OUIL401 ESSAY

“Discuss the role that Illustration can play during periods of political and/or social upheaval."

Picture books for children typically consist of a combination of pictures and words in a printed book format. Illustrations are used in children’s picture books to help young readers to understand the discourse; the illustrations act as visual cues to aid comprehension. These images often have the secondary purpose to entertain. Bright and attractive pictures are a common convention of children’s products and can be used to interest or excite the audience.

By looking at and reading these books, children learn: about lexis, symbols, characters, stories, emotions, morals and social values.

Books can carry information about the real world (Siegal, 2008) and introduce infants to the expectations of society. Sometimes these ideologies are explicit, but Lynley (2014) argues that all products contain ideological motives and underlying pragmatics ‘even picture books aimed at very young children can be ideologically charged. Sometimes ideology is transparent, because we’re bathed in it and therefore don’t even see it.’

As the intended demographic are young and impressionable, such products may act as a form of social control or propaganda, producing content that would influence the views of children for the benefit of the author, publisher, or government. Children’s books could be used to manipulate and control the views of readers, particularly during periods of political and social upheaval. Focusing on British picture books produced during and after the Second World War (1940’s – 1960’s) aimed at children, this essay will explore how picture books functioned to defend or turn against political ideologies and the way in which they attempted to reconstruct childhood.

On the 1st September 1939, over a million children were sent to live with strangers in the countryside in a Governmental appeal to keep children safe, known as ‘Operation Pied Piper’.

Children evacuated during WWII would have to adjust to a completely different way of life. Since toy factories had to accommodate for the war’s demand on gun production and airplane parts (BBC, 2014), children would play with makeshift toys and read books to pass the time in the countryside.

Picture books functioned to entertain and occupy the children at this time of terror. While England was under attack, children’s books helped readers to escape into a fantasy world or encouraged children to grow up and defend their land.

A survey by Jean Wood Garrison (1981) showed that over 300 books were published in England during WWI and WWII that featured war-­‐related subjects or themes. Children in WWII who read books involving war-­‐related subjects would have shared knowledge with the author and be able to generalize the book to their own circumstances. Identifying with characters is listed by Nodelman & Reime (2003) as one of the primary pleasures of reading, as well as reflecting on connections between one’s life and the story.

Several children’s stories written during this period reflected the situational context of the readers.

Books like ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ by C.S. Lewis (1950) and ‘A Bear Called Paddington’ by Michael Bond (1958) are just a few examples of story books that feature children

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who have been evacuated from their home city to live somewhere safer. Children at the time could relate to these characters and may have felt comforted by the familiarity of the subject.

Authors and illustrators worked together to create stories and characters that would support children at this difficult time, such as Michael Bond and Peggy Fortnum, who together made the lovable and world-­‐renowned bear, Paddington.

In an interview with the BBC (2012), Bond discussed his inspiration for Paddington ‘When I was small, I had memories of children being evacuated from London with a label around their necks and all their possessions in a suitcase, and this became part of Paddington as well’. Like the WWII evacuees, Paddington was living far from his home of Peru and found peace in a new environment with a friendly family. Fortnum paid special attention to making this bear appear soft and attractive for young readers, which could later be transformed into toy merchandise for children to own.

Michael Bond (2012) intended to make a bear that would comfort readers going through the same experience: ‘They all had a label round their neck with their name and address on and a little case or package containing all their treasured possessions. So Paddington, in a sense, was a refugee, and I do think that there’s no sadder sight than refugees.’

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 2.

The aesthetic of the illustrations creates the tone of the story. Fortnum’s approach to drawing the original Paddington character is non-­‐representational and cartoon-­‐like in form. Paddington does not look like a real bear because that would be too frightening for the intended audience and would not suit the discourse, being a light-­‐hearted adventure story. Instead, Fortnum has adopted a softer and friendlier face that suits Bond’s tone of voice in the children’s story.

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The drawings of Paddington have been created using black pen and ink, resulting in a scratchy, fast energy that reflects Paddington’s personality and his scruffy appearance as a refugee. Fortnum may have chosen to draw Paddington in this way to introduce a sympathetic appeal for the poor character, encouraging readers to help him as a result of this mediating empathic state (Kenrick, 1984).

The book presents a traditional family structure that would have been expected at the time: a father, a mother and two children. The roles are relevant to the context of production since males would be the breadwinners and females housewives. Although this could be interpreted as an exclusive and stereotypical representation, Bond and Fortnum were drawing on the typical family of the time with the Brown family. They are a textbook London family that readers could recognize as a familiar structure.

‘If you were born in the 1950s it is very likely that your mother did not work outside the home, but instead concentrated on providing a safe and cosy environment for the family.

Only your father would have gone out to work to provide an income for your family.’

