Truman Capotes In Cold Blood: A Nonfiction Murder Mystery :: In Cold Blood Essays

In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the author uses a style of writing combining factual, journalistic writing with the mystery and intrigue normally found in traditional fiction novels to develop a new genre that critics found unique from the modernists of his time. In the beginning of this book, the murders and victims seem unrelated, but as the book moves ahead, the relationship becomes clear. The victims, who are the Clutter family of four, are the typical all-American family. The family is murdered in their own home by two ex-convicts named Dick and Perry. The murder takes place in Holcomb, Kansas, but Dick and Perry travel around the U.S. and Mexico cashing bad checks until they are finally caught in Las Vegas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Capote’s general style revolves around a family and home destroyed within a context of hidden corruption, alienation, and loneliness (Kazin). His sympathy and compassion towards his characters shows how involved he is in his subjects.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Capote’s writing style in the book In Cold Blood is very straightforward. He writes from an omniscient point of view. In preparing to write In Cold Blood, Mr. Capote lived in the town for five years. In the course of that time, he interviewed everyone including the two murders Dick and Perry. H had taken over 6,000 pages of notes. Each scene in the book is climatic like a movie (Kazin). They go back and forth the investigation in Kansas to the adventures of the murders. The writing and scenes are visual (Kazin).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Truman Capote’s writing falls into the modernism period. The Clutter family represents the ideal American family. The father is a successful farmer and a prominent figure in the town. The daughter is the all-American girl â€Å"†¦be a straight-A student, the president of her class, a leader in the 4-H program and the Young Methodists League, a skilled rider, an excellent musician (piano, clarinet), an annual winner at the county fair (pastry, preserves, needlework, flower arrangement)†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (18). Capote is also experimental with his formatting of the book by cutting from scene to scene to make the reader feel as if they are reading two stories at the same time. That reinforces the thought and fact that the two things are happening at the same time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This book can be considered both journalism and novelism (Langbaum). Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: A Nonfiction Murder Mystery :: In Cold Blood Essays In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the author uses a style of writing combining factual, journalistic writing with the mystery and intrigue normally found in traditional fiction novels to develop a new genre that critics found unique from the modernists of his time. In the beginning of this book, the murders and victims seem unrelated, but as the book moves ahead, the relationship becomes clear. The victims, who are the Clutter family of four, are the typical all-American family. The family is murdered in their own home by two ex-convicts named Dick and Perry. The murder takes place in Holcomb, Kansas, but Dick and Perry travel around the U.S. and Mexico cashing bad checks until they are finally caught in Las Vegas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Capote’s general style revolves around a family and home destroyed within a context of hidden corruption, alienation, and loneliness (Kazin). His sympathy and compassion towards his characters shows how involved he is in his subjects.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Capote’s writing style in the book In Cold Blood is very straightforward. He writes from an omniscient point of view. In preparing to write In Cold Blood, Mr. Capote lived in the town for five years. In the course of that time, he interviewed everyone including the two murders Dick and Perry. H had taken over 6,000 pages of notes. Each scene in the book is climatic like a movie (Kazin). They go back and forth the investigation in Kansas to the adventures of the murders. The writing and scenes are visual (Kazin).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Truman Capote’s writing falls into the modernism period. The Clutter family represents the ideal American family. The father is a successful farmer and a prominent figure in the town. The daughter is the all-American girl â€Å"†¦be a straight-A student, the president of her class, a leader in the 4-H program and the Young Methodists League, a skilled rider, an excellent musician (piano, clarinet), an annual winner at the county fair (pastry, preserves, needlework, flower arrangement)†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (18). Capote is also experimental with his formatting of the book by cutting from scene to scene to make the reader feel as if they are reading two stories at the same time. That reinforces the thought and fact that the two things are happening at the same time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This book can be considered both journalism and novelism (Langbaum).

