Education

What Overt and Covert messages may child readers take from a book? How may these help or hinder the child’s social and personal development?

Books matter a lot for children’s personal development and it creates hindrance and assistance in their social behavior; hence, in this report, the overt and covert messages taken by children will be explored. Two of the books, which are taken for examining the covert and overt messages are, “The outlandish adventures of Liberty Aimes” by Kelly Easton Ruben and “Matilda” by Roald Dahl. The former book was published in 2009 and is about a girl of 10 years who spent these entire years in her parents’ old house at Gooch Street. Liberty Aimes used to cook for her mother all the time and had very little knowledge about the outside world. One day she gets a chance to escape from that crooked house from the secret lab of his father (See Appendix 1 for extended Summary). In the second book, Matilda, the story revolves around a five-year-old girl who has some superhuman exceptional abilities and is very intelligent. Despite that, her parents always used to ignore her and she hoped that might be my school would be different but over there she met Miss Trunchbull who used to terrorize children (See Appendix 2 for an extended summary).  In the comparison of these two books, the main themes outlined in the books will be contrasted. Furthermore, two other books will also be linked about these themes that are “Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which was first published in 1911. Whereas the second book taken for comparison with the theme is “Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland” by Lewis Caroll, which was written in 1865. 

“The outlandish adventures of Liberty Aimes” and “Matilda” are books having almost the same genre that is fantasy in which imaginary events and people are taken as characters. Fantasy is good for the personal development of children as it boosts their intelligence and creativity ultimately facilitating them to think out of the box in the real world too (Lillard and Taggart, 2019: 1). In schools, the trend of reading fiction to children has also got increased and pretend play or fantasy materials to use are encouraged by the instructors. Fantasy is also regarded as a good tool to help children know what is real and what is imaginative but the first interest developed among children in reading or watching is from fiction solely as they do not see such events in their routine life, which catches their eye instantly. Bruno Bettelheim, an Australian child psychologist, and public intellect quote that “The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are unreal, they are not untrue” – (Smith-Shank, 2017: 248). The indirect lesson taken from the fictional stories has a strong impact on the personal development of children. According to Webb, Zhbanova, and Rule (2019: 1), creativity has been neglected in many schools, which is not at all healthy for children; therefore, reading fiction or proving fantasy stories to kids for reading can bring change to the cognitive process of the better, which the child bears. According to Mead and Winsler (2019: 8), fantasy children usually engage in a private speech before bedtime, and those kids were reported more efficient in problem-solving as compared to those who were not involved in private speech. Therefore, reading fantasy books can help children in solving their daily chores with creativity and imagination where their physical energy is not much utilized. 

The study by Goodwin (2008: 57) suggests that the quality of literature in children’s books has evolved through time. Many authors write books that evolve the book characters emotionally and physiologically. Matilda and The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes take their main characters through an emotional and psychological journey through which they came out as mature individuals. Further contributed by Hansen and Zambo (2005: 42), the psychological journey that characters went through in children's books has been used to define the eight stages of Erickson’s theory. The psychological development of individuals is catered by the theory, that the eight stages begin at birth and end with the reflection of life. The lives of the characters in such a book often begin with tragedy and crisis. Similarly, as portrayed in The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes,

Liberty, known as Libby, is a child of fairy-tale-level oppression: she’s run off her feet keeping the household going for her seemingly self-centered mother and cruel, scheming father, who never lets her out of the house, and her only escapes are reading and fantasizing about attending boarding school (Easton, 2009: 4)

Both of the stories being discussed in this report revolve around the real world as well as the fantasy world. Apart from the superpower of Mathilda and the magical potion of Liberty Aimes, the rest of the events and characters were mainly from the real world having normal human characteristics. Moreover, the habit of reading and writing of Mathilda is highly focused upon, which is again an event from the real world. According to Putri and Retnaningdyah (2018: 1), the story of Mathilda shows that literacy is not only the ability of reading and write instead through studying books a person can have better social practices. This gives a good message to the children reading the novel Mathilda as the habit of studying is encouraged in this book and children can indirectly opt for having better social life through literacy practices. In one sentence, it was written; “The walk took only ten minutes and this allowed her two glorious hours sitting quietly… in a cozy corner devouring one book after another”. 

