Aesthetic Experience and Ideas: Death in Children's Literature and Fairytales

Fundamental Concepts of Death in Children's Literature

• The Purpose of Literature: As stated by Neil Gaiman, "Literature is an effective means for children to develop the resources, like smartness, bravery, and persistence, to confront the darknesses in life."

• Approach to Big Questions: Authors approach heavy life questions with a combination of empathy and humor to help children recognize and accept death, providing closure for the grieving process.

• Historical Development:

  • Before the seventeenth century ($17^{th}$), there was no clear distinction between adult and children's literature. Children encountered death through shared narratives like fables, Biblical stories, and oral traditions.

  • Post-seventeenth ($17^{th}$) century: A surge of books specifically dictated to children began framing how they should respond to life's big questions.

  • Mid-twentieth ($20^{th}$) century: Death was taboo for a long time until authors in the $1940s$ began introducing themes of loss to ease children's encounter with harsh realities.

• The Role of Visual Literacy:

  • Visual images provide cues that affect overall meaning-making.

  • Illustrations help transition the abstract concept of death into something concrete.

  • Children often make complex connections between their own lives and images even without reading the text.

• Fictional Scenarios: Books reproduce real problems in a fictional setting where children feel safe. Authors use familiar elements to make unfamiliar or scary concepts more approachable.

Common Tropes in Children's Literature

• Death of Parents:

  • Often occurs "offstage."

  • Acts as a plot initiator that forces a protagonist to mature independently.

  • Allows child characters and readers to recreate narratives on how to grieve and understand mortality.

  • Metaphorical Representation: Works like Anna's Heaven use objects to represent physical emptiness (e.g., empty shoes, broken pearls) versus imaginative presence (e.g., clouds, shadows, broken crockery).

  • The "Double Loss": In some stories, a grieving surviving parent alienates the child, leading the child to feel as though they have lost both parents and must find solace alone.

• The Cast of Animal Characters:

  • E.B. White noted that children are the most "attentive, curious, eager, observant, sensitive, quick, and generally congenial readers on earth."

  • Charlotte's Web: Uses animal lives to explore biological and emotional perspectives on death, mentorship, and the "natural cycle" ($born ightarrow live ightarrow die$).

  • Themes of Renewal: Animal stories like The Velveteen Rabbit emphasize survival, mutual interdependence, and the triumph of love amidst change.

• Death of Pets and Grandparents:

  • These are often the first real-world exposures to death for children in Western societies.

  • Focuses on memory, memorialization, and legacy.

  • Grandparents often serve as mentors and transmitters of cultural and family beliefs about death.

• Conceptualizing Death as Generative: Rather than a binary (life vs. death), much of children's literature views death as a continuum, a process of "becoming," or a cycle.

Case Studies in Children's Literature

Duck, Death, and the Tulip by Wolf Erlbruch

• The Author: Erlbruch ($1948$-$2022$) was a German illustrator known for his "lasting contribution" to children's literature.

• Visual Symbolism: Death is depicted in a checked smock that mirrors the crosshatching on Duck's body, visually connecting the two.

• Dialogue and Empathy: Duck asks Death, "Are you cold? Shall I warm you a little?" which is an unprecedented act of kindness toward Death.

• Open-Endedness: The story does not give a definitive answer to the afterlife but rejects the idea of Hell as a "silly idea."

• Structural Content: The "end" of the physical page coincides with the end of summer and the end of Duck's life.

• The Act of Carrying: The OED defines "carry" as transporting someone from one place to another. Death is shown as a soul carrier, similar to The Book Thief or Ancient Greek deities.

• The Ending: Death lays Duck gently on the water, watching until she is lost to sight. He is "almost a little moved," concluding with the thought, "But that's life."

The Dead Bird by Margaret Wise Brown

• The Author: Brown is most famous for Goodnight, Moon; The Dead Bird was published posthumously.

• Childhood Innocence: The children observe the bird is "cold dead and stone still." The text implies they haven't yet realized that humans also die in this manner.

• The Ritual: The children become "carriers" for the bird, bridging the gap between adult funerals and their own understanding. They sing to the bird and provide fresh flowers until they eventually forget.

Death in Fairytales

• Defining Fairytales: Described as "bedtime stories of the collective consciousness" and "myths before we became conscious of ourselves." They personify inner conflicts and suggest solutions for human development.

• Evolving Nature:

  • They were originally oral traditions intended for adults.

  • When transcribed for children, they were modified to include morals and behaviors reflecting the customs of the period.

• The Demographics of Death:

  • Before the $19^{th}$ century, child mortality (under age $15$) was high.

  • After the $19^{th}$ century, medicine shifted major mortality rates to adults.

  • Scholars argue urban living and the modern family structure have isolated children from an awareness of mortality.

• Instruction and Coercion:

  • $18^{th}$-century authors used fairytales as cautionary tales to frighten children into obedience.

  • Examples include characters dying or becoming miserable for acts of disobedience.

• Violence vs. Sexuality: Over time, European housing evolved to segregate living/sleeping quarters. In literature, sexual content was removed while violence increased as a tool to "scare" children onto the right path.

• Historical Context of Orphans: Children in orphanages were often required to attend public executions to witness the price of criminal behavior.

Evolution of Little Red Riding Hood (LRRH)

• Charles Perrault Version ($1697$): Titled Le Petit Chaperon Rouge. Red unwittingly eats her grandmother's flesh, drinks her blood, performs a striptease, and is eventually eaten by the wolf. The moral was "Do not speak to strangers."

• Brothers Grimm Version: Moderated the violence by introducing a hunter/woodcutter who rescues Red by cutting the wolf's head off. This version emphasized the wolf as an "old sinner" and warned against the "dreadful end" of disobedience.

Major Literary Examples and Themes

• Peter Pan: Neverland represents a state of immortality or purgatory. Peter Pan is the refusal of death; the Lost Boys are stuck in purgatory. The Crocodile represents the "ticking clock" of death.

• Alice in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll treats death as a transformative experience children are curious about.

  • The Caterpillar represents rebirth and the cycle of life.

  • The story encourages living life to the fullest (celebrating every day).

  • Some scholars view Wonderland as the afterlife (a Dante-esque descent narrative) where Alice experiences the five stages of grief.

The Brothers Grimm Folktales

• "Godfather Death":

  • Theme: Humans can neither escape nor defy death.

  • Death does not discriminate based on economic standing.

  • Symbols: Candles and a deserted highway.

  • Characterization: Ice-cold hands and a looming figure (reminiscent of Victorian deathbed scenes).

• "Death's Messengers":

  • Theme: Life is death's primary messenger.

  • Connection between sleep and death ("my own brother Sleep").

  • Premise: Life and death cannot exist without the other.