Today, it is very uncommon to come across illustrations in any book that is not meant for a child. However, in the Victorian Era, illustrations were considered to be an integral part of the text enriching the story, and, overall, creating a fuller experience. Ruskin utilizes sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structure; however, he has created a text that is easily accessible to a younger audience. There are layers of nuance and depth in the story—particularly the moral—to entice readers of any age. The surface simplicity of the moral allows even the youngest reader to learn from this story, but the underlying complexities provide an older audience with important food for thought. John Ruskin’s transitional story The King of the Golden River (1974) captivates a dual audience of both children and adults, and, in this way, carries on the legacy of the Victorian illustrated book for adults.
Modern Era children’s books typically consist of little more than basic sentences and some pretty pictures. Ruskin however, does not approach his story in a “see spot run” fashion, but weaves together complex and engaging sentences even from the very start of the story. The book begins “A secluded and mountainous part of Stiria, there was, in old time, a valley of the most surprising and luxuriant fertility.” CITE That is a far cry from the traditional and simple “once upon a time” and is a much more engaging beginning. From the very beginning Ruskin draws the reader in with a luscious description to set the scene for the rest of the story. While such a complex structure may be difficult for a child to follow easily, it will teach younger readers to speak in a more refined way. On the other hand, adults will appreciate the high quality of R...
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...ot so revealing that information from them could not be gleaned from the text.
Ruskin wrote The King of the Golden River in 1974, a time between the idea of the Child of Sin and the Child of Innocence. This story is clearly didactic in its nature, emphasizing both the importance of religion, hard work, generosity and the importance of fighting sin such as greed and sloth. However, unlike previous didactic Victorian-Era stories the punishment at the end is relatively non-violent. In other stories sinners are brutally punished, typically in physically harming ways. Inc comparison Ruskin’s villains get off easy, simply being turned to stone. This places The King of the Golden River in an interesting position, bridging the gap between traditional didactic stories for children and the literature which is commonly recognized today, as appropriate for younger audiences.
Although the author’s words are simple, they create a mood into the illustrations that truly emphasise the emotion of the indigenous point of view. Viewers can than feel more of what they can see, an example of this is when the authors used different sized text in “stole our children.” This text with the illustration can truly create an effect on the way it is read and viewed by, making viewers feel empathy as the size of each words shrinks defining the children’s positon as they get further away from their parent. This attains the Europeans guilt on the choices they had made as the story is seen in the indigenous point of view on how they suffered due to the past horrendous choices made by the Europeans at that
After a four week survey of a multitude of children’s book authors and illustrators, and learning to analyze their works and the methods used to make them effective literary pieces for children, it is certainly appropriate to apply these new skills to evaluate a single author’s works. Specifically, this paper focuses on the life and works of Ezra Jack Keats, a writer and illustrator of books for children who single handedly expanded the point of view of the genre to include the experiences of multicultural children with his Caldecott Award winning book “Snowy Day.” The creation of Peter as a character is ground breaking in and of itself, but after reading the text the reader is driven to wonder why “Peter” was created. Was he a vehicle for political commentary as some might suggest or was he simply another “childhood” that had; until that time, been ignored? If so, what inspired him to move in this direction?
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
of The Modern Language Association Group on Children's Literature and The Children's Literature Association 6 (1977): 93-114. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. James P. Draper and Jennifer Allison Brostrom. Vol. 79. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 11 Mar. 2010.
