UVM Theses and Dissertations
Format:
Print
Author:
Ambrose, Jeff
Dept./Program:
English
Year:
2011
Degree:
MA
Abstract:
There is an unspoken misconception that literature, movies and video games marketed as young adult or for children are inferior to those media classified as "adult." This notion of child entertainment as less serious than adult entertainment manifests itself in some striking ways in the young adult entertainment itself. In books like The Child Thief and Let The Right One In, and series like Harry Potter and His Dark Materials, many adults are the monsters, incapable of imagination, and children are heroes, still capable of magic and magical thinking. In Jim Henson's 1986 children's film Labyrinth, the protagonist is a teen girl who hates her parents for making her babysit her infant brother, Toby. Once Toby is stolen by goblins, the girl, Sarah, must enter the fantasy world (the goblins were invoked from her favorite story), in which she struggles with adult responsibilities in a world full of magic and creatures only a child could believe in. These examples of entertainment, largely marketed to young adults or children, paint the process of aging as something monstrous because the end result is adulthood, a time when the imagination is pushed aside in favor of harsh reality and responsibilities. The capacity for wonder and magic are cut off.
In the introduction I articulate my argument that these young adult narratives, when viewed as horror, can offer deeper levels of meaning to the reader, player, or viewer. These young adult narratives show the good children and the evil adults, but in seeing the trend of exceptions, and the qualities ofthe eviladults and magical children, wecanconstructtheblueprint for howto avoidtheprocess ofagingas a time of lost magic or imagination and instead as one that retains the good and leaves behind the bad. The first major chapter shows how works that depict aging as something to be feared or, if possible, avoided entirely reflect the anxieties children have of adults. Using works like Peter Pan and The Child Thief, I explore why adults and adulthood are such terrifying concepts. Since adults cannot possess magic in those works, Peter, in both cases, brings children to "neverland" where they literally will not become adults.
The second major section argues that children are born naturally with imagination or magic and that the process ofgrowing older and take on more responsibilities, causes them to lose this. I will look into why children do possess magic and imagination. I address questions of whether we are born with the qualities and how do we come to lose them. But, most importantly, I will try to make sense of what this fear factor, of avoiding becoming an adult, says about childhood and children. And what would be the goal for a child to avoid this -they cannot stop growing older, so do they stunt their emotional growth by avoiding responsibilities or, as dark as it sounds, is death the only alternative? My conclusion sets forth the next steps to take and the next avenues to go down in this important and emerging branch of study of young adult narratives.
In the introduction I articulate my argument that these young adult narratives, when viewed as horror, can offer deeper levels of meaning to the reader, player, or viewer. These young adult narratives show the good children and the evil adults, but in seeing the trend of exceptions, and the qualities ofthe eviladults and magical children, wecanconstructtheblueprint for howto avoidtheprocess ofagingas a time of lost magic or imagination and instead as one that retains the good and leaves behind the bad. The first major chapter shows how works that depict aging as something to be feared or, if possible, avoided entirely reflect the anxieties children have of adults. Using works like Peter Pan and The Child Thief, I explore why adults and adulthood are such terrifying concepts. Since adults cannot possess magic in those works, Peter, in both cases, brings children to "neverland" where they literally will not become adults.
The second major section argues that children are born naturally with imagination or magic and that the process ofgrowing older and take on more responsibilities, causes them to lose this. I will look into why children do possess magic and imagination. I address questions of whether we are born with the qualities and how do we come to lose them. But, most importantly, I will try to make sense of what this fear factor, of avoiding becoming an adult, says about childhood and children. And what would be the goal for a child to avoid this -they cannot stop growing older, so do they stunt their emotional growth by avoiding responsibilities or, as dark as it sounds, is death the only alternative? My conclusion sets forth the next steps to take and the next avenues to go down in this important and emerging branch of study of young adult narratives.