Monday, September 15, 2014
Black Beauty
I find it funny that Black Beauty was not written for children, given that it is written from the point of view of a horse. Using non-human protagonists or narrators is something that seems to be associated almost entirely with children's fiction, especially today. You would have a hard time finding an adult book written from the point of view of an animal, but that is very common in children's literature, as well as movies or TV shows. It also seems to be written in a quite simple and easy-to-understand way, similar to the way children's books are written. The chapters are very short and to the point, and the narrative focuses more on plot and the horse's relationship to the other characters more than it does on detail, which makes it easier for children to read and stay interested in. The plot, however, includes some material that might be tough for children to read, and it was in fact not meant specifically for them. I think that contrast is really interesting, and it reminds me of the fairy tales we read: not meant for children, and with material that may seem too violent or inappropriate for children, but largely read and enjoyed by them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNicole,
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way as I read the first half of Black Beauty. It just felt like a children's novel, plain and simple. I believe that not only does the child-like perspective of Black Beauty and the simple language Sewell uses contribute to this, but also the short chapters which each address one topic or event usually wrapped up by the end of the chapter. This style sort of reminded me of TV episodes.
Emily
I've read a number of adult novels from the perspective of animals, but they almost always seem to be dogs. I think these books appeal to children for a number of reasons, including the short chapters and plot driven narrative you mentioned. Children have found animals interesting for centuries, which led John Locke to suggest pictures of animals accompany text for beginning readers. Also, perhaps the language tends to be simpler _because_ they are written from an animal's point of view. We would hardly expect a nonverbal creature to have mental speech as flowery and complex as human speech after all.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Emily as well that the chapter breaks and brevity of the narrative events made Black Beauty feel episodic. Although it wasn't serialized when first released, it seems like it would have been well suited to that kind of publication.
Hey Nicole!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, I began to think of different mediums which used nonhuman characters as protagonists, and the topics they covered. I can think of a horde of children's television shows, for example, that have animals (and even inanimate objects) as narrators or main characters. Two examples come to mind, one more recent, and the other a bit more aged - Adventure Time and Courage the Cowardly Dog. Both are marketed towards kids, have dogs as either main (or supporting-main characters, also leaning towards what Karen pointed out), but deal with topics that can frequently be considered adult in nature. Adventure Time constantly throws out questions about life, death, dreams, responsibility, etc., while Courage had to contend with duty to family, facing his (often horrifying) fears, and sometimes even reality itself. And, while these problems might fly over some viewers' heads, those who catch the drift can see how someone works through situations they might be experiencing, without having an existential crisis themselves.
(I don't know why I always end up relating novels to film/television media, but somehow I do. Forgive me!)