Symbols and Symbolism in The Great Gatsby Essay -- Great Gatsby Essays

Symbolism in The Great Gatsby       Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has more relevance in today’s society than it did when it was written. With the recent societal trend that emphasizes lack of morals and material wealth over a meaningful existence, Fitzgerald’s message really hits home. Which is more important - money or love? Social status or being true to oneself? Fitzgerald uses metaphor and symbols to great effect in order to illustrate what can happen when the pursuit of happiness becomes warped (by American ideals) into the pursuit of money.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   One of the major symbols in the novel is the color green. Green represents the hopes and dreams of people striving to accomplish the American dream of wealth and glory. Green is the color of money and is often used to purvey the concept of wealth, especially with reference to Gatsby. Whenever Gatsby's mansion is described there is always mention of the color green. His house is surrounded by "a large green lawn" or the "green ivy" which grows on his house. The interior of his car is described as "a sort of green leather conservatory" ... ...arning and take a second look to determine what is truly fulfilling in life. Works Cited Bewley, Marius. "Scott Fitzgerald's Criticism of America." In Modern Critical Interpretations: The Great Gatsby. edited by Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers. 1986. 11-27. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner Classic, 1986. McAdams, Tony. "The Great Gatsby: An Examination of Metaphor and Symbolism." In Readings on The Great Gatsby. edited by Katie de Koster. San Diego, California: Greenhaven Press. 1998. 111-120.

Is Overpopulation the Main Cause of Child Labour

Is Overpopulation the Main Cause of Child Labour? Child labour refers to the employment of children to benefit their family financial situation where they are exploited to danger and hazard. It may interfere with their education and hamper the children physically, mentally, spiritually or morally. Children exposed to child labour since young can be distorted or disabled due to carrying heavy loads or forced into unnatural positions at work for long hours. Many say that the main cause of child labour is overpopulation.Though I agree that overpopulation is one of the important causes of child labour, but I think that it is not the main cause of it. According to a report from UNICEF in 2010, an estimate number of 158 million children are engaged in child labour and this is about 17% of the total number of children and according to International Labour Organization, it has increased to 215 million currently. Over the years, researchers have provided sufficient evidences that a large popu larity of child labour occurs in developing countries.Majority of it happens mostly in the rural of Asian and African countries and they are mostly victims of scarce resources for example food supply and water. However, child labour is also common in some developed countries, for example in the United States, more than 230,000 children work in agriculture. Reported by Edmonds and Pavcnik, 85% of working children are employed for doing works related to the agriculture. Countries where child labour has become a common practice include Bangladesh, Tanzania, Myanmar, Yemen, India and many more.Below is a case of child labour in Bangladesh: â€Å"Mohammad Faisal Hossain is a twelve-year-old boy who works to support his family. To meet their needs, he holds down two jobs on the packed roads of the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka: selling newspapers in the early morning and working as a helping hand on a small minibus. Every morning, Mohammad collects newspapers from the retailer and weaves his way through the crowded railway stations and bus stops. On an average day, he earns 70 to 80 taka, less than US$1, at this job. His second job takes up most of his time until evening.On the minibus, he shouts out the vehicles’ destination to potential passengers and collects fares from each rider. At this job, Mohammad worries for his safety. His wish is to go to school everyday like other children but his mother, whose once a maid servant but left after she fell sick, couldn’t afford sending him to school after fifth grade. At this crucial moment between death and survival, his father left them behind which made them even more helpless and he has no other option but to work. † — reported by UNICEF — Causes of Child Labour Cases of child labour are mostly found in families who are suffering from poverty.Poorer families are usually overpopulated and they have more children and family members to feed and to take care of. In addition to these, they ha ve limited resources of food supply and other basic necessities essential for living as they can’t afford anything more. These factors have driven children to work so that their financial situation at home will improve. Exposed to harms, abuses and exploits, the children are deprived from their education. Overpopulation in an area will also cause the demand of resources like food supply to increase and therefore, people will compete for the available resources.This means that the poorer families will have less access to it. However, personally, I think that overpopulation is not the main cause of child labour. Poverty is the primary cause of child labour. Poverty leads to many other factors which force children into labour. Despite the fact that the parents know that child labour is incorrect, they are forced to choose this as the other option will be worse, for instance, without sufficient money for the basic needs of life, people will become malnourished and infected with d ieaseas which will eventually cause death.Besides that, poorer families tend to be less educated. The illiteracy of parents will