According to Gamble and Yates (2008: 65), children's literature usually has an aspect of a home away from home. In both of the books under discussion, the main character Liberty Aimes and Mathilda found a home away from their own home. Liberty Aimes takes advantage of the magical liquid to escape into the world and try to find a school where she could live and have an education. Similarly, Mathilda starts living with her teacher Miss Honey and she finds more peace and happiness while living with her as compared to when she was living with her parents and older brother. 

There are mainly three kinds of narration in which novels are written that are first-person narrator, omniscient narrator, and limited narrator. In first-person narrator, the story is being told by using the first person singular that is “I”. Whereas, in omniscient narration, the author is very well aware of the feelings of all the characters and has a sound knowledge of all the actions of the story’s world as well as thoughts of the characters. After that, the limited narration can typically be described as the limited knowledge of the world, thoughts, and actions of the characters (Suk, 2018: 16). In both the stories the third person is used, and the narrator type is used is omniscient. As both the writer Kelly Easton Ruben and Roald Dhal appeared to have a very sound knowledge of the actual feelings of the characters and the explanation of the adventure with events is very well versed. 

Matilda and The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes aimed to take children on a journey of having a better understanding of the world. In this book, the central character faces many different challenges that trouble young readers. With the eventual success of the main character, in the end, young readers tend to idolize the character by relating to the troubles it faced. The psychological process a character goes through in a book impacts its reader. Children tend to connect with these characters through their pain and triumph. In Matilda and The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes, children go through the journey of two little girls who were having troublesome lives due to their careless parents. An example from Dahl’s Matilda can be seen here,

During the first week of Matilda's visits, Mrs. Phelps had said to her, 

"Does your mother walk you down here every day and then take you home?"

"My mother goes to Aylesbury every afternoon to play bingo," Matilda had said. "She doesn't know I come here." 

"But that's surely not right," Mrs. Phelps said. "I think you'd better ask her." 

"I'd rather not," Matilda said. "She doesn't encourage reading books. Nor does my father." 

"But what do they expect you to do every afternoon in an empty house?" 

"Just mooch around and watch the telly." 

"I see." 

"She doesn't care what I do," Matilda said a little sadly.

The other two books, Alice’s Adventure in the Wonderland and the secret garden are also quite relevant to the books in comparison. As Mary from the secret garden and Alice, both discovered a magical world, where the events were different from the real world and those adventures had a strong influence on their life. According to Dickinson (2017: 8), both Alice and Mathilda were not appreciated but their mental abilities and knowledge helped them to have greater power in their surroundings. Alice's character is also quite similar to Liberty Aimes because the creature in the secret garden wanted her obedience and the mother of Liberty always wanted her to do as per her command especially when it comes to cooking in the kitchen. 

Liberty Aimes and Mathilda were both very close to reading books that helped them to escape the world and have better social practices. Hence, both the novels have overtly positively portrayed education. After escaping Literary wanted to have formal education from a school and Mathilda also possessed literacy capabilities, which helped her during her school days. In the same way, the literacy skills of Mathilda and the healing power of Alice are very important messages for the children to read. Both of the characters seemed to be good people because of the capabilities they had and both are female characters (Dickinson, 2017: 61). Of their kind and polite nature Alice,e helped her to heal a crippled boy which indirectly interprets the significance of kindness. Moreover, the literacy abilities of Mathilda portrays a character that having sound knowledge of her surrounding can help in be better off in society. 

One other similarity in all these four novels is the antagonist in the storylines of Mathilda, Alice in wonderland, the outlandish adventures of Liberty Aimes, and Secret garden. In the story of Mathilda, Liberty Aimes, and Alice, the unloving parents were neglecting their children, which was encouraging them to escape from the home to get their power. Martha, a servant at Mary’s uncle's house, also locked her up in the secret garden. Therefore, every child was developing a feeling of an “unwanted person on the earth” in some way or the other. In Secret Garden, Martha seems to dislike children as she locked up Mary and had not given much attention to Colin as well. In Mathilda, Miss Trunchbull also used to hate children and had been doing things to terrorize them. In Liberty Aimes, the overweight mother of Liberty was neglectful of her daughter’s needs and wanted her to cook her favorite meals. The antagonist in the stories had been very horrible to the main character of the novel, due to which children reading the story develops empathy for the child being mistreated. Empathy is typically considered as an act of believing and understanding the sufferings of an individual by being at the same emotional level as the sufferer (Sinclair et al., 2017: 438). Hence, when teachers read fiction to students having compassionate and emphatic character then children develop a sense of kindness, satisfaction, and politeness, which helps them in dealing with other people with compassion and empathy (Barton et al., 2019: 18). For instance, Mary from the secret garden also develop kindness after getting to the magical world which indirectly helped a cripple child so by reciting these stories to children has a strong positive influence on their personal development. 

