Every night as a young child my parents would send me up to my room at 8:30 where I would eagerly await the sound of their footsteps coming up the stairs. Once they were upstairs I would get to pick out two books that they were going to read to me that night. This wasn’t a routine that I was forced to do, it was something that was incorporated into my life that I found joy in. You may be wondering what significance this story holds to our current assignment. The answer is simple. What appeared to be “just story time,” was much more.
Every night as I got excited to hear a story was actually the beginning of an 18-year process of instilling theirs (and society’s) moral values into me with the hope of making me a beneficial member of society. This process begins with infants and leads well into our scholastic years. In this essay I will be analyzing two stories and their moral lessons. Furthermore, I will evaluate how the *technique* of the stories have been adapted to the audiences of various generations and whether or not this is a good thing for both our generation and those proceeding us.
One of the two books I consistently chose as a child during story time was “The Hare and The Tortoise,” an Aesop Fable. This story is believed to have been written by Aesop, who was a story teller in Greece between the years of 620 and 564 BC. The Hare and the Tortoise is a short story about a race that takes place between a Hare and a Tortoise, two seemingly opposite creatures when it comes to natural ability. Turtles are notorious for being extremely slow whereas rabbits are known for their quick ability to hop away. The Hare was a cocky creature who constantly boasted about his speed and ability to beat all creatures in every speed competition. The Tortoise humbly accepted his challenge and thus began the race. The Tortoise, being so sure of his victory takes a nap and meanders around until he realizes that the Tortoise near the finish line. Unable to catch up with the Tortoise the Hare learns a lesson in both humility and patience.
It was not until I was older that I realized the true meaning of this story. The same story that millions of other children have also heard and taught them the same life lesson. This is a connection amongst all citizens of our nation, a shared moral belief and expectation of what behavior is acceptable. While the message has not changed the method of delivering it to the children has. In Diane Sekers “The Market Child and Branded Fiction: A Synergism of Children’s Literature” she discusses how our Market has changed the way children relate and interpret stories.
For instance, when The Hare and The Tortoise was originally created it was nothing but some lines of text that children would use to fuel their imaginations. Each Tortoise and each Hare was a different color or size or even shape within the young child’s mind. They did not have dolls, cartoons, or comic book versions of the story that painted the picture for them.(Sekers) Every story is interpreted however it is “Branded.” (Sekers) This supports my claim that while the moral of stories has stayed the same, our method of rhetoric has evolved, and some would say not necessarily for the best. One small example of the evolution had been seen in the second story I will be analyzing.
The second story I have chosen is titled, I’ll wait, Mr. Panda. This story is about a panda and a few of his friends including a llama, a alpaca, some rabbits, and finally the penguin. The Panda was baking a surprise when each individual animal came up and asked the Panda what he was making. Each time the Panda answered “Wait and see it’s a surprise.” To what the animals would rudely reply that they will not wait and march away. It was not until the end when the Penguin was kind and patient with the Panda that he was rewarded with friendship and a giant doughnut. While the moral of these stories is the same, the execution was not. The first story was a mere nine lines with no images. It left much to the imagination and the child’s interpretation. These were the kind of stories that as Seker said “children dressed up as the characters and acted how they imagined the characters would.” I’ll wait, Mr. Panda leaves nothing to the imagination. Each page consists of approximately four to seven words and large pictures that cover both pages. The image that the market wants to portray in the dominant aspect of the entire book. Not to mention that there are various I’ll wait, Mr. Panda toys and classroom crafts.
Children’s books have always been and will continue to be a driving force in the education of children. They offer not only the benefit of learning and developing language, but in this case, they offer life lessons on how to interact with other people in order to be successful in life. I find it comforting that the morals of the stories have remained the same despite the modernization and elimination of the use of children’s imaginations. In some ways I believe that they market’s agenda could be perceived as a good thing. All of these various forces help captivate the children to a new degree. What it does not help improve is our children’s desire to go outside side and play, or use their imaginations to make the story whatever they want it to be, typically creating a strong personal connection between them and the story.
