Anthropomorphism in the Work of Beatrix Potter - Essay Example

Anthropomorphism Anthropomorphism (attributing human characteristics to nonhumans) is extremely popular in childrens books. Beatrix Potter is considered somewhat of an authority when it comes to this niche. This essay analyses a Master’s paper Talking Animals: a Literature Review of Anthropomorphism in Childrens Books (2011) by Elizabeth A. Dunn. The faculty of School of Information and Library Science of the University of North Carolina received and approved it. This essay, unpacks the main ideas of Dunn’s thesis, which are then used to explore Beatrix Potter’s work. Authors and poets frequently use talking animals in childrens books. When a person buys them he/she can almost expect this classical use of anthropomorphism. Animals of all shapes and sizes make it to these poems. This type of anthropomorphism does not reveal itself only through making animals talk like humans; four-legged animals walking on two, playing music, preparing food and living in huts, are the classical traits of animal anthropomorphism in childrens stories. Beatrix Potter stands out among the authors of children stories. Her technique of anthropomorphism is different. She portrays realistic lives of animals. She carves her characters and the respective story targeting specifically childrens psychology. The characters and their dialogues are not emotionally overwhelming. The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) was Potters first book. She adorns the animals with human clothes in it. But she doesnt start the story portraying rabbits having human characteristics. Potter does not suddenly take the child away from the real-life, she builds a bridge between reality and fantasy. At the beginning of her first book she portrays rabbits in their usual demeanour. They are regular animals living in the woods. But then she paints the fantasy in the next scene when the mother rabbit is dressing her children. A little nugget of reality always stays in the story; not all animals wear human clothes. Beatrix Potter probably plays down the anthropomorphism to prevent animals from becoming too human. On the contrary, Kenneth Grahame, the author of The Wind in the Willows (1908), uses extreme form of anthropomorphism. The animals in his stories change size and break the imaginary barrier between human being and the animal kingdom. The character of a toad in Graham’s story wears a wig and combs his hair. Potter on the other hand is contend with only dressing animals in human clothes and making them walk on two, Graham’s style takes a step further. The literature of both these authors is extremely popular among children. Both of them are trendsetters and enjoy the status of legends in childrens literature. There is no right or wrong way to pursue anthropomorphism, similarly no hard and fast rule exists in attributing human characters to animals. One can turn a ferocious lion into an obedient servant of a mouse in a story. These contrasting characteristics have been used in childrens stories very successfully. The use of pig is an excellent example. There are so many negative metaphors attributed to this animal. It is generally used to refer to gluttony, filth, greed and opportunistic behaviour. But Beatrix Potter portrays a very different picture of this animal in Pigling Bland and Little Pig Robinson. The pig is a very clean and intelligent animal in these stories. It appears that breaking the stereotypical image is also a popular technique in anthropomorphism. Stereotyping animals is also popular in many cases. The use of an animated dog in stories has been successfully used where the dog is portrayed as faithful. Elizabeth Dunn conducted a survey where she listed the most popular animals used in the stories. An estimate suggests that in almost 75% of US households children own a pet and the trend is increasing. Dogs are the most popular pets and children get familiar with this animal at a very early stage. It would be a bit disturbing to destroy this. Typical image of a friendly and faithful animals such as dogs in childrens stories. For this reason childrens authors are always careful in portraying a dog. They dont want to destroy a childs earliest memories with his pet friend. And the reason why dogs outnumber any other animal in anthropomorphism stories is because the dog is the most popular pet. The role of the dog in a childrens story is almost predictable because there is hardly any author who would paint a negative picture of the dog. Most of the children stories portray the dog in its timeless role of a loyal creature. Margaret Wild’s use of the dog in her story Fox can explain this typical role. In the story a partially blind dog and a magpie become friends. The dog evokes valour and vigour in a depressed magpie because it cannot longer fly. The stereotyping of dog in the story shows its friendly gullible nature. When fox appears in the story she pushes away the magpie. The dog trusts the fox and the magpie hates her. Towards the end of the story the dog still awaits his friend magpie. The association of friendship with the dog is almost predictable and children stories. Besides contributing stereotypical or their opposites to animals anthropomorphism also plays in terms of the author’s perception and experiences about life. For instance Potter was a rebelling child. She was not just against the strictures of her family she was also against student typical gender roles of the late 19th century (Kutzer, 2013, p. 61). But she did not attach these rebellious values with animals that are known for their aggressive nature. In Potters books there is hardly any beast portrayed in a negative value preaching against gender norms. She also did not use animals like rabbits to discuss gender roles, struggles of the working class, her rabbit-books are free from these echoes (Kutzer, 2013, p. 61). Squirrel Nutkin and The Tailor of Gloucester contain such ideas. If stereotyping an animal in anthropomorphism teaches young children how to behave then that is a desirable trait. The technique works probably because Darwinism manifests itself. Children and adults relate to animals as we have been morphed from them. As mentioned earlier Potter often introduces the real nature of an animal in a setting of subtle anthropomorphism. Potter is adept at this technique (Grenby & Immel, 2009). She does this to give children the reality check or probably a technique that plays with the bridge between fantasy and reality. However, Potter’s technique of anthropomorphism is not light. Technically she uses “high-level” anthropomorphism, in comparison books like Jungle Book and Watership Down use mid-level anthropomorphism; animals