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To Create a Secure and Better World. -
Renée Fuller, Ph.D. Copyright © Renée Fuller, 1999 |
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Donna looked upset. It was quite unexpected.
I had asked her to tell me about the TV movie she had seen the night before as part of the testing procedure to find out how well she could narrate a story. Donna had done exceptionally well, describing the gangster plot that ended with the cute gangster winning the girl and "coming out all right." From her retelling I gathered that the film was intended to be funny. But ten-year old Donna did not think it funny. She was obviously disturbed by the film. I was curious to find out why. "You didn't like the movie, did you?" Donna squirmed in her chair. "What was it about that movie that bothered you?" "It was all right." She squirmed some more, looked uncomfortable and scratched her arm. Then becoming aware of what she was doing stopped. "It was just..." She couldn't find the words. Trying to help her find the words I asked, "There was something wrong with that movie, wasn't there?" But Donna continued to have trouble expressing what was wrong. So I asked. "Would you like to fix what was wrong? You can change things. Would you like to rewrite the movie?" Gradually at first, Donna found the words. Where before, she had drawn a blank, she was now able to express what had upset her. It was the ending of the movie. Her "rewrite" centered on the final episode. In Donna's version all the bad guys got what she considered were their just deserts. The cute gangster did not get the girl, but landed in jail with the rest of his gangster pals. And the humor about doing dangerous or mean things was gone. Did Donna know why she preferred the moralistic ending? Not so she could explain. But having seen how upset she had been during her original narration, I hazarded a guess. "Is your ending less scary than the one in the TV movie?" She looked puzzled for a moment, then her eyes lit up as she responded with a vigorous "Yea, yea," giving me a happy smile for having understood. Gradually she described in more detail what she had found so disturbing about the film. As a modern ten-year old Donna had grasped the movie's humorous intent. And it was its humorous intent that she had found especially loathsome. Why should harming other people be funny? The notion that someone would get away with crime, that crime wasn't all that serious, frightened and repelled her. It meant that it would be all right if someone hurt her or her parents. According to the movie, it might even be funny. Surprising as it may be to some producers of modern pop culture, Donna's reaction was not that unusual. I have seen her reaction many times since. And not just with little girls. Even the most aggressive young males share her concern and fears. Nor does coming from the inner city mitigate the apprehension and fear. To the contrary. Inner city youngsters are even more concerned that crime can pay, and that criminals can get away with the most horrendous of crimes. Having seen the reality of violence first hand, inner city youngsters do not find portrayals of crime and brutality the least bit funny. As for adolescents, swaggering into X-rated or horror movies in a proud pretense of being grown-up, when I asked their reaction to a brutal or humorous film involving violence they often responded with some version of a lofty "I can take it." That answer is in itself a give-away that the youngsters had to steal themselves - because what they had seen was far from easy to take. Fear, albeit an important component in what youngsters find so disturbing with some of our pop culture, is not the only upsetting component. Much more than simple fear is involved in the manifestations of discomfort. There is a profound attempt to understand the meaning and implications of good and evil during childhood. More than any other time, childhood is when we are preoccupied with what psychologists call moral stories. All children, even the acting-out youngsters, want their stories to be about the good guys winning against the various manifestations of evil. These have always been childhood's favorite narratives. When I started to write the Ball-Stick-Bird books I learned first hand the insatiable appetite for tales dealing with the good guys vanquishing various aspects of evil. Even after their reading lessons, many of our students fantasized that no real harm could come to them or their families because Vad of Mars would come to the rescue. In this fantasy world the youngster is secure. And for a world to be secure it has to be one where crime and cruelty get vanquished. We seem to understand this so well in childhood. But there is more, much more, involved in our fascination with tales of good and evil. These childhood narratives frequently serve as a form of "how to" stories for children. In allegorical form they can be important lessons in "how to" behave, what are the requirements for becoming a good person, and sometimes "how to" create a better and therefore a more secure world. Our older students explained that the reason they wanted me to write more about Vad of Mars rescuing the planets from the evil Vooroos was that they learned from these stories. And that that was the reason why the book, THE LITTLE VOOROO WHO DID NOT UNDERSTAND HE WAS BORN TO BE BAD, in which the little villain by learning to help others achieves redemption, was a special favorite. |
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Children want to learn about the dimensions of evil within the security of make believe - a make believe that, contrary to the movie that Donna found so upsetting, is blatantly make believe. They want to learn what is hurtful and what is not; what are the outcomes of harmful behavior as well as the appropriate punishment and the possibilities of redemption. It may come as a surprise to some of our purveyors of pop culture that children want to learn how to become good, and therefore desirable, people. Like learning to walk, the fantasy expeditions into tales about good and evil teach children how to navigate the real world of human interaction. And frequently they teach them to glimpse a future we hope will be.
Childhood's preoccupation with stories of good and evil, aside from arising out of a need for security, aside from teaching the youngsters how to behave, also helps establish their self concept. This preoccupation determines their sense of who they are. It helps create their identity. Already by the age of three our opinion of who we are is influenced by our feelings of whether we are trying to be a good person, and to what extent we are succeeding in this most important endeavor. Youngsters may be pretty, or smart, or live in a big house, but all these are superficial manifestations compared to their own evaluation of the person they are attempting to become. And attempting to become a good person, with all the responsibility this implies, already gives children a powerful realization of who they are. Sensing that you are trying to be an honorable and responsible individual surpasses even the greatest material advantages. Throughout the ages, parents, remembering the influence stories of good and evil, tales of virtue, had on them when they were children, in turn tell these parables to their own children. These childhood fables about exemplary heroines and heroes battling depraved villains are part of our human heritage. They are powerful tools in helping us teach children to become responsible adults who want to create a secure and better world. |
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