The Art and Craft of

Fiction
The Med;um and the Message

"Prose is architecture not interior decoration."

-Ernest Hemingway

Introduction

Why is it that we are enthralled by some books and bored by others? Why do
some books stick with us our entire lives and others are forgotten before the day
is through? Part of the answer, of course, has to do with our individual tastes,
interests, and life experiences-not everyone likes the same books. And, in fact,
our tastes arc constantly changing. Old favorites can lose their appeal and we
sometimes find ourselves fascinated by books we once avoided. What makes us
respond to literature as we do? Is there such a thing as good literature? Or is it all
merely personal opinion? A work of literature-whether it is a short story, a novel,
a play, a poem-is the product of a writer with a good idea who is ahle to express
that idea through skillful use of language, imagery, and structure. A good piece of
literature forces us both to think and to feel. In this chapter we will examine how
authors bring that miracle about. And we will look at some ways of thinking about
literature and how and why we respond to books the way we do-a subject we
call literary criticism. A chapter like this necessarily relies on a certain amount of
terminology, but that is merely convenience so we can carry on discussions. The
important parts are the ideas, so keep your eyes focused on the larger picture. Our
subject in this chapter is fiction; poetry includes an entirely different vocabulary an<l
we will discuss that in Chapter 6.

83

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84 • Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade

First, let's consider what makes up a story-a story needs a narrato r (someone to
tell the story), a plot (something has to happen), one or more characters (to enact
the plot), a setting (a place for things to happen), an idea or theme (a point the
author is trying to make), and, of course, language or style (with which to convey
ideas). Knowing something about these features gives us a leg up in understanding
the story. For prospective teachers, these tools are indispensable in choosing hooks
and leading discussions. And let's not forget the hudding writers who will want to
examine this literary architecture to hone their own skills. At the very least, this
chapter will provide us with a vocabulary with which we can talk about books.

Narrator
Every story has to have a storyteller, whom we call the narrator. Never think of
the narrator as the author-rather, think of the narrator as a mask or persona that
the author is adopting. How we respond to a story depends in large degree upon
who is telling it. It is crucial that we do not mistake the narrator for the author. In
fact, some writers use a device that Wayne C. Booth ( 1961) calls the "unreliable
narrator," a storyteller who cannot always be believed. One of the most famous is
found in Agatha Christie's early mystery, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in which
the first-person narrator (spoiler alert) turns out to be the killer. And in Edgar Allan
Poe's story, "The Tell-Tale Heart," the narrator turns out to be a lunatic.
So our response to a story depends a great deal on the narrative approach
the author uses. \'Ve usually find one of three common narrative approaches in
children's fiction: first-person narrator, limited narrator, and omniscient narrator.

FIRST-PERSON NARRATOR Sometimes the narrator is also a character in the story,

and this is called a first-person narrator. This is easy to identify, since the narrator
refers to him- or herself as "I." Richard Peck opens his Newbery Honor honk A
Long \Vay from Chicago this way: "It was always August when we spent a week
with our grandma. I was Joey then, not Joe: Joey Dowdel, and my sister was Mary
Alice. In our first visits we were still just kids, so we could hardly see her town
because of Grandma. She was so big, and the town was so small" ( 1 ). Naturally,
a first-person narrator can only tell us what he or she knows, feels, or experiences,
but this is also the most intimate narrator and we come to feel as if we know the
narrato r pers onally. Alice Childress's A Hero Ain't Nothi 11' but a Sa 11dwich is about
the plight of Benjie, a_ 13-ye�r-old African American hoy struggling with hero in
addiction. The story 1s told in the first person, hut each chapter has a different
narrator, including Benjie, his mother, grandmother, mother's boyfriend, teache rs,
and others. So we get the story from multiple points of view, and we, the rea ders,
have to pie ce together the truth from the often-contr adictory observations of scvcr:tl
 Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade o 85

witnesses. It is important to remember that, in many respects, the first-person

narrator may be the most unreliable-but also the most interesting.

LIMITED NA RRATOR The limited narrator is an outside storyteller-one who is not a

_
character m the st?r� but whose viewpoint is limited to that of a single character. In
other words, the limited narrator tells us only what that one character knows and
�eels. In the first chapter of Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder
introduces her characters like this:

So far as the little girl could see, there was only the one little house where she lived
with her Father and Mother, her sister Mary and baby sister Carrie. A wagon track
ran before the house, turning and twisting out of sight in the woods where the wild
animals lived, but the little girl did not know where it went, nor what might be at the
end of it.
The little girl was named Laura and she called her father, Pa, and her mother, Ma.
In those days and in that place, children did not say Father and Mother, nor Mamma
and Papa, as t/Jey do now. (2-3)

And so the entire story is told through Laura's eyes-but not in her words. The
narrator's viewpoint is limited to Laura's, and we will not learn where the wagon
track goes until she does. Like the first-person narrator, the limited narrator
provides intimacy, but it is not restricted, for example, by the vocabulary or
grammar of a 5-year-old Laura.

OMNISCIENT NARRATOR The omniscient narrator is also an outside narrator, but

one who can know the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in a story.
Omniscient, in fact, means "all-knowing." Since both the omniscient narrator and
the limited narrator are outside storytellers, it is not always obvious which is being
used at first. E. B. White's Charlotte's \Yleb opens with the exclamation of the young
girl, Fern, "Where's Papa going with that axe?" and then goes on to describe Fern's
feelings about the newborn runt who will be \X'ilbur the pig. We might suspect that
this story is being told from Fern's point of view. But in the second chapter, the
focus shifts to that of \X'ilbur. Later on, we see events described through the eyes
of the farmer and hired hand and then through Fern's parents' eyes. This shifting
viewpoint clearly identifies an omniscient narrator. The omniscient narrator is
typically the most detached narrative viewpoint, but it also allows the reader to see
the story from a variety of perspectives.

Settino
The setting of a story includes the time, the place, and the social atmosphere. A
well-drawn setting helps establish the mood of a story. Wilder's Little House on the
Prairie, for example, is set on the Great Plains in the latter half of the nineteenth
86 o Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

century. So, we read descriptions of the daily activities of the Ingalls family-poor
settlers eking out a living in a place where well s are dug by hand, the nearest
neighbor is miles away, and the family huddles in a log cabin behind a blanket for a
I '

door while wolves lurk perilously close outside.

Sometimes the setting almost becomes a character, challenging the protagonist
I I

•- I

to show his or her mettle. Setting is crucial in survival stories, such as Scott O'Dell's'.·
Island of the Bl11e Dolphins or Jean Craighead George's Julie•I of the Wolves,
in which the protagonists are struggling to survive in hostile environments­
inhospitable weather, dangerous wildlife, and tormenting isolation.
The setting can also be crucial when the story takes place in foreign lands (Lois
Lowry's Number the Stars recreates the atmosphere of Denmark during the Second
rr
\Xtorld \Var), or in imaginary lands (remember
r Dorothy's observation in The Wizard
of Oz, "Toro, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore"), or in science fiction,
where a future world must be envisioned. Indeed, one of the reasons these stories
are so popular is because their settings permit readers to escape to imaginary places,
where life is more exciting and where they may forget for a while the cares of their
everyday lives.

Character
A story is not likely to stick if it does not have believable and memorable
characters. We often remember the characters long after we have forgotten a
book's title or the specific details of its plot. Who can forget irascible Pinocchio?
Or irrepressible Huck Finn? Or endearing Wilbur and Charlotte? The creation
of interesting characters is an essential part of any successful fictional story. Let's
consider the role of character in a story.

