Children's Literature

When analyzing children and children’s literature there are many theories that can be concluded through reading and observing this theme of literature. One main theory in children’s literature that can be observed is the didactic element in most of the stories. In Dependent States: The Child’s Part in the Making of American Culture, this example is presented when Sanchez states that children are being “…taught to conform to social expectations by child-rearing experts, by parents, by schools and by didactic stories.” This seems like authors were striving to teach through literature what parents or schools could not. This brings me to my second theory. With the thought that children’s literature is written with a didactic element, this didactic element was mostly written to teach a moral lesson. Moral lessons seemed to pop up everywhere in children’s literature throughout the nineteenth century. In Children’s Literature for a New Nation, Macleod mentions this lesson many times. “They were written to teach, and more specifically, to teach a moral lesson.” With all of the lessons being taught in children’s literature it seems as though these books were not written at all for entertainment but strictly for education. This was not necessarily true. These pieces of literature had to somehow form a connection with the child in order to grasp their attention. This leads me to my third theory that children’s literature was also written for entertainment. Macleod earlier contradicts this theory by mainly stressing the education side of children’s literature, but Sanchez states that “Assumptions about the most appropriate stories to tell to children varied with these changes in perspective didacticism giving way to humor and fantasy.” With that statement it is easy to conclude that authors were not just writing for education purposes but to also form some sort of connection with the child with fantasy and humor. My last two theories mainly focus on the adult side of children’s literature. This side of it is mainly about what the author as an adult is trying to get through to the child. When analyzing children’s literature you sometimes have to take a different approach. My fourth theory is how the piece of literature for children sometimes turns into training for the “adult world.” Macleod puts this in perspective when stating that “Childhood was wholly preparation, entirely a moral training ground for the adult world.” When authors look at childhood as a lesson for the entire world it seems as though literature was written as a training manual. This brings me to my final point. With having adults in mind, children literature quickly turned into not only training for the “adult world”, but also adults claiming through literature their ideal future society. Macleod states this early on in his writing by saying, “Less directly, but just as surely, the books offer insight into what Americans wanted of and for their society.” With all of this being said, when analyzing children’s literature you have to looks past the entertainment aspect, through the didactic meaning and even sometimes putting yourself in the adults shoes.