In Teares’ article, “Harry Potter and the Technology of Magic” she argues that stories enact both fantasies and fears of children's literature. The fantasies cause the children to be more cultured however, the fear of the youth becoming eager consumers exist. Along with this argument, Teare also argues the publishing in the twenty-first century commercializes the culture. The kids want technology, souvenirs and toys but in reality these items do not benefit them. Teare uses two main thesis throughout her paper, “ I will argue that the stories the books tell, as well as the stories we’re telling about them, enact both our fantasies and our fears of children’s literature and publishing in the context of twenty-first century commercial and technological culture (pg. …show more content…
(pg. 554)”. The thesis reveals to the reader how books such as Harry Potter have evolved to such significant levels even though the stories these books tell are not real. In society these stories cause the youth to become critical thinkers trying to comprehend these extraordinary stories. Due to the publishing style, we are experiencing a period where majority of children's literature books are imagining yet not based on real life scenarios. However these stories are made to be real through advertisements, merchandise and toys that incites the children's wants. Then the parents buy these items to please their children. Novels such as Harry Potter series thrive in these schemes because numerous audiences have interest in the story line as well as feelings for incidents in the story (pathos). For example Ron Weasley, a main character in the plot comes from a family supporting seven kids that comes from inferior financial circumstances than other wizards. The audiences see the struggle and this creates an emotional connection that keeps viewers alive. Teare uses these examples and research to build onto her argument which can be seen in many ways to be true. The facts are that Harry
Children’s Literature is a wide range. It is collection of culture, concepts and future values. After reading the introduction” Trade And Plumb-Cake Forever, The Riverside Anthology of Children’s Literature), I considered most insightful in reading this section , Children’s literature differs from adult literature, Children’s literature plays a key role in raising children's imaginations, and it plays an important role in the development and creative thinking in children.
Virginia Stem Owens, in “Telling the Truth in Lies,” reveals that reasoning, by fictional stories, provides an effective way of knowledge for children. In this short essay, Virginia Stem Owens explains that children learn about the world through the lens of fiction. They make sense of the world, by using these stories to make connections with the world around them. The author reveals this when she gives her experience with fictional stories. She describes it as the place where she realized that “understanding and hope nourished.”
In her speech, and the article, titled “The Case for Good Taste in Children’s Books,” Meghan Cox Gurdon addresses the controversy on Young Adult Literature. Throughout her speech at Hillsdale College she labels this current category of fiction as gaudy, inappropriate, and sacrilegious. Gurdon’s claim on the content of YA, for Young Adult, books obtains effectiveness through her ability to incorporate real world examples, the claim made by the opposing view, and a moral push.
All this has added to the growing popularity of the Harry Potter brand that is everywhere today. Young readers can relate to Harry’s issues and the books create another world the readers can subconsciously ‘escape’ too.
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.
J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, which have reached worldwide popularity have an effect on children has not been matched by any other book. The novels have encouraged children to read for entertainment instead of turning to television or video games. When a piece of literature inspires children as the Harry Potter novels do, limiting a child’s access to the novels seems ridiculous. Unfortunately, this is what is happening with Harry Potter. The books are challenged and banned in schools and libraries all over the world because parents contend that the content is unsuitable. The content, which revolves around a world full of wizardry and witchcraft, has some parents actively
Fairy tale characters, along with other fictional beings, have entertained and inspired many children for centuries. Various little girls, all over the world have dreamed of one day finding their Prince Charming and meeting their godmother, while little boys were on the look out for dragons and dragon slayers. At some point however, the magic in many of the little children eyes slowly drifted away, and their belief in this fictional reality wavered. Americans in the 21st century seem to have lost their connection with imagination. In “Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?,” Ursula LeGuin claims that Americans fail to read fictional novels because they have lost faith in an alternate reality, and find books useless, due to the lack of personal gain. Yet, LeGuin overlooks the many maturely developed Americans who have never touched any fictional print, and exaggerates their self-indulging nature.
Daniel Kang Dr. Rhonda Dubec English 2907 SDE 21 November 2014 The Debate over J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Controversy over children’s literature is nothing new.
