English 312: Portal Fantasies in Children's Fictio

I usually hate these group projects because there is always one or two students that lack the enthusiasm to do the work. Thankfully this was not the case in our group. Although it was difficult for all of us to meet up outside of class, we took advantage of group email to communicate with each other. The one time we were able to meet up was the most useful. With some of Marianelia’s ideas, Tyler and I chose our prospective subjects of discussion. Because Katelyn couldn’t make it to the meeting, she volunteered to put together the side show. I give her great credit for the effort she put forth in helping make our presentation a success.

I was never very good at public speaking and I wish I was able to stick to the notes I had a bit more closely, but improvising is always something I feel more comfortable with. In the future I would like a more constant interaction from everyone in the group, so that people weren’t scrambling to put everything together. There were one or two hick-ups during our presentation, but overall I thought that we displayed some solid information that sparked intriguing discussions.

I WILL CONTINUE TO UPDATE THIS DRAFT THROUGHOUT THE DAY, BUT FOR NOW I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE GOOD TO POST MY INTRODUCTION.

Literature and Films have always been a kind of portal into new worlds and it is no coincidence that all of the novels and films we have discussed in class contain some form of a portal that transports characters into worlds of magic and adventure. At heart, all audiences want to be a part of these stories. Whether it is through using our imaginations or visual and audible stimuli, we travel along with the characters of the stories as they embark on their journeys. Methods of engaging and immersing audiences have continued to evolve over the years as audiences change and through this evolution, literature and film have given birth to a new form of storytelling: The Video Game.

It may be hard for some to hear and understand how something generally seen as a “child’s toy” can be taken seriously as a medium for compelling stories, but it is important to keep in mind that video games have grown rapidly in how they adapt real life situations and commentaries into entertaining and interactive ways that immerse participants in fictional worlds of depth and intrigue. Whether its novels, movies, or video games people have always tried to produce works that can grip audiences and plunge them in the worlds they create. Although literature will always be the purest means of telling compelling stories, video games are making the appropriate moves to eventually conquer the film industry, which has recently fallen short in engaging audiences, and become the primary means of storytelling for the modern age.

For centuries stories have been used to entertain, inform, and teach audiences about the world around them. From its humble beginnings as simple verbal tellings of tales to the later adaptation into the written word, literature is the genesis of modern storytelling. The act of reading has evolved from a passive experience to an engaging act. “Thanks to the work of theorists like Wolfgang Iser, Stanley Fish and Michael Riffaterre, readers are no longer considered passive recipients of textual meaning but active contributors to the aesthetic process, working with the text to decode signs and then create meaning (Hutcheon ). Through this interaction, readers are enveloped in the stories they read about. In literatures feudal beginnings, writing immersed readers with wondrous tales of god-like heroes, epic battles, and fervent romances. Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey have helped shape the structure of the heroes journey that has, in some shape or form, seeped into nearly every story that followed. Children literature specifically has used parts of the archetypal plot display their stories.

Clinging to the magical elements of the structure has made it easier for authors to make their worlds more acceptable to younger audiences. This characteristic has continued to be a staple of the genre. The easiest element to identify is the magic portal. The enchanted forest from Beauty and the Beast, the rabbit hole from Alice in Wonderland, the wardrobe in The Chronicles of Narnia, and flight to Neverland in Peter Pan all show the supernatural portal that captures young reader’s imaginations to emerge them into the stories. When readers open these books they willingly travel through the portal into the world of imagination. The only problem in the medium of literature is how time consuming the act of reading can be and that not all audiences know how to read. With the development of new technologies, stories ventured into other mediums in order to reach a broader audience.

A picture is worth a thousand words and it requires no education to appreciate it. The advancement of photographs into motion pictures coupled with live performances or plays spawned the beginnings of the film industry. Using Literature as a reference, the film industry established genres to target audiences. These genres have taken and given great influence within our culture.

      There is a notable variation in how children are depicted throughout all of the literature and films covered in the course so far. Although many of the films have changed the characters from children to young adults, they still hold true to the childlike characteristics and mannerisms. This shift when adapting a text is influenced when the intended audience has changed. Characters that are adolescence in the text may not appeal to an audience of older, more mature viewers. Most of the directors chose to keep the key qualities of the original characters in the new, older versions in order to receive the same emotional appeal of the original text while gaining the acceptance of an older audience. Character traits such as innocence, curiosity, ambition, courage, proper manners, and compassion are seen in the main characters in either medium.

     In Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont’s,”Beauty and the Beast” we were introduced to what most of the protagonists in our curriculum consist of. Belle is a young girl of 16, yet she is portrayed as someone with great personal character. She is a loving daughter who braves the threat of death to repay her father’s debt to the beast. While in the Beast’s castle, Belle shows compassion and empathy for the creature, while staying true to her integrity to be honest with her feelings towards her captor. The Disney adaptation keeps all of these characteristics, but they also make some changes that give the audience a different interpret of the character. The animated film portrays Belle as a very ambitious and curious young woman. They give her obstacles, such as subordinate gender roles and social standing. Belle becomes more than just the ideal child that is rewarded for her character. She is transformed into a women fighting against the odds who, through her curious and ambitious manner, earns the happy ending that little girls dream of. Belle models many of the characteristics that can be seen in other works.

     Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland also has a female protagonist that exhibits the familiar mannerisms of curiosity and proper etiquette. From the beginning of the novel Alice’s curiosity causes her to give chase to the white rabbit, which leads to wonderland. Later in the novel when Alice encounters the Caterpillar, she is challenged with the proper language and etiquette that has become a staple characteristic of many of the protagonist in our curriculum. The difference here is that instead of rewarding proper etiquette, it pokes fun at the lessons given to children of the time. This abstract and ridiculous portrayal of Carroll’s original characters is changed to one more structured in Tim Burton’s adaptation. Burton’s portrayal of Alice is a drastic change from the little girl of the original. Much like Belle, Alice is much older and has changed from a confused and aimlessly wandering girl, to a young woman, fulfilling the destiny of becoming a Hero to the oppressed inhabitants of Underland. Burton has given the character more purpose than Carroll originally intended. I would have found this transformation hard to accept if Alice stayed the bewildered child of the novel. Some of the other child characters are also given great purpose within their stories.

     In J.M. Barrie’s, Peter Pan Wendy Darling is given purpose through taking care of her brothers and eventually The Lost Boys. Wendy possesses many characteristics not seen in children. Her mannerisms are of a higher class of society, but her curiosity and naivety mirror that of the other girls in our readings and their film adaptations. Wendy easily assumes the role of mother to the male characters of her story, but it is more like what a child would think being a parent consists of. There is a distinct difference in how Wendy is depicted in the novel and P. J Hogan’s film adaptation. Although she is a love interest to Peter in both mediums, there is an odd relationship between her and Captain James Hook that is not present in the novel. This somewhat romantic relationship changes the interpretation of the character by the audience. Wendy is placed in a role that would generally be placed upon much older. In most of the stories, the protagonists hold the characteristics of both children and adults.

     It is unclear if this change if the changes of making the child protagonists into young adults was to appeal to a broader audience made up of older and younger viewers or because the target audience has drastically matured over the years, but regardless of the changes these characters are portrayed as ones that young people can look up to or emulate in their own lives. These films and books are not only meant as entertainment. They stand as guides to what society holds as positive models for how children should behave.