Stereotypes, Racism and Cultural Bias in Children’s Literature

Abstract or Introduction

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.