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Constructing Families
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From: Monica R. Edinger <edinger>
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 07:43:44 -0500
I've been thinking further about children creating their own versions of family away from adults.
First of all, there are sibling groups. I think in particular of E. Nesbit's books. In Five Children and It and its sequels you've got Anthea, the pseudo-mother, Robert the pseudo?ther, Jane and Cyril as the true children and the Lamb --- the baby, of course. This gang of siblings careens around the countryside and town having adventures galore. Edgar Eager has gangs of siblings as well, but parents/parent-like adults are more present, it seems, in his books than in Nesbit (unless you want to argue that the Phoenix, the Sandyfairy and such are parent-like) and so the older kids don't seem quite so strongly represented as parental stand-ins. But, hey, how about those C. S. Lewis kids? Are Susan and Peter mom and dad or what?
This line of thinking got me moving into kid gangs such as those in Eric Kastner's Emil and the Detectives and Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord. In the latter, Prosper and Bo are orphans, but become part of a gang that has family characteristics: Scipio as father, Hornet as mother, and the others as siblings. Of course this is all incredibly complicated by the true family relationships the children have which are magically and most satisfyingly resolved.
Then, again thinking about children making gangs into families made me think of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card? Is Ender the father of Bean or what is he? What are they? What of the adults in these books? They force the kids to make these cohorts, don't they? Family as army? Army as family?
Monica
Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Sun 17 Nov 2002 06:43:44 AM CST
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 07:43:44 -0500
I've been thinking further about children creating their own versions of family away from adults.
First of all, there are sibling groups. I think in particular of E. Nesbit's books. In Five Children and It and its sequels you've got Anthea, the pseudo-mother, Robert the pseudo?ther, Jane and Cyril as the true children and the Lamb --- the baby, of course. This gang of siblings careens around the countryside and town having adventures galore. Edgar Eager has gangs of siblings as well, but parents/parent-like adults are more present, it seems, in his books than in Nesbit (unless you want to argue that the Phoenix, the Sandyfairy and such are parent-like) and so the older kids don't seem quite so strongly represented as parental stand-ins. But, hey, how about those C. S. Lewis kids? Are Susan and Peter mom and dad or what?
This line of thinking got me moving into kid gangs such as those in Eric Kastner's Emil and the Detectives and Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord. In the latter, Prosper and Bo are orphans, but become part of a gang that has family characteristics: Scipio as father, Hornet as mother, and the others as siblings. Of course this is all incredibly complicated by the true family relationships the children have which are magically and most satisfyingly resolved.
Then, again thinking about children making gangs into families made me think of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card? Is Ender the father of Bean or what is he? What are they? What of the adults in these books? They force the kids to make these cohorts, don't they? Family as army? Army as family?
Monica
Monica Edinger The Dalton School New York NY edinger at dalton.org monicaedinger at yahoo.com
Received on Sun 17 Nov 2002 06:43:44 AM CST
