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CHILDREN'S
STORIES: A Comparison
Judith Wouk
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*Appeared in Writer's
Lifeline
(
The two children's
stories by Stephen Gill are quite different in character. Simon and the Snow
King is about a boy to whom things happen; The Blessings of a Bird is about a girl who makes
things happen.
Simon, in an
orphanage since his parents died, gets caught for pinching a child who had hit
him first; he has therefore learned at an early age that things happen to you
over which you have no control (your parents die, you are taken to an
orphanage) and that the consequences of actions are unpredictable and likely to
be unfortunate for him (both children were fighting; he alone is punished,
without being at fault). His only action is to turn the pages of a book of
Bible stories, remembering a happy past. Leona,
on the other hand, has two parents, but no happy memories, as her parents
either drink beer and gossip with neighbours or watch
T.V. However, she reacts to her situation actually, by picking up a broken bird
cage with a toy bird in it from a garbage can, cleaning and repairing it, and
then playing with the bird.
Simon's world is
passive. He dreams of a white castle, presided over by a Snow King; he enters
the world of magic hoping to have his wish granted by a fairy. He asserts
himself a little, by saying that he is cold. He is quickly absolved of
responsibility, even for his own comfort, by a paternalistic King, who says,
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it." Leona, on the other hand, reacts in an active
way to her dream; while "gazing at the garden in her usual way," she
picks up a baby bird, holds it with loving care, and races home instead of
going to school (thus disobeying "authority" in a way in which Simon
does not; he stays docile in the room to which he has been banished). She then
cleans the cage and feeds the bird; this is not sufficient, so she begins to
clean the window, to let the sun in. Her mother, and then her father, who enter
subsequently, far
from offering to take care of her, oppose her actions; Leona, however, stays
firm, and eventually gets her way.
Simon, meanwhile,
again attempts to take control of his environment by asking the Snow King a
question: the location of his kingdom. As is taught in assertiveness training,
he continues to repeat the question, rephrasing it when the response does not
satisfy him. He does not, however, succeed. The King ends the conversation by
again offering to take care of him ("Don't puzzle your head about it. Come
and let me show you my castle"). Simon acquiesces and does not return to
the problem.
The King then
leaves Simon with a
boy his own age. Contrast this with Leona, whose mother, and then her mother
and father leave her alone; when they leave, however, she continues with the
attempt to solve her problem. ("Leona sat down for a while to think of
what more to do to provide comfort for the bird. She slept that night with the
same thought in her mind"). Incidentally, note that Leona is concerned
with the welfare of another living being, Simon only with his
own. Another contrast is that Leona makes contact with other children
only after she has solved her problem; Simon has other children presented to
him first at the orphanage, then in the dream.
However, even with
the other children, Simon does not have a chance to learn to do things for himself. Instead of concentrating on possible solutions to
his problem, he begins to play. The children are playing with special jumping
shoes; Simon, too, can jump, not because he tries to but because the ability is
given to him by an external agency, a pair of shoes. He does not even succeed
in his first attempt to use the shoes, but is immediately forgiven ("Ajay said kindly, `It'll
take a little practice to get used to them"').
At dinner, Simon is
summoned before the King; even here, he has no control over his fate. The Queen feels the King should not have
brought him, "the Snow King and the Queen began to argue, forgetting
Simon." His reaction? He begins to cry. It does
not occur to him to fight back, or to leave; he is eventually led away by the
other children. He continues to cry: "What's going to happen to me? " Simon sobbed. (Note the passive tense). He is shown
a magic mirror which grants wishes; the only effort required of him is that he look into it.
He sees his dream
family, and wishes that the two children with whom he is playing could be his
siblings. True to form, this wish is not granted; the children belong to the
kingdom of the Snow King. So he wishes for a family just like them. Note that
he is not even required to "imagine" parents; he merely chooses the
ones he has seen in the mirror. His first vision, after this wish, is the
orphanage detention room.
Contrast this with
Leona, who also has a wish: to keep the bird happy. No‑one tells her the
answer; she must find out for herself. After asserting to both her parents that
she can find an answer, and finding that they are at that point unwilling to
help her, she comes to a solution herself the next morning: she plucks a
flower, puts it in a bottle, fills the bottle with soil (meanwhile again
defying authority, in
the form of a park attendant who tries to foil her) and brings it home.