(Barrow, 2013)

Despite restrictions on printing and paper stock due to rationing and the huge pressure for books to be profitable, this period actually had a beneficial impact on the illustration industry. A rise in readership and advancements in quality is discussed by Powers (2003): 'Against this backdrop of war, national emergency, and social upheaval it is surprising to discover that the 1940s was a decade that saw a transformation in the quality of children’s book publishing and that saw the emergence, for the first time, of coloured picture books for a mass-­‐market readership amongst children.’

Another famous author from this era is Enid Blyton, whose most prevalent works include: ‘The Secret Seven’ (1949), ‘Noddy Goes to Toyland’ (1949) and ‘Five on a Treasure Island (1942). Blyton’s legacy is continually deliberated. Her books are still widely popular but they also continue to spark debates as critics call Blyton an elitist, xenophobic, racist and sexist. ‘There is a faint but unattractive touch of old-­‐fashioned xenophobia in the author's attitude to the thieves; they are 'foreign' (though one of them is called Harry and they generally talk in English) and this seems to be regarded as sufficient to explain their criminality’, wrote Hartnoll (2005).

Blyton’s political views were outdated. Some of her books, characters, language and illustrations are classed as controversial. Blyton used the term ‘Golliwog’ her picture book ‘Here Comes Noddy Again’ in 1951 to describe the villainous black ragdoll characters. In this story, the Golliwogs are nasty and mischievous characters, a stereotype that is now interpreted as offensive towards people with dark skin. The noun ‘Golliwog’ is now considered racist and has been removed from recent revisions of the texts, as well as the illustrations of the black rag dolls.

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Many Blyton fans support her original work, such as Tony Summerfield (2008) ‘I can understand if something is offensive. Certain words that were acceptable in the 40s are not acceptable now. But we don't want to ruin the charm of something that was written in a particular setting’ and Sophie Morris (2008) ‘She was writing books for children (she has said herself she was not interested in the view of any critic over the age of 12) and never intended her tales to be probed for their realism or examined as the cultural artefacts of their era’.

The opinion of Morris can be compared to that of Peter Hunt (2014), who said that children’s picture books are not innocent and should be analysed.

‘One of the fundamental changes in critical thinking and teaching over the past twenty years has been the acceptance that ideology is not a separate concept ‘carried by’ texts, but that all texts are inevitably infused by ideology. This has been particularly difficult to accept in the world of children’s literature, which is still widely assumed to be ‘innocent’ of concerns of gender, race, power, and so on — or to carry transparently manipulative messages.’

FIGURE 3.

In ‘Breaking the Magic Spell’, Jack Zipes (2002) discusses the moral basis of storytelling: 'The tales are reflections of the social order in a given historical epoch, and, as such, they symbolize the aspirations, needs, dreams and wishes of common people in a tribe, community, or society, either affirming the dominant social values and norms or revealing the necessity to change them'.

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This is evident in the books discussed in this essay from WWII; the values and themes within the narratives were relevant for the time. The books about evacuation supported the government’s suggestion to move children away and the stories reflect the social values of the readers in adventure and childish play. By having shared values with the readers, the author creates a close tenor with the audience. The picture books conform to the social codes of the time because they were commissioned to do so. In order to write a book that would be approved and successful, they need to be appropriate for the children, parents and bookshops.

An opposing view comes from Summerfield and Peniston-­‐Bird (2007), who argued that that stories for children ‘(obviously) did not have the intention of influencing their readers’ views of government policy’. The impact of biased content in children’s books is that the readers accept the author’s views as the truth because they come from a figure of authority. Infants read these stories about the heroic efforts of war and they may have felt obliged to contribute to the effort. This method of subversion could be used to encourage productive behavior, but it might still be considered immoral. Children’s stories often act as cautionary tales or contain moral values, teaching children what is right and what is wrong. During the war, these stories would also use the concept of good and evil to describe the opposing sides of the war, with Hitler being the ultimate evil.

Noam Chomsky (1997) investigated manipulation of the media, revealing the distraction techniques used by organizations that are implemented during times of political upheaval, leaving the public unaware of the real social problems going on in the world. Chomsky’s theory of distraction in the media was originally written in relation to newspapers and television, not children’s books, but a similar process occurred in this case. Editing and filtering the truth, these products show only glimpses of what is actually happening and unrelated narratives to keep away prying eyes. It’s difficult to decide whether children should be told the entire truth at such an early age, or whether they should be kept in cotton wool.

Dr Paul Rennie (2005) also commented on propaganda in children’s books during this period 'the social and political elites have, whenever required, promoted their ideals, power and self-­‐interest through propaganda.' In agreement with Chomsky, Rennie has highlighted the issue that it is the ‘elites’ who are in control of all the products and information we consume. This argument states that we only read what ‘they’ want us to read.