CHARACTER TYPES Most stories include a protagonist (the main sympathetic

character) and an antagonist (the chief opponent of the protagonist). We sometimes
call these characters the hero and villain; however, protagonists are not always
heroic, and antagonists are not always villainous. Protagonists might be strong,
compassionate, and fearless, but they may also be bullheaded and rash. Antagonists
might be dastardly, but they might al�o have an unexpected streak of generosity.
_
Usually a story includes several minor or supporting characters who can be
int eresting in their own right-Lon g John Silver in Treas11re Island �r the Scarecrow
in The \'l/011derful Wizard of Oz, for example. Many times these minor characters are
stock characters representing types rather than individuals-the flatterer: the show·
off, the conceited, the tight-fisted, the addle-brained, the snob, and so 0�. When
a character possesses the opposite traits of another character: we call him or her a
f�il character• "Foil" is a jeweler's term for a setting designed to make a jewel look
.
bigger and bnghter. So Templeton, the self-centered rat
in Charlotte's Web is a foil to
Charlotte, and makes her kind and selfless nature seem all the more attrac;ive.
 Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade c 87

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT Each character may possess specific personality traits,

but not all characters are as completely fleshed out as others. Some characters
reveal fully developed personalities; these are the round characters. Charlotte, for
example, is wise, compassionate, determined, and resourceful; \X'ilbur is at times
happy, sad, frightened, loving, and so on. Other characters are only partially
developed; these are the flat characters. \Y/e usually see just one side of them (the
selfish rat Templeton, the stuttering goose, and the dim-witted farmhand are all
examples of flat characters in Charlotte's \Veb).
In addition, some round characters may change through the course of the story;
these are called dynamic characters. For example, at the beginning of Charlotte's
\'Veb, \X7ilbur is immature, self-absorbed, timid, and fearful, but by the end he
becomes brave, selfless, and compassionate. Wilbur's transformation, his intellectual
and psychological growth, is what makes him a dynamic character.
Dynamic characters are restricted to the main characters. Any more than
that would take a very long book, indeed. Most characters are what we call
static characters-that is, their personalities really do not change. The selfish rat,
Templeton, is just the same rapscallion at the end of the story as at the beginning­
he does a good deed only when there is something in it for him. Templeton is a
flat and static character. It could be argued that Charlotte, on the other hand, is a
well-rounded character, but one who does not really change. She is wise, kind, and
compassionate from the very beginning-and she remains that way. In fact, we
don't want her to change. This would make her a round but static character.

CHARACTER REVELATION And finally, we should consider how we learn about

characters in a book. \Y/e gain our knowledge of characters in several ways:

• \Vhat the narrator says about the character-Although reliable, this usually
is the least memorable way of getting to know a character (it's like learning
about someone from a lecture).
• What the other characters say about the character-This evidence is, of
course, only as reliable as the source; we must be wary of hidden motives or
prejudices. Do we really crust what Templeton the rat says about someone?
• What the character says about hi,n- or herself-This information can be
reliable, but characters do not always mean what they say, they do not
always tell the truth, nor do they always understa�d themselves. Ar_ the
beginning of Charlotte's Web, for instance, can Wilbur really explain why he
is so timid and so self-absorbed?
• What the character actually does-Actions, we all know, speak louder than
words and it is through actions that some of the most convincing evidence
about �haracter is revealed. T he actions of Wilbur, Charlotte, and Templeton
really tell us what these characters are like.
88 o Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

Plot
The novelist E. M. Forster once said, "The king died and then the queen died is a
story. The king died, and then the queen died of grief is a plot" (86). The point is
that the plot is not just a series of events; it is a series of interrelated events. In life,
for example, you get someone else's mail by mistake, your phone rings and it's a
wrong number, your neighbor cancels a luncheon engagement, and a friend asks
you to rake her to the dentist. This is not a plot-it's just a series of unfortunate
events. In life, things don't always make sense. However, in literature, we expect
every action to have a purpose, to make some meaningful contribution to the plot.
So, in a book or story, the seemingly random events just described might actually
turn out this way: The mail was deliberately switched so you wouldn't see the
birthday cards that came. The so-called wrong number was a ruse to see if you were
home. And your friend doesn't really need a dentist-it's only a ploy to get you out
of the house so your neighbors can decorate for your surprise birthday party. The
point is that a plot is a deliberate artifice, a carefully woven design. Nothing occurs
without a purpose. Let's now look at three common plot patterns-dramatic,
episodic, and parallel-and the journey device.

DRAMATIC PLOT A dramatic plot focuses on a conflict that must be resolved. The
characters, setting, and conflict are introduced near the beginning. Then the action
intensifies over the course of the story until it finally reaches a peak-called the
climax. This could be a fierce confrontation, an emotional reaction by one or more
characters-it is usually the most exciting part of the story. Following the climax,
the story usually moves rather quickly to the end, tying up any loose ends-this is
called the denouement (meaning "unraveling") (see Figure 4.1 ). This structure is
probably the most familiar storyline; it is commonly found in mysteries, adventures,
romances, folktales, and most picture book stories. E. B. \X1hite's Charlotte's \Veb is
a good example.

EPISODIC PLOT An episodic plot consists of a series of chapters, each of which acts
as a dramatic story in itself. An episodic book often reads like a series of short
stories rather than like a unified novel. However, the episodes are tied together
by a common set of characters, setting, and theme, and they are usually brought
to a satisfying closure at the end. Weekly television sitcoms and dramas are often
episodic, each episode being complete in itself. The typical episodic novel is given
unity by its theme and perhaps by an overarching problem. Eleanor Estes's The
Moffats is a series of vignettes about four siblings and their widowed mother
who, over a year's time, must adjust to leaving their beloved home. Laura Ingalls
Wilder's The Little House in the Big \Voods uses an episodic plot to relate a series
of largely unrelated events during a year in the life of a Midwestern pioneer family.
The physical and emotional growth of the child protagonist is often a unifying
 Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade o 89

Climax

Exposition Denouement
FIGURE 4.1 ■ Freytag's Pyramid, depicting the five major parts of most fictional stories.

element (much as it is in the simple dramatic plot). If we were to diagram the

episodic plot, it would look like a series of connected dramatic plots (see Figure 4.2).

PARALLEL PLOT When an author weaves two or more dramatic narratives throughout
a single book, the result is a parallel plot structure. Typically, the chapters will
alternate between the adventures of sets of characters-in some cases, there may be
I
three or four sets of characters engaged in their separate activities. Eventually, all the
various narratives come together, bringing the adventures to a common conclusion.
As with the episodic plot, the parallel plots are usually linked by some common
I
characters and a similar theme. Robert McCloskey's picture book Blueberries for
Sal (see Chapter 5) is an unusual example of a parallel plot in a picture book. A I
I
good example of a parallel plot for older readers is Tove Jansson's Moominsummer
Madness, in which we follow three sets of characters engaged in different activities :I
on a series of wacky adventures, all leading them to the same place at the end,

Cllmu Olmu

C.podtion Donoutmtnl uposltlon Dtnou•m•nt Cxpositfon Dtnoutmtnt

■
FIGURE 4.2 An episodic plot usually functions like a series of dramatic plots, each
part of the series being one episode or chapter.

:Itri
 90 • Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

where everything is happily resolved. (The story is inspired in part by Shakespeare's

A Midsummer Night's Dream, a dramatic example of a parallel plot.)