cause them to neglect the physical and emotional development of a child as they do not realize the importance of one’s education and the effect of it they have on their future. Due to their illiteracy, the grown-ups are finding it difficult to find jobs that can provide them enough income to support their family. Now in the 21st century, most of the well-paid jobs are to be done with the help of advanced technology and it is expected that their employees have knowledge of how to use a computer.Thus, it is expected that the poorer ones has less chance to be employed as they don’t even know how to read or write, is it not? The increase in unemployments of the adults has caused the children to become the source of income. Children tend to work in factories because employers find it more profitable to employ children as they cost less and can ext ract more work. This problem has been known and throughout the years, much aid has been gathered to help increase the employment rate in rural areas.Governments and communities have been struggling hard to try find ways to bridge the digital divide as this may be the first step in help eradicating poverty. However, in my opinion, I think that the main culprit of the practice of child labour is the government. The ignorance of corrupted governments have caused cases of child labour to increase at a fast pace. It is the only right thing that the governments make sure that their people are not suffering from the lack of basic needs.They are the ones responsible for the countries affairs and they need to take actions to eradicate poverty in the country as fast as possible for example implementing new laws or enforcing existing laws to ban the employment of certain age. Here is a case where child labour is being ignored: An underage farm worker, Molefe Mogale, 14, was working on a farm i n Rustenburg when his hand was chopped off while operating a machine. He died in hospital a day later, on 26 July, Phetoe said. â€Å"So far only a case [of murder and child labour] is opened and nothing further is done.No arrest, no prosecution†¦ because the case was opened by the farmer we were told that they will not charge him. † — reported by Times Live –Effects of Child Labour Child labour deprives children of a proper childhood. They do not complete their development all roundly and this may lead to many psychological imbalances. When they grow up, the child labourers remains uneducated which means that they will be unable to find a good job. Hence, they become incapable of taking care their own family which means they need to make the later generation to work and thus, the history repeats itself.The uneducated of the child labourers will condemn them to a life of unskilled and badly paid work and this perpetuates poverty. Also, children who never ha ve the chance to enjoy the fun of their childhood are expected to reach mental and emotional maturity at a very early age. This is highly dangerous as these children will start displaying adult behaviors such as smoking and taking drugs. Employers are now taking the liking towards employing children as they are often paid much less than adults. These causes the unemployments of adults increase and thus, more families will force their children to work.Child labour also has impacts on the economy of the country. Despite the fact that child labour will not have evident impact when their young, but we all know that the future of our world lies in the hands of the the earlier generation. Possible Scenarios As I have mentioned above, I strongly disagree that overpopulation is the main cause of child labour. Poverty causes overpopulation and the ignorance of the corrupted government are the ones to blame for not putting enough effort to eradicate poverty. Corrupt Governments ?Continuation of Poverty ? Overpopulated Families ? Child Labour The children now are the future leaders of this place and if child labour is not stopped, it means that our world will be ? lled with more uneducated people. This will bring much problems as there will be many vacancies for the o? ce jobs in developed countries because not many of them are capable for the jobs. When people of the country has a lower income, it means that the total income of the country will also fall. Then, the global market will be a? ected.The gap between the rich and the poor will be even harder to bridge and it will be an eternal struggle for the government to eradicate poverty in their country. People around the world will face problem getting access to the services and products in rural countries when the unemployment rate increases. Many businesses that required special skills will not be able to have the jobs ? lled and eventually fall into bankruptcy. Businesses like manufacturing factories and farming will be cramped with people as they are the only job that the people are capable of doing because they do not require much skills.However, the employers will not be able to employ everybody in that area and the many more people will remain unemployed. Child labour will also cause harm to the countries’ nations. It can bring harm to our society. The children who are not brought up in the right way will not know that stealing is immoral and in order to survive, they will steal things from others. A recent case shows that a 10 year old kid was beaten to death because the innocent kid was slow at things. Imagine that you are the parent of the child, how will you react?They will react rashly and harshly towards the loss of their child and cause unsettlement and turmoil around the society. As more families face the same thing, the problem will get bigger and the whole country will be a? ected, forcing the government to take actions. What Should Be Done To Stop Child Labour? In my opini on, the government bears the most responsibility to stop child labour. Throughout the years, many di? erent laws have been implemented to ban the abuse of children and so on. Below are some examples of laws implemented to overcome the issue: 1919: The Minimum Age (Industry) Convention (No. ) prohibited the work of children under the age of 14 in industrial establishments. 