Kim Take 2

I must say, now that I am getting more into this novel, I am enjoying it more. I think it took a while for me to get adjusted to the language differences and unknown locations that Kipling throws at us, but now that I am the book is much more pleasurable.

One of the issues we talked about in class on Thursday was racism. There are a lot of hidden (and some not so hidden) racist remarks in this text, especially since Kim is an Irish boy who looks like and was raised like an Indian. One of theses blatantly obvious remarks happens when Kim first meets Father Victor and Reverend Bennett at their camp. He walks in because the prophecy told him to go toward the Red Bull on the green field and that is the flag flying in their military camp. Well when he is first discovered roaming around this camp the soldiers take him back to their headquarters where Father Victor and Bennett were to get him sorted out. Because he is dressed, and speaks like, a low caste Indian boy, Kim is immediately accused of stealing. Once he gets out in his garbled English that he only came to the camp because of their flag, and it is revealed that he is (perhaps) the son of the famous Kimball O'Hara, the effect is instantaneous. As soon as this information is revealed, Bennett thinks that perhaps he has been too harsh on the boy.

"It is possible I have done the boy an injustice. He is certainly white, though evidently neglected. I am sure I must have bruised him." (Kipling 134)

Clearly the same boy who he could have cared less about when he thought he was Indian is suddenly the primary concern of Bennett's, all because Kim has revealed himself to actually be white. This was the example that stood out most strongly in my mind, though there are others littered through the text. I am looking forward to finishing this book and I hope the ending is as good as the middle!

Kim

I dearly hope that the Victorian child who read this novel had an easier time with it than I did. I found the language dense and difficult to get through, as well as the novel containing so many words that are foreign to me (as a 21st century American) that reading Kim is almost more of a chore than a pleasure.

However, I love the incorporation of India into this time period's literature. Kim reminded me very much of Secret Garden where the main character Mary was raised in India for 10 years before returning to England. There are huge contrasts between these two novels though. Mary was raised upper class and she had parents, though they were not often around to care for her so she spent most of her time alone or with her nanny. Kim has lived his whole life in India and is very immersed in the culture. In other words, he knows how to get around - as evidenced by his encounters with the bull in the marketplace and his con performed on the train. In some ways, I think these two novels are representative of Victorian attitudes of the British invasion of India. Secret Garden represents the side that thought the Indians were beneath them, and that the "true home" of the British was in England, even if they had grown up in India their whole life, like Mary. Kim represents the grittier side of the coin. The character of Kim seems to embody a sense of adventure and exploration that the British felt when they first conquered India. As to Kim's attitude compared with Mary's: he is Irish. There is a whole other dichotomy between British and Irish people that is not mentioned, at least in the first part of the novel. Kim being Irish allows him to become more immersed into Indian culture because both of those cultures were seen as inferior to the British.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of this novel. If not entertaining, it is almost guaranteed to be informative about the lives of the British in India which is what I think Kipling wanted to do the whole time writing this novel. 

Black Beauty

This is the first time I have read Black Beauty. We have had it in my house for as long as I can remember, but that was just one book I never picked up, probably because it had to do with horses and I did not like horses when I was younger. That being said, I think it was easier for me to read this novel from a critical perspective since I did not have previous memories reading it.

The first question that popped into my mind was "why is the title of this book Black Beauty?" Sewell makes it very clear that it is because the horse who is narrating the story is a gorgeous black color. However, it threw me off when Black Beauty was described as a male horse. Beauty is normally an adjective used to describe females that goes all the way back to fairy tales such as Beauty and the Beast; the main character being Beauty who just so happens to be the most beautiful and most intelligent of all her sisters. I think by titling the book Black Beauty, Sewell appeals to a more generally female audience that probably would not be as strong if it was titled "Black Auster", one of the horse's other names for example.

This novel was also groundbreaking in terms of animal rights activism. Most animal rights activists happen to be upper class females. In 1877 when this book was written and in the five years following its immediate success, really the only people who could afford books were upper class citizens, despite the fact that serialization (like what Dickens did) was becoming ever more popular. Thus, by titling the book something more appealing to the upper/middle class female demographic, Sewell was almost guaranteeing that the issues brought up in Black Beauty would be picked up by those who cared most about these issues.

Since I am only halfway through the book at this point, I am not sure how the ending affects my proposal here, but hopefully they support each other. As of now I am enjoying this novel much more than I thought I would and I hope the trend continues as I finish reading!

Blog #1

Hello world! My name is Sarah Chapman and this is my blog all about children's literature (duh). I can't wait to begin the process of exploring this insanely interesting genre in this class.

So to start off I am going to talk about one of my favorite books from when I was younger: The Merchant of Death by DJ MacHale. I picked this book up from my school library in 7th grade because my friend Katie had read it and she really enjoyed it. Katie was not a reader by any means so if she liked the book it must have been pretty good. So I read it and instantly fell in love. It is the story of this 14 year old boy named Bobby Pendragon who, for some reason, was chosen to save the entire universe. And when I say the entire universe, in the book it is explained as every person, every time, every place that has ever and will ever exist and they call it "Halla". Well in his first adventure in this book, Bobby has to go to a territory (basically like an alternate universe) called Denduron and stop the Milago people who are poor miners, from blowing up the oppressing tribe called the Bedoowan. After I read this one, I checked out all the other ones from the series that our library had and bought the rest, there are 10 in all. The last book came out when I was 16 and I still loved the series as much then, and I still love it as much now, as the day I first read them.

This book resonated with me because of the tone it was written in. Bobby narrates the whole story because he is writing it all down in journals and sending them back to his friends on earth. Thus, you feel like you are actually a part of the action. It also helps that Bobby is 14 in this book and I was 12 when I read it so I understood his mental state. As I get older and reread the series (because why not?) I have realized that the writing is a little childish and sloppy, but then again the novels are marketed toward ages 10-15. However, MacHale's use of imagery creates such a detailed world in each book, since each book is a new territory that Bobby has to help out of some catastrophe. I get such vivid pictures in my head when I read them that it is like watching a movie. I have wanted this series to become a film series because of this great imagery, but also because of the relatability of all these characters. Even though they are from different universes, they are so well written that you can sympathize with their triumphs and defeats. And because I imagined Morgan Freeman as one of the characters and I am convinced that they need to make these books into films before he dies.