THE JOURNEY It has been said that in literature, there are really only two kinds of
stories to tell: In one, a stranger comes to town; in the other, someone goes on a
journey. Think of all the heroes and heroines you know who set off on journeys­
Peter Rabbit, Alice, Dorothy, rhe Pevensie children in The Lion, the \Vitch, and the
'q \Vardrobe, and Harry Potter, ro name but a few. Journeys make good plot device s
because, on a journey, the protagonist can meet new people, see new places, and
experience new adventures.
Journeys are of two principal kinds-circular or linear. In a circular journey,
the hero departs from home, experiences an adventure, and then returns home in
the end-older and wiser, presumably. The tale of Hansel and Gretel and their
adventures into the woods and back home is a classic circular journey (see the
visual representation in Chapter 3, Figure 3.3.). It is not surprising that most
journeys in books for young readers are circular. In those early years, children still
think returning home is best. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Wo11der{t1/
\'(lizard of Oz are among the best-known examples.
In a linear journey, the hero leaves home, but does not return, making a new
home instead. As we might expect, this journey is more common in fiction for older
readers. One example involving a very young hero is Roald Dahl's James and the
Giant Peach. James leaves his home in England and floats across the Atlantic Ocean
(in a very large peach), accompanied by an assortment of oversized insects and one
worm, and he makes himself a new home in New York City's Central Park. But
whether the journey is circular or linear, the protagonist is always transformed as
,, a result of the journey-for having gained knowledge and experience-and this
makes the journey an ideal metaphor for life. This happens in the journeys of Ged,
Ii
1
11 the hero of Ursula Le Guin's fantasy A Wizard of Earthsea, who travels throughout
'
I his world of Earthsea in search of himself. In realistic fiction, Mark Twain's The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is one of the classic journey stories.
:i!
)

I
,I
I'
Conflict
I
I What makes a plot gripping is the conflict. Conflicts are sometimes depicted in
terms of good versus evil or right versus wrong. For a story to hold our interest,
I
I
I
something must be at stake. Peter Rabbit's very life is at stake when he ventures
into Mr. McGregor's garden. It is usually the conflict that urges us to keep read ing.
I
But conflict has another important role, for it is the means by which the protagonist
is allowed to transform, to grow, to mature. Conflicts come in several forms,
and the f?ur m�st prev�lent in childr:n's fic�ion are protagonist against another,
protagomst agam�t soc1�ty, prota?omst agamst nature, and protagonist against self.
(A fifth, protagomst agamst fate, 1s rarely found in children's books.)

!I ....
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Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade 91

PROTAGONIST AGAINST AN OTHER The protagonist-against-another conflict occurs

when two characters-the protagonist and the antagonist-are pitted against each
other (see Figure 4.3). They may want the same thing (Cinderella and her wicked
stepsisters all want to marry Prince Charming). Or perhaps they have conflicting
desires (in Charlotte's \Veb, \Vilbur wants ro live, and the humans want to eat him).
Or perhaps one character is determined to prevent another from achieving a goal
{in Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting, the heroine, Winnie, must stop the villain
from finding the spring of immortality and selling its water for profit).

PROTAGONIST AGAINST SOCIETY The protagonist-against-society conflict occurs when

the protagonist is pitted against mainstream society and its values and mores
{see Figure 4.4). \Y/e find this struggle in many stories of racial prejudice, such
as Mildred Taylor's Roll of Tlnmder, Hear My Cry, depicting the struggle of an
African American family against a community of white racists. But society can offer
other challenges as well. Robert Cormier's I Am the Cheese depicts an innocent
family in a hopeless struggle against government corruption. And Alice Childress's
A Hero Ain't Nothi11' but a Sandwich portrays a teenage character, Benjie, plagued
by drug addiction and at odds with his family, the school, and even his peers.

PROTAGONIST AGAINST NATURE The protagonist-against-nature conflict occurs

when the protagonist is engaged in a struggle for survival, usually alone in some
natural wilderness or forbidding landscape (see Figure 4.5). For example, Scott
O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins is the story of a young woman abandoned

I,I
I
I

• Protagonist Antagonist

FIGURE 4.3 ■ The simplest conflict is that between good (the protagonist) and evil
(the antagonist). The antagonist may be another person, or it may be nature itself.

...
 ..........

92 o Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

Social
Prejudice

Social Social
Norms Corruption

Protagonist

FIGURE 4.4 ■ Sometimes the protagonist is up against society as a whole, and

society becomes the antagonist. The protagonist cannot defeat society, so he or she
must try to change it, or be changed by it.

FIGURE 4.5 ■ When nature seems to be the

antagonist, the protagonist must reach out to
embrace it rather than struggle against it.
Safety

Shelter

Food

Protagonist

,,....
► -
Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade o 93

on a deserted island and how she manages to live for 18 years. In Jean Craighead
George's Julie of the \Valves, a young girl must survive the harsh climate of the
Alaskan wilderness . In most modern treatments of this conflict, the protagonists
usually survive because they learn how to live with nature-not fight against it.

PROTAGONIST AGAINST SELF The protagonist-against-self conflict is an emotional

or intellectual struggle within the protagonist him- or herself (see Figure 4.6).
Max in Sendak's \Vhere the \Vild Things Are (see the discussion in Chapter 5) is
tom between wanting to be a monster (that is, doing exactly as he pleases) and
obeying his mother and accepting boundaries (which are literally represented in the
illustrations). �fax's real enemy is not his mother. It is himself. Judy Blume's Are
You There God? It's Me, Margaret exposes the various emotional conflicts facing
a girl in her early teens. In Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls, which we will examine
more thoroughly later in this chapter, a young protagonist, Conor, encounters a
strange monster's nightly visits, which are metaphorical of Conor's inner struggles
with his mother's impending death and his reluctance to let her go.

Style
Have you ever noticed how two people can tell the very same story, but evoke
very different responses from the listeners? Some people have a knack for setting
the scene, choosing details, organizing ideas, building suspense, and finding the

N�gative Traits Positive Traits

FIGURE 4.6 ■ Sometimes the protagonist's struggle is internal. His or her desires,
hopes, and dreams pulling against doubts, anxieties, and fears-and right and
wrong are not always clear.

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94 o Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

right words. This knack we call a writer's style. What follows are some of the
most frequently used storytelling techniques, techniqu es that a good story teller has
mastered.

EXPOSITION AND DIALOGUE Every story requires some background information-even

if it is nothing more than a simple statement such as "Once upon a time." The
narrator's explanations and descriptions are referred to as exposition. Exposition
may be used to set the scene, introduce a character, and move the action along, as in
this example from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big \Voods:

Wlhen Laura and Mary had said their prayers and were tucked snugly under the
trundle bed's covers, Pa was sitting in the firelight with the fiddle. Ma had blown out
the lamp because she did not need its light. On the other side of the hearth she was
swaying gently in her rocking chair and her knitting needles flashed in and out above
the sock she was knitting. (236)

\Xlith just a few well-chosen details, Wilder evokes the feeling of the pioneering
life-trundle bed, fireplace, oil lamp, knitting needles, and a fiddle for
entertainment.
But to give a scene a sense of immediacy and drama, writers often turn to
dialogue. Dialogue refers to the words exchanged by the characters in a story. (It
is called monologue if only one character is involved.) Dialogue not only furthers
the action, it also allows the author to convey individual peculiarities, such as the
goose's quirky speech in Charlotte's \Veb when she replies to Wilbur's inquiry about
the rime: "Probably-obably-obably about half-past eleven.... Why aren't you
asleep, \Vilbur?" (33). Charlotte's intellectual superiority over the other barnyard
animals is clearly demonstrated by her greeting to Wilbur: "Salutations!" (35). In a
play, the entire script is typically dialogue, in which case the necessary background
or exposition has to be revealed through the characters' words.

