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And they all lived happily ever after.Except when they didn't. Of course.
Now, you know that and I know that. But my children don't. So what I'm wondering is when should they learn? When it it time to read them the books in which they don't all live happily ever after?
Take Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid. It's giving me goosebumps to think of it.
She doesn't get her prince, you know. He marries someone else, and she is told that to save her life she must kill him. But she loves him too much, so instead, standing by his marriage bed with a knife in her hand, watching him sleep with another woman's head resting on his chest, she drops a kiss on his forehead and throws herself into the sea, from which she is transformed into a daughter of the air, an ethereal cloud.
It's a great story. A story of a love that is greater than life.
So why, when the Guardian decided to retell it, did they change the end? Why does she have to get the Prince? Presumably because Disney say so, but then why did Disney change it too?
Are our children really not strong enough to take it? And if they're not now, when will they be? When can I say to them, "Actually, the Little Mermaid doesn't really end like that..."?
So many great children's books are tragic, after all: the Selfish Giant and the Happy Prince spring immediately to mind. I'm looking forward to children's war literature such as I am David, the Silver Sword and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit too. And while we're on the subject of Judith Kerr, what about Goodbye Mog?
Now I realise, with the exception of Mog, that we may be a little young yet for Anne Holm or Oscar Wilde, but I still wonder whether protecting them from the idea of a sad ending is such a good thing. We can't protect them from sadness in real life, after all.
Maybe that's it, of course. Maybe Disney, the Guardian and their like think that stories should be a refuge from reality, especially for the very young.
I'm still not sure I agree.
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Image from Wikipedia, although, interestingly, not wikimedia commons, because apparently Danish copyright laws also protect works of art in public locations. So if I'm breaching the artist's' family's copyright I'm sorry, and I will of course take it down if they want. Probably also one to bear in mind if you're ever in Copenhagen...
I agree with you - in that I don't agree with the idea that stories should be a refuge from reality. Stories help children to make sense of the world, they've fulfilled this role for centuries but since the rise of Hollywood and the idea that stories should be popular writers have taken it upon themselves to make all stories happy, thus reducing life and experience to a bland message: "happy is best". Children who are only exposed to this message are ill equipped to cope with sad things when they do, inevitably, happen, whereas those who have grown up with the full range of stories already have in place some of the complicated thinking needed to face the bad things in life.
ReplyDeleteI think Mrs T makes a good point below so maybe we should exonerate Disney a bit - they're not pretending nothing bad happens at least...
DeleteBut otherwise I entirely agree - and you put it significantly better than I did!
I slightly dispute your point about Disney, having comforted distraught children through the Lion King (death of Simba's father), Finding Nemo (death of Nemo's mother), though I will admit avoiding Bambi thus far...
ReplyDeleteI agree. But what I was getting at was the endings. Although Simba's father dies (and s found that very difficult the first time we watched even though I don't think she actually understood - the power of the music?) it all works out in the end.
DeleteAnd to be honest I don't even mind that so much - it's the changing perfectly good stories (in this case the little mermaid which we were listening to in the car) that annoys.
I am also reminded by Mr T that Dumbo is particularly brutal (although it does have a happy ending). And having just watched the Snowman with the kids that definitely doesn't have a happy ending...;-))
ReplyDeleteJust found this - blogger thought you were spam!
DeleteThe Snowman I'll grant you - but I bet the new version they're bringing out this winter ends happily. I just don't think telly/film people have got the bravery to end a kids film tragically these days.
I'd love to be proved wrong though...
Agree agree, it's me who struggles with Goodbye, Mog whenever Youngest picks it. She's fine with it!
ReplyDeleteBut what about the ones that hit you with nostalgia too.... I can't do the Velveteen Rabbit, not even for the fortieth time. I suspect I never will be able to. And I'm dreading the Small Miracle.
DeleteReading out loud is not easy with a huge lump in your throat.
I like stories that are ambiguous, and then you can go with the mood of the moment. Trying to think of one... Oh yes, Ariel. She marries her prince but bids permanent farewell to her father. You can get joy and loss out of that one. Plus she has a laundry detergent named after her. Is that a happy ending, or eternal humiliation?
ReplyDeleteI'm going with humiliation.
DeleteDid they get that (the name, not the humiliation) in America?
Isn't there also a question about whether there is a "real ending", and a "real version"? Hans Christian doesn't have the last word. He must have based his stories on a version (his mother's?), but there would always have been other versions out there.
ReplyDeleteThat's certainly true, but I can't imagine that the earlier (est?) versions would have been "happier" than any that we now have. I still think we've got more squeamish as we've got more modern, in this as much else.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteIf you're worried about using the image of The Little Mermaid I can send you a photograph I took when we were there. I will happily allow you publish it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post and comments. I wonder why they changed the ending of The Little Mermaid when other children's books are dark: Roald Dahl etc. Funny how a lot of children's poetry can be a bit grim too eg Matilda by Hilaire Belloc: didn't she burn to death at the end?
Thank you! But I think (from a quick read of the warning on wikipedia) the problem is with anyone's pictures. The copyright is in the sculpture, not the photograph, unlike here.
DeleteAnyway, you're right about lots of children's stories. I think, and I probably hadn't got this far when I wrote the post, that in recent (very recent, the last twenty years or so, but not much more) we've got very nervous about preserving an ideal of childhood I'm not sure ever existed. Hilaire Belloc was a Victorian, wasn't he? And for all people say the Victorians invented childhood, I think they were still harsher than we are now.
This got my goat too http://www.kelloggsville.blogspot.com/2011/04/Disney-princess-twosome.html it touched me when I was reading a book called singled out about the millions of single woman in the post ww1 era. It struck me then that life doesn't really reflect the Disney image fed to our children for relationships, looks, outcomes etc. but then I'd rather daughter wasn't watching eastenders either. Little woman has always left me with massive disappointment about Jo not marrying Laurie and it took Anne (of green gables) about 4 books to get to Gilbert. Maybe they are books to go with. Wuthering heights and Jane Eyre and sheer tragedy of course but too hard for young ones.
ReplyDeleteWell yes... and then we get into that whole can of worms I was skirting round about role models for girls in particular and pinkification and objectification and feminism and oh, it's late, can I go to bed now...?
DeleteBut yes. Yes to all of it, Anne and Gilbert included (still have a bit of a crush on Gilbert if the truth be told).