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Home > Essays > Literature > Literature For Child

Literature for Children

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This essay is going to address two major questions which are related to traditional folktales Cinderella and Tale of Peter rabbit. The questions being addressed are how feminist critics have attacked Cinderella articulating that the tale promotes gender role stereotypes, this paper will outline some of the response offered to such allegation. The second question will be if the size and shape of the book should suit the story or theme.

According to Parsons (2001) feminist have a major role in the direction which literature arises and how it is perceived, this interest arises from socio historical and cultural contexts. However, feminist have gone beyond this interest and embraced their won liking of gender to twist the real meaning of folktale in the literature f young children. This is usually perceived to be demeaning and as much criticism that may arise they are biased by literature.

The history of folktale has been associated with early development of morals to young children. Particularly the most criticized traditional tale is that of Cinderella which is very common among small children literature. Feminist criticisms have been proclaiming that the moral behind this tale is that it promotes gender role stereo types this occurred after Disney produced the movie Cinderella. This they articulate that it a representation of gender inequality where a young girl lies helplessly awaiting help from the prince. The point that they view this is that they only look on the angle of the girl being helpless. However, the point here is not about inequality but about love, where the young boys are taught to take initiative of duty to their loved one. This contradicting view is the one which shows that the critics are merely fabricated to suit own inferiority issues in the literature of young children as echoed by Westland (1993).

This fairly tale contributes to the history of women in the contribution of literary history. The tale only displays a woman worth in the society and how love endures all. The literature of fairly tale is much associated with women writers of the 19th century (Haase, 2004). However, writers of the 20th century induced with feminism and bias inequality have brought about mambo jumbo on how this fairly tale which have been in the literary material for scholars are now demeaning women and taking women like objects. They have been questioning gender roles, voice and noiselessness, and several other social malaises and gender inequalities and basing them on fairly tales. 

The context of this fairly tale is very rich in literature and moral well being of the development of young children. Cinderella covers different aspects in our daily lives, when combined with ethics they form the best recipe for good morals and virtues to the young minds. This tales commemorates ethics based on inner strength of the woman and also guards over the human rights of an individual governing them without prejudice or favors. This the tale attempts to exemplify that the strength of character is based on the free will which governs life through array of principles that are well guarded by human conscience that fosters self knowledge based on the universal beliefs, this commensurate human fulfillment and well being (Morris & Nott, 2002).

From the story Tale of Peter Rabbit the size and shape of the book clearly in the children literature matters very much. The size of the book should be always small to suit the hand of the young children who will be using them. Usually big framed books pose a huge problem to students as the pages disturbs their learning when attempting to read through. Majority of the children fairly tales are usually printed in small hardcover book the inside pages are also written in hard coated pages which are hard to tear. The shape also matters to the books intuition by the student; this is because children are attracted to certain shapes depending on the character of the individuals. Usually the most recognized shapes on printed folktale literary material are rectangle and square. However, recently books are printed in many shapes to entice the children into reading through fascination which brings about curiosity of the mind and thus the children learn through this creativity.

The sizes and shapes should always conform to the theme of the story usually a fairly tale abut the constellation one may use the star shape for the book. Thus the child would be able to relate better with the book based on the shape representation of the book. Such shapes ad sizes which are well capable to support the small hands of the students are the ideal to entice the children into learning. Another fact which has been mostly criticized by critics is the theme of the story how it conforms to the story and the targeted audience as noted by Hallinan (2002).

One critic from the book “Tale of Peter Rabbit,” this has been perceived that the moral of the story basically indulges the children to be disobedient, wild, and social and ethnic’s transgression boundaries. Much have been criticized based on the story theme which is about Peter a mischievous rabbit that defies her mother orders to keep off Mr. McGregor farm. However, the Rabbit plays both the villain and the hero as Mr. McGregor attempt to catch him with intent of killing him. The story has been also criticized on the part that the author articulate that “peter evades the grip of Mr. McGregor big, powerful and murderous hands.” This has been claimed to be injurious to the target audience that the book is projected toward by animal activist (Mackey, 1998).

In conclusion feminism in the Cinderella is mostly based on biased critics arising from the remake of this fairly tale. Actually the basics are bias as the tale attempts to appraise woman presence and participation in the society portrayed through love. In the book “Tale of Peter Rabbit” it has been revealed that shapes and sizes are essential to the story theme and also to the target audience to encourage learning through enticement of shapes and forms.

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