Here's something you should try...often

Many of you will have opinions about the consequences of kids reading the works we adults are reading in this class. Put the opinions on hold for a moment and actually read these works kids! Yes, real, live kids.

Talk to the kids about what they've read. Then you will know (at least in a very limited way) how at least one child really responds to the readings.

This is one of those spots in the class (there will be several) where a number of students will be tempted to shriek in horror, that's not how I remember these stories! They're horrible!"

Resist the temptation.

Also resist assuming that these stories will have disastrous effects on children. They just don't (unless the child listener/reader is very unusual). Actually, most of you, most of your parents, most of your grandparents were exposed to these stories, and they did not turn you all into sociopaths or psychopaths. So quell your fears for a moment, and look at what the stories have to say about the time/place in which they were told.

Consider "Jack and the Beanstalk," for example. This kid is a thief; he's violent; he's party to manslaughter, but he is at the heart of the story, the hero of the story. Holy Hannah! Jacobs included the story because it was immensely popular with his audience. Rather than think, "What rotten people those olde Englishe folkes were," think about why the tale would have been popular; what does it imply about the conditions in which those people were living?

Answer one of the following questions.

  1. Discuss any one (or more) of the fairy tales that teaches ideas, values, stereotypes that many contemporary readers might find questionable or politically incorrect. Of course this is open to personal interpretation; some might find lying acceptable in some situations; others may say it's never OK. Be sure to cite specific details from the folk tale(s) you select (quoting actual passages and using parenthetical citations). You may expand this to include several of the tales in our anthology by one writer (for example, you could discuss Hans Christian Anderson's obsession with death or Joseph Jacobs's support of trickery). What do these patterns suggest about the time/place/culture that embraced them?

    Try not to over generalize. For example, passivity in women is apparent in several tales (such as the Perrault "Cinderella"), but it's not universal (Molly Whuppie is certainly NOT passive). Do not approve/disapprove; examine what the value or stereotype suggests about the time/place/culture that embraced them? You might find the cannibalism found in many folk tales repugnant, but these instances often symbolize the sense of helpleness (of being eaten up) that peasants had several hundred years ago. You MAY even be able to find parallel ideas in our time/place.

  2. This topic is more research based. If you have the opportunity, read one or more of the stories to a child or to some children (or have a child read one or more silently), and find out what ideas they get from the stories.

    Don't LEAD the reader, but interview with the sorts of questions that might elicit some telling responses: not "Aren't those first two pigs stupid for not using bricks?" but "Why didn't the pigs all use the same building materials"? The first approach tells the reader what to conclude; the second allows the reader to think (and you may get something more like, "Well, that's all they had to build with; the third pig was luckier, maybe richer or better educated about building things"). The first approach is preachy; the second is more thought provoking (looking at fate/luck, station/economics, training/skills).

    If you can't get a couple of paragraphs out of this, then consider doing question 1. instead.

To earn full marks, you should always provide examples (quoted and documented) from the readings. Drawing on actual real-world experiences is also always going to earn you more points.

At the heart of literary analysis is your looking directly at the texts--stories, poems, novels--themselves. You need to quote from the stories to back up your claims. As always, these are not right/wrong or should/shouldn't questions. They ask you to think objectively (that is, without personal bias) about different ideas, about what the writers are suggesting.