Summer 218 Paper 1

the roots of children's literature

Choose one of the topics below and write a paper that is four or more full pages in standard MLA format. The essay should be thoughtful and supported with several specific examples quoted from the works you are analyzing. If you select topic 3), then you'll be doing something a little different! Your essay will be evaluated on both form and content. Do your best, and good luck!

Note: if you have not yet read the general instructions for Writing Assignments, click the button below; then come back and pick a topic

Analyze a single popular folk tale or fairy tale or myth or fantasy. This topic is a conventional literary analysis where you look closely at the psychological or religious or philosophical or social ideas which are suggested by the story or book you select. This topic requires you to go beneath the surface plot of the story, to consider what aspects of the human condition are symbolized or implied in the work. Be sure to look closely and quote and document specific passages from the story to support your observations. It's very similar to your last two discussions, and, in fact, you may choose to expand on something you shared on the discussion board.

Feel free to discuss a pattern you observe in several shorter tales (trickery as a valuable survival skill in a handful of folk tales, for example).

Optional: you may use outside sources (if you accurately and fully document them, including a Works Cited page) such as Bettleheim's Uses of Enchantment, Campbell's Power of Myth, Zipes' Breaking the Magic Spell to support your analysis. In this case you will quote and document passages from both the literature and from the source(s) you select. But note: this should be primarily your analysis; outside sources can be used briefly to support your comments, or they can be used to give you a structure to look at (such as "the hero quest," which is explained in Joseph Campbell's work), but they should not dominate your essay.

TIP: There are lots of possibilities with this topic, but be sure that you do not give me just a plot summary or a book review. Do not include any "like / dislike" or "should / shouldn't" sorts of opinion statements. This is an analysis, not a book report.
This topic invites you to expand on the earlier discussion (discussion 3, topic 2) that asked you to look at a steroetype that appeared in some of the early literature and compare it to similar patterns in popular media today. Focus primarily on one stereotype (jealous, conniving stepmothers, for example) and explore the logic of the stereotype at the time/place the stories were written. Be sure to quote and document several examples from the literature. Then look at how that same sort of stereotype appears in popular media today. If you are going to refer to examples from television shows, you need to actually watch and describe scenes from specifically-named shows; if you are going to refer to modern print sources (maybe even modern children's books), then quote and document from those; etc.

TIP: Again, to not express "right" / "wrong" / "good" / "bad" opinions. Your paper is a demonstration that certain patterns (stereotypes) still exist and that they promote certain culture values (even if they are politically incorrect).
Folk tales, fairy tales, fantasy have been wildly re-invented for a new audience in the 20th and 21st centuries--adults. Now that is really a bit deceptive because the original folk literature was actually not written specifically with children in mind, but the old stories are now generally read by children.

Movies such as Pan's Labyrinth and The Company of Wolves are social/psychological re-workings of folk/fairy tale material. Other movies, such as Pretty Woman rely very heavily on traditional stories but repackage them (the put-upon Cinderella becomes the prostituete with moxie). Television shows such as Grimm and Once Upon a Time re-tell or extend the folk literature to reach new audiences by presenting a more realistic (?), graphic interpretation of the work or by developing a larger relationship between the entire fairy tale universe and re-imagining it as a fantastical sort of mystery / soap opera. Even video games (such as American McGee's Alice) look at the subtler, more adult, psychological implications of works of fantasy.

If you choose this topic, compare / contrast a popular folk tale, fairy tale, classic fantasy to a modern re-working of that material for adult audiences. Try to stick with one work of litearature that you can describe, quote, document even if you are comparing it to a larger television series (for example, you could compare and contrast "The Three Little Pigs" to the pig/wolf revenge episode of Grimm, or you could focus just on the character of Pinocchio in Once Upon a time and compare and contrast him to the storybook Pinocchio.

Your comparison / contrast should examine qualities from the original (remember to quote and document) that are still in the modern version. You also need to explain what has changed (describe contrasting scenes, for example) and explain the implications of the changes. Don't simply settle on "the version in Grimm is more realistic and graphic"; instead, think about the logic of the changes "the essence of the conflict between predator and prey is still there, but human emotions, such as the desire for revenge and using subtle kinds of power are described on the surface rather than just being suggested." Often, as with The Company of Wolves the modern version is based more on what the tale symbolizes (the movie is about the transition from childhood to womanhood) than just the literal story.

TIP: (yes, it's really the same tip) this is not a book report; it's not a summary; it's not a review. There should be no "this is better / worse" statments or "right /wrong" statements or judgements about which is more suitable for kids; you are analyzing ideas and implications in each version, not giving your opinion about child rearing.

ANOTHER TIP: do not focus on modern versions for children. Although there are incredible differences between Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid" and the Disney version, for example, the Disney version was not specifically packaged for adults (ironcially, the first Disney animated movies, such as "Cinderella" were made for adults, but they are now considered "kids' movies"). In the past, students who tried to compare one child's version to another ended up with simple "I love Disney movies" papers.
Finally, the creative option: Invent your own fairy tale, with a twist!

Folk and fairy tales and fantasies have been the inspiration for lots of clever re-workings, satires, experimental stories. The examples from Grimm mentioned in the prior topic are pretty obvious examples, but there were also the Jay Ward Fractured Fairy Tales that once appeared on Rocky and Bullwinkle, Shelly Duvall's Fairie Tale Theatere, a series of short stories called Nursery Crimes (not the Genesis album) which were funny, hard-boiled detective stories based on "crimes" from old folk tales, even politically-satirical versions of folk tales in a book called Newt Gingrich's Bedtime Stories for Orphans.

If you choose this topic, you are going to re-write a popular folk or fairy tale with a twist. It is going to be an inventive (clever? humorous?) re-working of the tale (which should be recognizeable in your version) in a new form or different genre or for a new audience. Here's one possibility for a green America: "Jack and the Organic Bean Stalk" (you could mix eco-activism with elements from the original story; how will the giant fit in, and what will you make of the cow?). Write a detective story in the style of Sara Paretsky (a forensic investigation of the murder of the troll from "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," for example). Use a light tone or make it serious; shift the setting; modernize the work however you like, but keep the basic outline and conflict (and maybe the names) of the original.

Tip (or, really, a limitation): please do not make this too raunchy. I have read parodies of The Hobbit and Harry Potter that are all about sex and drugs. Don't do that. Yes, you can put a bit of seduction in your re-working of "The Red Riding Hood Caper," but don't turn it into 50 Shades of Grey :)

sample paper

For some tips on writing about literature or to see a sample student paper, review the Writing About Literature lecture from Week 2 by clicking on the link below