1930: The ILO Forced Labour Convention (No. 29) protected children from forced or compulsory labour, such as victims of tra? cking, children in bondage, like Iqbal, and those exploited by prostitution and pornography. 1999: ILO unanimously adopted the Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182). It called for States to prevent the most damaging child exploitation practices or the worst forms that currently exist.Besides that Declaration of the Right of the Child is issued, stating a few important rules to help protect the chi ldren against unfair treatment and the protect their rights to have access to certain things like education. Declaration of the Rights of Child 1. All children have the right to what follows, no matter what their race, colour sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, or where they were born or who they were born to. 2. You have the special right to grow up and to develop physically and spiritually in a healthy and normal way, free and with dignity. . You have a right to a name and to be a member of a country. 4. You have a right to special care and protection and to good food, housing and medical services. 5. You have the right to special care if handicapped in any way. 6. You have the right to love and understanding, preferably from parents and family, but from the government where these cannot help. 7. You have the right to go to school for free, to play, and to have an equal chance to develop yourself and to learn to be responsible and useful. 8. You have the right alw ays to be among the ? st to get help. 9. You have the right to be protected against cruel acts or exploitation, e. g. you shall not be obliged to do work which hinders your development both physically and mentally. 10. You should be taught peace, understanding, tolerance and friendship among all people. The enforcement of existing laws is very important because there will not be e? ective if they are not enforced. There is one Chinese idiom that says: â€Å"Give a man a ? sh and you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to ? sh and you feed him for life. I think that the government or communities should organize vocational education and training for older child labourers so that they have better skills which means a better job in the future. Besides the implementation of new laws and enforcing the existing laws, in papers prepared for the 1997 International Conference on Child Labour, it was revealed that child labour can best be combated through providing better access to education, raising social awareness and so on. According to UNICEF, for every year of quality education that a child receives, their adult earning potential increases by a worldwide average of 10%.Governments in several countries have tried to make the enrollment of school compulsory and free of charge. This is accomplished by collecting funds and reducing the use of money on less important things. This method has been proven successful in Malawi in the year of 1994 when the government made primary education free. Research stated than from one academic year to the next, enrollment has increased by roughly 50%. However, I believe that stopping child labour is not only the responsibility of the governments. The society needs to contribute too as we are all living as one.I think that ? rstly, we need to be aware of what is happening to them and we can do this by observing the World Day Against Child Labour every year on June 12. We can start by spreading the words around and maybe start a commun ity in our society to unite against the problems by collecting funds to aid poorer families so that they can a? ord sending their children to school, gather old and unused items from people to donate to them so that they can spend their money on something else, organize campaigns to build rehabilitation and vocational centers to teach them special skills, and so on.Above are some of the basic things that we can do to help but to make things more e? ective, we can write to companies that use child labour and demand that they stop, contact Foreign A? airs, Industry, Trade and Labour Ministers to demand that trade be tied to human, children and labour rights, lobby the government to make education for all children a top priority, etc. We can all make a di? erence and anything will be possible if we put much e? ort into it. Small things that we do can make a great di? erence even only by spreading words about the e? ects and great impacts of child labour.In 2006, the International Labou r Organization published a report called The End of Child Labour:Within Reach. There was one very special fact noted in this report: â€Å"Today, there are 28 million fewer child labourers than there were four years ago! This means that the work you are doing—we are all doing—to stop child labour is truly creating positive change. But there is still much more to be done. † Global Views People have come around to know about this serious issue of child labour. Many communities and organizations have contributed much to help reduce and if possible, stop the practice of child labour as it brings bad e? cts tot he child and the people of the country. The best way to help raising awareness is to have celebrities to spread the word. This will be the most e? ective way as people from all around the world can hear them. Several presidents of some countries, including the ex-president of England – Tony Blair, have join hands with communities such as Global March to help keep the rights of the children. In my opinion, I believe that aid need to be provided with them urgently. I think that every children in this world have rights to receive equal opportunity of education