This semester, I am taking a class called "Children's Literature". The other day we were discussing a book titled "When Sophie Gets Angry- Really Really Angry" by Molly Bang.
This is a picture book about a girl who gets angry at her little sister, so she leaves the house, climbs a tree, calms down, and goes back home.
We talked about how the main theme of the book is anger management. One girl pointed out that when the girl came back home, the whole family was doing a puzzle on the table. She said that this could be symbolic to construction, and the family is "putting things back together".
But what if that's not what the author meant? What if she just had them doing a puzzle for no reason? She could of had them coloring or making dinner.
I think people analyze books too much.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
9 comments:
Ye, they do, but that's half the fun.
Read about the Transactional Theory of Reading, originated by Louise Rosenblatt.
Yeah, I agree.
In my young days, a friend of mine and I used to obsess about the intricacies of Harry Potter. We'd read all the shakla v'tarya (l'havdil!) of what J.K.R. *might* have meant/been alluding to/been hinting to....
Looking back, we were nuts. There is no way in the world she was *that* brilliant to have meant all those things.
You're right. Sometimes analysis is just silly.
:-)
Analysis for its own sake is silly. but when you do an analysis of the book to get to know the psyche of the writer, and of the subliminal messages they wrote in, even if they as the author weren't aware of it, thats not silly thats psychology.
Once the words are on the page it is up to the reader to make it say whatever it is that sounds convenient to the reader. The author could have deep meaning, or the author could have no meaning at all, it doesn't matter. All that matter is what you take out of it.
Child Ish just took the Transactional Theory of reading, and put it into 2 sentences...
As for Harry Potter, ye, my friends and I did the same thing. Lotsa fun
My brother and sister in law analyze the kids books my neice's have. We LOL at them. "why is malky's mommy buying the cake for shabbos? She doesn't even have a job!"
Yeah, the people who do it seriously are pretty...bored I guess.
And CP- I did the exact same thing. Pretty dumb now but...
Analysis can be interesting and even fun, but you don't want to lose the forest for the trees. Kids should be allowed and even taught to just enjoy reading for its own sake.
The English major stepping in...
Actually, you'd be surprised at how much of a novel/story is thought out. Yes, there are accidental, lucky instances of some sort of symbol in the writing that the author didn't intend, but especially with something like a children's book, where every word and action matters, the fact that the author had the family building a puzzle *does* mean something.
There's a really funny scene in the book "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson that has a high school student arguing this very point with her English teacher on "The Scarlet Letter."
Post a Comment