Nowadays there is an increasing concern towards the children’s literature and the way that children are depicted in the stories. Thus, it is very important that the young readers are able to learn the useful lessons from the books and understand their own rights and duties. The Ugly Duckling by H. C. Andersen and I Love You, Stinky Face! By L. McCourt are the vivid examples of how ugliness should be perceived by the public. Both works are totally different in the parental attitude towards the unattractive offspring and the subsequent feelings of the children, neglected in the first case and loving in the second one. So, the analyzed picture books deal with the real or hypothetical ugliness with the different attitudes towards the …show more content…
Compared to the previous story, the child is not ugly himself but he mentions the nastiest creatures and the emphasize is on his mother’s reaction. While the ugly duckling cannot count on the mother’s unconditional love and respect, the boy’s mother is a vivid example of the perfect parents, who pay no attention to their children’s unattractiveness or disableness. Thus, there is a huge contrast between the duck’s reaction to the birth of her little beautiful ducklings and the youngest ugly one (Dominguez, 2015). The duck is so proud of their first steps but the unusual ducklings is only briefly mentioned (Dominguez, 2015). Nevertheless, the consequent events do not allow the readers to conclude that the mother disregarded the ugly duckling completely, because the episode when they learn to swim contain her approval of the youngest one (Geethanjali, 2017). Nevertheless, the mother just observes as her elder children scorn the youngest one, failing to prevent his escape (Geethanjali, 2017).
Meanwhile, the main character of I Love You, Stinky Face! Has strong and loving relationships with his mother, who is ready to love and respect her child not only because she is intended to do so but he is really the most attractive person even if disabled (Dominguez, 2015). Every time the boy makes up various ugly creatures as his possible personification, the caring mother looks for best ways to encourage him and prevent from the discrimination on the basis of one’s
Children’s literature is the precedent for the development of all children. Children’s literature varies from poetry to children’s picture books. Every aspect of children’s literature gives an ability to grow a child mentally and develop their ideas and imagination. In early literature, children were romanized to be perfect and well behaved. Author Maurice Sendak counters the idea of a perfect child in his book “Where The Wild Things Are”. Sendak uses his picture book to illustrate a child’s ability to have feelings of anger, resentment, and frustration. The interviewer, Patrick F. Roughen of Red Feather Journal states that“Where the Wild Things Are (1963) contains some of the earliest attempts in children’s literature to represent the intrapsychic challenges of the lives of children. Anger, frustration, and the complexities of parent-child relationships can be found throughout its pages”. “Where the Wild Things Are” reinforces the idea that children are capable of emotions that one would imagine are only depicted in the adult world.
Jane has gotten used to cruelty and biased behavior towards her average looks, and develops a miserable self-esteem that believes the only possible way to describe her exterior is “plain”. This self-esteem prevents her from even beginning to recognize that anyone could appreciate her or find her beautiful in any manner. The society’s typical reactions and judgments shaped Jane’s self-esteem, and prevented her from receiving equal treatment as that of a beautiful woman.
In addition, the author helps the reader understand the selfishness of the mother when the reader finds out she have stole the Persian Carpet “several months before” (230) the divorce and puts the blame on Ilya, the poor blind man. Furthermore, the visit of the children is supposed to signal a fresh start for the family. The mother even emphasizes she wants the girls to come “live with [them]” (229). Yet again, even if they meet in order to reunite, characterized by a situational irony, they see themselves separated because of her mother selfish decisions.
The characters of the novel are fit to the theme of man’s intuitive evilness, as the boys are under the age of 14. When they continue to enjoy torturing others, they reveal their enjoyment of being savages. They do not desire any order or law of directing force in their state of savagery.
In the short story “Two Kinds”, Amy Tan uses the narrator’s point of view to share a mother's attempt to control her daughter's dreams and ambitions. Tan`s short story is an example of how differing personalities cause struggles between a parent and child. Children often fall victim to a parent trying too hard or expectations being too high, and in the case of "Two Kinds," we see Jing Mei’s mother trying to live her life through that of Jing Mei. The outcome of her mother’s actions soon leads the narrator into feeling tension within herself, and between herself and her mother.