Now the themes of the books under-discussed will be examined and explored. The main theme depicted in Mathilda is that “good triumphs over evil” and the same is the case in the secret garden where Mary through her kindness helps his uncle’s son to stand on his legs. One of the common themes in the story of Alice and Mathilda is that they both wanted the power that indirectly empowers the audiences as well (Dickinson, 2017: 11). The theme of the outlandish adventures of Liberty Aimes is somewhat gloomy but she had the desire to get an education and make herself better off. The covert message derived from all of these books is growing up where all the female characters passed through a series of events that helped them in growing up personally for the better. These covert messages are very strong and have a positive impact on the child reading these books. 

Hunt (1999: 55) suggests that different authors use their story books to develop an understanding of the historical backgrounds of children by communicating with children in their language. Further added by Kümmerling-Meibauer et al. (2015), children's books are the best way to communicate with children and develop their minds. With such literature, the cultural-historical background of the environment can be explained to young minds. A historical perspective of girls being inferior is often shared in this book to empower young girls on how the concept is wrong (Dickinson, 2017: 55). An example of this can be seen in Matilda,

The parents, instead of applauding her, called her a noisy chatterbox and told her sharply that small girls should be seen and not heard (Dahl, 2020: 2)

As contributed by Brown (2009: 202), another historical concept negated in children's books is that girls should care about their beauty rather than their brain power. It was assumed historically that girls cannot be as intelligent as boys thus these books cater to convey an understanding of boys and girls being equal. Historically, girls are often ridiculed to be less intelligent than boys thus children's books often create intelligent female characters to promote equality. Roald Dahl similarly shed light on this issue in their story,

Mrs. Phelps, who had been watching her with a fascination for the past few weeks, now got up from her desk and went over to her. 

"Can I help you, Matilda?" she asked. 

"I'm wondering what to read next," Matilda said. "I've finished all the children's books." 

"You mean you've looked at the pictures?"

 "Yes, but I've read the books as well." 

Mrs. Phelps looked down at Matilda from her great height and Matilda looked right back up at her (Dahl, 2020: 3)

According to Dickinson (2017: 20), In terms of culture, Roald Dahl is perceived as a person who encourages children to do an effort for themselves and not just accept things as they are. For instance, Mathilda did not appreciate the hated attitude of Miss Truncull and used her superpower to defend herself. Similar, Lewis Carroll depicted the character of Alice as someone innocent with her unique characteristics, which she explores further in the wonderland. In addition, Liberty Aimes also used a magical potion to escape from the real world and this shows a culture clash that her parents never wanted her to go out to experience real-life events. Mary from Secret garden did not listen to her uncle’s servant Martha and entered the garden where she realized the healing power she had. As per the study of Stevenson (2009: 2), in the book of Kelly Easton, the main character was also mistreated by her parents, but similarly, to Matilda, Liberty finds a special power that changes her life as her emotional and psychological journey begins there. The example can be seen below,

After an illicit trip to her father’s laboratory nets her a bottle of “lifting soda” and the ability to understand animals, she floats into the air as her furious father chases her, and she decides it’s time to make her break for freedom (Easton, 2009: 4).

In the four books under discussion, the main characters: Liberty Aimes, Alice, Mary, and Mathilda were homeless even though they had their parents but the bullying behavior of elders made them feel unloved due to which they all wanted to go away from them. One other key motif in these books is “Identity”. All the main characters around which the story revolves were trying to find their identity through power, which can directly be linked with the theme of growing up. Another key aspect of these books is violence and cruelty where all the main characters of books were being bullied in one way or the other. Cook et al (2017: 395) suggest that the children who think of themselves as not competent and powerless start having problems in their social life. The superpower possessed by the fictional characters in story tales is perceived as real by children and when the truth exposes to them then they start feeling powerless and incompetent, which could have a detrimental effect on some children concerning the cognitive process they have.  