FORESHADOWING AND FLASHBACK But telling a story is not merely relating a series
of facts with some dialogue. A good storyteller knows how to build suspense,
set up expectations, and organize details. Two methods for accomplishing these
effects are foreshadowing and flashback. Foreshadowing refers to the dropping
of hint s about what is to come in the future, as when Little Red Riding Hood's
mother warns her not t� tal.k to strangers (we just know the girl's going to do the
.
opposite!). Foreshadowing 1s used to create suspense (horror films are addicted
to foreshadowing) and to prepare the reader for possibilities which makes the
plot more believable. Foreshadowing also helps to unify a st� ry and to make
connections between the characters and their actions. The first line in Charlotte's
Web is Fern's disarming question, "Where's Papa going with that axe?" And th e se,
it turns out, foreshadow the principal conflict-saving Wilbur's life.
 Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade • 95

Ano�her exam _ ple of foreshadowing can be found in the opening paragraph

of Natalie Babbitt � Tuck Everlasting. This is the story of a lonely girl's encounter
_
�v1th a strange
_ family who accidentally stumbled on a magical spring that bestows
immortality on all who drink from it:

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long
year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks
that conze before are only a climb from a balmy spring, and those that follow a
drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is
curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared
with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There
is no thunder, 110 relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days,
when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after. (3)

In this description of the novel's setting, the references to motionlessness, blank

dawns, glaring noons, lightning quivering "all alone," and breathless days are all
examples of foreshadowing, for this is a tale of high tension, dastardly deeds, and
difficult choices. In the well-constructed story, everything has a purpose; there are
usually no loose ends, nothing is left undone.
The flashback is rather like the opposite of foreshadowing. It is a device by which
the narrator takes the reader back to a time and place before the story's present time.
This is often used in books for older readers but is unusual in stories for preschoolers,
whose concept of time is not yet sophisticated enough to grasp the subtleties of the
device. However, one example that children are familiar with is in Charles Dickens's
A Christmas Carol, when the Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to his
youth. The flashback is usually used to reveal necessary background information,
such as explaining why a character behaves in a certain way.

Theme
The plot is what happens in a story; the theme is what the story is really about.
But the theme should not be regarded as a lesson to be learned. Recall the
eighteenth-century moral writers (see Chapter 1), who insisted on hammering home
their lessons, and see the upcoming discussion about didacticism. The theme is
the fundamental principle or idea that the author is trying to convey. And an idea
implies a complete thought. "Friendship" is a topic-it is not a theme. However,
"friendship requires us to make sacrifices" expresses a theme. Today's readers prefer
the theme to be woven into the fabric of the text-to emerge organically from the
events of the story and the actions of the characters.
It is also important to remember that a book may have more than one
theme-although one may predominate. Charlotte's \Y/eb, for example, explores
the importance of friendship, the instinct for survival, and the inevitability of the

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96 • Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

FIGURE 4.7 ■ Themes Found in Popular Children's Books

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to

Lindgren make you something else is a great achievement."­
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Charlotte's W!eb by E. B. \Xlhite "T here is nothing on this earth to be prized more
than true friendship."-Thomas Aquinas
The Moffats by Eleanor Estes "You don't choose your family. They are God's gift
to you, as you are to them."-Desmond Tutu
Are You There, God? It's Me, "It takes courage to grow up and become who you
Margaret by Judy Blume really are." -e. e. cummings
lsla11d of the Blue Dolphins by Scott "It's not the strongest or the most intelligent
O'Dell who will survi\'e, but those who can best manage
change. "-Charles Darwin
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry "Courage is being scared to death ... and saddling
up anyway. "-John Wayne
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine "Grief is the price we pay for love."-Queen
Paterson Elizabeth II
A Mo11ster Calls by Patrick Ness "If you speak the truth ... you will be able to face
and Siobhan Dowd whatever comes."-Ness and Dowd, A Monster Calls

cycle of life. The accompanying chart (see Figure 4.7) lists some popular children's
books along with some possible themes, expressed through quotations from books
or well-known people. The important thing is to note that the theme is an idea and
that the idea is universal-applying to all people everywhere.
Another thing to keep in mind is that themes are similar whether they are
found in fantasy fiction or realistic fiction-that is, there is no "fantasy" theme or
"realistic" theme. All themes address the human condition-even when the novels
are set in a galaxy far, far away and are populated with the most fantastical of
creatures. It is the theme that gives the story its ultimate meaning. Let's look more
closely at A Monster Calls, which we referred to in the discussion of conflict.The
book, written by Patrick Ness but based on an idea by Siobhan Dowd, who did n ot
live to see it realized, is set in modern-day England. Ten-year-old Conor refu ses to
face the fact that his mother is dying. His divorced father now Jives with his new
family in America, and his only other relative is his maternal grandmother, wh o
seems cold and controlling, and entirely unable to comprehend Conor's world.
Then, in the middle of the night, a terrifying monster, in the form of an ancient
yew tree, comes to Conor's room and announces that he has some stories to tell
Conor. Logic tells the boy that this is a dream (or nightmare), but telltale signs

--
•
Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade • 97

kee� appearing (his bedroom floor is inexplicably strewn with poisonous yew
berries, for example). The story moves between the mysterious midnight encounters
with the monster and Conor's troubled life-his inability to cope in school, his
mother's rapidly deteriorating condition, personal conflicts with his grandmother
and father-all leading to the inevitable climax. In the course of the book we see
Conor behave outrageously-in ways that even he cannot understand, until the end,
when we all understand. The book's ultimate message, reinforced by the Monster's
stories, is finally revealed: Accepting death means letting go.
It is a powerful story of love, sacrifice, and redemption-and even when we've
finished the book, we are at a loss to describe it as either fantasy or realistic fiction.
But it does not matter-for the theme addresses the universal human condition.
The novels we remember the longest are the ones in which we discover a reflection
of ourselves and our experiences-including the demons that haunt us and the
unexpected angels that rescue us. And sometimes the demons and angels are
ambiguous figures-and perhaps one in the same. Finally, it is the monster who
reveals the theme when he tells Conor, "If you speak the truth ... you will be able
to face whatever comes" (203).

Tone
A story may be serious, humorous, satirical, passionate, sensitive, zealous, caustic,
poignant, and warm, among other things. This quality of fiction is referred to as
tone. It suggests the author's attitude toward the subject. Here are some of the most
common tones found in children's books.

DIDACTICISM To be didactic simply means to teach, to be instructive. There is

nothing wrong with didacticism. In fact, we expect didacticism in a textbook­
like this one. But in a novel or story or poem, didacticism can sound preachy and
intrusive. Most fiction writers today generally try to avoid it. Beatrix Potter avoids
a didactic tone in The Tale of Peter Rabbit by resisting the temptation to tell us
how bad Peter has been (she doesn't have Peter confess his sins to his mother or
promise to be a good bunny from now on, for example).
Too often in didactic stories, the message overtakes the tale and we end up
with stereotyped and underdeveloped characters, silly and contrived plots, and
phony language. In the eighteenth century (see Chapter 1), adults thought that
all children's books should teach moral lessons. Consequently, these books all
turned out to be didactic. Take one of the most famous examples, The History
of Little Goody Two-Shoes (1765)-published by Newbery and written by an
unknown author (see Figure 4.8). This is the story of an orphan girl who has
but one shoe. When a sympathetic rich man gives her a new pair, she goes about
rejoicing that she now has "two shoes." As it turns out, the girl's name is Margery
Meanwell, whose father had been ruined by two wicked men, Timothy Gripe

+
r
 98 o Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

FIGURE 4.8 ■ This is the cover to a

nineteenth-century edition of Goody Two­
Shoes, the didactic and sentimental story
published (and perhaps written by) John
Newbery in the eighteenth century. The
illustration emphasizes the heroine's easy
relationship with the animals, suggesting both
her simplicity and innate goodness.
(Source: Wikisource, the Free Online Library)

and Farmer Graspall-well, you get the picture. Margery eventually becomes a
popular teacher "who had the Art of moralizing and drawing Instructions from
every Accident," and when her students lose a favorite pet, she reads "them a
Lecture on the Uncertainty of Life, and the Necessity of being always prepared for
Death." Eventually, her goodness brings her to the attention of a widowed lord
who marries her, proving that virtue does, indeed, pay off. Not only is the tale
didactic, instructing us that we should all be more like Goody Two-Shoes, but it is
sentimental as well, which brings us to another subject.

