Violence in Children`s Books

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Violence in Children 's Books

For centuries children 's world of books and literature has been dominated by Fairy Tales (For this report the concentration will remain on fairy tales and comics ) The classic tales of never ending love fairies , princesses and magic . It can be said that these books are children 's best friends . They have been famous with us and the new generation likes them too . These stories have a huge impact on the society and the children

as well

Much heated discussion has been going on about the violence that is present in these children 's books . The majority believes that this violence is not good and what we think of as fairy tales have content that should be censored or not narrated to children . On the contrary there are some who argue that this violence is good for children as it makes obvious the harsh realities of life in a straight way

All this hype has been created recently and involves books that even we have read when we were children . But the view points have changed now According to the critics these books have language that should be censored and scenes that portray violence and insensitive images

Everything depends on our imagination . What ever is written makes us imagine it and when authors write something about death or murder children imagine that even . A very famous nursery rhyme ring around the rosy ' was written in the middle ages about the famous Black Plague Rosy referred to the awful symptoms of that plague that led the patient to death i .e . we all fall down (Suzanne Fields . On discovering this truth it was hard to believe that this nursery rhyme that every child knows by heart is about death

It is strange but violence is there in children literature . To make this statement clear lets define violence . Novas Res , defines violence as Violence is aggressive behaviour , that may be physically , sexually or emotionally abusive . The aggressive behaviour is conducted by an individual or group against another , or others . Physically abusive behaviour , is where a child , adolescent or group directly or indirectly ill treats , injures , or kills another or others ( HYPERLINK "http /www .comune .torino .it /novasres /newviolencedefinition .htm www .comune .torino .it /novasres /newviolencedefinition .htm

This definition not only goes for violence present in real life but also violence that is present in the books for this may lead to real life Facts tell us that juvenile crime is at a rise and school children are killing each other because of the impacts they have due to video games televisions and books . When adults will read the children 's books they will realize that they are not much different from the books and stories available for adults . Stories like Cinderella , Snow White , and Red Riding Hood all have the element of violence in them , in some way or the other . These children stories open a door in the world of the adults which is full of curiosity and eagerness to know more . According to Maria Tatar , these stories at times talk about romance , marriage and even sex and violence (qtd in Beth Potier .The question remains that how these stories are violent in nature ? They are because of characters like scary monsters , witches , and evil step mothers (Potier . The scenes such as how these characters die in the end and what bad they do to the heroes all are in reality illustrations of violence

Children literature has been filled with stories of good being rewarded and evil being punished . Violence has been present as physical violence in children books . This physical violence dealt with punishments given to the evil doers . Physical pain endured by the good people was also shown in children 's books in the past . For instance in the reading series published for schools a story appeared about a boy who was popular in his regiment and played drums . One day he was offered rum by the other officer to whom he refused . But later he was threatened by the major to have the drink otherwise he will die . Stories like these in school books included violent threats against children themselves (Nimon 29 . In addition to this stories such as Mrs . Sherwood 's History of the Fair Child family , also illustrates violence against children . The children of this story were taken to view the remains of a man who argued and killed his brother . Therefore , school literature for children depicted punishments that were given to those who did not follow rules and responsibilities (29

Furthermore , Maria Tartar goes on to say that Jack in the story of jack and the Beanstalk is actually a thief , and Little Red Riding hood is a seductress . In her book The Hard Facts of Grimm 's Fairy Tales , Tatar mentions a story of The Juniper Tree . In her analysis of this particular story Tartar clears how violence is portrayed . It is story of a stepmother who murders her step son , chops his body into pieces , mixes it up in a stew and serves it to her husband . Later she dies by being crushed under a milestone (3 . If parents would read it they would ask is it for real ' but for children this is a hilarious moment because the step mother dies . Evil is terminated in the end , agreed , but why in such a way ? Why after she has `chopped ' her step son and `cooked ' his pieces ? Such illustrations make children imagine what has happened in the story or what is happening . They instead of imagining good things that may lead to peace and security imagine things that are cruel and ugly

Another story Darling Roland ' features a step mother , who is a witch planning to kill her step daughter with an axe . The ever famous Cinderella story also ends where the eyes of the step sisters are picked out by doves as their punishment . Hansel and Gretel is another story where the witch tries to cook Hansel and Gretel but they escape and the witch instead gets trapped in the oven and `burns ' to death . These evils are there in the stories to make dreadful impressions of the villains What happens to them is what happens to evil in the end

Jack and the Beanstalk has been a famous book among children for decades now . The story is about a boy named jack who sells his cow in exchange for some beans . The bans later turn into a huge beanstalk , which a residence of a giant . Jack climbs the beanstalk and steals the giant 's gold and later kills the giant and Jack and his mother live happily ever after . This story has implicit messages such as it is ok to steal gold from a giant and it is ok to kill a giant only because he eats children (Fairy Tale Truth . As mentioned before Tartar has already declared Jack as thief because that is what the story portrays of that character Stealing comes under violence and breaking of rules . Therefore , what we understand from this is that the storytellers are trying to tell kids that steal from giants or from `bad ' people . There is no harm in it

