Children literature is the works of literature that aims to entertain children, to introduce morals, enriches the mentality of children and to teach them different skills and types of knowledge including aesthetics, languages, moralities, history, and religion. Children’s literature seems to be simple, easy, and far away from the controversial matters of adult’s literature. However, children’s literature may be more controversial and argumentative due to the “poison” ideas and extremist ideas introduced to children either intentionally or unintentionally. These negative ideas include, stereotyping and cultural deviations. Consequently, the present paper aims at highlighting the negative aspects introduced in children literature novels such as The Story of Little Black Sambo and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Some critics describe the controversial children fictions that bear more than one interpretations as “poisonous” literary works as they may convey bad morals to children. Consequently, the present study suggests criteria for evaluating children’s fictions, especially in terms of racism, sexuality, and vandalism, and suicidal thoughts. The study adopts an analytical approach that investigates these negative elements highlighting if the author intended to introduce them or not.
Abstract
Children literature is the works of literature that aims to entertain children, to introduce morals, enriches the mentality of children and to teach them different skills and types of knowledge including aesthetics, languages, moralities, history, and religion. Children’s literature seems to be simple, easy, and far away from the controversial matters of adult’s literature. However, children’s literature may be more controversial and argumentative due to the “poison” ideas and extremist ideas introduced to children either intentionally or unintentionally. These negative ideas include, stereotyping and cultural deviations. Consequently, the present paper aims at highlighting the negative aspects introduced in children literature novels such as The Story of Little Black Sambo and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Some critics describe the controversial children fictions that bear more than one interpretations as “poisonous” literary works as they may convey bad morals to children. Consequently, the present study suggests criteria for evaluating children’s fictions, especially in terms of racism, sexuality, and vandalism, and suicidal thoughts. The study adopts an analytical approach that investigates these negative elements highlighting if the author intended to introduce them or not.
Key Words:
Stereotypes, racism ,Children’s Literature , The Story of Little Black Sambo, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the double-meaning.
One of the most controversial issues of children’s literature is the double-meaning of the literary work. Some works of children’s literature introduces what can be describes as a “poisonous” children literature. On the surface level, some works of children’s literature introduce a simple tale with a simple language. However, on the deeper level, these works may imply some hidden ideas such as racism, sexuality and violence.
One of the most famous forms of children literature is a fairy tale. A fairy tale, also known as a fairytale, wonder tale, magic tale, fairy storey, or Märchen, is a short storey type of European folklore. Dwarves, dragons, elves, fairies, giants, gnomes, goblins, gryphons, mermaids, talking animals, trolls, unicorns, or witches are common characters in such stories through the ideas of magic or enchantments. In most cultures, there is no apparent distinction between myth and folk or fairy tale; all of these together make up preliterate societies' literature. Other folk narratives, such as legends (which often require confidence in the truth of the events described) and explicit moral tales, such as beast fables, can be distinguished from fairy tales (Lerer 13).
Some fairy tales is transformed to be a children's book (with illustrations) in order to introduce more attractive and interesting work. One of these illustrated works is The Story of Little Black Sambo. The Story of Little Black Sambo narrates the story of a South Indian boy who is called Sambo. Sambo lives with his father and mother: Black Jumbo and Black Mumbo. When Sambo is out strolling and comes across four hungry tigers, he gives up his bright new clothes, shoes, and umbrella in order for them not to eat him. The tigers are vain, and each believes it is dressed better than the others. They have a huge brawl and chase each other around a tree until they're reduced to grease pools (clarified butter). Sambo gets his clothes back and returns home, while his father fetches the ghee for his mother's pancakes.
The illustrations in children’s literature are a very important element as they make up the meaning of the text. The illustrations and settings of Bannerman's books describe the character and life of an Indian boy. Little Black Sambo has ghee, tigers, and a bazaar, The Story of Little Black Mingo has jungle, a mugger , a dhobi, and a mongoose, Little Black Quasha has a bazaar and tigers, and The Story of Little Black Quibba has mangoes and elephants.
Whereas the plot of the tale narrates a story of an ordinary Indian boy, the illustrations of the work raises many doubts about the work’s objectives and ideas. On the one hand, the protagonist of the tale may by be considered the first black protagonist in children’s literature. On the other hand, according to critics of the time, and the book is praised for positively portraying black characters in both text and illustrations, especially in comparison to books of the time that depicted blacks as simple and uncivilised. However, in the mid-twentieth century, the book was accused of racism since the characters' names were racist slurs for dark-skinned people, and the pictures were in the pickaninny style, as Langston Hughes called it. Both the text and the pictures have been extensively revised in more recent editions.1900 edition of the controversial The Story of Little Black Sambo. Like The Story of Little Black Sambo, Popular classics such as The Secret Garden, Pippi Longstocking, Peter Pan, The Chronicles of Narnia and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory have been also criticized for their racial stereotyping ( Arteaga 12).
