Everydayness is an inherently subjective experience. In considering the concept of everdayness in children’s literature, the reflexivity involved must be acknowledged. Literature often written for or about children is done so by adult authors with assumptions and biases stemming from personal experiences and cultural ideals. The poems ‘Ding, Dong, Bell’ (Anon), ‘Jabberwocky’ (Carroll), ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ (Dahl) and ‘Death of a Snowman’ (Scannell) straddle the boundary of the everyday experience between adulthood and childhood. Their respective authors explore themes of death, the role of the child, notions of time and the function of animals and the fantastical, transforming traditional narratives and subverting readers’ expectations.
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| Ding, dong, bell. Pussy's in the well. |
Whilst also drawing on ideas of death, ‘Jabberwocky’ presents as a very different poem to ‘Ding, Dong, Bell’. The slaughter of the Jabberwocky monster by the child protagonist is hailed as a victory by the adults of the poem, even more so in response to the ominous atmosphere created by Carroll’s use of nonsensical descriptive language: “The jaws that bit, the claws that catch!/Beware the Jubjub bird, and shum/The frumious Bandersnatch!”. The description of the monster is preceded by language that relays a warning with its lilting rhythm, onomatopoeia and portmanteau: “Twas brillig, and the slithy toves/Did gyre and gimble in the wabe”. These techniques work in conjunction with one another to allow the reader to feel relief when the monster is slain, as opposed to shock in response to the events of ‘Ding, Dong, Bell’.
‘Little Red Riding Hood’ is intended as a humourous poem despite containing imagery of death and violence. A consistent AABBCC rhyme scheme is made use of by Dahl to create a sense of eccentricity and silliness, and similar to ‘Jabberwocky’, the reader passes through the death of Red Riding Hood’s grandmother and her murder of the wolf without distress, in this case as if they were reading the traditional fairytale.
Scannell’s interpretation of death in ‘Death of a Snowman’ is subtly veiled as being appropriate enough for children yet an adult reader might infer a more morbid message. The writer’s use of simple language and rhyme clearly paints the implied reader as a child, a point that is reinforced by subject matter (a snowman) that has been culturally associated with children. The concluding line (“But by tea-time I was dead.”) is brief and unemotional, conveying the message to an adult reader that death is part of life and unavoidable, whilst to a child reader this message may be that death is not appropriate to be concerned about at a young age.
A focus on the role of the child is a defining feature of children’s literature. Throughout the Western canon the role of the child has been manipulated to suit the author’s chosen image. ‘Ding, Dong, Bell’ is a particularly interesting work as it presents two contrasting child characters. Johnny Green is chastised as being the “naughty boy” who tried to drown the cat, whilst Tommy Stout saved the animal. Here the author suggests that children can be both malicious and merciful, and by using playful rhyme to deliver this message implies that is this an unremarkable part of the everyday. Another consideration may be that the anonymous writer intended to reveal how children do not quite grasp that their actions may have significant consequences.
‘Jabberwocky’ subverts the traditional ideal of the child as innocent and naïve by writing the protagonist as powerful. Defying his father’s warnings, the protagonist seeks out the Jabberwocky with his “vorpal sword”, defeating him effortlessly with a “snicker-snack”. Carroll allows dialogue only for the father of the child, which pointedly serves to draw attention to the protagonist’s hero status: “And, hast though slain the Jabberwosk?/ Come to my arms, my beamish boy!”. Here the poem plays with the folklore genre, with imagery of quests and the pursuit of evil, yet disrupts this with a child praised despite his disobedience.
In ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, Dahl challenges Charles Perrault’s original writing of the narrative by allowing the protagonist power and agency. In a destabilisation of the original, the poem concludes with Red Riding Hood shooting the wolf and turning his fur into a coat. Notably, the grandmother is not saved and there is no adult intervention (say by a woodcutter, as in the Perrault original) on Red Riding Hood’s behalf. Dahl allows Red Riding Hood to receive all the credit from not only implied narrator of the poem, but the reader as well.
Notions of time are touched on in ‘Ding, Dong, Bell’ with the anonymous writer’s use of tense. The use of implied dialogue within the poem suggests that the narrator is discussing an event that has already passed. By reiterating that the cat was an innocent victim at the end of the poem, the narrator leaves the reader with the moral revelation that innocents are not to be harmed, with potential implications for child readers of the poem.
