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The importance of children's literature
The importance of children's literature
The importance of children's literature
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The Circular Journey
Children’s literature has a subversive linear pattern within the dominant circular journey in traditional children`s literature. The basic pattern in children`s literature is the circular journey. That is, the plot follows the trajectory home-departure from home-adventure-return home. The purpose of the journey is the maturing of the child including the reader, but the return home is a matter of maturity and the change of thinking. In the article, Mid-Summer Night’s Dream it talks about how most fairy tales the protagonists escape from the real world and go on a journey into the fantasy world, which in the end the protagonists return to the real world becoming more self-confident, knowledgeable, and adjusted individual. For example, in the novel, and Water Babies written by Charles Kingsley, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, written by Lewis Carroll, and Peter Pan, written by J.M. Barrie’s, we can see many examples of this kind of circular journey to life. The linear pattern is much more attractive but it demands quite an amount of courage for a child to accept the absence of their home and live a “perfect” life. This means that children`s literature has real, argumentative readers, and practical consequential issues.
The Water Babies depicts the “perfect world” to live in. Like the children’s literature, Peter Pan and Alice in the Wonderland, the “Water World” is the key symbol in this novel. Kingsley tries to show that “The Water World” is the “Perfect” place to live in, since it forgets about the adults and there are no rules. It is not escapism, but they key to restoration of the real world. Therefore the spontaneous dictation in this novel is the object of pursuit.
In this novel, the ideal world ha...
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...e a similar pattern on their plot. That is, the plot follows the trajectory home-departure from home-adventure-return home. These authors try to emphasize on the fantasy world and gives the protagonist a choice, a choice of choosing the real world vs the fantasy world. However, in all the novels, the protagonists choose to come back to the real world. The return of the home is a sign of change in the protagonist. The return to the real world shows that the protagonist is more mature and it shows that the protagonists are more self-confident, knowledgeable, and adjusted individual. Although Children`s literature can deal with death, sadness and uncomfortable issues similarly to how adult literature deals with those issues. Although Children`s literature can deal with death, sadness and uncomfortable issues similarly to how adult literature deals with those issues.