SENTIMENTALISM Sentimentalism is the outward show of excessive emotion-or of

emotio n that is inappropriate to the circumstance s. Expressing emotion in a story is
perfectly fine-but we usually don't like it when the emotion is out of proportion.
(It's sort of like the reactions of small children to the excessive hugging and kissing
from Aunt Bertha.) In other words, sentimentalism is the expression of feeling
without substance. Let's return to The Hist ory of Little Goody Two-Shoes, a sto ry
both didacti c and sentimental. Little Goody Two-Shoes's death is described as " the

I
 Literary Elements: Tools of the Trade o 99
greatest Calamity that e ver was felt in the Neighb
ourhood' " and a monument
"was ere cted t 0 her Memory m . th e Church-yard, ov er which th e Poor as th ey pass
.
wee? conti�ually, so _ that the Stone is ever bathed in Tear
s." A later example of
sentimentalism m chil dren's b00ks is • found m• the E 1 ste
• Dmsm
. • ore sen es written
by M rtha Fmley, be ginning in 1867. Throughout the series, sweet
r Elsi� Dinsmore
b rave Y overcome s many heartbreaks and tribulations. But one cr itic c omplai d
ne
as far back a� 1896, "nothing can be m ore dreary than the recital of Elsie's sorro�vs
!nd persecuri�ns. Every page is drenched with tears." "Even," the critic continues,
on �omp���ttvely c_heerful nigh�s �Elsie] is content to sh ed 'a fe w quiet tears upon
her pillow (Re pplter, n.p.). This 1s a sure sign of a sentimental work.
Eleanor Por�er's Po�lya1111a, made famous by a 1950s Disney film, is another
example of sentimentalism. The young heroine, through her incessant cheerfulness,
transforms a perennially gloomy town into a place of irr epressible "gladness."
The problem with sentimentalism, as with most other excesses, is that it smac ks of
phoniness or insincerity, and is often simply silly.

HUMOR Unlike didacticism and sentimentalism, humor is a welcom e f eature in all

literature. Rare is the child wh o does not lik e a funny story. Most scholars agree
that incongruity is the foundation of hum or. We laugh at the tension resulting from
som ething our of th e ordinary. But humor is als o elusive ; whether or not we laugh
at a joke depends on the teller (wording and timing are important) and on us (what
we find hilarious others may find offensive or silly). Humor is age specific; what
we find funny when we are 3 years old is seldom funny when we are 21. Katharine
Kappas identifies various typ es of humor most commonly found in books for
children up through e arly adol escence. Th ey include exaggeration, incong ruity,
surprise, slapstick, absur dity, uncomfo rtable situations, ridicule, defiance, violence,
and verbal humor. But it is the child's penchant fo r physical humor that makes
Roald Dahl's c ontroversial works p opular. In Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory, for example, several disagreeable children meet their ends in bizarre ways
while touring a candy factory. Books such as these allo w childr en to release social
and psycho logical tensions and give them a way of c oping with uncomfortable,
out-of-the-ordinary situations. It is unlikely that any child ever became violent from
reading Roald Dahl-although evidence sugg ests that seeing violence in the visual
me dia may have a dverse effects (see Huesmann).
Humor is how people express latent hostility. Take , f or example, a familiar
comic situation: A man steps on a banana p eel, his heels go straight up in the air,
and he lands on his behind. People laugh at this fo r several reas ons. The movement
is incong ruous an d unexpected, and it contains a touch of slapstick. It also �akes
the observers feel superior (they weren't the ones wh o fell), and they are relieved
the man was not hurt. One of the important prerequisite s for laughter provoked
by someone else's misfortune is that the victim m�st see!11 to d�se�ve the _fa�e o_r
the harm must not be critical. The banana peel mishap 1s funnier 1f the v1ct1m 1s
 ◄

100 o Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

a pompous bore, but it is nor so funny if the victim is a sweet, old lady-or if the
victim dies, which results in dark or gallows humor. A good example of this is
Edward Gorey's The Gashlycmmb Tinies, the morbidly funny alphabet book briefly
discussed in Chapter 5, and see the gruesome illustration from Heinrich Hoffmann's
Struwwelpeter, a popular nineteenth-century children's book in Figure 4.9.
It is through laughter that we learn to survive. Because it puts everyone on the
same human level, laughter becomes the salve of the oppressed and the balm of the
weak and vulnerable. And who in our society feels weaker and more vulnerable
than a child? It is little wonder children find humor so indispensable to their
well-being.

PARODY Parody is a literary imitation of another piece of literature, usually for

comic effect. Parody is to literature what cartoon caricature is to art. Both exaggerate
in order to ridicule. For a good antidote to sentimentalism, we can turn to Mark

FIGURE 4.9 ■ This illust�ati�n from Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter: Merry Tales and
Funny p;ctures, from the m1d-mneteenth century, clearly demonstrates the difference in
sensibilities between the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. This rather gruesome
depiction of the punishment of a thumbsucker was considered perfectly suitable for
5- and 6-year-olds.
(Source: Project Gutenberg EBook.)
---
literary Elements: Tools of the Trade • 101

Twain's The Adven�ure� of Huckleberry Finn, which contains a parody of nineteenth­

_
century sentimentalism JUSt described. Huck describes the character of Emmeline
Grangerfor�, a �oung girl �bsessed with death, who "kept a scrap-book ... and used
to paste ob1tuanes and accidents and cases of patient suffering in it ...and write
poetry after them out of her own head" (Twain 144). Commenting on Emmeline's
early death, Huck utters the classically unsentimental remark: "I reckoned that with
her disposition she was having a better time in the graveyard." Twain's comic satire
foreshadows the decline of sentimentalism in modern children's stories.
Parody implies a degree of sophistication; after all, if we are not familiar with
the original work, we will nor get the joke.Mark Twain's parody in his description
of Emmeline Grangerford is funnier if we know about Elsie Dinsmore, for example.
Once rare in children's fiction, parodies are becoming especially popular in
children's picture books.Jon Scieszka's The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is a
popular retelling of the familiar tale from the wolf's point of view (he was framed!).
Another reversal is found in Eugene Trivizas's The Three Little \Valves and the Big
Bad Pig, which has a heavy-handed but very funny message about nonviolence.
David \Viesner's The Three Pigs is a sophisticated tale that cleverly deconstructs
the story and depicts the characters forming alliances with characters from other
nursery stories. And in recent years political parodies of children's picture books
have appeared, such as Pat the Politician by Julie Marcus and Susan Carp, a spoof
on Dorothy Kunhardt's popular tactile book, Pat the Bunny. Of course, many of
these parodies are intended for adult readers.Parodies demonstrate the vitality of
literature and can suggest to children new ways of interpreting old tales.

