Author: Calvin Chen

5081190220199103
09/16/15

Binary A: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

At the end of the story, we are told that Alice’s adventures were a dream. Alice wakes up in her older sister’s lap and tells her all about them. This immediately brings up the binary of dreams versus reality. We can correlate the fantasy aspects of the story with Alice because of her out of the world journey. The reality topic would be linked to her sister. Lewis Carroll is implying that dreams are more vivid with children than in adults. We do not know for sure if the sister is an adult but we do know that she is older. Therefore, we can say that reality overtakes imagination as one ages.

“Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago: and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days.” (Carroll, Page 162)

In this last paragraph of Carroll’s story, Alice’s sister is thinking about how children see the world in a “simpler” way. The way it is written implies joys and sorrows are much heavier in adulthood.

Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. New York: C.N. Potter, 1960. Guttenberg.org. 19 May 2009. Web. 16 Sept. 2015.

09/15/15

Child as a Site of Adult Desires: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is a story of a poor child who continues to demonstrate moral behavior. Willy Wonka offers five people a chance to tour his famous chocolate factory. The protagonist, Charlie, was one of the fortunate few who are able to enter and learn the secrets of the candy facility. We see the adult desire through the actions of the children touring the factory: the desire to reward the good and punish the bad. Besides Charlie, the kids break a rule or misbehave and end up being “removed” from the factory. Adults want children to grow up knowing that there are incentives to acting proper. There is also the desire of inheritance. As the only good child, Charlie was able to receive ownership of Wonka’s factory; the purpose of gathering the children and educating them with the secrets of the factory was to select the right candidate for succession.

 

Dahl, Roald, and Joseph Schindelman. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1964. Print.

 

09/9/15

How to Read Children’s Literature: The Tortoise And The Hare

The Tortoise And The Hare

What a reader is asked to know

  • About life
    • What is a tortoise? A tortoise is a slow creature.
    • What is a hare? A hare is a speedy animal.
    • What is a race? A race is a competition that tests who is faster between at least two people.
  • About language
    • The reader is expected to know how to read in English and the implications of each word. This would include the adjectives used to describe the situations the characters were in.
    • “Tortoise” and “Hare” are capitalized to tell the reader that the two are important characters.
  • About literature
    • The reader is asked to know that this story is a fable, a story that teaches a life lesson.

What a reader is asked to do

  • The reader is asked to interpret the characters and understand their respective qualities. The Tortoise is surrounded with text that implies that it is slow and the Hare is described as fast.
  • The reader is asked to understand that the Hare’s actions emit arrogance or overconfidence.
  • The reader is asked to recognize the moral and lesson of the story.

Implied Reader

  • The implied reader is a young child or person who is deemed arrogant.
  • The vernacular and writing style implies that the reader has to understand elementary level English.
09/2/15

Ring Around the Rosy

Ring around the rosy

A pocketful of posies

“Ashes, Ashes”

We all fall down

 

Ring-a-Ring o’ Rosies

A Pocket full of Posies

“A-tishoo! A-tishoo!”

We all fall down!

 

“Ring around the Rosy Rhyme.” Ring around the Rosy Rhyme. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Sept. 2015. <http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ring_around_the_rosy.htm>.