How Children’s Literature Can Be Both Didactic and Entertaining Essay

Literature talks about significant human experiences which arouses a noble feeling of pleasure. A form of literature should have permanence, artistry, spirituality, suggestiveness and universality like a children’s literature. It may be in the form of novels, poems, stories, and others use only language to convey the subject . Children’s literature speaks of people’s challenges but more imaginary than that of an adult and it awakes the innocent mind of a child to explore to the world of fantasy and reality- the start of his training on distinguishing facts from fallacies and developing his mind to acquire the good out of the context of a children’s literature. Children’s literature connects imagination and life to prepare a child to be a grown-up. C. S. Lewis states that literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become. It helps a child gain knowledge on both what he is experiencing and from his reading. Some forms of literature can be didactic and some can be entertaining. It is didactic in a way that it instructs people on what to do, introduces facts and information, tremendously inclined to teach or moralize and sometimes a disadvantage or it kills a reader’s enjoyment. In layman’s term , we call that being a killjoy. A piece of writing is not didactic even if it is educational when it is more focused on artistic qualities. It is entertaining because it amuses you of things you haven’t seen before, draws your attention of something you want or dreams but in real life you can’t- so it becomes an outlet of your imagination,pleases your entirety and diverts your interest to something exciting. According to Cyril Connolly, â€Å"While thought exists, words are alive and literature becomes an escape, not from, but into living. † Your surname 2 Children’s literature is didactic and entertaining. Here are some that we will discuss on matters regarding the commonalities of giving information and at the same time giving the reader a dose of merriment. We will cite three: Hana’s Suitcase, Paper Bag Princess and Charlotte’s Web. Hana’s Suitcase is about two children in the hand of the Nazi’s basically George and Hana. It sets focus on Hana Brady, an ordinary girl on about 10 years of age,who perished in a concentration camp of the Nazi’s set in Czechoslovakia. An age of annihilation where the Jews were imprisoned and eventually killed. Paper Bag Princess is about a Princess Elizabeth who was about to marry Prince Ronald but the latter was kidnapped by a dragon. Courageously but naked she eventually rescues the prince wearing only a paper bag. She won by flattering the dragon because the dragon does perform all sorts of stunts ending in exhaustion. But after helping the him, the prince insults the princess and she realizes that she was better off without a prince. They did not live happily ever after. Charlotte’s Web is about a spider who helps Wilbur, a pig, from being killed by his owner. She devices a plan on how to divert the attention of the owner in Wilbur’s favor. Fern acts as a liaison between the human world and the animal world . When Charlotte was about to die, Wilbur returns the favor by taking care of her eggs. Hana’s Suitcase is didactic because it conceptualizes on an idea about discrimination on Jews and talks about some history of Czechoslovakia set in the 1900’s. A girl who is the same as her peer suffers an unjust experience. Children received the story with the greatest interest. This serves as instrument that provoked them to understand the evil of intolerance and racism at their young age. Hana’s suitcase is filled with the love and thoughts of thousands of children. It may appear empty, but it is once again, miraculously, packed – with life and joy. It arouses the mind of the children to think positively out of the context of the sad ending of the story. It is entertaining because it shows a historical setting and us, being in a contemporary are being amused by the changes in the course of history. Aside from that, trifles- insignificant yet Your surname 3 significant in this story, traces in the suitcase triggers us surprised and excitement on what will happen next in the story. Paper Bag Princess is didactic in a way that it teaches us to be courageous, willing to sacrifice ourselves for the needy and at the same time teaches us to balance the heart and the mind. If others cannot appreciate the help that you did, let them because good deeds need not to be rewarded by words of mortal but in God’s kingdom. It is entertaining because it shows the comic side of the story by the dragon’s character. It affects our sense of humor by the antics done by a dragon. Usually we think of a dragon as merciless, cannibal and ferocious beings but this time the author serves a different attack on a character supposedly unlike by children. Another thing is the character of Princess Elizabeth, where a princess should be modest, tactful, graceful and educated but in this story a princess is brave like a knight , witty and dirty as needed for the development of the story’s childish side. The characteristic of being didactic in Charlotte’s Web is shown on giving the moral of the story that a friend in need is a friend in indeed. It teaches us that life is easy with friends. Your facade or outside appearance is not a hindrance for doing good. Just like in the story a spider may look tough and scary but she proves that she can also be as nice and beautiful in the way of the heart. The entertainment on Charlotte’s Web lies on giving the character justice by putting animals as lead. A pig is characterized by being foul-smelling, unorganized, filthy and a spider as an organized and self-centered being , but we are entertained by the fact that the story creates a different side of each- a pig being empathic and a spider being friendly. Every farm animal has a character of its own that resembles a human being that is kind, compassionate and helpful to other beings. Hana’s Suitcase, Paper Bag Princess and Charlotte’s Web denotes a higher level of giving a child what he needs to progress in terms of acquisition of ideas expressed by these literature. It is Your surname 4 not only for the kids but for all ages, These three just focus on children especially on characters to establish an easy and clear connection to reality and the contemporary without lessening the value that it has to offer . Hana bears the quality of humility, Elizabeth being courageous and Charlotte being compassionate. Three young individuals that changes a person’s life because of their actions in the story. They have a major role in forming a young mind to be a law-abiding citizen, to be a model to others, just like what they did. They may be fictional but their character’s aren’t. Each of us has a capacity to change the world having the chance to do so. A piece of literature can be didactic and at the same time entertaining and educational depending on how a person relate himself to it. It only requires the awakening of your hidden individuality to perceive what a literature wants you to visualize and eventually take into action whatever good you have acquired from a children’s literature. Children’s literature satisfies a particular human need. It allows the embodiment of ideas to become a concrete one and eventually be applied to the good of humanity in forms of acts and other activities that will promote human welfare. Your surname Works Cited Munsch, R. (1985). Paper Bag Princess. San Diego: Annick Press.