"Audacious Kids" Provides Model for Analysis

Griswold, Jerry. Audacious Kids: Coming of Age in America's Classic Children's Books. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

When I first looked at the table of contents to Jerry Griswold's Audacious Kids, I was a bit intimidated. Here were 12 books with which I had a passing acquaintance--including only two that I actually remembered reading as a kid. Those two were Little Women and Tom Sawyer. Of the other books Griswold had selected, I had seen movie versions of five of them: The Wizard of Oz, Tarzan, The Prince and the Pauper, Little Women, The Secret Garden, and Pollyanna.

Once I got an understanding of Griswold's model, The Three Lives of the Child-Hero, and saw how he applied it to these children's classics, I became amazed at what was brought forth from each story. So amazed that I decided to hold each of my genre books up to his model to see how well they fit or didn't fit. What I found was that each book could easily fit the model, with only one book having several components fail to match (The School Story). The detailed results of that analysis are found elsewhere in the reading journal.

It was interesting to see how the maturation process is universal, from its oedipal beginnings in Greece to the present. It also was interesting to see how several of these novels, written in the period following the Civil War, paralleled the development of the United States as a nation. Then there was the transition from the fiction that promoted control of spiritual vices like sin to fiction that promoted control of one's emotions.

Throughout the next three terms, I'd like to read a sampling of the books detailed by Griswold and even possibly look at how the books differ from the movies that have been made from them.
If I were to apply what I learned from Griswold's book to my current manuscript, I'd have to make several changes.

First, I would have to better develop Annette's alienation from her parents or remove one or both of her parents from the story in order to place her in an orphaned state. She would have to feel some sense of neglect or poverty, either real in the sense of financial poverty or figurative in the form of a spiritual or emotional absence. Because she comes from a family with six kids, there is some implied poverty in the manuscript. If I further develop the theme of spirituality in the book and Annette's lack of it or her development of it, Annette could experience spiritual poverty early in the book.

There would have to be some memory of the vanished happy times for Annette. I might show this by emphasizing Annette's memories of family life prior to her parents return to Catholicism--a life with fewer rules, prayers, and church. (Yes, this is a stretch, but it would fit the model.) By developing a storyline that shows some conflict between Annette's parents and her grandparents, I could work in the aspect of violation of a marriage prohibition. I could also work in some sort of marriage prohibition as it relates to the Catholic faith. Maybe one of her parents had been married and divorced, which would mean that until he or she applied for and received an annulment, the family would have been estranged from the Church.

The journey could be the various activities that Annette will go to apart from her parents and in the company of boys as opposed to being an actual trip. These activities, like the football game and the dance, and Annette's experiences at them would be part of Annette's journey to maturity.

The second life portion of Griswold's model would have to be better developed in my manuscript. The great outdoors might be the football game and the big house could be the school or school gymnasium where the dance will be held. I would definitely have to develop a second family situation for Annette where she receives the nurturing, advice, etc. that she isn't receiving at home. As part of that development, I'd have to work in the surrogate parents being of a different social rank.

The same-sex antagonist or antagonists in the manuscript might be the older girls who are also interested in Rick Riley taking them to the dance. The opposite-sex helpers or outsiders would have to be identified and developed. Because Joey Hutchins is interested in Annette, he might be one of the opposite-sex helpers, even though Annette doesn't perceive him as such early in the book.

The second half of the book would have to be developed to incorporate the other elements that Griswold proposes: child as savior, issues of identity resolved, recognition ceremonies, accommodation of two lives.

What I learned from Griswold's model is that I could easily use this as a tool to better develop the plot of my manuscript and end up with a book that could be quite interesting on several levels. This model could also be used as a plot-writing exercise, plugging in the events and then threading them along with transitions and details.

I did find that after I got deeper into the book, Griswold was making the same point over-and-over again. It worked for me in that it reinforced the message or the point. It didn't work in that it was repetitive.

In addition to providing the model of The Three Lives of the Child-Hero, Griswold further delineated the books into four other categories: Oedipal Patterns, Manuals of Republicanism, The Theater of Feelings, and The Gospel of Optimism. I think that I could see using the insight gained from Oedipal Patterns, Theater of Feelings, and the Gospel of Optimism more than I would the Manuals of Republicanism. I'm wondering if I would recognize a book being written today, or even books written since 1914, as depicting the current "state" of the United States.

Griswold's model is especially applicable to one of the most popular children's books in today's market: the Harry Potter series. Harry is an orphan who experiences extreme neglect and mistreatment while living with his muggle aunt and uncle. He is disposed royalty in that he is famous for having survived the attack that killed his mother and father. The vanished happy time was before his parents' deaths. The marriage prohibition was also there in that his muggle relatives think less of Harry's parents because they were wizards.

The journey is his trip to Hogwarts, which also fulfills the definition of the Big House and the Great Outdoors. His adoption into a second family is when Harry becomes friends with the Weasleys. The Weasleys are of a different social rank as evidenced by the teasing that Ron and Ginny receive because of the hand-me-down items that they have to use at the school. The same-sex antagonist is Volgamort on a higher level and Malfoy on a lower level. The opposite sex helpers and outsiders abound: Hermione, Ron, Sirius Black, Dumbledore, and Hagrid.

Triumph over the antagonist comes in stages. Harry triumphs over Malfoy by capturing the golden snitch in the Quidditch match. Harry triumphs over Volgamort in stages as the series continues. Harry, the child, emerges as savior at the end of each book when he triumphs over the enemy at hand. With each book, Harry's issues with identity are resolved a bit more as he learns about his parents and role he is playing to overcome the evil wizards.

The recognition ceremonies tend to be a huge banquet at the end of the book where Harry and his friends are recognized in some way. The accommodation of Harry's two lives (one living with a muggle family and the other living as a wizard) continues to grow with each book as Harry continues to choose to use magic and fight the battles he is destined to fight.

Overall, I found Griswold's book very helpful and insightful. I can see myself referring back to his model as I work through other works of children's fiction and my own.