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| Jabberwocky (source) |
Time and linearity are explored in ‘Jabberwocky’ with Carroll’s use of repetition and rhyme. The final stanza is a repeat of the first, asking the reader to consider whether all has returned to normal, or if further trials are yet to come considering that the menacing and threatening language is maintained.
Dahl uses narration to jump through the plot of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, with the result an unconventional timeline compared to the traditional fairytale. The conclusion of the story fast-forwards to “A few weeks later”, where it is revealed that Red Riding Hood has made a coat out of the wolf. Here time is manipulated in a way that allows the reader to experience both the past and present.
The passing of time is the driving force behind the story in ‘Death of a Snowman’, with time itself defined by the snowman’s passing. As the poem moves through night, morning and noon the snowman goes from “Strong and firm and white” to melting (“My nose began to run”), to expired (“There was no funeral bell,/But by tea-time I was dead.”). Here the life span of the snowman and the universal experience of time passing are intertwined.
Animals and fictional creatures are often made use of by authors of children’s literature. Incorporating these characters enhances the reading experience for children by playing on their penchant for imagination and fantasy. The cat in ‘Ding, Dong, Bell’, whilst essential to the development of the poem, is more of a vessel than a challenger such as in ‘Jabberwocky’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.
In Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’, the monster is well known to the characters in the poem, which in turn leaves the reader to accept this notoriety. It is described with typical monster features (“jaws”, “claws”, “eyes of flame”) and plays on the cultural ideal of good overcoming evil as part of the quest narrative. The reader as an observer is able to learn that boy protagonist has earned his success through the vanquishing of the monster. Alison Halliday (1996) suggests that the nonsensical language in the poem may be used to establish two implied readers, with the poem possibly being read or explained to a child by an adult and hence there is the opportunity for the adult to impart their own beliefs about good versus evil.
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| Little Red Riding Hood |
In opposition to the original text, the wolf in ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ is painted as comical, clumsy and easily overcome. He is referred to as “Wolfie”, maintaining the humour of the poem. This characterisation is in contrast to the traditional fairytale where fear and anxiety gradually builds, particularly when Red Riding Hood points out the wolf’s features (ie. “What big eyes you have!”). In Dahl’s poem, the wolf corrects Red Riding Hood when she forgets to ask him about his teeth (“Have you forgot/To tell me what BIG TEETH I’ve got?”), informing the reader that the poem is aware of its own intertextuality.
The animate object that is the central character in ‘Death of a Snowman’ is transformed into a conscious being in the reader’s eyes as we are allowed insight into his thoughts. Scannell’s use of first person and past tense create a comical paradox where the Snowman himself is relaying to the reader his story, despite having already died. This technique is used by the author to appeal to the child’s value of the fantastical within the everyday.
The everyday experiences of a child may contrast significantly to that of an adult. Adult authors, however, often presume to appeal to the child or write from their perspective despite inherent biases and assumptions. In the poems ‘Ding, Dong, Bell’, ‘Jabberwocky’, ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘Death of a Snowman’ everydayness is explored in light of notions of death, the role of the child, the passage of time and the incorporation of animals or fantastical creatures. Readers of all ages and contexts are led to question what is involved in the everyday and have their expectations for children’s literature subverted.
References
- Carroll, Lewis. "Jabberwocky" in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Carroll, Lewis; Green, Roger Lancelyn; Tenniel, John, 1998, 134-136
- Dahl, Roald. "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf" in Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, Dahl, Roald; Blake, Quentin, 1982
- Halliday, Alison. "Parallel ideologies: An exploration of the ideologies of childhood and poetry" Papers: Explorations into Children's Literature, 6:1, 1996, 20-30
- Scannell, Vernon. "Death of a snowman" in Puffin Book of Classic Verse, Wilson, Raymond; Wallis, Diz, 1997, 339
- Oxenbury, Helen. "Ding, dong, bell" in Nursery Rhyme Book, Alderson, Brian; Oxenbury, Helen, 1986, 14
- Shalia Eime 2014
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