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has become one of the most popular children’s series in the world over the past decade. Through these books children and young adults alike have delved into a fantastical world in which they explored the problems that their protagonist, Harry Potter, has faced. In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the sixth book of the Harry Potter series, Harry dealt with the challenge of proving to his peers and professors that Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape were no longer trustworthy. Even so, Harry failed to realize that the author of the notes in his Advanced Potion-Making book was corrupt. In this book, J.K. Rowling uses point of view, style, and irony to demonstrate the need for people to be more analytical
It is unrealistic that a teenage boy could survive upwards of 200 days in the middle of the Pacific Ocean alongside a 450-pound tiger. But literature does not reflect ordinary life, therefore it is important in the study of literature to separate the two, because literature is not about being practical or realistic, it is about being imaginative. The unreality of Life of Pi allows the Hero’s Journey archetype to be easily identifiable, for example, as literature provides the extremes of scenarios, stretching the capacity of the imagination to the very heights and depths of what the human mind can conceive. Literature provides us with an experience that reality cannot, because in reality, the imagination is limited to what is physically possible, but in literature, the imagination is able to be free. Through understanding the conventions of literature, the individual, in studying more complex works, is able to appreciate the use of the imagination to reach beyond what reality offers us and is able to refine his sensibilities as he recognizes the partition between life and literature.
Literary heroes that are also ordinary children are engaging to readers, particularly child readers. James Pope and Julia Round write that “Roald Dahl is a fascinating author in that his books for children feature child heroes who are very often neither hero nor villain, but a wild, subversive combination of both” (258). These characteristics are also true of Coraline and Harry Potter, as they are presented as imperfect, but ultimately find the power within themselves to save what is important to them. Children readers are empowered by Coraline and Harry because they identify with these ordinary children and feel as if they can also make a difference in their lives, as the characters defeat the evil in theirs.
Anyone who has worked with children will agree that they are very impressionable. Even young adults are influenced by the media, literature, peers, money, and paradigms which is why parents and guardians would also agree that any impressionable source their children come in contact with should include desirable, good-natured content, such as life lessons and morals. In the past two decades, Harry Potter, a famous work of J.K. Rowling, has become increasingly popular and well known, but sensations also come with reproaches from strong willed adults that claim simple fictional details are consuming and corrupting their children. Parents and guardians believe that Harry Potter should be banned from use in schools and libraries, but they don’t
So many children’s fantasy fiction stories began as larks, extempore creations for their delight, and were written down and published by chance – Lewis Carroll invented Alice In Wonderland (1865) simply to amuse Alice Liddell while boating one ‘golden afternoon’, while Neil Gaiman originally started writing Coraline (2002) for his daughter Holly because she liked scary stories. So much so, that a dominant trope of this genre is its seeming literary insignificance. Indeed, by resting chiefly on the assumption that children’s fantasy fiction is set in unrealistic secondary worlds which encourage young readers to avoid confronting real-life tensions and problems, the genre is often construed as having no higher purpose than being primarily and pejoratively escapist. It has therefore been continuously marginalized, if not wholly condemned for its lack of literary value by academics and public opinion. And even though the efforts of theorists, such as Maria Nikolajeva and Brian Atteberys, have validated the literary significance of the genre to an extent, the defence of fantasy fiction for children remains an ongoing, long-standing effort. In 1947 for instance, J.R.R. Tolkien in his classic essay ‘On Fairy Stories’ argued that fantasy, rather than merely offering a distraction from reality, created a space that allowed the reader to “produce a keener perception of the
Although many view children's fiction as suitable only to children, and an embarrassingly immature pursuit for a serious person, children' stories mold the way we think. They allows us to look at very complex and difficult issues in a safe and playful way, and they give us the freedom to imagine the unimaginable.
Using imagination and creativity, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has defined literature as transformative. In this seven-book series J.K Rowling imagined and creatively pieced together a fantasy world of muggles, wizards, tyrants, and heroes to symbolically share with readers problems plaguing modern society. Similar to Shelley’s work of the past, never before have readers in the modern era seen teenage and adult mania surrounding an 11-year-old wizard. Some will argue that J.K. Rowling’s young-adult series lacks depth or wants to twist young minds by using magic and evil, but through close examination it is evident that