Comparison of two Non-sense Children Texts - Essay Example

Comparison of two Non-sense Children Texts Introduction If nonsense writing is about the tension between order and disorder, order ultimately prevails. This paper will examine this statement with reference to two nonsense texts for children. These texts are Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense and the poem by Carroll Lewis, titled Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Search for Order in the Disorder Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are (Lewis, Carroll, 1865) This is a nursery rhyme that a child learns from his parents, teachers and grandparents. If you ask a child to say this rhyme, you will find the child singing it with wondrous expressions on his face, doing actions with his hands and pointing towards sky trying to tell us that the stars live in the sky. Does the rhyme have any sense or order? Word cluster like ‘wonder what you are’, ‘above the world so high’ and ‘diamond in the sky’ are the verbal expressions of imaginations. The words seem not to make much sense, and have no real order of thoughts. However, if we come out of the hypnosis of so called ‘sense’ which is given to us by society and go a little deeper into the rhyme , we will come to know that the rhyme has great sense and hence through its disorder, takes us towards the order. Mind is the space where all the garbage of the logical thinking is stored. Suppressed emotions, feelings, expressions, thoughts, opinions and desires are all stored in your mind. It is chattering most of the times without you having any control over it (osho p.51). To enter the deepest core of the soul, one has to take a route which the mind is not trained to understand. And that is what the nonsense poems and the nonsense works do; they show us the sensible things in life through nonsense language. And hence, goes deep into our heart. Lewis Carroll’s “ Alice in wonderland” and Edward Lear’s “A book of Nonsense” are the product of a very an intelligent mind. They have used all the elements of the imaginations, which might seem nonsense to the adult mind, to create poems and stories that make immense sense. Lewis Carroll has created a girl called ‘Alice’ who, one day, slips onto the world of wonder while chasing a rabbit (Lewis, Carroll, 1865 p13). Edward Lear’s “ Book of nonsense” consists of small poems full of different people experiencing weird things. These two works have used nonsense language to drive ideas and thoughts that have a very deep meanings of life. The nonsense work always play with ideas that seem logical by using the words in topsy-turvy way and the nonsense often comes with a message of strong meaning with it rather than a lack of it ( Lear p.vii) Alice’s adventure is the journey that everyone of us would like to take. She meets animals who talks, eats the cakes that reduces her size by inches and wanders into a beautiful garden where she meets the king and the queen. Through all the characters and the events that are the product of sheer imagination, Carroll has woven some very powerful messages that conveys the idea of spiritual unity. Considering some nice moments from the book where, by weaving some sort of story and interactions of characters, Carroll has conveyed the ideas that makes profound sense. “However, she soon made out that she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine feet high. I wish I hadn’t cried so much!’ said Alice, as she swam about trying to find her way out. I shall be punished for it now’ (Lewis, Carroll, 1865 p27) While reading this paragraph, you somehow feel that the lesson you are learning from it is that you should not waste your energy in feeling sad and crying if you experience a setback in life. Most of the times, the sad phase is temporary and you do get out of it. And when you do get out of it, you end up regretting lamenting on it when it was happening. Now, saying that Alice was in pool of her own tears does not make any sense. No matter how much you cry, you cannot shed so many tears that it can create a sea around you. However, by using this nonsense idea, Carroll has conveyed a powerful message. In one other instance, Alice’s friend Dodo suggests to have a caucus race to dry their wet body. The paragraph gpes like this : “There was no, ‘one, two, three and away’, but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was overbt who has won?’ to which Dodo answers, “Everybody has won and all must have prizes.” (Lewis, Carroll, 1865 p.33-34) Just imagine this scenario. A race is being conducted among the friends but that race has no rules but allows you to run as and when you like it and from where you want to start and end where you want to end. The race seems to be such a disorder and a disorganized event. But look at it from a perspective of a win-win situation and you will see that there is a deep spiritual meaning behind it. In today’s world unruly behavior among teenagers and criminal activities by children are growing day by day. It is said that people are becoming wild because they are being stopped from being natural and expressive. There are too many restrictions, expectations and suppressions imposed upon them ( Zipes p. xi). They are the victim of the rat race of the society. The Caucus race that Alice and her friends play is free from any restrictions, rules, expectations and selfish motives. Everyone has one common motive and that is to get dried, they enjoy the play of their energy by running till they get tired and in the end, everyone wins. What a beautiful idea is conveyed through the race! For a moment, this race makes us to think that world will be a beautiful place if race is conducted in such a way that everyone of us win. As childrens literature criticism started developing as an academic discipline (roughly in the past thirty years or so, it is possible to view some historical inputs by Peter Hunt. According to hunt, Childrens literature criticism became involved with wider work in literary theory and cultural studies. Many childrens literature critics now point out that children are not one group, but differ according to gender, ethnicity, religious background, and so on. Feminist childrens literature critics such as Lissa Paul (1987) therefore try to work out how boys and girls read differently, for instance. Other critics (Hunt, P. 1991) There is another beautiful character in the book and that is of a Caterpillar. The Caterpillar asks Alice who she is and Alice replies, “I-I hardly know sir, just at present- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.” (Lewis, Carroll, 1865 p 54) This dialogue between the Caterpillar and Alice shows the idea of identification we have with our body, our mind, our upbringing and our role in the society. We get so attached to our mind and the body and our thoughts that if we experience some unexpected change in our life, there are many chances that we might lose our balance and go mad. Alice finds it difficult to tell the Caterpillar that she is Alice, a girl who is lost in the wonderland even when she knows that even after changing so many times, she is still the same girl. But her attachment and the identification with her old self is so strong that her mind finds it difficult to get in sync with the body. This intelligent interaction between the Caterpillar and Alice makes us to think about who we really are? Are we defined by our job, our background, our degrees and our achievements? Or are we simple human beings who have feelings, thoughts and energies no matter where we stand socially or how we look? Nonsense always has a sense in it. We have to get out of the mundane life to se the sense behind the nonsense ( Tigges 219) ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is a book that has all the ideas, characters, behaviors, lives and the events that seem nonsense. But ultimately, everything starts making sense. As Susan Stwart has brilliantly put it that ‘nonsense is “perfect”, ‘pure”, an untouched surface of meaning whose every gesture is reflexive ( Tigges 219). One has to go beyond the mundane to understand the brilliant and illuminating world of nonsense. Edward Lear is one such author who has created a beautiful, exciting, funny and colorful world of poems which does not make any sense in the practical world. His poems are short, rhythmic and have unusual characters doing unusual things. But when you think about these poems, they have wonderful sense hidden in it. Taking the following poem, for example: There was a Young Lady whose bonnet, Came untied when the birds sate upon it; But she said: I dont care! All the birds in the air Are welcome to sit on my bonnet! (Lear, Edward, 1846) To find any sense in the above poem is very difficult. At the same time, it is very easy. Lear is talking about a woman who is completely at ease with the fact that someone else is using a thing that she owns. She does not have any objection in sharing her bonnet with the birds and shows a very friendly approach even when they are creatures from different species. This gives the message of love and sharing towards the beings who are different from us. Here is another poem that should be considered: There was on Old Man of the Isles, Whose face was pervaded with smiles; He sung high dum diddle,And played on the fiddle, That amiable Man of the Isles (Lear, Edward, 1846) This poem brings together the aspects like face, smile, fiddle and amiability in human being. The poem has a rhyme and creates an association of facial smile with music and love. Let us understand one thing that children are very quick in grasping the idea behind the words and rhymes even if they are not aware of it consciously. The description that the old man’s face was always full of smiles gives the idea of happiness. Somehow, this poem has a tremendous ‘feel good’ factor about it. So not only children but even adults can feel the magic behind this nonsense words. Looking at another interesting poem; There was an Old Man who supposed, That the street door was partially closed; But some very large rats, Ate his coats and his hats, While that futile old gentleman dozed (Lear, Edward, 1846) Does this poem make any sense? Rats are described as large and in the picture that shows the old man sleeping, the rats are shown almost of human size. The idea we can get from this nonsense poem is that it is always better to make sure that tings are taken care of appropriately before we relax. If we are not alert, things might go wrong and we can suffer loss. Lear’s poems are pure work of nonsense. They have funny names, funny incidences and funny people doing things that are impossible in the world we live in. But that is only on the surface There was a Young Lady of Lucca, Whose lovers completely forsook her; She ran up a tree, And said, Fiddle-de-dee! Which embarassed the people of Lucca (Lear, Edward, 1846) This poem talks about a young lady called Lucca. It says that her lovers cheated her and left her. To teach a lesson to them she declared their cheating to everyone in the town. And the revelation of the truth embarrassed everyone. Now here we can understand that ‘she ran up the tree’ is synonymous with saying that she attracted everyone’s attention and exposed the truth. There is another peculiar thing about the characters portrayed by Edward Lear and that is the boldness and the flamboyance with which the characters do their actions. The characters are active, energetic, free and natural. They are shown living their life as they want to. There is a feel of complete independence and style with which they live. The names of the places are interesting and the pictures showing the characters are very exciting. They take us to the wonderful world of fun, excitement and fantasy. Lewis Carroll has also described the wonderland as a beautiful, enchanting and exciting place. Alice has been shown talking and playing with birds, animals and set of cards. There is a beautiful idea of one big happy family living together in the wonderland. There are magical medicines and plants, interesting and friendly animals and also interesting king and queen who are actually from the set of cards. Carroll has put forward an idea that everything right from living things like man and