...Gender Roles in Disney Movies It is undeniable that the company that is leading to many generations in their child age is Disney. Who does not remember Mickey and Minnie Mouse?, Who has not thrown a tear when Snow White was poisoned by the evil witch?, Who did not want to ever be in the place of handsome John Smith or Pocahontas herself to revive their love story?, that tender these films, is not it, for example the Little Mermaid and Sebastian the crab song, who does not remember that song from "under the sea”? Has anybody ever wondered why the dwarves themselves did not do the housework when they came home once Snow White "moved in" with them? Or why an Indian as Pocahontas, falls for a murderer of thousands of his countrymen as was John Smith? Or why witches are always bad? Or why women are always in the background in these films (Hubka, Hovdestad & Tonmyr, 2009)? The world of Disney Princess began in 1937 when Snow White entered the world with the Seven Dwarfs (McRobbie, 2008). Since then it continued to add princesses in this world and the most recent movie was Tangled (Rapunzel) in 2011. In the past years, due to the lack of portraying ethnicity, Disney movie makers were highly criticized by their audience. Therefore, Pocahontas appeared in 1995 and after three years in 1998 came Mulan, which created a racially diverse collection of Disney princesses. After a decade The Princess and the Frog was released in 2009. It is important to understand that Disney plays an important...
Words: 1544 - Pages: 7
...Learning English through children's literature Submitted by admin on 18 December, 2002 - 12:00 This article is about the British Council's Young Learners Centre in Paris and how they use children's literature in their teaching of English * The role of stories and storytelling in language teaching * Selecting story books * Pupil responses * Personal and professional development of teachers * Other support materials * Books referred to in this article The role of stories and storytelling in language teaching Once upon a time and not so very long ago in the capital city of France, a teaching centre for little children and not so little children was opened. One little child and then two and then three and then many, many more came along. And so our story unfolds ….. There was a little red hen, a meerkat in trouble, a brown bear, a black elephant and a white elephant, a very hungry caterpillar, Spot the dog, a clever tortoise, a big, roaring, yellow, whiskery lion, a kangaroo from Woolloomooloo and many more. These are just some of the colourful characters from children's literature who have helped children aged 5 - 10 attending holiday classes at the British Council's Young Learners Centre in Paris learn English. These weekly courses take place each afternoon for two hours. The educational value of using stories and the technique of storytelling has always been undisputed throughout the world. Now more and more English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers of...
Words: 9557 - Pages: 39
...Jacquelyn Clark Professor Rodriguez English 1302 December 2, 2014 Literature Paper Teaching young children priceless lessons such as trying new foods can be challenging for many parents. As a God Mother of a very finicky three year old boy, it is implausible to get him to try new meals or snacks. Even after I sought guidance from his mother and mine for ideas, he still refused different refreshments, until I read to him and his kid sister Green Eggs and Ham and several others by Dr. Seuss. It happened by mistake when I realized that many of Dr. Seuss books teach children helpful lessons that most parents are feeble to because he uses fun graphics, rhyme, and entertains their imagination. When you actually analyze these books written by Dr. Seuss, it is not hard to see the main ideas of his stories through the pictures alone. Before I even open the book of Green Eggs and Ham, I see similarities of Amauri and the main character, The Black Hatter. They are wide eyed, with their nose up, and careful not to get too close to anything out of the normal, but yet curious enough to examine the beasty looking cuisine. On page twenty-three, there is a picture of Sam-I-Am enticing “The Black Hatter” into a box with a fox to try the green eggs and ham. This is an ironic metaphor of how parents try to get their children to eat their veggies. “I will let you watch TV with Daddy during dinner if you eat your green beans”. However, the bribe is not enough to get them interested. As I...
Words: 1180 - Pages: 5
...A Perspective on Traditional Literature • Traditional literature can provide a window on cultural beliefs and on the spiritual and psychological qualities that are part of our human nature. The Origin of Folk Literature • Children sometimes identify these stories as “make-believe,” as contrasted with “true” or “stories that could really happen.” • The origin of the myths has fascinated and puzzled folklorists, anthropologists, and psychologists. • Folktales are also of special interest to scholars of narrative theory because of the way the tales are honed by many generations of telling; only the most important elements of the story survive. The Value of Folk Literature for Children • When Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published the first volume of their Household Stories in 1812, they did not intend it for children. • Originally folklore was the literature of the people; stories were told to young and old alike. • Traditional literature is a rightful part of a child’s literature heritage and lays the groundwork for understanding all literature. Folktales • Folktales have been defined as “all forms of narrative, written or oral, which have come to be handed down through the years.” • Questions often arise about which of the available print versions of a tale is the “correct” or authentic text. Types of Folktales • There will be features of these stories that are unique to each culture...
