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.
...ia J. Campbell. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996. 39-65. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Scot Peacock. Vol. 82. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
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.
Senick, Gerard J., and Hedblad, Alan. Children’s Literature Review: Excerpts from Reviews, and Commentary on Books for Children and Young People (Volumes 14, 34, 35). Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1995..
Children are common group of people who are generally mislabeled by society. In the short story “Charles’’ by Shirley Jackson and ‘’The Open Window” by Saki showed examples of the labeling of children. In “Charles” the concept of parents labeling their children as being pure and sincere was shown. As in “The Open Window” by Saki “used the notion that girls were the most truthful sex and gives her a name that suggests truthfulness to make her tale less suspect.”(Wilson 178). According to Welsh “Because the fantasy is so bizarre and inventive and totally unexpected from a fifteen-year-old girl, the reader is momentarily duped.”(03). This showed that even we as the readers were a victim of misleading labels of society.
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.
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
Whalley, J. (2009) ‘Texts and Pictures: A History’ in Montgomery H and Watson N (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Texts and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University, pp.299-310
Griffith, John, and Charles Frey. Classics of Children's Literature. 6th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. 21-29, 322-374. Print.
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.
D.H Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies view children as easily manipulated figures. D.H. Lawrence’s short story demonstrates how easily children, Paul, can be influenced into believing that money and luck indicate one’s level of happiness. William Golding’s novel tries to show that all children are evil and have savage impulses. A common theme in both of these works is that children create their own downfall and loss of innocence.
Peter hunt’s ‘Instruction and Delight’ provides a starting point for the study of children’s literature, challenging assumptions made about writing for children and they are trivial, fast and easy. Children’s literature is a conservative and reading it just to escape from the harsh realities of adulthood. It’s probably the most exciting for all literary studies, and a wide range of texts, from novels and stories to picture books , and from oral forms to multimedia and the internet , so it presents a major challenge and can be considered for many reasons. It is important because it is integrated into the cultural, educational and social thinking for the success of the publishing and media, and it is important to our personal development. Things that may seem simple at fist, how children understand the texts, how these differ from the
... (eds), Children’s Literature Classic Text and Contemporary Trends, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan in association with Open University
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
Literature has been part of society since pen met paper. It has recorded history, retold fables, and entertained adults for centuries. Literature intended for children, however, is a recent development. Though children’s literature is young, the texts can be separated into two categories by age. The exact splitting point is debatable, but as technology revolutionized in the mid-twentieth century is the dividing point between classic and contemporary. Today’s children’s literature is extraordinarily different from the classics that it evolved from, but yet as classic was transformed into modern, the literature kept many common features.