More over , research indicates that this presence of violence in story books is one of the reasons for children to show strong emotions negative emotions . These conclusions were drawn from a psychological study about how sadistic and evil a child 's imagination can be . As mentioned before stories make us imagine , the study concluded that the imagination a child had could only have developed from books . Thus violence in children books leaves negative impact on the child mind where he is capable of imagining things that can take the form of reality later in life (Fairy Tales as Children Stories . Further more Harry Potter a new book for children that is about magic and fantasy has also fallen prey to the controversy of encouraging occult and violence Parents are being concerned about the blunt manner in which violence and death is depicted by the author of Harry Potter (Hinkel . The book deals with magic and fantasy and takes its reader to a magic land and school where students are studying to be wizards . This book has at some point element of violence and death

Gerard Jones says that the story of Hulk helped him come over his insecurities and later became a writer of action movies and comics . He goes further to add that when his son was growing up even he read violent stories , which did not harm him in any way but instead helped him to face his fears (Violent Media is Good for Kids . Jones talks about a girl who had violent imagination because of reading violent comics and books . .and she was small , an only child , and a tomboy at an age when her classmates were dividing sharply along gender lines . On the playground she acted out " HYPERLINK "http /www .projectanime .com /sailormoon " Sailor Moon " fights , and in the classroom she wrote stories about people being stabbed with knives The more adults tried to control her stories , the more she acted out the roles of her angry heroes : breaking rules , testing limits , roaring threats ( HYPERLINK "http /www .motherjones .com /commentary /columns /2000 /06 /violent_media .htm l ?welcome true www .motherjones .com /commentary /columns /2000 /06 /violent_media .html ?welcom e true

Jones along with her mother helped the girl draw out her imaginations and talk about them . This helped her in controlling her imaginations in front of other people and students . But what this led to was a girl strong , confident and socially competent . She was the only girl in her group who could stand for herself (Violent Media is Good for Kids . Many deny the negative effects of violence in children 's books . They argue that evil in stories is present only to get punished in the end and to warn children that wrong doers always get punished and who do good are always rewarded . They also argue that this violent end to evil in stories fulfils the need for justice in children . When they are reading a book they want the evil to get out of it and when in the end they die the child gets satisfied

According to Kenny Fong , stories that have an element of violence in them make children mature and independent human beings . For her fairy tales are a means of escape into a world full of dreams and imaginations . These are master pieces and thus they should be appreciated (The Effect of Classic Fairy Tales on Readers and Society

Violence in children books and literature has been raising many questions . Yes the violence is there , but is it having negative effects The people in support of this argue that yes violence in children books is creating negative effects on children . The cruel presentation of evil leaves children imagining things which are not acceptable by parents They start demonstrating strong negative feelings as well . The word hate is very strong for a child but a child does hate his parents when they punish him . The psychological study proved that children imagine things to such scales that they can play an important role in their upbringing (Fairy Tales as Children Stories

Violence in children literature has its positive sides and its negative ones too , but just because violence is there children books cannot be banned . Simple versions of these stories can be told without the ingredient of hostility present . Violence can have a negative effect on the upbringing of a child . Let us not get scared because the books tell stories in a manner that is not suited to us . Think about the children for them they are stories not realities and they deep down know that these things do not happen in real life . Children 's books should be considered as stories not as ultimate guidelines for our lives

p Works Cited

Fairy Tale Truth ' Illuminosity . HYPERLINK "http /illuminosity .net /writing /essays /fairytaletruth http /illuminosity .net /writing /essays /fairytaletruth

Accessed , February 24 2007

Fairy Tales as Children Stories

HYPERLINK "http /infohost .nmt .edu beverly /writings /fairytales .html http /infohost .nmt .edu beverly /writings /fairytales .html Accessed February 24 2007

Fong , Kenny . The Effect of Classic Fairy Tales on Readers and Society ' December 1997 . Southern Illinois University Carbondale

HYPERLINK "http /www .cs .siu .edu kfong /research /fairytales .html http /www .cs .siu .edu kfong /research /fairytales .html Accessed February 24 2007

Jones , Gerard . Violent Media is good for Kids ' June 28 , 2000 . Mother Jones

HYPERLINK "http /www .motherjones .com /commentary /columns /2000 /06 /violent_media .htm l ?welcome true http /www .motherjones .com /commentary /columns /2000 /06 /violent_media .html ?welcome true

Accessed , February 24 2007

HYPERLINK "http /eric .ed .gov :80 /ERICWebPortal /Home .portal ?_nfpb true _pageLabel E RICSearchResult _urlType action newSearch true ERICExtSearch_SearchType_ 1 au ERICExtSearch_Operator_1 OR ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_1 22Nimon Ma ureen 22 searchtype authors " \o "Search for Nimon , Maureen " Nimon Maureen . Violence in Children 's Literature Today ' ERIC

HYPERLINK "http /eric .ed .gov /ERICDocs /data /ericdocs2 /content_storage_01 /0000000b 80 /22 /b2 /f3 .pdf http /eric .ed .gov /ERICDocs /data /ericdocs2 /content_storage_01 /0000000b /8 0 /22 /b2 /f3 .pdf

Accessed , February 24 2007

Potier , Beth . Once Upon a Time ' Harvard Gazette Archives

HYPERLINK "http /www .hno .harvard .edu /gazette /2003 /04 .10 /18-tatar .html http /www .hno .harvard .edu /gazette /2003 /04 .10 /18-tatar .html Accessed February 24 2007

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