Words: 1828 - Pages: 8
...you need to learn more about. * 4 Create character sketches. Decide how best to do this for your category. You may find it best to produce note cards or pages devoted to details of your characters: physical description, age, likes and dislikes and his or her role in the story. You must also decide the relationships of the characters as they interact with each other. * 5 Create an outline, a step-by-step account of your story. This should include characters, plots, changes in viewpoint, the climax and the ending. 2. Write * 6 Write the beginning. This is often the most difficult part to write but also the most important. The beginning should introduce the characters and give some insight into the plot of your children's book. * 7 Write the middle, or body of the story. Focus on the challenges the characters face and the choices they make. This section is also where the plot really develops and the main story flows. Anything you introduce in the beginning-such as characters, theme and tense-must follow into and be addressed here. Any deviations from beginning to middle must make sense. * 8 Create a climax. Keep your writing strong throughout the entire story and especially into the climax. This is the most exciting point of the story-everything...
Words: 509 - Pages: 3
...Running Head: Children's Literature Task 1 1 Children;s Literature Task 1 Arthur Carroll Western Governor's University Children's Literature Task 1 2 Children's Literature Task 1 It is well known that the world is filled to the brim with a rich history in athletics, education, science, politics, and the arts. What is not common knowledge is the history and richness of children's literature and how it eventually became what it is today. Just like most things, what we now know as children's literature is nothing like what it was originally, it has transformed into something else entirely. Nonetheless, it has as colorful a history as it does some of it's own books. Before children's literature was ever even written down it was given to children in a less tangible way; orally. Prior to publishers like Scholastic and Golden Books existence, the technology to write books was long and tedious, especially if the author was trying to make many copies. So instead, children's literature was told out loud where many could hear it at once and the time factor for preparation was at a minimum. Once authors had better technology to help simplify the process of physical writing, oral literature transformed into written literature. It wasn't always computers or even typewriters though, written used to literally mean written. Like the transformation from mouth to pen, pen evolved to computer...
Words: 882 - Pages: 4
...to Birketveit & Williams (2013), who says several books also are for older pupils and adults. Indeed, they are authentic and an excellent way to use for grammar exercises and language learning. The knowledge promotion under basic skills: “Being able to read in English means the ability to create meaning by reading different types of text. It means reading English language texts to understand, reflect on and acquire insight and knowledge across cultural borders and within specific fields of study. This further involves preparing and working with reading English texts for different reason sand of varying lengths and complexities”. (Kunnskapsdepartementet 2013). For many pupils, the picture book represents the first meeting of authentic literature; also reading stories introduces them to the complex nature of language and helps them learn important language skills. Characteristics of a picture book Picture books are multimodal texts that are composed of one or more meaningful...
Words: 1370 - Pages: 6
...Fairy tales have dominated a majority of my childhood, and even to this day, they are still constantly in my life. When I was young, my mother read and showed me countless stories, and I would always dress up as my favorite princess and reenact the fairy tale. In particular, the lasting impressions fairy tales have on me are mainly through the works of Disney. It is through Disney in which I first learned about fairy tales, as well as witnessed my favorite stories come to life. However, Disney aren’t the originators of the stories. They adapt stories from Charles Perrault, Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen and many more. Despite that, when the term fairy tale is mentioned, almost everyone would immediately associate it to Disney. Thus, it leaves me to ponder as to why Disney films are considered the definitive versions of fairy tales instead of the originals? Nowadays, nearly every child have heard or seen a Disney movie. As child, the topic of Disney always come into discussion. Who’s your favorite character? What’s your favorite film? It has become an imperative element in our lives; it would be considered strange or unusual if we have never seen a Disney film. The films have become a classic, from “Snow White” to “Cinderella” to “Sleeping Beauty,” these will never be out of style. Disney has taken fairy tales written in a much darker context and transformed it into a global sensation. It is indisputable that Disney is much more well known and popular than the first...
Words: 891 - Pages: 4
...Oliver met “Alicia, the girl was accident-prone as he” (758). Updike tried to portray the message to his readers that no matter what type of situation you are in, there is always a person who has it worse than you. I connected with Oliver and Updikes message because when I put the family distress on my shoulders, I looked at the people around school and noticed I wasn’t the only one. Many kids my parents that were divorced, or a parent that isn’t even involved in the children’s lives. I never realized that one of my friends from elementary school never had his mother in the picture. She left him and his sister when they were infants and he is still surviving. Sometimes it’s interesting to stop and look at your surroundings. Many times in life people focus on the small unimportant factors in their lives and take for granted for what they already have. “You should see him now, with their two children, a fair little girl and a dark headed boy” (758). Updike decided to add a happy ending to Oliver. Though it hasn’t happened yet, I hope one day I can be married with a partner who I love immensely and have a child or two. Updike wrote another hidden message that means whatever awful situation an individual is in, there...
Words: 941 - Pages: 4
...According to the reading Harry Potter and the Technology of Magic, Teare indites about the commercialization, and thus, consumerism of children’s literature and how technology has transmuted the way that younger readers interact with the literature. She withal argues that the Harry Potter novels “attempt to make their own ingenious appropriation of the quandary of consumer goods and media” (inquiry. 548). Teare also explicates how children would rather watch movies or play video games than read books in which these mediums derived from. Teare indites, “Books have lost children’s attention … to other media that present narrative fantasies” (inquiry. 548).Teare utilizes the Harry Potter novels to illustrate how the characters face the same challenges we do when it comes to consumerism. A great example is when she mentioned the scene of the Quidditch cup where the children would spend their mazuma on “schlocky souvenirs” (inquiry. 548), then...
