses her dead parents. Of course their anguishes are incommensurable, but their bad mood is cast away in a beautiful garden. Maybe, it is Eden? This secret place is a plane for reality projection. When some real events are viewed through it, their importance doesn’t matter. But changes in their relationships (when Hatty met her future husband) changed the garden. Thus, children minds and subjectivities can influence stability. “…nothing stands still except in our memory” (Natov, p. 226). Cassie is right. Pearce hints us that even thing, which seem to be eternal and stable, can be changed. At this point we can see that Taylor and Pearce’s ideas have much in common. Both authors underline power of children’s minds and emphasize on their subjectivity. But they differently depict their main heroes. Thus Tom wants to stay in the garden (childhood) forever (Nikolajeva, p. 219) and Cassie displays her strength and wants to grow up quicker. Cassie may seem to be closer not to Tom, but to Hatty. She grows up quickly and has no complaints that time is irreversible (Natov, p. 221). An important idea in the novel “Roll of Thunder: Hear my Cry” written by Mildred D Taylor is racism. This idea is important because it tells us how life was in the 1930s for a little black girl who matures with racial conflict around her. “Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor is a perfect to be compared with “Tom’s midnight garden”. The main heroine of the book a young, black girl, Cassie Logan wants to find mutual understanding with her family. She can’t grasp the idea why the blacks differ from the whites. The book by Pearce shows us two realities, and the book by Taylor shows us the same thing. The first example appears when Cassie and her brother go to school on foot and the bus for white children seem a huge yellow dragon breathing fire to them. White kids are laughing when they see black kids running away from the bus. Let us remember Tom and the clocks which interested and scared him simultaneously. But finally, like Tom satisfied his curiosity, Cassie cast away her fears and revealed her free nature and stubborn character. It can be seen in the incident when Cassie go to the market and bumps into a white girl Lillian Jean Simms. Cassie doesn’t run anymore she says to the girl: “…if youre so afraid of getting bumped, walk down there yourself” (Taylor, 2004, p. 139). Of course, Lillian Jean was sure that the girl would apologize and she, actually, did but only because her Big Ma tells her to apologize. As we can see, both Tom and Cassie show their strong characters. In spite of cruel life of Blacks during Depression, Cassie wants to struggle and she can’t understand why such oppression happens. A death of T.J (her brother’s friend) because of hanging for a crime he did not even commit makes her struggle for the lives and rights of Blacks. Are they bad? Are they different? It’s so unfair! Logans are hard-working people, they earn their living studiously and even children of the family help gathering cotton. Cassie has grown up in a loving and friendly atmosphere of her family. She has strength and protection and it’s a great dilemma for her to understand why any white person considers her inferior just because she’s black. The events are terrible and horrible. She sees the burnings and night riders, negative attitude from whites and under this cruel pressure her daily safe nest turns upside down. This story is of human strength and constant struggle, no matter that even for a slight difference and improvement. Taylor is one of the first Afro-American writers who underline importance of education in XX century in Afro - American culture (Cobb, p. 247). We can claim that integrity and subjectivity of a child is another primary concern of her book. Children are agents of change. They can start new way of life and laws. Cassie is an embodiment of freedom of mind and civil right activist. The girl realizes her self-worth. Chapter 11 of the books starts with the following lines: Roll of thunder hear my cry Over the water bye and bye Ole man comin’ down the line Whip in hand to beat me down But I ain’t gonna These lines perfectly represent Cassie’s essence. It’s her prayer for self-identity and freedom. She wants to be heard, she wants to be let alone and get rid of constant persecutions. Ole Man is a White man. He’s ‘Ole’ (old), because racial suppressions are old as world is… We can hear despair and strength in these lines. Cassie won’t let him turn her round. The author uses an image