Fear And Bravery, By Neil Gaiman 's Coraline And Lois Lowry 's The Giver

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.

People imprint themselves on their surroundings; they inject fleeting moments into the veins of their environments, boiling the blood that swims hot through every crevice, echoing and lingering indefinitely. According to Wisker houses are the principal locations where the presence of its residents leave lasting imprints on the structure (2011, 4). Novels To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen both use domestic environments as important sites to emphasise and reflect their characters by deploying the literary techniques of language and style from their respective eras. Woolf as a Modernist writer from the early twentieth century uses experimental techniques and the supernatural genre that was prevalent

The overt neglect of her prodigal intellect experienced by Matilda leaves her feeling misunderstood and an outsider in her family which differs from the perceived neglect which leaves Coraline struggling with her sense of self. Born to parents described as “gormless” (Dahl 4), Matilda is both blessed and cursed with a prodigal intellect. Causing Matilda to crave knowledge, it is her intellect that leads her at the age of “four years and three months” (9), to defy her parents and everyday walk to the library. Matilda admits to this neglect to Mrs. Phelps, the librarian, when she tells her of her mother, “She doesn’t encourage reading books. Nor does my father” (10). With this statement Matilda shows how her parents have neglected to foster her intellect. Matilda’s eagerness to digest information, and the fact that the only book in the Wormwood home is her mother’s cookbook, elaborates how she differs from her parents.

Aspiring to be free, to be successful, to be a picture perfect family, and to be happy; these are the traits of the American dream. Although, in one 's mind a specific picture forms when reading about the American dream this does not mean everyone is seeing the same landscape. A prevalent theme in The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and Flight by Sherman Alexie is the potency and prevalence of diversity on the American dream. In each of these compelling works, connoisseurs get a taste of life from different demographics’ viewpoints and a measure of what it means to be yearning for the diverse definition of American ideals.

According to Karl Marx, a famous German philosopher, came up with the theory that the higher class, known as the bourgeoisie, enslaved and exploit the working class, known as proletariat. This theory relates to the two novels A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Legend by Marie Lu. There are many similarities that take place between these dystopian novels and it is evident that everything is predetermined and controlled by the state, causing conflict and chaos. This is demonstrated by the caste system, abuse of drugs and power within the government.

Everyone is burden with pain. No one can escape emotional, physical or mental misery because it is part of what makes us human. Without pain we would live in a world of sameness. Although there is no way we can escape this reality, what if there existed a utopian society in which everyone could live peacefully without the burden of pain? Would everyone be better off or would living in ignorance be a burden for someone else? Lois Lowry gives us a glimpse into what life would be like in a world where conflict does not exist and shows us what this type of world would do to our humanity. In The Giver, she introduces us to Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy who starts off as an oblivious member of his

Children’s literature can take many forms, from far-fetching science fiction to spell binding who-done-it mysteries. One of the most popular ideas presented in these various forms is that of escapism. The characters in these stories explore quite complex social issues in ways that are less confrontational then realism. One might consider why escape is such a central theme; as a child there are numerous benefits to fantasy, it allows readers to experiment with different views of the world and takes hypothetical situations and invites them to make connections between this fictive scenario and their own reality. John Stephens an English professor at Macquarie University has said “ Fantasy writing operates through metaphor- so that the unfamiliar is used to stand in for, or comment upon, the familiar.”

Elvis Presley once said, “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain 't goin ' away.” Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave relates to this quote by focusing on the truths of reality that humans do not comprehend. We think that we understand what we are seeing in our world, but we really just perceive shadows of the true forms of the things that make up the world. We are ignorant about the true nature of reality. The novel, The Giver, by Lois Lowry also involves these concepts. The main character, Jonas, lives in a community of conformity and conflict. When he begins to spend time and train with The Giver, an old man who is the only keeper of the community 's memories, Jonas discovers the unsafe truths of his community 's secret past. Once Jonas discovers the reality about his community, it constantly pesters him until he makes an important decision. Jonas realizes that he must escape from his world in order to make a long needed change for his community. As the prisoner from The Allegory of the Cave seeks knowledge outside of the cave, Jonas from The Giver discovers dark and deadly truths of his community’s secret past that will change his life forever.

A comparative literary study of the effect of mental illness on the central characters is the semi-autobiographical novels The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. Comparing two women trying to deal with mental illness and are trying to cope with the mental pressures they put on themselves and by other people. Although the differences between these two novels are The Bell Jar shows Esther’s life before she descends into mental illness whereas Susanna’s story is about her time in a mental institution and experiencing other patients who are in similar situations.

From the moment the world introduced us to television, we have been bombarded with images of fantasy and “happily ever after’s.” Perhaps the most well known corrupter of reality lies within the Disney franchise. Disney’s, The Little Mermaid, follows a typical fairy tale format in which all goals and dreams are achieved. Its counterpart, however, moves to the beat of a different drum. Hans Christian Andersen’s, The Little Mermaid, portrays a more serious plot much different from Disney’s loveable adaptation. One may conclude that the most these two stories have in common is their titles, but a deeper theme runs throughout both of these fictional plots. Despite these two stories’ conflicting agendas and the

Through our society we are all raised up to be independent and unique individuals such as being ourselves and expressing who each of us are to the world. However, in the book The Giver by Lois Lowry, everyone is raised to count on one another and everyone must look and act the same. Our society differs from Jonas’s in many ways, such as the family units, birthdays, and the way we each learn about our past.

The novels, “Beloved” written by Toni Morrison and “The Color Purple” written by Alice Walker both represent two women, the protagonist of both books, are able to accept their past and be able to find fulfillment and move on with their lives to be something better than were they were left off. Comparing acts of love and the moral support from the community to be the strong independent women they originally are. Toni Morrison and Alice Walker represent these two women, Celie and Sethe, in ways that they have the potential to help others but, when it comes to themselves they back down, which is what is not realized by these women.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley are both novels that deal with the theme of dystopia. Both novels depict societies in which mind control is used to create social stability. There are also individuals who rebel against this loss of freedom and identity. However, these individuals lose their fight for freedom because of unsuccessful escape methods, acts of violence and effective conditioning.

This charming story reverses the typical roles within a children’s book. With underlying issues of stereotypes, independence and empowerment, it fills children with imagination and teaches them the importance of being strong, smart, and the realization that beauty comes from within.

The novels, Mystic River by Dennis Lehane and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, include many different elements of the psychoanalytical theory. According to Sigmund Freud, the psychoanalytic theory explains the reasoning behind personality disorders through one’s conscious and unconscious mind (Psychoanalytic Criticism). This theory also states the idea that things that happen to people during childhood can contribute to the way one later functions as an adult (Psychoanalytic Criticism). Both novels include characters that can contribute towards the psychoanalytical theory through the roles that the characters play in each novel. Both of the parents of the murdered child in each story contrast on how they act in the situation. The fathers