only talk, they don’t wear clothes or live in furnished houses (Sainsbury, 2013). Her strong human characteristics in animals coupled with her rebellious attitude towards stereotyping delivers the message effectively. Wynn W. Yarbrough writes in his book Masculinity in Children’s Animal Stories 1888-1928 (2011) about Potter’s technique of using anthropomorphism to destroy stereotypical norms. Authors like Kenneth Grahame and A. A. Milne paint Arcadian setting in their stories that nurture the male dominant society, on the other hand, Beatrix Potter and Rudyard Kipling write against the same settings (Yarbrough, 2011). All of these authors and story writers have seen tremendous success but there are others who are against the whole idea of anthropomorphism in children’s stories. There are supposedly different risks attached with anthropomorphism; some authors consider them “ethological description of primates” (Schubert & Masters, 1991, p. 242). But the technique works wonderfully; be it Beatrix Potter or Walt Disney. The ethics of using anthropomorphism in bedtime stories is debatable. But when it is used to teach children morality and ethics themselves, then the case against the technique is undermined. Moreover, in Potter’s case the technique does not only teach children morality, it teaches them to question the stereotypical ideologies. Dunn’s methodology looks at various animal characters frequently used in children’s stories. She analysed works of different authors including Beatrix Potter. Her paper only focused on works written for children under age twelve. It is interesting to note that certain stories use the idea of toys that suddenly come to life. The question she used to analyse anthropomorphism technique were (Dunn, 2011); What kind of animals are featured in the story? What human traits authors have associated with them? Do they morph or remain human like throughout the story? Is there role of humans in the story? What personality is portrayed by animals? What are the values that the animals preach? For the purpose of this paper, let’s use these questions to some of Potter’s works to better understand her technique. Potter’s character of Peter Rabbit has frequently occurred in many of her books. Dunn’s questions listed above are applied on this character as follows; In her book The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901), Beatrix Potter uses rabbits and friendly sparrows as the only animals. A family of rabbits is shown where the mother rabbit warns her children not to go into the vegetable garden. Potter used a variety of human traits with each character. The mother rabbit is cautious as a mother always is. She forbids children from becoming someone else’s dinner. The rabbit named Peter is her son. He is adventurous by nature as opposed to her three obedient sisters. In the story all the rabbits remain anthropomorphic, talking and acting like humans. The role of humans is evil in the story. Mr. McGregor is the bad guy. He already put the father rabbit in a pie. He owns a vegetable garden representing the resourcefulness of humans. Even though Mr. McGregor does nothing particularly wrong, his act of preventing his garden from rabbits shows his evil nature. He chases Peter when he spots him and tries to capture him. His act of using Peter’s clothes to adorn the scarecrow is somewhat horrifying. Potter’s portrayal of the relationship between humans and animals bears a negative connotation. The rabbits can walk and talk like humans. They live in furnished houses and their mother cooks dinner for their children. Towards the end of the story, Peter gets camomile tea from his mother. They also wear clothes like humans. Peter gets in trouble when his blue jacket get caught up while trying to escape from Mr. McGregor. Potter teaches children to obey their parents in this story. The animal characters create a scenario where an adventurous looking Peter betrays his mother’s advice and ventures into the forbidden garden. It is also worth noting that Potter does not challenge any stereotyping in The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It is plain and simple in its message, a lesson for children to obey their parents. The boys are generally adventurous like Peter. Girls in the early 20th century were supposed to be obedient and less adventurous. Potter did not challenge this role here and portrayed Peter’s sisters exactly like that. In anthropomorphism either one goes with stereotyping animals or goes against the norms, it works both ways. The receivers of such imaginations are innocent children, they don’t have the intelligence to judge the plot or how the characters were created. They get carries away in the plot and create the story in their heads like a movie. They don’t really know if the cat has evil nature or pig is greedy, they consider what is given to them in the story as the truth. It is perhaps better not to over emphasize negative connotation of animals. Stereotyping that puts a stigma on an animal can leave an imprint in the mind of children. Potter’s version of animal tales use the perfect balance of stereotyping to deliver moral lessons. Anthropomorphism does not make the humanistic traits in an animal permanent. An animal that behaves like an animal appears in her stories too. Dunn’s paper ends with a conclusion that overall anthropomorphism in animals sends a positive message to children. It captures their imagination and authors use this interest to give them moral lessons. The stories and movie plots run on good vs. evil. A hero and villain exist in almost every plot. Aesop fables mention many trickster animals that are both stereotyped and unusual, however, the purpose has always been to teach people and children how to behave. Whenever a character is created the author’s own values pour into it. Beatrix Potter was rebellious and did not like forced domestication. Through anthropomorphism she created animal characters that carried her personal beliefs and values. References 1. Dunn, E. A. 2011. Talking animals: A literature review of anthropomorphism in children’s books. Master’s Paper. University of North Carolina. 2. Grenby, M. O. & Immel, A. 2009. The Cambridge companion to children’s literature. Cambridge University Press. 3. Kutzer, M. D. 2013. Beatrix Potter: Writing in Code. London: Routledge. 4. Potter, B. 1902. The tale of Peter rabbit. Fredrick Warne & Co. 5. Sainsbury, L. 2013. Ethics in British children’s literature: Unexamined life. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 6. Schubert, G. A. & Masters, R. D. 1991. Primate politics. SIU Press. 7. Yarbrough, W. W. 2011. Masculinity in children’s animal stories 1888-1928. Jefferson: McFarland. Read More