of ‘Ole man’ in order young readers through the image could grasp important ideas of freedom and self-subjectivity. The author underlines racial oppression with a severe image of Ole man, who can practice beating. He’s with “…Whip in hand to beat me down”. Of course, the child is afraid of cruelty and looking for salvation and help from heavenly Powers. Though thunder is a sign of intense and scaring premonition and children usually are afraid of thunder we can see that Cassie appeals to a powerful, though scaring thunder for help. Racial oppression is more scaring than roll of thunder. Fantastic Ole man embodies real White people and their hatred toward Black people. Therefore we can see realism in reflected events of Depression. Reality with a spirit of mystification is mixed with fantasy. For example, when Mary during her lessons demystifies history for children, she says that: “All that’s in that book isn’t true” (Taylor, p. 203). She argues with board member that she doesn’t want to teach children false facts. Of course, this heroine collides with incomprehension and even risks to lose her job. Another kind of demystification appears when Papa let his children kids to hear Mr. Morrison tale of his family. The latter tells that his parents came from ‘breeded stock’ (Taylor, 2004, pp. 164-5). Children are puzzled and than he explains real meaning of that expression. Mr. Morrison unveils truth with no fear. All the time the author tries to implant boundary between childhood and adulthood and show the difference of two worlds (McDowell, p. 238). In such a way this didactic fiction turns from not rules implementing, but tools suggestion for children. This way, children should realize their self-worth, subjectivity and prove their important role, which can’t be neglected. The issues of death and life appear in “Harry Potter and Philosopher’s stone” when curious Harry talks to Professor Quirrell. Professor tells him: “Youre too nosy to live, Potter” (Rowling, 1997, p. 209). Abundance of rhetorical questions from Harry is an evidence of his inquiring mind: “Harry thought that none of the lessons hed had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didnt want to tell Harry? (Rowling, 1997, p. 106) These lines show us his alikeness to Tom’s character from the book by Pearce. Both boys reveal their curiosity, which leads them to a world of magic and mystery. Both, Pearce and Rowling show that children’s curiosity can open new horizons, but it can also reveal such serious themes as life and death. Fantasy and realism are closely connected when looking at them through a magical mirror of children’s imaginations. Furthermore Rowling “…builds ‘retrolutionatry’ sense of the past in the present and present in the past (Watson, p. 289). The same motives we can see in “Tom’s midnight garden” by Pearce, when considering relationship of Tom and Hatty, who finally turned into Mrs. Bartholomew. Such traits in Harry Potter’s character as bravery, courage and his hope only for himself, makes him closer to Cassie from the book by Taylor. These characters have their strength high on the agenda for themselves. Both of them are intelligent, have logical thinking and thus they are inspired for adventures and search of truth. Another feature in common is the fact that Rowling’s book is an attempt “…to take children’s literature seriously within the political context of current globalizing trends…” (Zipes, p. 290). Taylor depicted her main characters on the background of racism and Depression and Rowling appealed to her young readers through a prism of globalization, which is of high relevance nowadays. Both authors had a leitmotif: “…if we all pull together and trust one another and follow the lead of the chosen one evil will be overcome” (Zipes, p. 296). Cassie struggled for her freedom and independence in order to reach her self-identity, and Harry wanted to stand out of the herd and to reach his self-identity too. Both Harry and Cassie embody courage and constant struggle for the truth; they have ‘heroic proportions’ (Gupta, p. 300). Further on fantastic motives in the book by Rowling are hidden from their main characters, like in “Tom’s midnight garden”. Tom couldn’t grasp the idea that he got into parallel, fantastic world, so did Harry, who didn’t guess about his magical abilities until Hagrid told him about that. Fantastic aspect of Harry Potter is concentrated in a metaphor of Harry giftedness and intelligence. Generally, the main characters of the book by Rowling show stages of