and survival hances. It is unfair that the children have to pay the price of the consequences of poverty when they didn’t even do anything to cause it. Some people might think that it is none of their business as long as they are safe under the roof and has a great future laid beneath them, but they do not know that the continuation of child labour will eventually cause harm to the community and the country. Some of the child labourers even commented that being put in jail is better than their current life because they are fed and sheltered while in jail.The most basic things that we can do to help is to organize trips to slump-down areas to bring a little joy back to their life and to teach them special skills that might be useful to them in the future. International Vi ews: 1. â€Å"When you produce a bullet, you commit another sin against mankind, but when you make a toy or a book you bring hope and smile to a child. † — Kailash Satyarthi –International Coordinator of the Global March, Manila 23 January, 1998. 2. â€Å"†¦ 180 million kids are engaged in the worst forms of child labour. Put it all together and it is not only morally unacceptable, but politically dangerous. — Juan Samavia –3. â€Å"Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time. † — Grace Abbott –4. â€Å"In the past, children were all too often viewed more as property than people. Many victories for children's rights have been won in the last 100 years, such as child labor laws, protecting children from having to work long hours in unsafe conditions; p ublic education, allowing all children to have access to learning; and laws preventing child abuse.But there is still much to do in protecting children's rights around the world. † — Robert Alan Silverstein — National Views: 1. â€Å"Now is the time to act – for the future of our generation. The question of child abuse is crucial, we call on the general public to join hands with us. † — Boonthan Verawongse –South-East Asia Coordinator for the Global March, Malaysia 18 February,1998 2. â€Å"It’s very important for businesses to understand while they are providing employment to the families†¦ that they also have a responsibility to the families and the children who are born of those parents† — Victor Karunan –Voicing Their Thoughts: 1. This is our right – that (adults) have to listen. This is children's rights. And if they are not abiding with that right, we will work harder to make them hear. â⠂¬  — Om Prakash –November 19, 2006 2. â€Å"We want to study and learn, not beg on the streets. During the worldwide march I learnt that I, too, am a real person. Now I want to become an engineer. † — Basu –11 years old Nepalese street child, Thailand 14 February,1998 3. â€Å"Why do we have to pay the price of poverty. We didn't create poverty, adults did. † — Sultana –12 years old garment factory worker, Bangladesh 14 February,1998.Conclusion In conclusion, I disagree that overpopulation is the main cause of child labour because I think that a corrupt government in the country contributes most to it. A country’s availability of resources and a? airs like poverty rates are all managed by the government. If the government was e? ective, then the poverty rate will be lower and decrease but a corrupted government will only cause the country to become even poorer, hence increasing the cases of child labour. Governments pl ay a major role in eradicating poverty and stopping child labour as the impacts of the continuation of child labour will be devastating.As we all know, the future lies in the hands of the children and child labour only causes the increase in the illiteracy rate and this is not something good if we are to lead the country in the future. However, governments are not the only one responsible of this current issue and businesses and the society needs to help stop it. Businesses should make sure they don’t employ them at a low costs and we as normal citizens need to be careful not to encourage child labour by buying products that involves child labour. Many things have been done to help stop child labour and many laws have been implemented and enforced.At this rate, I believe that child labour can be stopped someday and children will be given back their rights if everybody contributes a little to help them. Resources: 1. http://www. eclt. org/about-child-labour/child-labour-standa rds 2. http://jordan. thebeehive. org/en/content/1515/2936 3. http://nchildlabour. info/HTML/Intro/CAUSES%20AND%20SOCIAL%20IMPACT%20OF %20CHILD%20LABOUR. htm 4. h t t p : / / c o n c o r d i a . a c a d e m i a . e d u / G i a c o m o J a c k M a g g i o r e / P a p e r s / 3 6 3 2 4 3 / The_Dark_Exploration_into_the_Reality_behind_the_Third_World_Labor_Market_A_docum ent_on_Child_Labor 5. http://www. imeslive. co. za/local/2011/08/05/child-labour-being-ignored 6. http://www. ilo. org/global/topics/child-labour/lang–en/index. htm 7. http://www. irinnews. org/Report/32259/TANZANIA-Child-labour-common-in-Zanzibar 8. http://library. thinkquest. org/03oct/01908/800/whydoesitoccur_childlabor. htm 9. http://anujagarwal. hubpages. com/hub/Cause-and-effects-of-Child-Labour 10. http://sukritha. hubpages. com/hub/ChildLabourStillExist 11. http://www. betterworld. net/quotes/children-quotes. htm 12. http://www. unicef. org/infobycountry/malaysia_61973. html 13. http://www. un. org/cyber schoolbus/humanrights/resources/plainchild. asp

Fantasy in 20th Century Children’s Literature