One of the key themes described by Roald Dhal and Kelly Easton Ruben in the books being compared is that literacy could help you in many matters of your life. The habit of reading books can be used as an escape system, pleasure-seeking, power, and control of the mind (Dickinson, 2017: 18). As Mathilda also started living with Miss Honey due to her exceptional skills identified by her teacher and Liberty Aimes eloped from her home in search of an education that she has read in her secret stash beneath the floorboard. One other controversial theme depicted in these books is gender discrimination. As in the story of Mathilda, her mother had been very submissive to her husband. When Miss comes to tell Mathilda’s parents about the extraordinary capabilities their daughter posses then Mrs. Wormwood said, “A girl does not get a man by being brainy” and “A girl should think of herself look attractive so she can get a good husband later. Looks are more important than books….” (Anggraeni, 2017: 19). In all the books under discussion, the female characters were being neglected and unloved due to which children just wanted to get rid of their parents.  

According to the Erick Psychosocial theory of development, there are eight stages of personal development, which start from infancy and each stage has its challenges that need to be tackled efficiently to stay competent in certain areas of life (Cherry, 2018: 1). Therefore, the kind of books that children read has a strong influence on their personal development, which stays with them for a very long period of their life. Similarly, the literary theory focuses on the activities and events being interpreted from the historical context (Bertens, 2017: 10) Children derive different meanings from literature as the mental processes of each child differ from each other. Therefore, the personal development of children can be highly modified and influenced by reading literature.

References

Anggraeni, E., 2017. PATRIARCHAL PRACTICES AND RESISTANCE IN ROALD DAHL’S MATILDA (Doctoral dissertation, Diponegoro University).

Barton, G., Baguley, M., Kerby, M. and MacDonald, A., 2019. Exploring how quality children’s literature can enhance compassion and empathy in the classroom context. In Compassion and Empathy in Educational Contexts (pp. 165-188). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Bertens, H., 2017. Literary theory: The basics. Routledge.

Cherry, K., 2018. Erik erikson's stages of psychosocial development. Retrieved Juny, 5, p.2018.

Cook, A., Spinazzola, J., Ford, J., Lanktree, C., Blaustein, M., Cloitre, M., DeRosa, R., Hubbard, R., Kagan, R., Liautaud, J. and Mallah, K., 2017. Complex trauma in children and adolescents. Psychiatric annals, 35(5), pp.390-398.

Dickinson, M., 2017. She Can Do It: Messages of Female Empowerment in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Roald Dahl’s Matilda.

Gamble, N. and Yates, S., 2008. Exploring children's literature. Sage.

Lillard, A.S. and Taggart, J., 2019. Pretend play and fantasy: What if montessori was right?. Child Development Perspectives, 13(2), pp.85-90.

Mead, D.L. and Winsler, A., 2019. Change over time in the type and functions of crib speech around the fourth birthday. Language & Communication, 67, pp.29-44.

Putri, R.R. and Retnaningdyah, P., 2018, July. Matilda’s Literacy Practices in Roald Dahl’s “Matilda”. In 2nd Social Sciences, Humanities and Education Conference: Establishing Identities through Language, Culture, and Education (SOSHEC 2018). Atlantis Press. 

Sinclair, S., Beamer, K., Hack, T.F., McClement, S., Raffin Bouchal, S., Chochinov, H.M. and Hagen, N.A., 2017. Sympathy, empathy, and compassion: A grounded theory study of palliative care patients’ understandings, experiences, and preferences. Palliative medicine, 31(5), pp.437-447.

Smith-Shank, D.L., 2017. Once Upon a Time… Fairy Tales and Other Stories. Chinese Semiotic Studies, 13(3), pp.245-253.

Suk, A., 2018. The Analysis of the Narrator in The Book Thief.

Webb, A.N., Zhbanova, K.S. and Rule, A.C., 2019. An investigation of whether fantasy books, compared to same topic nonfiction, promote second graders' creativity. Education 3-13, 47(1), pp.116-131.