Words: 382 - Pages: 2
...In a society unrestricted by double standards and set views about women, the origins of such beliefs might be questionable. It might come as a surprise that these dreams and standards are set and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as children. In source B the author, Andrea Dworkin discusses “Onceuponatime” fairytales which many regard as a model for living and which carry a unique structural pattern. They begin with the famous “Once Upon a time” line and end with the ever so popular “happily ever after.” Many, if not all of these story types are about adventures that involve princes and princesses. There is also the themes of beauty, magic and love. Over the years, fairy tales such as Snow White and Cinderella have managed to become the favorite bedtime stories of children. However, more than that, these stories have managed to become an ingrained model or standard of how men and women are to be perceived in any given society based on their roles. The morals of fairy tales have passed on from generation to generation and the ideas that emanate from them feed our imagination, break the boundaries of time and culture, and teach us so much about what it is to be a man or a woman. More than these however, they provide valuable information as to how we should interact, male or female. According to Dworkin, fairy tales “delineate the roles, interactions, and values which are available to us. They are our childhood models, and their fearful, dreadful...
Words: 1611 - Pages: 7
...carefree to most people, but Jack loved it. Even though Jack had a happy childhood, his happiness came to an end. Tragiclly, his mother sadly passed away after being very ill in 1908. As if that was not bad enough, Jack and Warren had to go away to boarding school in England only a month after their mother's death. Jack hated this school because all of the teachers were too strict. Luckily for Jack, the school closed in the year of 1910. Then it re-opened a year later. This time Jack who hated it a year before, loved it. He successfully learned to speak French,German,and Italian fluently. Even Jacks happy childhood came to an end He ended up being satisfied with his school. From 1943-1954 Jack wrote the wonderfully great children's book...
Words: 324 - Pages: 2
...take them to school and hand them out to his class mates. He liked the reaction of the other students when they read his work and, of course, the added attention he was getting didn’t hurt either. This set off a chain reaction and Stine has been writing ever since. After high school, Stine attended Ohio State University. In 1965, he graduated with a Batchlor of Arts degree in education and began teaching social studies at a New York high school. On June 22, 1969, he married his wife Jane and their son, Matt Daniel Stine, was born on June 7, 1980. During this time, Stine was heavily into writing because that was his job. Stine, who at the time called himself “Jovial Bob Stine”, worked for many years with Nickelodeon and created the children’s commedy magizine Bananas. He soon after began working for the Junior Scholastic Magazine and on books like 101 Silly Monster Jokes and Bozos on Patrol. In 1985 he began writing for the New Yorker....
Words: 884 - Pages: 4
...Walter Dean Myers is an African-American writer of young adult fiction and children’s books. His novels are about teens and the challenges they face. He is known to write tough stories about kids who don't appear in most storybooks," asserted Sue Corbett in a Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service report. "Children whose fathers are absent or jailed. About children who share playgrounds with drug dealers and gangs. About teens struggling to maintain their dignity and living with poverty, violence, and fear." Walter Milton Myers was born August 12, 1937 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Myers lost his mother, Mary Green Myers, at age two, during the birth of his younger sister Imogene. Since his father, George Ambrose, was struggling economically, Walter and two of his sisters were informally adopted by family friends Florence and Herbert Dean. The Dean family moved him to Harlem. His foster mother, a half-Indian and half-German woman, taught Walter to read at the age of four, even though she was barely literate. She read to him every day from True Romance Magazine. He had a speech impediment when he was little, which made it hard for him to communicate with others, but he overcame it by expressing himself through writing short stories and poems. At the age of ten he began to write fiction. His favorite places in his childhood were the basketball courts and the library. The library was a favorite place because he couldn't believe that one of the things he enjoyed most, reading, was...
Words: 1202 - Pages: 5
...In our world today, people happily expose children to fairy tales, but as those kids grow up and discover the hidden messages inside the stories, they are often provoked with different emotions. I recently experienced this when reading Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s “Little Red Cap,” and Charles Perrault’s “Little Red Riding Hood.” Due to my new maturity and knowledge, I was able to interpret the author'sauthors’ pieces of work in new ways. Their strategic use of pathos led me to be overcome with a feeling of worry, disappointment, and frustration. Despite the fact that they both induced me to experience similar emotional responses, I found myself responding more strongly to one than the other. In both fairy tales Red Riding Hood is described as an innocent, sweet, pretty little girl who was appreciated by many people. Likewise, I one day hope to have a daughter of my own who is strong and beautiful in her own way. However, there were parts of these stories that initiated a feeling of worry inside of me for what trials my future daughter could face. The “Little Red Cap” features Red encountering a wolf in the woods on her way to her grandma’s house. When she first meets him, the Grimm brothers inform us that “She did not know what a wicked animal he was, and she was not afraid of him.” Unfortunately, Red’s lack of concern gets the better of her, because after conversing with the wolf, he begins to think to himself, “Now there is a tasty bite for me. Just how are you going to catch...
Words: 1186 - Pages: 5