Most critics agree that children’s literature is a diverse paradoxical area of study combining different literary genres. Like the concept of childhood, children’s literature is a social and cultural concept that evolves over time. Since the fourteenth century, children’s literature has gone through different literary periods each defined by its own divisions and genres. Many children’s novels, such as J. M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, and C. S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe were published in the twentieth century and became classics. These books were marked with an increased diversity of literary genres such as mystery and fantasy literature. Fantasy literature has been a dominant literary genre in twentieth century children’s literature, particularly in Barrie’s and Lewis’s novels. In general, as a genre, fantasy literature integrates imaginative elements that shift away from reality into a secondary world . Fantasy literature in the twentieth century, namely in Barrie’s Peter and Wendy and Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wadrobe serves to help children develop vast imagination, and through imagination it allows children to understand and resolve real-world social issues. Doubtless, most people would be able to name some of the features of fantasy literature. Richard Mathews in his book Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination describes fantasy as a distinct literary genre that may be best thought of as a â€Å"fiction that elicits wonder through elements of the supernatural or impossible† (Matthews 2). Fantasy literature assumes the existence of supernatural elements within the framework of a certain text. These supernatural elements can exist in many locations throughout the text: they may be buried in, or leak into the apparent real world setting, the case of the boy character Peter Pan and his fairy Tinker Bell in Barrie’s Peter and Wendy. Supernatural elements may also appear in a secondary world where characters are drawn into a world with such fantastical elements. Narnia in Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is an example of such setting. The fictional realm of Narnia contains various mythical creatures, and magical occurrences. Narnian inhabitants such as Tumnus and the White Witch are themselves supernatural creatures with unusual traits often seen in European mythology and preceding British fairy tales. Fantasy literature can be categorized into two main sub-genres; high fantasy, which consists of a distinct entirely fictional secondary world, and low fantasy, characterized by being set in the real or primary world with the inclusion of supernatural elements. In almost all cases, supernatural elements shift events away from reality. The secondary world operates according to its own rules and altered laws of reality, different in many ways from those in the primary world. Fantasy and supernatural occurrences in the secondary world are depicted as being â€Å"natural† within its boundaries. This feature is important in keeping the secondary world internally consistent. To maintain this inner uniformity, fantasy in this modified world must be realistic. Improbable fantastical events must appear probable within the framework of rules and laws in the secondary world. As Aristotle puts it, â€Å"you can have a text that is improbable with reality as long as it is consistent. As long as the improbable is consistent, then fantasy is realistic†. Probable fantasy in the imaginative world is hence an essential prerequisite for Fantasy literature. The secondary imaginative world and the fantastical events that contain within play an important role in shaping the way Fantasy literature elicits a child reader response. Perhaps one of the most recognized characteristics of Fantasy literature is its appeal to imagination. Fantasy stretches the imagination, enforces creative thinking and encourages dreams. Through the use of the supernatural elements in the secondary world, children travel on a journey fueled by imagination and inventive creation. The way Fantasy literature is received by children audience has a direct effect on the ideas and responses it elicits on them. The act of reading fantasy requires the use of the imagination. In this sense, a great deal of interplay between the writer and reader is present. Because the role of imagination is so important, children readers have much to contribute as they read fantasy. In general, the writer provides the setting, characters, plot and other elements, but the children readers add their imagination to whatever the text allows. It is when children enter this secondary world, engaging with its characters and events that they become part of the story. They feel a sense of pride when characters rise to goodness and a sense of disappointment when the characters fail. Their sense of self and identity is fully shared with the characters as they live the experiences of the fantasy story. Take Barrie’s Neverland for example, a world without esponsibilities, filled with unlimited possibilities – seemingly all wishes of children come true. Neverland is a space where restrictive parents are absent, school is unheard of, and playtime is only interrupted by self-imagined meals (Barrie 113). At first glance, the ideal place to be as a child. Children readily associate with Neverland, this utopian world where everything is made possible stimulates their imagination. They imagine how seawaters are inhabited with mermaids, the endless fights with pirates, and the magic of fairy filling up woods (Barrie 116). Children create their own Neverland using their own imagination. An interesting point to note is that even the story characters themselves in Peter and Wendy imagined their own Neverland. For Michael and John, Neverland was a dream, the extraordinary world they dreamed about when they were asleep and the place where they desired to live in real life. John’s Neverland for instance, â€Å"had a lagoon with flamingos flying over it at which John was shooting, while Michael, who was very small, had a flamingo with lagoons flying over it† (Barrie 74). Barrie’s story itself reflects a prime example of uncorrupted imagination through the child’s interactions with the text. Barrie carefully explains that the Neverlands are located within the children’s minds, and although every Neverland is always more or less an island, each one will be uniquely individual. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lewis creates Narnia and supernatural Narnian creatures to provoke wonder and imagination in the minds of children. Narnia offers children a separate world where they escape to allowing them to paint their own images of this far secondary world. Lewis further creates heroines, who are gifted in imagination and who readily accept Narnia, the fantasy world, as a valid reality. One of the heroines, Lucy, goes into an enormous wardrobe and suddenly finds herself in this imaginary world, Narnia. Lucy felt a â€Å"little frightened, but she felt very inquisitive and excited as well† (Lewis 9). She later meets Mr. Tumnus, a Faun who asks her how she came to Narnia. Lucy, so puzzled, asks him: â€Å"Narnia? What’s that? † (Lewis 11). Right from the start, Lewis engages children in this imaginative world. By showing Lucy’s vast imagination and acceptance of Narnia, children readers extend their imagination accordingly, and view this secondary world as a valid reality. The heroines explore the new worlds of Narnia without hesitation. In Lewis’s book, the Pevensie siblings go through the Wardrobe to leave the primary world and enter into the secondary world, Narnia. The Wardrobe in the story functions as a portal between the two worlds. After reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, every child is left imagining the sight of wardrobes. This common and tangible object that most children had in their rooms during the time Lewis wrote his book opened a gateway of wonder, imagination and curiosity for the secondary world. It is very interesting how Lewis takes ordinary familiar ingredients and transforms it in a certain way which fascinates children and stretches their imagination. Imagination is very important in allowing the child resolve real world issues. Fantasy literature, through the imagination elicited within its context plays a central role in promoting the idea of a capable wise child. Adults like to view children as innocent, unable to comprehend surround real life situations. Warner in Little Angels, Little Monsters refers to Kipling’s unforgettable vivid Mowgli, and J. M Barrie’s Peter Pan, the boy who would never grow. Both examples reveal the depth of adult investment in a utopian childhood image (Warner 134). Heywood, in Some Themes in the Cultural History of Childhood, refers to the ideal innocent child incapable of solving real world problems, as part of the nineteenth and twentieth century British culture (Heywood 34). Certainly, many other authors of the twentieth ce ntury including Barrie and Lewis tried to convey the image of the innocent powerless child, unable to comprehend universal situations. This ideal image of childhood is seen in Barrie’s Peter Pan, as the boy who is â€Å"suspended in a state of perpetual childhood†, refusing to grow up (Cuthew 43). This eternal childhood is supported by Neverland, the secondary world where such attitude is cherished. Although this idea of innocent child is deeply integrated in the works of Barrie and Lewis, but without doubt, fantasy in both of Barrie’s and Lewis’s texts serves to promote a whole different role of the child. The secondary world, Narnia, provides a setting where children deal with issues universal to humankind and ones specifically associated with childhood and adolescence. Both Lewis’s and Barrie’s child protagonists are faced with numerous epic challenges, journey and battles in the imaginary world. By using fantasy, and placing this struggle in a secondary fantasy world, children’s actions and decisions are given adult proportions and importance, whilst the safety remains in the known world to which they will return. As Zipes states, by using fantasy, the child understands universal situations in a complex, â€Å"adult-life† manner (Zipes 178). Warner believes adults see it as their task to socialize children and teach them how to work on real life issues (Warner 139). In some cases even, children â€Å"outsmart adults (Warner 137). Warner further mentions Novalis who stresses on the importance of fantasy literature in creating an â€Å"intimate connection† between children and a wonderful, â€Å"free-floating world† of imagination (Warner 135). Novalis insists that the observable, active fantasy-life displayed by childrens books gives children access to a world of wisdom. For him, through myth and fairy tale, a child is seen as a â€Å"good deal cleverer and wiser than an adult†. Spielberg’s children characters in E. T and Back to the Future fiction films are prime examples of such children. Twentieth century fantasy literature particular to children's authors such as Barrie and Lewis, enforces imagination to deal with universal social issues. The fantasy world contained within Barrie’s and Lewis’s texts allows children to rely on an imaginary world that will offer them order and meaning. In both Peter an d Wendy and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the child protagonists, Peter Pan and the Pevensie children are sent on a fantasy adventure and they encounter various challenges. Through their experiences, these child characters drive children to rely on their own imagination and creativity to solve problems around them. In bother novels, child protagonists are virtual role models for the child reader and so their actions and the way they deal with real life issues carry great relevance to the child reader. By allowing children make their own decisions, children are given agency and added responsibility. Children learn to use their own imagination and gain insight on how things should operate without adult rules hanging over their heads. In Barrie’s book, the story character, Peter and Wendy go on a journey to Neverland, a world where restrictive parents are absent. Peter and Wendy face different challenges. Wendy mothers the Lost Boys; Peter has various encounters with Hook. In both cases, these two child figures are left without adult guidance. Despite the lack of parental rule, these children characters manage to face difficulties and apply their insight to solve problems that come across in Neverland. