Essentials states that historical fiction and bibliographies can make the past come alive and invite readers to immerse themselves in another time and place (p.166). In choosing Fiona’s Lace as part of a classroom collection, this is precisely what I intend to do for my students. The story itself is intriguing for readers of all ages. Concepts including family, strength, and bravery are present throughout the book. In addition, the story details the struggle of Irish immigrants during a significant point in history in a realistic way that is still appropriate for the age range I chose. I believe that Fiona’s Lace is a valuable addition to a classroom collection not only due to the factors previously mentioned but also because it will stimulate
Understanding the perspective of someone other than yourself is an important lesson for a young reader, as well as incorporating cross-curricular learning in one lesson for peak instructional efficiency. In an article titled “Why and How I Teach With Historical Fiction”, by author, Tarry Lindquist, she expresses the significant role that historical fiction literature has for young adult readers and students. This genre introduces readers to more serious topics and situations, that include both fact, such as actual events, but also fiction, such as characters and incidents that are not real but could have very well happened. This article applies to the novel “The Birchbark House,” by Louise Erdrich as well as “Salt to the Sea” by Ruta Sepetys.
As shown in the novel Bound, historical fiction was beneficial in helping readers to understand the past. The characters of Sally Gunning’s novel were helpful in allowing the reader to understand daily aspects of colonial
There are various social issues that come across in our daily lives. One of the most reoccurring is stereotyping. The two characters accessible in this essay are Princess Elizabeth from The Paper Bag Princess and Hana from Hana’s Suitcase. In these two stories, both girls Hana and Princess Elizabeth have been stereotyped. Hana is stereotyped on her ethnic and spiritual backgrounds; she must face the expatriation and killing of large number of the Jewish people by Nazi’s throughout the Holocaust. On other hand, Elizabeth is stereotyped established on other “old-style” fairy stories; where the princess wishes the rescue and the prince fights the aggressive dragon. She faces a bigot stereotype. This essay will discuss how the authors; Levine (Hana’s Suitcase) and Munsch (The Paper Bag Princess) deal
She remembers graduating Anne Hutchinson Elementary School with a a/line dress that was white lace on the top half and a mint blue/green skirt on the bottom half. She remembers getting picked up at Hommocks Ice Skating Rink at 1:40 to get her new puppy Gracie in Pennsylvanian and the trip being 4 hours long just to get there. She remembers that her family and her picked Gracie out, out of a total of 5-7 other siblings. She remembers falling of a top riser in the auditorium of Anne Hutch and getting 3 enormous bruces all over her legs. She remembers that she used to go up in her tree/play house with a puzzle that had laces on it and other things on it and sitting in there trying to learn how to tie a shoe. She remembers that she learned how
Using descriptive language, she writes “several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the loons spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy”(ln.18-22). Adding a visual image into the audience’s minds, Kelley shows how the children in labor are forced into harsh conditions to survive because of the lack of child labor laws. In addition, she describes “a little girl, on her thirteenth birthday, could start away from her home at half past five in the afternoon, carrying her pail of midnight luncheon…”(ln.48-50). Using this description, Kelley indicates that children should not be working late into the night which evokes the feeling of sympathy from the audience. With these examples, Kelley calls forth the feeling of pity and guilt from the audience when they learn that they are allowing children to force themselves into harsh
She does not understand why the older and well-known authors are not being read in high school. Prose uses a personal experience from her son’s sophomore English class. He had to read a “weeper and former bestseller by Judith Guest” (424), about a dysfunctional family dealing with a teenage son’s suicide attempt. “No instructor has ever asked my sons to read Alice Munro, who writes so lucidly and beautifully about the hypersensitivity that makes adolescence a hell,”(424). She again mentions books she approves of that should be read in English classes.
In both “Cinderella Is Traditional and Straightforward, but Plenty Charming,” by Richard Lawson, and Madonna Kolbenschlag’s “A Feminist’s View of Cinderella,” the popular fairytale of a girl becoming a princess is discussed. Lessons of identity, rivalry, and grief are displayed through both the tale of Cinderella herself and the film. Even though both Lawson and Kolbenschlag address the lessons taught by the story of Cinderella, the extent as to which each author elaborates on if the morals of the story are convoluted or simply modest differ drastically. Both pieces agree that Cinderella conveys moral lessons to children. Lawson expresses the belief that Cinderella emits simple and straightforward messages to both young girls and boys.