The academic journal Children's Literature Review offers critical analysis of many famous children's books. In its 114th volume, the journal discusses the cultural stereotypes in Belgian cartoonist Herge's Tintin series in reference to its depiction of people from the Congo(Burns 114).The colonial and the postcolonial era in literature created a state of mixed cultures and identities. In this course, the Indian and African protagonist became a familiar element in literature, especially children’s literature.
The Five Chinese Brothers, by Claire Huchet Bishop and Kurt Wiese, has been criticizes for its stereotyped depictions of Chinese people. 104 The Story of Little Black Sambo and Florence by Helen Bannerman The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg by Kate Upton has also been criticised for its racist and contentious images. The name of the major character itself represents , a racial empress ion that is well-known in American South caused a widespread banning of Bannerman's book.
Sam and the Tigers: A New Telling of Little Black Sambo was rewritten by author Julius Lester and illustrator Jerry Pinkney to make the story more acceptable and uplifting for ethnic minority youngsters. Dr. Eske Wollrad, a feminist theologian, said that Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking stories "include colonial racial stereotypes," (Flood 12) advising parents to avoid some offending parts when reading to their children. Criticisms of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel The Secret Garden say that the language of main character Mary Lennox endorses racist attitudes against black people (Egoff 284). Hugh Lofting's The Story of Doctor Dolittle has been accused of "white racial superiority," insinuating that an ethnic minority individual is less than human through its underlying theme.
Mary Renck Jalongo argues, that images of indigenous people living in the 1800s with feathers and face paint lead children to believe they are fictional rather than real people (39). Critics have criticised the portrayals of Native Americans in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie and J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Wilder's work, which is based on her adolescence in the late 1800s in America's midwest, depicts Native Americans as stereotyped clichés and has been prohibited in several classes.
In some of the most well-known children's classics from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the presence of empire, as well as pro-colonialist and imperialist themes, has been highlighted (Thacker 91).Several notable elements of imperialism and colonialism have been observed and identified as propaganda in the 1931 picture book Histoire de Babar, le petit elephant (The Story of Babar, The Little Elephant) by French illustrator Jean de Brunhoff. Babar, who is an analogy for French colonialism, effortlessly fits into the bourgeois lifestyle. It's a planet where the elephants who have acclimated to the new and powerful civilization rule over the animals that haven't yet been integrated.
Curious George, by H. A. Rey and Margret Rey, was initially published in 1941 and has been attacked for its overt slave and imperialist tales. According to critics, the man in the yellow hat portrays a colonialist poacher of European ancestry who kidnaps George, an African monkey, and transports him to America on a ship. Points in this debate include the man in colonial uniform and Curious George's absence of a tail. The Wall Street Journal describes it as a "barely veiled slave storey" in an article (Peacock 78). The author of Just So Stories and The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling, has also been accused of colonial bigotry (McCorquodale 66). The influence of British imperialist attitudes in The Secret Garden has been noted by literary critics such as Jean Webb.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a children novel which is published in 1964 by Roald Dahl. The story narrates the story of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was first published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in 1964 and in the United Kingdom by George Allen & Unwin after eleven months. The story was originally inspired by Roald Dahl's experience of chocolate companies during his
Roald Dahl's experience with chocolate firms during his school years inspired the narrative. Cadbury would frequently send youngsters test packages in exchange for their feedback on new goods (Kušniriková 4).Cadbury and Rowntree's were England's two major chocolate makers at the time (during the 1920s), and they both tried to steal trade secrets by sending spies into the other's plant, posing as employees—inspiring Dahl's concept for Slugworth, the recipe-stealing spy. Both corporations were extremely protective about their chocolate-making procedures as a result of this. Dahl was inspired to write the story by a combination of the factory's secrecy and the intricate, often huge machineries.
Dahl's widow argues that that Charlie was originally written as "a little black boy." This raises important questions about choosing black protagonists for children’s literature. The Oompa-Loompas were described as African pygmies in the first published version, and were portrayed as such in the initial printed edition (Baker 12). Following the NAACP's remark that the transfer of Oompa-Loompas to Wonka's factory resembled slavery, Dahl found himself sympathising with their worries and published a revised edition. The Oompa-Loompas were depicted as white and hippies-like in this edition, as well as the subsequent sequel, and all references to Africa were removed.
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- Quote paper
- Dr. Mahmoud Sokar (Author), 2022, Stereotypes, Racism and Cultural Bias in Children’s Literature, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1181502
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