‘Shivering in the Midst of Chaos’

Abstract

In The Greengage Summer, Cecil Grey, the narrator says,

We had, too, been chiefly with girls and women, and had been ruled by Mother, who had made a private child’s world for us; now suddenly we were surrounded by a public and almost rude life …¹

Her remark might well be representative of the child in the twentieth century looking back at a previous existence. The individual’s quest for being would be set no longer in those enchanted places — daisy fields and secret gardens — but in an exposed context of ‘death, war, [and] … psychological crises’.² What this reflected was a radical shift in assumptions governing literature for children. The philosophy behind nineteenth-century texts for children was a protective one, in favour of sheltering the child as far as possible from things that would make unhappy reading, in the belief that it was during the ‘blessed season of unconsciousness and delight’ that ‘strength for the future contest’³ was being absorbed, and that shielding the young from unhappiness was necessary in order to cultivate cheerfulness, in which sunny climate character and moral strength were most likely to develop. Louisa M. Alcott noted this general attitude in Jack and Jill, writing, ‘It is often said that there should be no death or grief in children’s stories.

All the previous ages … had something we could take for granted … We can be sure of nothing; our civilization is threatened … In our present confusion, our only hope is to be scrupulously honest with ourselves … Most of us have ceased to believe, except provisionally, in truths.

Bonamy Dobrée

I can see that in such an increasingly threatened and frightening world as ours now is, children, probably more than ever before, need to be given real values and sustaining ideas and memories that they can hold on to and cherish.

Joan Aiken