The Problem of Literature for Children - Book Report/Review Example

of the of the Concerned 2 September 2008 Toy Soldier Narratives: The Inbuilt Contradictions The biggest dilemma with children's literature since all the ages and times has been that much of it has been written by adults. Many a times the writers composing children's literature manage to successfully identify with the nebulous, malleable and impressionable mindset of an average child and do succeed in crafting stories that stimulate the child imagination with their creativity and charm. Sadly, it may sound horrible, but children's literature can intentionally or unknowingly may also be used as a tool to condition the unsuspecting minds with the dominant ideologies, expectations and dogmas of the times in which it is written. Thus children's literature is not merely about children only. As an instrument of conditioning, it assumes a much serious scope and importance that deserves the questioning attention of the concerned adults and literary critics. A plethora of studies unambiguously point towards the fact that children's books and narratives do play a vital role in the early development of a child because of their relevance as an easily accessible cultural resource that children knowingly or unknowingly refer to, to gain information about the world surrounding them (Tsao 1). The conditioning influences exerted by the children's narratives do unambiguously have a direct impact on the children's perception and the way they interpret the world around them. The narratives that the children read or listen to always have a deep psycho social influence on them, considering the fact that childhood represents that tender phase of life when children actively shape ideas in their mind about their role in the society, with the aid of the information being provided to them (Rudman 5). In general, children's literature is expected to incorporate such characters and events that children can readily consume to evaluate and correlate their own actions, views and opinions (Mendoza and Reese). It gives the children an opportunity to experience how the world may look like from someone else's vantage point, thereby allowing them to expand their personal view pertaining to self and the outside world (Tsao 2). The popular children's literature plays a pivotal role in the formation of self image and the consolidation of a child's identity as a man, woman, soldier, super human or a range of possible attributes (Singh). Children's literature is a potent medium for the transmission of a society's culture to the young ones. The toy soldier narrative is an important genre of children's narrative that has managed to retain its relevance and popularity even in the 21st century. However, the disturbing problem is that the toy soldier narratives may often send contradictory messages to the nascent minds. On the one side they may implant a morbid fascination for violence, straight jacketed military discipline; authoritarian hierarchical set ups and gender stereotyping in the young and impressionable minds. On the contrary, they may also encourage the children to develop respect for self discipline, cooperation, team work and social responsibility and accountability. Analyzing the two celebrated toy soldier narratives that is 'The steadfast soldier' by Hans Christian Andersen and 'Lord of nutcracker men' by the Canadian author Iain Lawrence may turn out to be really eye opening in the given context. 'The steadfast Soldier' is a sad, gloomy and perhaps one of the most unusual of the Andersen's tales. The underlying message in the story is that of a pathetic submission and passivity symbolized by the self complacent, one legged soldier, docilely bearing with the ensuing circumstances. In a social context, this may motivate a child to cherish the ideal of a pitiable self denial and self effacement before some higher authority. In a pragmatic scenario, that authority may turn out to be, tough circumstances, the school bully, some child abuser or the state or the nation. In the very beginning of the narrative, the reader is told that all the twenty five toy soldiers looked alike as they were cast out the "same old tin spoon". At a psycho social level, such a narrative may inspire a child to prefer homogeneity and uniformity at the cost of individuality and the independence of thought and conduct. It is a known fact that children like to play with toy soldiers since the times immemorial. However, the current research and studies have revealed that they usually do so only after actually witnessing or hearing about the martial chivalry in some narrative or actual incident (Jackyl 2). By familiarizing the young children with the idea of absolute allegiance to authority at the cost of personal conviction and initiative, 'The toy story' tacitly nudges the children to embrace the claims of military duty and unquestioning submission that their country expects of them or is projected as expecting of them. Their runs a discernable strain of irony throughout the narrative in the sense that the steadfast soldier's panache for military decorum and discipline bring him in direct contradiction with the amorous desires seething within his heart, that vied for a realistic expression and some sort of proactive action. The very contradiction between the martial expectations and the human aspirations are highlighted by the song "Farewell, warrior! ever brave, Drifting onward to the grave." The ultimate tragedy associated with such a toy narrative is that some innocent reader may not be able to see through the moron like chivalry of the steadfast soldier and may subconsciously aspire to exhibit the same unflinching sense of martial duty as a grown up. 'The steadfast soldier' strongly smacks of gender bias in the sense that it encourages the young male readers to repress normal, human emotions, their by severing them from the sense of what they really are and how they truly feel (Pollack 45). The narrative perpetuates a stereotypical idea of masculinity. Fox rightly argues that both boys and girls should "be allowed to be as real in literature as they are in life (87)." On the contrary, 'The steadfast soldier' builds upon the stereotypical notion of women being frail and delicate by representing the tiny little lady in the narrative as being made of paper and muslin. While 'The steadfast soldier' by Andersen amply qualifies to be labelled as anachronistic, the more contemporary toy soldier narrative that is 'Lord of the nutcracker men' by Iain Lawrence is more cerebral in the sense that though it begins with the innocent fascination of a ten year old boy Johnny with the wooden soldiers that his father carved for him, near the climax, the very same toy soldiers lead to the disillusionment and disenchantment of Johnny with the much celebrated ideas of war and warfare. Lawrence clearly stands out as a more realistic and pragmatic author in the sense that he introduces his young and impressionable readers to the horrors and futility of war with a master like deftness. In the narrative, the toy soldiers turn out to be a constructive force that realistically transcend beyond the staging of mock slaughter and atrocities to be the silent and helpless symbols of senseless violence and bloodshed (Silva 1). The severe repercussions of the war on Johnny's father's health and psychology as a soldier posted on the frontline gets manifested in the augmenting grotesqueness and spookiness of the wooden soldiers sent by him to Johnny (The Christian Science Monitor). The very aversion of Johnny towards acting a god to the toy soldiers and his strange belief that the atrocities at the war front were infact blown up manifestations of his harmless play with his toy soldiers, decisively unravel the fact that the toy soldiers in the narrative were the harmless warriors, which became the instruments of expression for the violence lurking in Johnny's subconscious mind, and in a broader context, in the consciousness of the entire humanity (Bloom 1). Thus the very same toy soldiers which were the living symbols of a passive allegiance to violence in 'The steadfast soldier' become the agents of emancipation from violence in the 'Lord of the nutcracker men' the myriad well constructed characters in the narrative successfully manage to shatter the stereotypical gender expectations. Johnny's mother's bold initiative of going for work in an Arsenal cracks the traditional notions of women being weak and frail. The obsession of Johnny's schoolteacher, Hubert Tuttle, with his late wife's roses belies the idea of men being insensitive and tough. Murdoch Simms' seemingly cowardly act of shooting himself to escape from the horrors of war mocks the conventional idea about courage and manliness. There is no denying the fact that 'The steadfast soldier' and 'Lord of the nutcracker men' are two toy soldier narratives written in different times and places. The obvious contradictions between the two positions taken by the toy soldiers in the two narratives infact highlight the ideological and cultural contradictions between the times when these two narratives were written. The very shift in the symbolical significance of the toy soldiers in the two narratives is indicative of the evolutionary leap that the mankind has managed to make in the post World Wars scenario, in its quest for peace and gender equality. Total Words: 1515 Works Cited Bloom, Susan P. "Lord of the Nutcracker Men (Fiction)". The Horn Book Magazine. 1 November 2001. 2 October 2008. Read More