The period of social upheaval is described by another author, Powers (2003) as 'a period of high cultural aspirations, while the pressures of commerce were moderated by the presence of cultural elites who had powerful controls over the publishing and distribution of children's books.' With all of the children’s books being published and distributed by elites, the public readers are left at their mercy. Readers are given no alternative but to follow the direction of the elites.

The optimism in these books could also be interpreted as propaganda because they glorify evacuation, giving a representation which is not necessarily true and may have been adopted to force these views upon the reader for parents and children to believe in. Picture books are written

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and illustrated by adults who can’t give a completely valid account of conflict from a child’s perspective, since they did not experience it.

The book ‘Hare Joins the Home Guard’ (1942) by Alison Uttley is an example of a children’s picture book with a positive attitude towards war, which portrays the heroic defense through anthropomorphic characters. It promotes only one side of the battle and could be interpreted as patriotism for young readers.

FIGURE 4.

The illustrations are charming and sweet, with soft watercolours painting an idyllic land for these characters to protect as part of the home guard. The use of personified animals is a common convention of children’s fiction, which helps to make characters recognizable and appealing to young readers who are enamored by the concept of fluffy, ‘cute’ things, according to the principle of Kinderschema, in which humans favour characters with rounded, baby features (Lorenz, 1971).

Hare and his rabbit companions featured in several of Uttley’s short stories and children would follow this group throughout the series. Hare, like many characters before him, and countless ones since, had been commercialized to make money from any current themes and trends.

Representations of gender and roles are relevant to the time period, with the male character (Hare) dressed as a guard and standing in the centre of the cover as the protagonist of the story, whilst the female characters are suited to more domestic roles and are dwarfed by the height of Hare.

According to Social Learning Theory (Bandura et al, 1977), children need heroes and role models to

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guide desired behavior, especially with their parents separated from them at this time. The lack of female heroines in children’s books at the time may have prevented girls from aspiring to do anything other than to support the men.

The female characters are wearing dresses, conforming to a dominant social code at the time, which has since been outdated. The two female animals are also much smaller in size and are placed to the sides of Hare, who is in central focus. The connotations of this composition are that the women are counterparts of the men and that women aren’t as important. Women are not completely ignored on this cover -­‐ they even outnumber the males – and their representations are not offensive, so perhaps this criticism isn’t necessary. Uttley might have even considered the balance of equality at the time and chose to use two females for this very reason. The size of the animals may not matter, but it does suggest some imbalance in the hierarchy.

The typeface that Uttley has used is a serif font, which is often avoided in children’s books because it is formal and difficult to read. The intention of using this font might have been to register a formal tone or a serious nature for this book. The choice of typography might have been to suit the book’s subject of defense and honor this national service. The dominant colour scheme used on the front cover consists of blue, red and white. These three colours make up the Union Jack flag. Uttley’s use of colours might be a code for the patriotic basis of her book. This book supports British work during the war.

For these reasons, ‘Hare Joins the Home Guard’ might have encouraged children to take part in the war effort in whatever way they could. An alternative argument would be that this book is merely trying to portray play. Hare wears a frying pan on his head, which could suggest that the animals are merely playing at being adults and therefore this is a harmless activity. The animals’ attire and accessories could also describe the make-­‐do-­‐and mend attitude during WWII, where materials were reused to overcome the clothing ration (British Library, 1943).

Alan Powers (2003) described how the children’s book industry changed after WWII, 'The baby boom at the end of the Second World War was combined with a new seriousness in all aspects of child-­‐ rearing and education, in a determined effort to put the disruptions of the war as firmly into the past as possible'. Children’s books moved from being a desperate attempt to forget about the war to a retrospective celebration of British efforts. As post-­‐war Britain recovered from the political and social hardships of WWII, children were reintroduced to their families and homes in the city.

Children’s books had to adapt again to make illustrations that could be enjoyed by parents and children in shared reading.

This discussion is entirely relevant today, as periods of social and political upheaval are inevitable. As a society, we have to decide how to tackle the issue. The worlds created by picture books can construct ideals and change perspectives. Children continue to read books and enjoy illustrated characters, despite the growing trend for digital media and interactive technology. Children will

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always exist and children’s books need to be aware of the impact that they can have on the minds of these new generations.

Overall, I believe that children’s books published during the Second World War did act as a form of propaganda. I think that picture books are very powerful and that they can carry the author’s personal opinions. I also believe that the children of WWII were extremely vulnerable. Whether the books illustrated a utopian world or a realistic perspective of the war, they all attempted to make the readers feel something, one way or another. The opinions that children gain from reading are not their own; children’s books controlled the minds of the children in WWII.

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Bibliography Books

BLYTON, E. (1942) ‘Five on a Treasure Island’ London, Hodder and Stoughton.

BLYTON, E. (1949) ‘Noddy Goes to Toyland’, London, Sampson Low. BLYTON, E. (1949) ‘The Secret Seven’, Leicester, Brockhampton Press.