For a book to appeal to its readers, it needs to have a strong, universal theme. Although many people may have not specifically experienced Blanche’s
History has elements of evil, it reveals the cruelest capabilities of humanity and reaches the limit of imagination. Jane Yolen’s, Briar Rose, retells a part of the tragedies during the Holocaust and captures the evil history possesses. Jane Yolen recreates the Grimm Brothers’, Briar Rose, through metaphor she describes the impact of the Holocaust on family’s decades past. Rebecca, the protagonist, throughout her childhood is told the fairy-tale Briar Rose by her grandmother, Gemma, at her deathbed she is told to believe the story was real and revealed undiscovered truth about Gemma’s past—the novel follows the journey of Rebecca rediscovering the past and unravels the importance of storytelling to human history. The very famous fairy-tale
Fairy tales and myths, although often cited as children’s stories, rooted in a distant world of magical realism, still form the bedrock of both literary history and cultural consciousness. As Duffy quotes “a part in our literary DNA.” (from the interview i listened too need to find it to refernce) Yet in most fairytales, such as disney, the works of Perrault, or Grimm, the tales remain governed by an archaic ideology, that do not represent the progressed gender equality of both 20th and 21st century auiences. Both Carter, and Duffy utilise this stigmatised genre to reflect the empowerment of women; the works of “the bloody chamber” and “the worlds wife” akin give a new radical voice piece for women in society. However critics of both works question wether the authors have replaced misogyny with misandry, using their work to mock masculinity.
The question of whether Into the Beautiful North could be a modern fairytale really sparked a few thoughts in my head, since I would have never made that comparison upon reading it myself. Say, though, I decide to break down an actual fairytale and then juxtapose this analysis to that of ITBN, I now realize that a lot of similarities can be identified. The issue of magic realism plays in heavily, adding in a few fictional aspects here and there to the book. Above all though, and using the fairytale of Cinderella as my base throughout this essay, it’s easy to make connections from fairytale characters to the characters portrayed in Into the Beautiful North. The reasons above lead me to state that Urrea’s novel can in fact exemplify a modern fairytale.
It is often questioned whether tween literature is too mature for its targeted age group. With themes of murder, sexual abuse, neglect, and other forms of violence, both physical and psychological, there seems to be one topic that is slightly more prevalent when speaking about tween literature. Tween literature and culture is often marketed towards young girls and their parents, because of this, it becomes easy to talk about themes of feminism in tween literature. More specifically, due to the time period in which tween culture became mainstream, postfeminism is a topic that is often heavily discussed around tween literature. Both Gail Levine’s novel, Ella Enchanted, as well as Louise Fitzhugh’s novel Harriet the Spy, can both be analyzed using a postfeminist lense. By using a postfeminist lense in analyzing these books, the issues of postfeminism become apparent when addressing issues such as a false sense of choice for young girls, an idea that they must be ashamed for who they are and the views that they hold. It is further complicated when it becomes apparent that due to postfeminist ideology, women, and specifically young girls have lost the ability to articulate sexism when it affects them. Through these points of contention regarding postfeminism, it becomes aparent that society is not quite ready to hold postfeminist views, since there is still an imbalance of power that women face on a day to day basis.
This powerful statement from Hillary Clinton underpins the injustices of female representation in the past. This silence is evident in the Bible verse, ‘Let your women keep silent in the churches,’ (I Corinthians 14: 34-37) and Virginia Woolf’s concept that “Anon … was often a woman [who could not otherwise get the respect of male counterparts].” (Virginia Woolf, 1928, A Room of One’s Own. PAGE). These are only two examples of how females have been largely disempowered by the male constraints of literature. In recent history feminists have deemed it necessary to research the lost and forgotten females and retell history from a distinctly female perspective. This issue is of significant concern to Carol Ann Duffy, the current Poet Laureate. Duffy subverts fairytales, myths and historical stories to empower women, giving them a voice and allowing their stories to be heard. This essay will argue that Carol Ann Duffy presents a feminist perspective in the poem ‘Little Red Cap’.
Snow White is a fairy-tale known by many generations; it is a beloved Disney movie, and a princess favoured by many kids. But did you know the fairy-tale was made to teach young children, especially little girls, their duties in life? It also values beauty over knowledge, portrays women to be naive and incompetent, and assumes that women cannot understand anything other than common household chores. Throughout this criticism, I will be using the feminist lens to analyze the fairy-tale, Snow White, through the perspective of a feminist.
Firstly, Munro displays society’s weak and stereotypical view of women through the protagonist’s mother. The mother acts exactly as society expects girls to, staying inside the house, cooking and cleaning. For example, the mother “did not often come out of the house unless it was to do something – hang out the wash or dig potatoes in the garden.” (43) indicating that her sole purpose was to be inside the home. However, although women are expected to be weak and silenced, the protagonist opposes herself to society’s expectations. While most girls are expected to help their mother in the kitchen and stay inside, the protagonist prefers to “help my father when he cut the long grass, and the lamb’s quarter and flowering money-musk, that grew between the pens. He cut with the scythe and I raked into piles.” (43) Due to the protagonist preferring to work outside with her father it makes her mother feel as though, “It’s not like I (she) had a girl in the family at all.” (44) which is evidence that the protagonist defies gender conventions by participating in male-oriented tasks. Munro expresses the protagonist’s unconventionality through the use of symbolism in Flora the horse. Flora is viewed as, “given to fits of violent alarm, veering at cars and even at other horses, but we loved her speed and high-stepping, her general air of gallantry and abandon.” (44) Whereas, the other horse Mack, is described at “slow and easy to handle” (44) The inclusion of the comparison amongst Mack and Flora is to show the reader that Flora’s wild and brave personality is not common and is seen as unconventional which represents the protagonist and her separation from the norm.