IRONY You may recall in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that Dorothy undertakes
a journey to seek the help of a wizard so she can get back home. On the way, she
meets three new friends-Scarecrow, who wishes for brains; Tin Woodsman, who
wishes for a heart; and Cowardly Lion, who wishes for courage. On the journey,
each friend learns that he already possesses what he longed for-Scarecrow is wise,
Tin \Voodsman is kind and tender, and Cowardly Lion is bold and fearless.On the
other hand, the "all-powerful" Wizard of Oz is revealed to be a phony, an eccentric
humbug. In the end, Dorothy finds that she had the ability to get home on her own all
along (through the magic of her slippers, which are actually silver shoes in the book).
These are all examples of irony.Irony occurs when the reality turns out to be
different from the appearance. It can be intentional (as with the wizard, who knows
he's a fraud) or circumstantial {as with Dorothy and her friends, who really are
unaware of their own strengths). Irony adds layers to a story's meaning. It can be
humorous. It can be tragic. It reminds us that the world is not always what it seems.
Sometimes irony can devolve into cynicism, which is the opposite of
sentimentalism. T he cynic believes that human nature is fundamentally corrupt
and the world is a rotten place to he. Obviously, this is not a tone that is normally
found in children's fiction. However, it is a feature of many of the works for
102 • Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

adolescents written by Robert Cormier-The Chocolate War, I Am �he Cl�eese,

and others. Cormier deals with dark topics: a religious boy's school m which the
priests are all corrupt, a government that betrays its �wn �itize� s. The characters
in Cormier's books are thoroughly depraved, and society itself 1s utterly de�ased.
Frankly realistic, Cormier offers no happy endings or even ho�eful�ess, which, as
you might imagine, has led to considerable controversy over his wntmgs. .

Literary Criticism: Thinking About Books

Literary criticism examines, evaluates, and interprets works of literature. From
time to time, as an educator, you may turn to articles or books about children's
or young adult literature as a way to explore a work with young readers. Literary
criticism often helps us understand a story or a novel or to see it in a different way.
Although critics are often accused of ruining a literary text by overanalyzing it (and
this does happen), if we don't think about the text at all and what it means, then we
are probably not getting a lot out of it. And part of the enjoyment of sharing ideas
about literature is to get different "takes" on it, to discover things we missed, to see
how other readers react to a work. In this section, we will briefly look at several
ways of reading and thinking about a text, with specific references to some familiar
children's texts, to demonstrate how literary criticism can expand our views.

Historical Criticism
Historical criticism is so called because it looks at the world-the society, the time,
and place-from which a literary work came and how that world affected the
literature. Historical criticism asks such questions as these:

• Who is the author, where did he or she come from, and what was his or her
object in writing the work?
• How did the political and social events of the time influence the author and
how are they reflected in the work?
• How did the religious or philosophical attitudes of the time influence the
author and how are they reflected in the work?
• How does the work reflect the influence of other writers , i n form, sryle, or
•
. t those influences?
. k'mg.;i How does 1t reJec
t hm
• �hat did the work mean to the writer's contemporaries? Wou
ld they read it
differently from how we read it?
Let's take, for example, the familiar folktale of "Ha
, nsel and Grete I . " one of
t he trou bl.mg aspects of t h'1s story 1s
. how parents can be so caII ous as to abandon
 Literary Criticism: Thinking About Books o 103

their children. Of course, we do not know who wrote "Hansel and Gretel" nor
exactly when it was first written, but we know it was European and from the
preindustrial era (that is, before the eighteenth century), so we will begin there.
Preindustrial Europe was a time of widespread famine, and peasants lived on the
verge of starvation. The overwhelming emphasis on food in the tale-the children
drop bread crumbs, they are enticed by a gingerbread house from which they eat
delicious candies, the witch is killed in her own oven, where she had planned to bake
Hansel-may be partly explained by the difficult times from which the story arose.
Some argue that the abandonment of children might not have been so unusual a
thing in a society that often lived in desperation and on the verge of starvation. The
historian Barbara Tuchman writes that during the fourteenth century "reports spread
of people eating their own children, of the poor in Poland feeding on hanged bodies
taken down from the gibbet" (24 ). However, recent research contradicts the notion
that medieval parents did not love their children sufficiently, and tells us infanticide
was condemned (see Orme). Knowledge about the historical times in which a work
was written can inform our understanding, but we have to take care where we gather
our facts. Furthermore, the historical approach often overlooks the literary elements
and structure as well as the author's individual contributions.

Structuralism and Formalism

In the early 1900s, two new critical movements began to supplant historical
criticism-structuralism and formalism. For our purposes, we will consider
the structuralist and formalist movements at the same time (probably a gross
oversimplification, but it will serve for our purposes). The structuralist movement
is cross disciplinary and can be found in anthropology, sociology, psychology,
and architecture, among other disciplines, whereas formalism is strictly applied
ro literature. The formalists abandon the concerns of the historical critic and
are interested in a text as a work of art with characters, plot, setting, symbols,
organization, and so on. What the author's intentions or purpose might have been
(the so-called "intentional fallacy") is of no concern co the formalists, nor do they
care about the reader's emotional response (the "affective fallacy"). \"v'hat matters is
the structure of a work, how the various parts fit together. So, the formalists might
ask questions like these:

• What pattern, or underlying structure, is revealed in the plot elements (and

what about flashbacks, shifting points of view, rearrangement of chronology)?
• How do the various elements in a text relate to each other and how do they
all work together to form a united whole?
• Is there a pattern of images or symbols evident in the work that help unify it?
How does that pattern expand the work's meaning?
 ---
104 o Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

• Do the characters portray recognizable types? Are they symbols of larger

concepts? Do the characters play off each other, reflecting opposites or
complements, for example?
• Can the structure of the work be compared to that of other works? And, if
so, what are the distinctive differences?

A formalist interpretation of "Hansel and Gretel," for example, would consider

the structure of the tale-a circular journey that also contains repetitive elements (the
children go into the forest with their parents twice; the nearsighted witch, after caging
Hansel, feels his finger daily to see if he is fattening up). It is also tempting to compare
the two houses-one cold and impoverished, the other replete with good things to eat
and a treasure chest (not to mention a warm oven!). The formalist might examine the
parallel roles of the two women (does the stepmother foreshadow the witch?) and of
the two children (each one has an opportunity to shine). The overall structure of a text
and how the parts relate to each other are the chief concerns of the formalist. But there
is so much more to a text than this, as we will see in other critical approaches.

Archetypal Criticism
Archetypal criticism also finds its roots in structuralism (with its attention to
literary form) and in the thinking of psychologist and physician Carl Gustav Jung
(1875-1961), who believed in a collective unconscious shared by all human beings.
Something deep within us contains the "cumulative knowledge, experiences, and
images of the entire human race" (Bressler 92). Jung argued that this explains why
people the world over respond to similar myths and stories (we find Cinderella stories
in virtually every culture on Earth). Jung identified certain character types called
archetypes, and these are found in both life and literature, types such as the i1111oce11t
youth or dreamer, the warrior, the caregiver, the wanderer, the rebel, the compa11io11,
the helper, the scapegoat, the villain, the wise counselor, the magician. You can
probably think of many more. These archetypes appear over and over again in stories
from around the world, and the characters of one type engage in similar patterns of
behavior. In addition, we can also find situational archetypes in literature, including:

• the journey (in which the hero leaves home, encounters trials triumphs
over adversity, and either returns home-a circular journey�r finds a new
home-a linear journey),
• the initiation or coming-of-age (which tells of the hero's self-discovery and
growing up); and
• the struggle between Good and Evil (one of the world's oldes t stories-rake
Adam and Eve for example).

,..--
 Literary Criticism: Thinking About Books o 105

The ar �he�pal critic interprets a literary work as a reflection of a great mythic

cycle- which m one sense represents the human lifespan (from innocence to
_
�atunty), but als _o the pattern of human society and civilization in general (the
history of the United States is often characterized as a coming-of-age story). The
�reat pro�onent of archetypal criticism was Northrop Frye, who categorized
literature mto four great genres-comedy, romance, tragedy, and satire. These he
compared to the cycle of seasons. Spring represented comedy and the birth of the
hero; summer represented romance, the fruition of love and marriage; autumn
represented tragedy and the death of the hero; and winter represented irony or
satire, coping with loss. The journey through the year recalls the journey of life. It is
a very tidy way to classify literature-perhaps too tidy.
Questions an archetypal critic might ask include these:

• Are there archetypal characters portrayed in the text? If so, what archetypes
do they fit?
• Are there archetypal structures? Again, the circular and linear journey come to
mind, bur now they become symbolic passages. What does the journey represent?
• What recurring symbols or images (objects, actions, or ideas) are found in the
text and what is their significance?
• As a result of these archetypal patterns, what larger message is implied by the
text? Are the characters enacting great mythic themes?