BLYTON, E. (1951) ‘Here Comes Noddy Again’, London, Sampson Low. BOND, M. (1958) ‘A Bear Called Paddington’, Norwich, William Collins Sons & Co. BRUNER, J. (1990) ‘Acts of Meaning’, Harvard, Harvard University Press.

CHOMSKY, N. (1997) ‘Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda’, New York, Seven Stories Press.

CHOMSKY, N. (2002) ‘Chomsky on Democracy and Education’, Abingdon, Routledge.

EDWARDS, O. (2007) ‘British Children’s Fiction in the Second World War’, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.

GARRISON, J. (1981) ‘A Comparison of Selected Factors in Children's Realistic Fiction Having War-­‐ Related Plots Published in England and the United States during World Wars I and II’, Philadelphia, Temple University.

HOLINDALE, P. (1988) ‘Ideology And The Children’s Book’, Woodchester, Thimble Press.

HUNT, P. (1997) ‘An Introduction to Children’s Literature’, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

KOZULIN, A. (2003) ‘Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context’, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

KÜMMERLING-­‐MEIBAUER, B., MEIBAUER, J., NACHTIGÄLLER, K. and ROHLFING, K. (eds) (2015) ‘Learning from Picture books: Perspectives from Child Development and Literacy Studies’, London, Routledge.

LEWIS, C. (1950) ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’, London, Geoffrey Bles.

LORENZ, K. (1971) ‘Studies in Animal and Human Behaviour’, Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

NODELMAN, P. (1989) ‘Words About Pictures’, Georgia, The University of Georgia Press.

NODELMAN, P. and REIME, M. (2003) ‘The Pleasure of Children’s Literature’, Boston, Allyn and Bacon.

ORVIG, M. (1967) ‘War in Books for Young People’, Bookbird 5, no.2:3-­‐16.

PENISTON-­‐BIRD, C. and SUMMERFIELD, P. (2007) ‘Contesting Home Defense: Men, Women, and the Home Guard in the Second World War’, Manchester, Manchester University Press.

POLLOCK, M. (1946) ‘The Children of Kidillin’, London, George Newnes.

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POWERS, A. (2003) ‘Children's Book Covers’, London, Mitchell Beazley.

SIEGAL, M. (2008) ‘Marvelous Minds: The Discovery of What Children Know’, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

SUGGATE, S. and REESE, E. (eds) (2012) ‘Contemporary Debates in Childhood Education and Development’, Oxon, Routledge.

UTTLEY, A. (1942) ‘Hare Joins the Home Guard’, London, Collins.

ZIPES, J. (2002) ‘Breaking the Magic Spell’, Lexington, The University Press of Kentucky.

ZIPES, J. (2012) [1957] ‘Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion’, Abingdon, Routledge.

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DAILY MAIL, 2009. How the Golliwog Went from Innocent Children’s Hero to Symbol of Bitter Controversy [Online] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-­‐1136016/How-­‐golliwog-­‐ went-­‐innocent-­‐childrens-­‐hero-­‐symbol-­‐bitter-­‐controversy.html [Accessed: April 2016] FORSYTH, 2013. Enid Blyton, Shoddy Noddy and the Infamous Five [Online] Available at: http://www.kateforsyth.com.au/articles/enid-­‐blyton2 [Accessed: January 2016] FRONTIERS, 2015. An Open Book: What and How Young Children Learn from Picture and Story Books [Online] Available at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01719/full [Accessed: February 2016] HIGH BEAM, 2005. Operation Pied Piper [Online] Available at: https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-­‐ 129902755.html [Accessed: March 2016] HISTORY LEARNING SITE, 2015. Children and World War Two [Online] Available at: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-­‐war-­‐two/children-­‐and-­‐world-­‐war-­‐two/ [Accessed: January 2016] IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, 2005. The Children’s War [Online] Available at: http://archive.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/50/children/Exhibition/play.htm [Accessed: November 2015] INDEPENDENT, 2008. The Big Question: Should Enid Blyton be hailed as the best writer for children?

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THE TELEGRAPH, 2005. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1503430/Publisher-­‐rejected-­‐ Blyton-­‐tale-­‐for-­‐being-­‐xenophobic.html YALE, 2013. World War II As Seen Through Children’s Literature [Online] Available at: http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1997/2/97.02.03.x.html [Accessed: November 2015]

Images FIGURE 1 & 2 -­‐ Illustrations by Peggy Fortnum for ‘A Bear Called Paddington’ (1958) by Michael Bond FIGURE 3 -­‐ Pages from ‘Here Comes Noddy Again’ (1951) by Enid Blyton FIGURE 4 -­‐ Cover from ‘Hare Joins the Home Guard’ (1942) by Alison Uttley

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