She had a healthy body, she was intelligent. She had an “abundant sexual drive and possessed strong arms and back,” (2, 8-9). She was herself blind to her own positive qualities as she was too busy trying to please others with her looks, “she went to and fro apologizing,” (2, 10). She apologized to everyone for her imperfections. The imagery of, “Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs” (2, 11), portrays the indifference society felt towards her. She wanted to be appreciated, but she was only seen her for her looks and not her inner self. She had learned from the time she was a child her imperfections made her not good enough or socially
In the past five years, children’s literature has had many common themes. Bullying has been a popular subject of interest at all levels of reading. This trend reflects a rising concern about cyberbullying and the sometimes dramatic effects it can have on a child’s life. Writers and parents are making an effort to show children that what they do to their peers has real consequences and to be mindful with their words and actions. Another popular subject is dystopian futures. This interest is in part due to the success of The Hunger Games trilogy, children have become interested in the future of their planet.
A popular idiom that many children are told are a young age is “You can’t judge a book by its cover”. Accordingly, this idiom holds true about people, how their appearance, background, or name do not define who they are. This meaningful message is expressed in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Beastly by Alex Flinn, and Scribbler of Dreams by Mary E. Pearson. These texts reveal the message that if one is willing to look past a prejudice, one can see who another really is, leading to the most unlikely of relationships.
“No parent should ever have to look at a tiny infant and fear that one day that child would be a victim of exploitative child labor”, John Kerry. Unfortunately, parents were forced to send their children to work in undesirable conditions in order to maintain their struggling households. Throughout history child labor has been a controversial subject especially in the 19th century. To cope with the horrors that went on during this time people often expressed themselves through literature. Childhood is intended to be pure pleasure unlike any other that should not be interrupted by horrendous labors which caused books, poems, and novels to be an expressive outlet for author’s thoughts about it.
The Talk, a humorous essay - with a serious message - by Gary Soto, shows the reader a small snippet into the lives of two boys who find themselves to be “ugly”. The twelve-year-olds elaborate on their ugliness, from the narrator's gangling arms to his pencil dot eyes. Later, they dream about their future; the kind of girl they want to marry, and what jobs they want. The narrator expresses that even though he’s ugly, he’ll have a beautiful wife, and she’ll have plenty of dresses. Toward the end of the piece, the boys watch a girl - not for the first time, mind you - through her bedroom window.
The focus of this story is laid upon the child who is kept in the damp room without windows in a basement. He is filthy and devoid of any sunlight in the room being removed from any social contact. On the contrary, some of the citizens come and peer at the child to see who brings them a sort of joy and comfort in their lives. “Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children...depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery” (Guin 3). While adults accept the situation with the child, little children come feeling rage and shock as well as considering how to help the imprisoned. At this stage, they feel despair and compassion to him; however, they can not exchange their beautiful life for the sake of one child.
In puberty a classmate delivers a cruel blow by telling her "you have a great big nose and thick legs" (Piercy 223). Here we see the beginning of a conflict that will plague the young girl for the rest of her life. Although a girl can be healthy and intelligent, it is not expected for her to possess the physical qualities of "strong arms and back, abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity" (Piercy 223). These traits typically being male, the young girl sees them as being unnatural and negative. The girl feels as if she owes society an apology for possessing these characteristics. Piercy drives the point home by writing, "everyone saw her fat nose on thick legs"
Images are satirical as they connote how the school, under the influence of a fundamentalist society, damaging the children by treating them strictly and condemning them to accomplish what the society think is right. Among the recurring images, a metaphorical image that stood out symbolically is displayed on page 95, in which the teacher mobilizes Marjane and her classmates to beat their hearts to mourn death of young soldiers. The full-page panel exhibits an oppressive atmosphere with its heavy shading, which employs a pessimistically impression with Marjane’s childhood
The tale of “The Ugly Duckling” has been told for many generations. It is the story of a little swan that is mistakenly hatched in a duck’s nest and because of his strange and different appearance he is teased and ridiculed. Even his mother can’t understand how this “ugly duckling” could be one of her own. The ugly duckling goes through many hardships and a long, lonely winter. Then upon seeing his reflection in the pond he realizes that he has become a beautiful swan and happily swims off, joining a group of nearby swans.
Through the representation of the grandmother, Roald Dahl is seeking to imply that the nature of this woman is rendered as a comparatively single mother who-because of certain obstacles confronted with- demonstrates that she cannot reflect any ounce of weakness towards her child; in this case, her grandson. However, one eventually sees the inner sensitivity endured when (for the first