The tale of Hansel and Gretel affords an opportunity to see the archetypal
circular journey, during which the young hero and heroine encounter horrifying
experiences involving an archetypal figure (the witch). Through wit and cunning they
overcome the evil and receive a boon in the form of the witch's jewels. Then, with
the help of yet another archetypal figure, the white duck (the helper and, perhaps, a
symbol of nature?), they return home triumphantly to the open arms of their penitent
father. Of course, this is a folktale and it lacks the character depth of a novel, but the
pattern is quite clear. Archetypal criticism invites us to see these larger patterns of
literature, and it seeks the common threads that run through all human experiences.
But it also can overlook some of the more intimate human aspects of literature.

Psychoanalytical Criticism
Psychoanalytical criticism finds its roots in the work of Sigmund Freud, the father
of psychoanalysis, who believed our characters were shaped by the experiences of
our childhood, many of which we have forgotten or repressed but remain as part
of our unconscious mind. To examine a literary work psychoanalytically is to
probe the unconscious of the characters, to determine what their actions really
r
 ◄

106 • Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

FIGURE 4.10 ■ Gustave Dore's LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD invites a psychoanalytical

interpretation of the folktale.

reveal about them-or, as often, about the author. (Psychoanalytical criticism is

very unlike formalist criticism, which ignores the author's role in the creation of a
text.) For Freud, one of the great human motivators is sex, which, in Freud's day
at least, was quite often repressed and the source of many neuroses. Figure 4.10 is
a nineteenth-century engraving by Gustave Dore depicting the story of "Little Red
Riding Hood," which a Freudian critic might find provocative. Some might see the
illustration charged with latent sexuality. And is it coincidence that the preying
animal is a wolf, the figure our culture also associates with a sexually predatory
male? This is the sort of symbolic reading that might be taken by a psychoanalytical
approach to a children's text. Other questions that might be asked from a
psychoanalytical point of view include the following:
• What is the psychological motivation for a character's behavior? (Dreams?
Fears? Obsessions? Unconscious desires?)
• \Vhat hidden psychological messages can be found in the language or
structure of the text?
 Literary Criticism: Thinking About Books o 107

• What symbols does the author use and how do they reinforce the
theme?
• What does the work suggest about the author's intent? Is the author's own
psychological makeup reflected in the work? (Unlike formalist criticism,
this approach is keenly interested in the author's imprint-intentional or
otherwise-on the literature.)

The most famous modern example of psychoanalytical reading of

children's literature is perhaps Bruno Bettelheim's study of folktales, The Uses
of E11cbantme11t (1976). Take, for example, Bettelheim's analysis of "Hansel
and Gretel." He interprets the story as a symbolic representation of the child
emerging from the developmental stage of oral fixation-when children want to
put everything in their mouths. The tale is rife with food references. The children
must be abandoned because of lack of food, they find a gingerbread house that
they begin to eat, the house is inhabited by a cannibal witch. The gingerbread
house, Bettelheim contends, "stands for oral greediness and how attractive it is to
give in to it" (161). He goes yet a step further with the Freudian suggestion that
the house is also a symbol of the human body, and that the children's devouring
of the house symbolically represents their nursing. The witch personifies "the
destructive aspects of orality" and also represents the threatening mother. On
the ocher hand, the witch has jewels that the children inherit, but only when they
have reached a higher stage of development, represented by the wisdom they use
in deceiving and killing the witch. Bettelheim concludes, "This suggests that as
the children transcend their oral anxiety, and free themselves from relying on
oral satisfaction for security, they can also free themselves of the image of the
threatening mother-the witch-and rediscover the good parents, whose greater
wisdom-the shared jewels-then benefit all" (162). As you can probably guess,
one danger in psychoanalytical criticism is the tendency to overanalyze, to see
every object as a symbol and every word as an expression of an unconscious
desire or fear.
Of course, all this psychoanalytical criticism will be of little interest to the
child readers, but it can be very helpful for adults who choose books for children.
Roderick McGillis argues that if "psychic health depends upon confronting,
ordering, and understanding the subconscious, then a psychoanalytic approach
allows [adults] to defend certain aspects of children's books that might offend
or disturb some adult readers" (100). McGillis points to the notable example of
Maurice Sendak's classic, Where the Wild Things Are, which was criticized by many
adults when it first appeared, for they thought the monsters would scare young
readers. Quite the opposite, the monsters captivated, perhaps even comforted,
children who recognized their own fears and aggressive impulses transformed and
tamed in these tantalizing creatures.
108 • Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

Feminist Criticism
An offspring of the feminist movement of the mid-tw�ntieth �entury, feminist
_
criticism actually combines other critical methods while placing its focus �n the
_
questions of how gender affects a literary work, writer, or reader. The fem1mst
approach might ask such questions as these:

• How are women and men portrayed in the text? What roles do they play and
are the roles gender-biased?
• \Vhat assumptions are made about the relationship between men and
women?
• How are masculinity and femininity defined? Consider the workplace, the
home, and society in general.
• Is male superiority or female subservience either assumed or implied in the
text? If so, what is the justification?
• What gender conflicts are depicted in the text? How are they resolved, if they are?
• How are readers of different gender likely to respond to the text?

A major concern of feminist criticism is the masculine bias in literature.

Historically, most works (including those written by women) were written from
a masculine point of view and for male audiences. Literature has traditionally
celebrated the masculine traits and portrayed the feminine as weak and subservient.
Among the first works to come under attack were the folktales, with their
stereotypically beautiful, helpless princesses who needed only a good man to set
their lives aright and enable them to live happily ever after. In "Hansel and Gretel,"
we can see that the feminist critic might object to the portrayal of a woman as
either a selfish wife or a cannibalistic witch. The mother/wife is, on the other
hand, simply taking a desperate situation in hand, assuming authority where her
ineffectual husband will not. And, Hansel also proves equally ineffectual, marking
the path with breadcrumbs that are quickly eaten by the birds and then finding
himself imprisoned by the witch. It is Gretel who must take the decisive action and
rescue them by cleverly deceiving the witch and then killing her. Gretel is, of course,
an exception to the rule and refuses to fit into the traditional feminine mold.
The point is that we �eed to challenge the way we have traditionally read
_
literature. Looking at a literary text from a feminist point of view can enrich a
reading, making us aware of the complexity of human interaction. To read a text
as a woman , according to some theorists, is to read it with "the skeptical purity
of an outcast from culture" (Auerbach 156). To read a text as a woman "means
questioning its underlying assumptions about differences between men and wornen
that usually posit women as inferior" (Waxman 150). Feminist criticism therefore
ultimately becomes cultural criticism.

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Literary Criticism: Thinking About Books • 109

Ecocriticism
�mon? the_ _ newest of critical approaches, ecocriticism (ecology + criticism) is an
mterd1sc1plmary approach to thinking about literature, particularly focusing on the
nonhuman world and humanity's relationship to it. Ecocriticism is a product of the
_
environmental movement, often traced to the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring, which warned of the widespread hazardous effects of pesticides on
our environment. After that book, we could no longer take the natural world for
granted, and the terms ecology, environmentalism, natural, and green have taken
on special meaning in our society. So it is not surprising that readers would begin
looking at literature in a new way. As a consequence, it is also an ethical criticism
in the same way that feminist criticism is ethical-both seeking redress, as it were,
for past transgressions and justice for the future. Much like feminist criticism,
ecocriticism often argues a social agenda. And, like the feminist critic, the ecocritic
is faced with the fact that social attitudes on these issues have dramatically changed
in past few decades, and modern literature may hold strikingly different values from
the literature of the past. Here are some questions an ecocritic might ask when
thinking about a work of literature:

• How is nature represented in the literature?