Dahl, R. (2020). Retrieved 6 April 2020, from http://shrani.si/f/v/bt/444QamZo/matilda.pdf

Brown, P. (2009). " Girls Aloud"; Dialogue as a Pedagogical Tool in Eighteenth-century French Children's Literature. The Lion and the Unicorn, 33(2), 202-218.

Hunt, P, ed, (1999) Understanding Children’s Literature London: Routledge. (a useful collection of essays by different theorists / critics)

Kümmerling-Meibauer, B.,  Meibauer,J., Nachtigäller, K., &  Rohlfing, K.J. (2015) (eds.) Learning From Picture Books, Perspectives from child development and literacy studies Abingdon: Routledge.

Goodwin, P. (ed.) (2008) Understanding children’s books London: SAGE.

Hansen, C. C. and Zambo, D. (2005). Piaget, Meet Lilly: Understanding Child Development through Picture Book Characters, Early Childhood Educational Journal, Vol 33:1, pages 39-45. 

Stevenson, D. (2009). The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 62(11), 440-440.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Book Title: The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes

Author: Kelly Easton 

Type of Book: Children’s Fiction

Book Genre: Magical Realism

Target Age: 7+

Short Summary: Liberty was a young girl who was parented by a crook father and an overweight mother. She was held captive by her parents for ten years and was forced to do housework while her mother watched television. She was not allowed to go outside thus her all knowledge about the outside world came from different fairy tale books she found in her house. One day she illegally stepped into her father’s laboratory to see for surprise an entirely new world with magic potions and talking animals. After drinking one such potion she got the power to speak to animals. She then escapes from the house to reach her destiny of finding the Sullivan school using her superpower. In her journey, she came across different characters, some of the characters wanted to befriend her while others tried to harm her.

Personal Evaluation of the Book:

Visual Impact: Pictures support the text

Main Characters: Liberty Aimes, Mr. and Mrs. Aimes

Key Themes: Crime, Education, Self-identity

Overt Message: Education is necessary for children

Covert Message: Everyone has a special purpose 

Likeliness for the Target age: It teaches a lot of lessons to young kids through a secure learning environment

Likeliness for Boys and Girls: The central character of the book is a girl who gets the power to speak to animals. It sends a great message of empowerment to young girls.

Personal Response to Book:  Really enjoyed reading the book. The message is spread beautifully. Highly recommend this book to young children. 

Rating out of 10: 8

Appendix 2

Book Title: Matilda

Author: Roald Dahl

Type of Book: Children’s Fiction

Book Genre: Magical Realism

Target Age: 7+

Short Summary: Matilda was an intelligent little girl who was not adored by her parents and was regularly belittled by them. Her parents did not care much about her, however, they were attached to her brother. She often showed her frustration with them by playing pranks on them. She had a habit of reading books and was far ahead of other children of her age, her parents never appreciated her intelligence and always told her to behave like a normal girl. When she began school, she developed an attachment toward a specific teacher named Miss Honey. Miss Honey noticed her high intelligence and started appreciating Matilda. Soon the teacher and the student developed a special bond between them. The headmistress of the school, Miss Trunchbull, was a cruel woman who often punished her student with severe punishments. Miss Trunchbull was the aunt of Miss Honey and had taken over the inheritance of Miss Honey. Soon Matilda discovers that she possesses telekinetic powers that she used against Miss Trunchbull to give back Miss Honey’s property to her. Later Matilda’s father was being searched by the police for car crimes. Her father then left for Spain along with the rest of his family leaving Matilda under Miss Honey’s care who then treated Matilda like her own daughter. 

Personal Evaluation of the Book:

Visual Impact: Pictures support the text

Main Characters: Matilda, Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, Miss Honey, Miss Trunchbull, Lavender

Key Themes: Corruption, Education, Self-identity

Overt Message: Education is necessary for children

Covert Message: Corruption is bad and will always haunt the wrongdoer 

Likeliness for the Target age: It teaches a lot of lessons to young kids through a secure learning environment

Likeliness for Boys and Girls: The central character of the book is a girl who gets mind control powers. It sends a great message of empowerment to young girls. Boys can learn from the story about equality.

Personal Response to Book:  Really enjoyed reading the book. The message is spread beautifully. Highly recommend this book to young children. 

Rating out of 10: 9