animals to non-living things like plants and cards are important entity of this world. Things like animals talking to human beings, king from the set of cards, a cat appearing and disappearing out of nowhere, Alice’s body size changing from tiny to nine feet tall etc. seem very illogical and from the world of fantasy. However, they have a reflection in the real world. Alice’s adventure through the wonderland is a book that teaches a great deal about life, love, understanding and unity. The story talks about the idea of ‘whole’ and the idea of ‘universal’ unity. Universe is not just about human beings. It is about everything that exist in his universe. Conclusion In today’s world, to find logic and order and to remain in the world of senses, we are missing a great deal of beauty. In his study of best selling books in 1990, Engelhartd has found that because of their intention of following a particular formulae, the books have guaranteed a predictable end no matter what sort of excitement the children go though. This has made the world of fantasy boring and dull ( Zipes p5). It has been noted that children, parents and teachers are losing interest in reading. The ‘art’ of reading and loving books is dying. Rather than reading books for joy, excitement, fun and magical experience, children are being made to read the books to learn grammar, language syntax, answer the questions etc ( Zipes p25). The essence is completely lost. However, with the attempt of making children’s stories logical and practical, the world of magic and fantasy is dying, and with it is dying the wonder and the bliss in children’s eyes. They are being exposed to television, video games, robo toys and machines. This is making them violent, unruly, careless and rude. There is a need of nonsense in today’s world. The world is losing its sense by ignoring the importance of nonsense. We need the presence of fantasy world to keep ourselves alive and excited about life as children are. The humanization of all the characters in the book ‘Alice in wonderland’ has a very important message. It gives a message that no matter from where we come, what background we have and what species we belong to, we all are one. The quantum physics have now accepted the fact that we all are one. At the deepest level, we are noting but the field of energy working together. No matter where we live or what we do, we are all correlated with each other. This fact seems nonsense. However, the quantum physicists have proved that there is a tremendous sense in this nonsense. How can we be one when we are so separate and different? But we are, as we are all made of atoms and are part of one big energy field. We are a part of one whole universe ( Chopra, 2003 p40). Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll has somehow made us to live this truth of quantum physics by making their characters do weird things gracefully and also by showing them as energetic beings full of flamboyance and excitement. Nonsense has the ability to go beyond logic and ‘obvious’. It has the ability to take you to a different world altogether. The nonsense can create disorder but through this disorder is the path to the true order. The power that a small nonsense rhyme has cannot be beaten by any logical genius. A good example of this is the poem ‘twinkle twinkle little star’. A scientist can , with the help of theories and texts explain the facts about the stars. However, the truth remains that he does not have the ability to take me as close to the stars as the nonsense rhyme like ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ can . Only nonsense has a power to show you the sense of life. Only nonsense can break your mundane and mechanical mental patterns of thought and life and take you to a beautiful world of spiritual and extraordinary reality. And through this reality, the peace and the order prevails. References Lear, Edward (1846) Nonsense Songs Lewis, Carroll (1865) Alice’s Adventure In Wonderland, London, Penguin Group Gardner Martin, (2001) The Annotated Alice, Penguin Hunt, Peter (2001) Childrens Literature, Blackwell Pub Literature online-http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing/index.jsp Carpenter, Humphrey, Secret Gardens (Allen and Unwin, 1985) Hunt, Peter, An Introduction to Childrens Literature (OUP 1994) Wullschlager, Jackie, Inventing Wonderland (Methuen 1995) Zipes, Jack, Sticks and Stones : The Troublesome Success of Childrens Literature (Routledge 2002) Egoff S.,Stubbs G.T.,AshleyL.F.(1980) Only Connect:reading on childrens literature, Oxford University Press Jackson Rosemary, (1981) Fantasy:The Literature of Subversion, Methuen, London and New York Knoepflmacher U.C. (1998) Ventures into Childland:Victorians,Fairy Tales and Femininity Hunt Peter and Lenz Millicent (2001) Alternative Worlds in Fantasy Fiction, Continuum:London and New York Rieder, John.: Edward Lears limericks: the function of childrens nonsense poetry. Childrens Literature: annual of the Modern Language Association Division on Childrens Literature and the Childrens Literature Association (New Haven, CT) [1998] , p.47-60. Clifton Snider Victorian Trickster: A Jungian Consideration of Edward Lears Nonsense Verse available online at http://www.csulb.edu/~csnider/edward.lear.html Orewll,G.(1950) Shooting an Elephant: And Other Essays, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers Dilworth Thomas (1994)Society and the self in limericks of Learin Review of English Studies, pp42-62 Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense (http://www.nonsenselit.org/Lear/BoN/bon060.html , Retrieved on April 21, 2009) The poem Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (http://www.kididdles.com/lyrics/t023.html , Retrieved on April 21, 2009) Chopra, Deepak (2003) The Spontaneos Fulfillment Of Desire, New York, Three Rivers Press, Lear Edward, Book Of Nonsense, Forgotten Books, 1889 Osho. Meditation : The First and The Last Freedom. India, Tao Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Tigges , Wim. Exploration In The Field Of Nonsense, Rodopi , 1987 Zipes, Jack, Stick and Stones, Routledge, 2002 Read More