In the last fifteen minutes of class, I explained a little more about how Peter Pan is exemplary of what all children’s literature seems to do. I drew a diagram. I doubt that it will be helpful for those of you who weren’t privy to that last 15 minutes, but I am posting it all the same. Perhaps it will generate dialogue.
Why People Write Children’s Literature
and
Possible Positives to Being a Child
Hey everyone,
The following is a link to a handout I have on close reading assignments. The handout was generated for an African American literature course, so the examples are around Richard Wright’s Black Boy, but the general methods should be applicable to your paper.
Note: there are other ways to do a close reading than the two I have presented here, but these are two very common and tried and true ways of going about a close reading. You should definitely look at the handout, and certainly if you feel uncertain about a close reading, you should try following one of the methods on this handout.
Handout: Close-Reading-Strategy-Clean
The first thing that struck me while reading Jacqueline Rose’s, The Case of Peter Pan, was the fact that it was about Peter Pan. The story of the boy who never wants to become an adult. He wants to stay a little boy forever. He NEVER wants to grow up. I felt this was the perfect entrance piece of writing to read for this course because it gave a good insight to some of the history of Peter Pan but it also challenged ideas and raised questions that probably wouldn’t have come up otherwise. But what I really wanted to focus on is what really stood out to me. I was thinking about it through the entire text was when Rose said,
“Peter Pan offers us the child — forever.”
While reading this, I went back to Beverly Clark’s, “Kiddie Lit” where she mentions that there is some part in us that “values childhood. But we also dismiss it.” People love taking trips down memory lane to the times before responsibility and work and paying bills. I know I do. So there is a little Peter Pan in all of us I guess. Some part of us that wants to stay young. However this is not acceptable “adult behavior”. Eventually we all “grow up” and become a rational, responsible adult. Peter Pan never does. He is an adult’s fantasy.