• What is the role of the physical setting in the text?
• What language is used to describe nature and what does that tell us?
• \Vhat is the relationship between nature or the physical setting and the
characters?
• Does the literature consider the effect of human exploitation of the
environment?
• Does the text argue for humanity's responsibility to protect the environment?

Although this may be a stretch, a possible ecocritical reading of "Hansel

and Gretel" might examine the role of the forest-a place that humans have not
yet exploited or destroyed (although, remember, Hansel and Gretel's father is a
woodcutter, whose job entails the potential destruction of the natural world).
The forest, in traditional folktales, is always depicted as a place of mystery and
of danger, but the children are much safer in the wild wood (that is, the natural
world) than either at their father's home within the clutches of their wicked
stepmother or in the cannibal witch's gingerbread house. And we should not
overlook the fact that when Hansel spreads the stone pebbles (natural materials)
he and Gretel find their way safely home. But on the second foray into the woods,
Hansel is forced to resort to breadcrumbs (a human concoction) and they prove
ineffective. The natural world of the forest, interestingly, poses them no harm. It is
only when they encounter the gingerbread house, which is very much an aberration
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110 • Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

of the natural world, that they are in real danger. The very materials of the house­
cakes, cookies, and candies-are again all human concoctions. (We don't wan t to
press this too far, but the house contains no "natural" foods!} That incongruity
alone should bode the potential dangers. After escaping the witch's clutches and
heading for home, Hansel and Gretel encounter a natural obstacle-a lake to
cross-but once again, nature comes to their rescue, this time in the form of the
white duck, who carries them safely over the water to their home. It would seem
the natural world, for all its unpredictability, is far more accommodating to Hansel
and Gretel than the human world. In fact, their joy over the reunion with their
father is curious, for he was deeply complicit in the abandonment plot-so we are
left with a problematic ending.
Biologist Barry Commoner, an early environmental activist, summed up the
issue with his four laws of ecology:

1. Everything is connected to everything else. Whatever we do will have

consequences beyond us.
2. Everything must go somewhere. Nature does not have waste; nothing can
be really "thrown away."
3. We cannot improve upon Nature. We can either learn to live with it or
suffer the consequences of our foolishness.
4. For everything there is a cost ("There is no free lunch"). W hen we take
something from Nature, we invariably convert something useful into
something useless. (Paraphrased from The Closing Circle, 1971)

Ecocritical readings of children's books do have an agenda, but it is an agenda

that more and more people feel cannot be ignored.

Summary

Our understanding of literature is enriched when we are acquainted with the

writer's tools. Consequentl y, it is helpful to know about the role of the narrator,
the setting, the use and development of character and plot. Equally important are
the conflict and the theme, as well as such storytelling techniques as exposition,
dialogue, foreshadowing, and flashback. The universal motif of the journey is
pervasive in children's books and serves as a metaphor for our life's journey.
Children fairly early on become aware of a writer's tone-is the story sad, happy,
funny? And although young children will care little about literary criticism it
is helpful for those teaching children of all ages to know as much about th;
books they are teaching as possible. And, for those working with older readers,
1
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Works Cited • 111

the various critical approaches can provide starting points for discussion and
alternative ways of thinking about a work of fiction. The more we know about
how literature works-how it is put together-the better we will appreciate its
accomplishment.
You may rightly ask, what does a young child need to know about literary
analysis or critical approaches to literature? The answer is, probably, nothing.
But as adults who help make choices in children's reading and who wish ro help
children become sophisticated and insightful adult readers, we ourselves need to
be insightful readers. And, as children mature, we want them to become insightful
readers as well. Certainly, the more we know about psychoanalytical readings, for
example, the better able we are to understand how a story affects us. And once we
become attuned to a feminist or an ecocrirical approach to literature, we can see
how even subtle literary references can shape our thinking. Reading is not merely
entertaining; it is broadening, challenging, enriching, and fulfilling. It is food for the
mind and soul.

Works Cited
... ,
I

Auerbach, Nina. "Engorging the Patriarch." Ness, Patrick, and Siobhan Dowd. A Monster
In Feminist Issues in Literary Sd,olarship. Calls. Illus. by Jim Kay. Somerville, MA:
Ed. Shari Benstock. Bloomington: Indiana Candlewick Press, 2011.
University Press, 1987: 150-160. Peck, Richard. A Long \\'lay from Chicago. New I

Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting. New York: York: Dial, 1998. I

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975. Repplier, Agnes. "Little Pharisees in Fiction." •I
Benelheim, Bruno. The Uses of E11d,a11tme11t: Scribner's J\.1agazine (December 1896). www. I
The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. readseries.com.
Tuchman, Barbara. A Distant Mirror: The Cala;11-
I
New York: Knopf, 1976. I'

Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: A11 itous 14th Cent11ry. New York: Knopf, 1978.
Introduction to Theory and Practice. Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994. Finn. 1884. New York: Random House,
Forster, E. M. Aspects of the Novel. 1927. New 1996.
York: Harcourt Brace, 1954. Waxman, Barbara Frey. -'Feminist Theory, Liter­
The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, 5th ed. ary Canons, and the Construction of Textual
London: Newbery and Carnan, 1768. Meanings." In Practicing Theory in Introduc­
Kappas, Katherine H. "A Developmental Analysis tory College Literat11rc Courses. Ed. James M.
of Children's Response to Humor." The Calahan and David B. Dmming. Urbana, IL:
Library Quarterly 37 Uanuary 1967): 67-77. National Council of Teachers of English, 1991.
Mac lachlan, Patricia. Sarah, Plai11 and Tall. New \X'hite, E. B. Charlotte's Web. New York: Harper,
York: Harper & Row, 1985. 1952.
McG illis, Roderick. The Nimble Reader: Literary \X'ilder, Laura Ingalls. Little House i11 the Big
Theory and Children's Literature. New York: \Voods. Illus. Garth \Villiams. New York:
Twayne, 1996. Harper & Row, 1953.

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112 o Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Fiction

Recommended Resources
Booth, Wayne C. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Huesmann, L. Rowell. "The Impace of Electronic
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. Media Violence: Scientific Theory and
Boyd, Brian. On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Research." Journal of Adolescent Health 41.6
Cognition, and Fiction. Cambridge, MA: (December 2007): S6-S13.
Belknap, 2009. Hunt, Peter. Understanding Children's Literature,
Cameron, Eleanor. The Green and Burning Tree. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Boston: Little, Brown, 1969. May, Jill P. Children's Literature and Critical
Cart, Michael. What's So Fzmny? Wit and Humor Theory. New York: Oxford University Press,
in American Children's Literature. New York: 1995.
HarperCollins, 1995. Nedelman, Perry. The Hidden Adult: Defining
Dobrin, Sidney I., and Kenneth B. Kidd, eds. Children's Literature. Baltimore: The Johns
Children's Culture and Ecocriticism. Detroit, Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Ml: Wayne State University Press, 2004. Orme, Nicholas. Medieval Children. New Haven:
Hearne, Betsy, and Roger Sutton, eds. Evaluating Yale UP, 2001.
Children's Books: A Critical Look. Urbana: Rudd, David, ed. The Routledge Companion to
University of Illinois Press, 1993. Children's Literature. New York: Routledge,
Horning, Kathleen T. From Cover to Cover: 2010.
Evaluating and Reviewing Children's Books, Tatar, Maria. Enchanted Hunters: The Power of
rev. ed. New York: Collins, 2010. Stories in Childhood. New York: Norton,
2009.