She now needs more information; she tests her growing autonomy by asking
mother, not if she will supply the information (she already knows that mother
cannot help her in this) but whether she'll learn it in school. Mother does not
try to coddle her, but suggests "You should find out for
yourself." Leona persists; mother
then suggests that a neighbour might know. In this
exchange, Leona is not indulging in pointless games, or
waiting for the next thing to
happen. She is gaining information, not on the
subject she wants to know (care of birds and flowers), but on the nature of
learning itself and how to discover
sources of information. She then tests the first source of information,
by asking the teacher, who is delighted with her interest and explains further
ways in which she can learn: planting seeds and watching them grow, reading
books, talking in class.
Contrast this to
Simon, whose questions get only circular answers ("I guess you could call
it a topsy‑turvy land. Everything is just the opposite of what it is in
your country.") with no encouragement to dig
deeper.
When Leona gets
home, and discovers the bird has a new cage and there are more flowers, these
events are not portrayed as the result of accident, or wishful thinking, but rather
as a result of someone's efforts: "your father worked hard to buy these
flowers and pots for you, as well as this cage." Note that, again, this effort is on behalf of
someone else; father has worked hard for her, not for himself. Co‑operation continues; Leona and her
mother consult as to the name of the bird, and eventually reach agreement.
Mother then gets to work cleaning the house and
father doing carpentry for money (traditional roles!). Leona's dream of
having a garden was going to be fulfilled, not because it was her dream, but
because of her own efforts to make it reality, helped by others: her teacher
gave her seeds, her father bought more with money he
earned and made a flower box and bird house.
Simon's dream is
fulfilled, too, but not as a result of his own efforts, as the result only of
his wish. A lady and gentleman are waiting; rather than praise him, the matron
undermines his already fragile self‑confidence (contrast this to the
teacher's positive response to Leona) by disparaging him: "He's older than
the boy you want. He can be troublesome at times. I had to send him to the
detention room for misbehaviour." Without any action on his part, other than to
control himself, Simon learns that the family want him anyhow, and are willing
to forgive him ("it is natural for a boy of that age to misbehave
sometimes"). Their criteria miraculously change ("He seems to be the
right age to be a companion to our Grace and Andrew"), again through no
effort on his part. Simon reacts in his accustomed way: he begins to cry.
He has learned that
you can get your dream by wishing hard enough, and by waiting, without putting
out any effort. Leona's efforts on behalf of the bird, and on her own behalf,
have had unexpectedly wide results. Others
are now taking control of their lives as well: first the neighbours,
the landlord, the other home owners and tenants, all begin to clean up. The
local newspaper and the Horticultural Society take an interest. Leona is happy;
her reaction is not to cry, however, but to give full attention to classes,
arrive on time for school, take an interest in homework and learn about flowers
and birds. "She knew that she was the one who had started" the change
in the neighbourhood, yet she does not brag. She
feels that the bird has blessed her and her life.
This blessing,
however, took the form, not of passively taking care of her and granting her
wishes, but of encouraging her to stretch her own abilities and talents, to
grow, to take responsibility for her own life. Leona, in sum, has a goal, which
she actively strives to reach. She is foiled at first, but figures out how to
overcome the obstacles, learn what she needs to know, and then proceed, step by
step. She is being prepared for adulthood.
Simon, on the other
hand, is never given a chance to grow up. External punishments descend on him
without reason, and then external rewards are given, equally without reason or
effort on his part. His adversities are overcome for him by forces outside
himself and independent of his own efforts; in fact, whenever he tentatively
attempts to take some sort of control, he fails, but is immediately forgiven.
Thus, neither failure nor success can be related to his own
efforts; Simon's reaction to both is to cry. He has learned to be a child the
rest of his life, taken care of by others, happy when they do as he wishes,
angry when they do not, but with no sense that success or failure are related
to his own abilities.
Incidentally, the sex roles in these books are reversed from the usual stereotypes. Simon cries,
waits around, and gets taken care of, the usual fate of female characters,
while Leona actively changes her environment, stereotypical masculine behaviour. Thus, the difference between the two books can
be summarized by the difference in the nature of the dreams of the two
children. Simon's dream occurs while he is asleep and is an escape from
reality, from forces over which he has no control; in it he makes a wish which
is shortly granted but through no effort of his own. Leona's dream, on the
other hand, is active; she visualizes (while she is awake) how she would like
things to be, and then goes about making them become so.
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*Judith Wouk has a degree in law and retired from the
office of human rights commission