identity formation. This idea of self-subjectivity model appears to be a leitmotif in all three books (by Pearce, Taylor and Rowling). The authors underline that rich imagination and intelligence among children is a way to future success and creativity. Harry Potter self-development is perfectly described by Rowling as she claims about his stages of maturity, which will inevitably lead to death. From this point of view, we can claim that the book by Rowling is closer to the book by Pearce. Tom and Harry followed grew older and showed no fear in realization of death inevitability. All three books through realism and fantasy show us development of consciousness in childhood. A tendency of aging, growth and death which is inevitable is shown (Nikolajeva, p. 216).Though plots of these books are different there is a lot in common in the main ideas of these books. Thus there is such phrase in “Tom’s Midnight Garden” as “Necessity to respect otherness, there’s more than one reality” (Pearce, 1998, p. 106). We can project this idea on “Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry” by Mildred D. Taylor. Respect otherness – the thing what Afro-Americans wanted from white people. No matter how the authors reached their goal and showed this leitmotif to their readers (through metaphorical garden and time slipping, parallel realities or existence and constant struggle of Blacks and Whites),they persuaded their readers that life is multi-sided both in our thoughts and in reality. Another phrase from “Tom’s Midnight garden” perfectly reflects the main idea of “Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry”: it’s no use to challenge each other’s existence, it’s better to look into one another (Natov, p. 221). This phrase reflects a simple but profound nonracial thought of the author. Didactic issues in the book by Rowling concentrated on the issue of giftedness makes this book closer to the book by Taylor. Both of these authors underlined the importance of education in the stages of maturity. These books are perfect examples of a favorable basis for identity issues discussion. Stages of maturity can be quickly grasped and this phase of life will be easier for children. Such issues as family and friendly relationships make the book about Harry Potter closer to the book about Tom. Ideas on education and work, good and evil makes it closer to the book about Cassie (Blake, p. 309). All three books underline that children should be subjective and open-minded, aspire for exact goals and reach them. Books by Pearce, Taylor and Rowling through fantasy and realism appealed to children’s minds and consciousness. Inner world of any child is complex and innocent. It’s necessary to seed goodness and kindness in their hearts not forgetting about their future. Therefore inspiration and sincere attitude to children will bear fruits in their future. Bringing up them in understanding and freedom will make their adolescent lives multi-sided and their minds will be open for new impressions and knowledge. Literature works through didactic methods and tools mustn’t make children to do something, they should make children want to do something in their lives. Works cited 1. Blake, A. ‘Harry Potter and the reinvention of the past’ in Reader 2, pp. 303- 310. 2. Bosmajian, H. ‘A search for law and justice in a racist society’ in Reader 2, pp. 231-237. 3. Cobb, C. ‘Role of education in Mildred Taylor’s Roll of thunder’ in Reader 2, pp. 247-253. 4. Gupta, S. ‘The unthinkingness of Harry Potter’ in Reader 2, pp. 297-303. 5. Maybin, J. ‘Mildred Taylor. Roll of thunder, hear my cry’ in Reader 2, pp. 227-230. 6. McDowell, K. ‘Child agency in roll of thunder, hear my cry’ in Reader 2, pp. 237-241. 7. Montgomery. H. ‘Philippa Pearce. Tom’s Midnight Garden. Introduction’ in Reader 2, pp. 203-206. 8. Natov, R. ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’ in Reader 2, pp. 221-226. 9. Nikolajeva, M. ‘Midnights Gardens, Magic Wells’ in Reader 2, pp. 216-220. 10. Pearce, P. (1998). Tom’s Midnight Garden. Oxford University Press. 11. Rowling, J.K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone. Bloomsbury Publishing. 12. Rustin M&M. ‘Loneliness, Dreaming and Discovery: Tom’s Midnight Garden’ in Reader 2, pp. 207-215. 13. Taylor, Mildred D. (2004). Roll of Thunder; Hear My Cry. Puffin. 14. Watson, N. ‘J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (1997)’ in Reader 2, pp. 286-289. 15. Zipes, J. ‘The phenomenon of Harry Potter or why all the talk?’ in Reader 2, pp. 289-296. Read More