Symbols and Archetypesin Children’s Literature

by Alleen Nilsenand Don Nilsen

Children’s literature is a good place to look for symbols and archetypes that are important to a culture because:

1. Authors and artists use simple concepts so children will understand them.

2. In old folktales and rhymes, the “wisdom” of the ages has been collected, condensed, and polished for a new generation.

3. The “classics” of children’s literature are shared by parents, teachers, and various media so that nearly all children are “taught” the symbols of their culture.

4. Creators often rely on common objects, especially personified animals, that fascinate children.

Here is a parade of animal-related sayings from a 1969 New Yorker cartoon by Lee Lorenz

• LORD LOVE A DUCK• A BEAR FOR PUNISHMENT

• I’LL BE A MONKEY’S UNCLE• IN A PIG’S EYE• THE CAT’S PAJAMAS

• SEE YOU LATER, ALLIGATOR• IT’S A DOG’S LIFE• DRUNK AS A SKUNK• YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO

WATER, BUT YOU CAN’T MAKE HIM DRINK

• SNUG AS A BUG IN A RUG

Advertisers, broadcasters, cartoonists, politicians and bloggers often rely on these exaggerated characters:

• CHICKEN LITTLE to represent alarmists.• PINOCCHIO to stand in for liars.• THE BIG BAD WOLF to warn us of danger.• GOLDILOCKS to point to the challenge of

finding things that are “just right.” • THE FROG PRINCE to give hope to

discouraged women of all ages.

Many symbols don’t match real life as in this Hershey “Care Bear” delivering a candy kiss.

OTHER IMAGINARY BEARS IN CHILDREN’S LIVES:• Teddy bears• Goldilocks and the Three

Bears• Getting “a Bear Hug.”• Some children even

think that going “Bare Naked” is dressing like a bear.

Because of the lovable CURIOUS GEORGE in H. A. Rey’s picture books

• Children know what monkey bars are for,

• And they know what the teacher means when she says, “No monkey business !” or “Stop monkeying around!”

There’s something cheerful about a smiling Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall, but still he portends disaster.

• Our emotions are stretched in both directions.

• In cartoons, after his fall, there is usually a sympathetic crowd trying to put him back together.

• But a surprising cartoon in 2009 showed him being shunned by a donkey and two wizard-like characters shouting “Salmonella!”

This New Yorker cartoon is more typical.

• In hinting to a Wall Street banker that the stock market is about to crash.

• The “Humpty Dumpty” nursery rhyme is so famous that even without the image, the phrase “And all the King’s men…” delivers a warning. Our ASU library has over 100 books that include these words in their titles.

Letters of the alphabet can take on symbolic meanings as when people talk about learning the ABC’s as in this Steve Benson

cartoon about Arizona’s former school Supt.

Here is another example of letters of the alphabet taking on extra meanings.

• A TV commercial for Geico shows an old farmer in a spelling bee.

• He is supposed to spell COW.

• He almost gets it right, but then is expelled when he confidently adds “E-I-E-I-O.”

Dorothy and her friends from The Wizard of Oz are popular cartoon characters as shown in this 2014 Steve Benson cartoon in the Arizona Republic.

Over the years, the same characters are alluded to with totally different messages.

• In the 1980s, AZ Public Service used Dorothy and her friends dancing up the yellow brick road with the message, “We’re on our way to more efficient fuel alternatives.”

• In a recent cartoon, The Wicked Witch is saying “Forget the slippers. I want the Tin Man’s oil.”

• In another cartoon, Dorothy and friends have sold the Tin Man to a recycling center in exchange for bus fare back to Kansas.

“There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children

She didn’t know what to do.”• Actually, we all live in our

shoes, but just not as interpreted in the old nursery rhyme.

• In the 1980s, she was featured in a cheerful advertising campaign for Hawaiian punch, which was such a bargain she could afford it for her whole family.

But cartoons in 2012 had different messages fitting with changes in the real estate market.

• One drawing showed the shoe all boarded up with a “FORECLOSURE” sign on it.

• In another one, a real estate broker is standing in front of the shoe and saying “It looked kinda dumpty, but appraised at a million-two.”

Peter Pan from Sir James Barrie’s play of the same name Peter Pan.

• Lives without growing older in a never-never land.

• His name is now in dictionaries to refer to an adult who does not want to grow up, or who hangs on to adolescent interests and attitudes.

IN CONCLUSION:

IN SMALL GROUPS, LOOK AT THE BOOKS WE HAVE BROUGHT TO CLASS AND MAKE SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE SYMBOLS IN THEM.

Here are some ideas to think about. Others are suggested on a paper in each book.

• Color symbolism,• Exaggerated characters,• Events readers can relate to, and • Evidence of a dual audience, i.e. the adult who is

reading and the child who is listening.• Is the book teaching stereotypes?• How are stereotypes a kind of symbolism?