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe reflects another important example of children’s ability to comprehend certain moral and social issues without adult guidance. In Lewis’s book, Edmund, the third oldest Pevensie child learns the importance of honesty and trust, and the severity of lying. When he is given Turkish delight the first time, he directly falls under the White Witch’s trap and agrees to bring back his siblings to her. All he wants is to â€Å"shovel down as much Turkish Delight as he could, and the more he ate the more he wanted to eat† (Lewis 38). Upon Edmunds betrayal to his siblings, Lucy notices the change of Edmund, because Edmund’s face is â€Å"flushed and strange† (Lewis 42) and he looks â€Å"awful† (Lewis 44). This quotation indicates that a treacherous person has a different appearance. Without explicitly saying to the child, â€Å"you should not lie†, fantasy and fairy tales allow children to see the bonuses and consequences of virtues followed and disobeyed. Through fantasy, children are also allowed to come to their own consensus of the binaries of good and evil, right and wrong without having parents guide them through the entire learning process. Fantasy gives children the freedom to create their own set of morals through stories, characters and imaginative places. Take Lewis’s treatment of the concepts of good and evil in Narnia. The Pevensie children are set on an adventure taking them into the fantasy world that is equipped with ideal tools for exploring good and evil. In this fantasy world, the children protagonists are offered many chances to use their own judgment in differentiating right from wrong. Lewis uses this secondary world to allow children see extremes of good and evil. On one hand, Lewis shows the White Witch, the evil queen of Narnia. She seems to abuse her evil powers and carries a wand that can turn creatures into stones. On the other hand, Lewis shows Aslan, the king and God of Narnia. Aslan is a noble lion who sacrifices his life so that the Witch will spare Edmund. Not only does Lewis place his setting in a fantasy world, but he also takes advantage of fantastic creatures to stimulate the child reader’s sense of dread and imagination. These extreme Narnian characters offer two opposite extreme measures of good and evil for which children can compare to. By looking at real world issues, the child is able to deal with situations of good and evil the same way they were played out in the imaginary world. The child is better able to understand his or her position in the world in relation to those around. Allowing the child to judge the good and evil can arguably be seen as means of socialization, a way of opening the child’s eyes to their surrounding society. Through eliciting imagination in children, twentieth century Fantasy literature has also highlighted social values of its period. Even in fantasy when authors write adventures taking place in a secondary world, it is quite difficult to escape certain institutions and values which make our society function. Twentieth century Fantasy literature carried many adult social messages to children. As Henry Jenkins mentions in Introduction: Childhood Innocence and Other Modern Myths, children’s social learning is shaped both by â€Å"adult desires and childhood fantasies† (Jenkins 25). Warner further adds on the topic by saying that in society there is a deep involvement of adults in shaping children. As members of a functional society, how we treat children â€Å"really tests who were are and fundamentally conveys who we hope to be† (Warner, 137). British writers made comments on society and British life through children’s fantasy books. For example, Lewis in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe mentions the Beaver family in Narnia. The Beaver family can be seen to function on the stereotypical model of a twentieth century British family. In one example, Mr. Beaver rushes out in the cold with Peter to provide food for the family, meanwhile â€Å"the girls were helping Mrs Beaver to fill the kettle and cut the bread† (Lewis 69). It can be argued that through Narnia, Lewis reflects the British life in the twentieth century where men spend long hours working away form home whereas mothers shield the home from the corruptions of the outside world (Jenkins, 7). It is now agreed that twentieth century Fantasy literature is vital in the child’s development of imagination. Although children’s minds are less developed than adults’, their ability to imagine is far greater. Fantasy stories not only allow children to imagine other worlds, they let children create those worlds. Barrie and Lewis wrote for children in a sense that they used simpler language and fantastical settings. These authors tried to fully engage children readers with texts. But, not for a moment did they underestimate the child’s ability to comprehend greater universal and social problems such as the arguments between siblings, the struggle to fight temptation and make the right decision, the importance of imagination in providing children with self-guidance and the ability of evaluating good and evil in society. Twentieth century British authors such as Barrie and Lewis also used Fantasy literature to comment on social issues of that period and reflect certain values of society. In twentieth century children’s literature, fantasy is not used to deceive but to enlighten.

Comparison of Leo Tolstoys War and Peace and A Prisoner in the Essay

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Organizational Behavior Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

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