Discuss Merle Hodge’S Crick Crack Monkey As a Novel
DISCUSS MERLE HODGE’S CRICK CRACK MONKEY AS A NOVEL DEALING WITH THE
CONFLICT OF CULTURES.
Merle Hodge born in 1944, in Trinidad is the daughter of an
immigration officer. After studying at the Bishop Anstey’s high school
of Trinidad, she obtained the Trinidad and Tobago Girls Island
Scholarship in 1962 which led her to the university college of London.
She obtained a degree in French and later in 1967 a Master Philosophy
degree. Merle Hodge traveled a lot in Eastern and Western Europe and
when she returned to Trinidad she started teaching French in junior
schools. Later she obtained a post of lecturer at the University of
the West Indies. In 1979, she started to work for the bishop regime
and she was appointed director of the development of curriculum. In
1983, she left Grenada because the bishop was assassinated and she is
now working for the Women and Development Studies at the University of
the West Indies in Trinidad.
She wrote the novel Crick Crack Monkey in 1970 where she deals with
the theme of childhood in the West Indies. The main protagonist called
Tee lives with Tantie who is a working class woman. She later goes to
live with her aunt Beatrice and she faces a new and different world
from that of her Caribbean world: “Hodge's story is presented through
the eyes of a black, lower class girl of Trinidad in the 1950s.” The
whole story is one presented from one point of view: Tee’s. She is
left alone by her father who goes abroad after the death of her mother
and she has to live with her lower class Tantie where she learns about
being independent. Later in the story her aunt Beatrice takes her and
she then has to adapt herself to the ‘white’...
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... sites:
- BILL CLEMENTE: The A, B, C's of Alienation and Re-Integration :
Merle Hodge'S Crick Crack Monkey
- httpClemente.htm
- httpcrick crack monkey study guide.htm
- The Two Worlds of the Child: A study of the novels of three West
Indian writers; Jamaica Kincaid, Merle Hodge, and George Lamming
- httpJamaica Kincaid, Merle Hodge, George Lamming.htm
- Two Postcolonial Childhoods:Merle Hodge's Crick Crack, Monkey
and Simi Bedford's Yoruba Girl Dan
- http Jouvert 6_1 - 2 Martin Japtok, Two Postcolonial Childhoods
Merle Hodge's Crick Crack, Monkey and Simi Bedford's Yoruba Girl
Dancing.htm
- http merle.htm
books:
- HODGE ,MERLE. Crick Crack, Monkey. Andre Deutsch, 1970; London:
Heinemann, 1981; Paris: Karthala, 1982 (trans. Alice
Asselos-Cherdieu).
Lectures:
- Lectures by Mrs. MAHADAWO on Island Literatures.
Wilson, Nance S. “ZINDEL, Paul.” Continuum Encyclopedia Of Children’s Literature (2003): 848-849. Literary Reference Center. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
Do we control the judgments and decisions that we make every day? In the book,
... Paula, Gerald Campano, and Ted Hall. "Braided Histories and Experiences in Literature for Children and Adolescents." Journal of Children's Literature. 38.2 (2012): 14-22. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. (Ghiso, Campano, and Hall 14-22)
Maurice Sendak: From Controversy To Success. “These are difficult times for children. Children have to be brave to survive what the world does to them. And this world is scrungier and rougher and dangerouser than it ever was before”—Maurice Sendak. Throughout the past fifty years, Maurice Sendak has been a challenging and inventive voice in children’s literature.
High school students in many American schools first read this book in an English class, which has been a staple for many schools. A required reading assignment exposes many more people to the book. Even though the book is considered to be a children’s book by many, it is still enjoyed by people of all ages.
Porter, Katherine. “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 11th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 79-86. Print.
Both of these stories served as mile markers in the history of children's literature, and marked turning points in our Society. For the first time, children were allowed to think freely, and learn. They independently formed their own thoughts on life, God, and many of the other highly regulated aspects of their society. Until this time most of the children were taught to think as their parents or feel the wrath of vengeful and often cruel God.
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
Falconer, Rachel. The Crossover Novel: Contemporary Children’s Fiction and Its Adult Readership. New York: Routledge, 2009.
It has always been amazing to realize how well the literature I read as a child has stayed with me through the years. It takes an exceptional writer to compose a narrative that maintains a storyline on the same level of a child's understanding; it takes everything short of a miracle to keep a child's interest. However, that undertaking has been accomplished by many skilled authors, and continues to be an area of growth in the literary world. Only this year the New York Times has given the genre of children's literature the credit it deserves by creating a separate best-sellers list just for outstanding children's books. Yet, on another level, children's literature is not only for the young. I believe that the mark of a brilliant children's author is the age range of those who get pleasure from the stories; the wider the range, the better.
Children literature is a term that refers to the texts written for children. The artist uses creative ways to ensure that children are provided with educational books, touching on a variety of themes. This paper will include comparison of two characters from the two texts, “Hana's Suitcase: A True Story,” authored by Karen Levine and “Charlotte’s Web,” written by E.B. White, with the aim of understanding ways in which problems are solvable as indicated by selected characters.
Laura Ingalls Wilder may be viewed as one of the greatest children’s authors of the twentieth century. Her works may be directed towards a younger crowd but people of all ages enjoy her literary contributions. The way that Wilder’s books are written guarantees that they have a place among classics of American literature (“So many…” 1). Laura Ingalls Wilder’s form of writing portrays an American family’s interworking in a journey through childhood.
In this book about the importance of children, imagination, and their fantasy play, written by Vivian Gussin Paley, she discusses the disappearance of creative free play in children’s school, and how it can potentially hinder a young child’s development. Vivian takes us on a journey through different classrooms around the world, in order to explore the impressive language of children during their free time, role-playing, and storytelling. In these classrooms, Vivian records the children’s stories and how they interact with each other, in order to grasp an understanding of the meaning that lies in their fantasy play. Early on in the book, Vivian states that, “There was a time when
Ultimately, Romanticism is responsible for transforming the purpose of children’s literature and, as a result, society's image of children. Thus, helping to establish the importance of the imagination. Through its themes of romanticism, Carroll crafts a story that is anti-didactic by its very nature. The innocence and imagination of childhood offers redemption to fallen adulthood.
The writing of a memoir through the eyes of a child can produce a highly entertaining work, as proved by Wole Soyinka. Through the use of third person and the masterful use of the innocence and language of childhood, Soyinka has written a memoir that can make us remember what is was like to see the world through the eyes of a child.