“Everett was strange, “Sleight concedes. “kind of different. But him and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.” (67) John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, briefly makes a comparison between two young boys Chris McCandless and Everett Ruess and fills the reader with different perspectives about them and their experiences. While the author wrote about McCandless he is reminded of Ruess and his book Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty written by W.L. Rusho and it sparked an interesting comparison between the two. The use of storytelling and letters about McCandless and the use of Artwork, letters,
Zipes, Jack. Fairy tales and the art of subversion the classical genre for children and the process
In Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden nature and its fantastical elements are crucial in making their novels the iconic children literary tales they are presently. However due to these fantastical elements both authors criticized for their romanticized view of nature and idealized depictions of childhood within nature. Scholarly critics Jacqueline Rose and Humphrey Carpenter argue that in creating idealistic narrative worlds both authors lose their ability to represent childhood in a realistic way and instead let their works become escape outlets rather than true depictions of childhood. In doing so these books are no longer true children’s literature, but simply ideals born out of an authors
Theo and the young Narrator similarly discover the revelatory capacity of art through a single pivotal painting and author respectively, both which become significant motifs in either text. Tartt utilizes an existent painting ‘The Goldfinch’ as a fixed point of reference, which, for both Theo and the reader provides a sense of reality and constancy ‘rais[ing him] above the surface’ of an otherwise tumultuous childhood. Whereas Proust uses a fictional author, ‘Bergotte’, to communicate the universality of art, and invite the reader, through the vivid immediacy with which the Narrator’s early reading experiences are described, to participate in his epiphanic discovery that art can translate ‘imperceptible truths which would never have [otherwise] been revealed to us’ (97). Artistic imagery becomes a motif in Proust’s descriptions of scenes of domesticity and nature. In a scene recounting Francoise ‘masterful’ preparation of a family meal the Narrator describes asparagus in the technical language of painting as ‘finely stippled’ provoking an association between his observations of asparagus and the creation of a painting. By forming this improbable link he elevates unremarkable asparagus to the ‘precious’ status of art in the eyes of the reader. Proust’s presentation of his Narrator’s ‘fascination’ and pleasure at their ‘rainbow-loveliness’, forces the reader to consider asparagus with unfamiliar and attentive appreciation, conveying the idea that art can uncover the overlooked beauty of the mundane. Though Theo reveals a far more cynical view of ordinary life as a ‘sinkhole of hospital beds, coffins and broken hearts’ Tartt conveys the similar belief in art’s capacity to create a ‘rainbow-edge’ of beauty between our perceptions and the harshness of reality. In the most
The opening of Kathleen O’Neil’s article is a discussion of children’s picture books being used throughout history as tools to teach children cultural expectations. O’Neil mentions that children’...
Piper’s use of imagery in this way gives the opportunity for the reader to experience “first hand” the power of words, and inspires the reader to be free from the fear of writing.
Lipking, Lawrence I, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
... It is interesting that we glean this information from the child, rather than the mother’s perspective, emphasising his misery. Sitting on the bench with Smudge, Charles turns away from the clouds within his sight, and the picture of two bicycles crossing, which look like a man and a woman pulling a tandem in opposite directions (Browne, 1998, p.16), symbolising his parents’ marriage. In conclusion, these two works support Moebius’s assertion that the ‘best picturebooks can and do portray the intangible and invisible [.], ideas that escape easy definition in pictures or words’. In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Potter contrasts a didactic text with conflicting illustrations.
... story but it also reflects Russian society. This, however, isn’t why many Russians still continue to hold this piece of literature as central to their culture. Although, it tells of their heritage and society, it is the simple genius of the structure of the novel of –14-line stanza form-and his lyrics, which are complex and meticulous but are written with such ease that they appear effortless, simple, and natural.
The Narnia Chronicles have already established themselves as timeless works of literature. They appeal to both the atheists and the God-fearing, to both the uneducated and to scholars; to children and adults. An understanding of the Biblical allegory in these books is not essential to their appreciation. A critical analysis of these works, however, does allow the reader to more fully appreciate Lewis' unique gift to simplify complex narratives and craft beautiful children's fantasies. This, in turn, allows the reader to gain both a deeper understanding of Lewis as a skilled creative writer, and a deeper satisfaction of his art. To be able to appreciate C.S. Lewis as such an artisan can only add to one's enjoyment of his works.
...content that art should moralize, should point a moral congenial to established society: and, in his weaker moments, Ruskin fell as deeply into this error as any other.”