Heroines of Faith and Courage (and Conclusion)

Chapter 6 and Conclusion of Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian.

In chapter 6, Guroian discusses two "sisters in faith and courage." They are Irene from The Princess and the Goblin, and Narnia's Lucy. I won't go into much of that - it seems obvious to me. But I want to share a few quotes.

To George MacDonald (who wrote The Princess and the Goblin), "Imagination is a power of discovery, not a power to create. The latter capacity he reserved to God alone. Nor did MacDonald equate imagination with mere fancy...Rather, for him, imagination is a power of perception, a light that illuminates the mystery that is hidden beneath visible reality: it is a power to help 'see' into the very nature of things. Reason alone, MacDonald argued, is not able to recognize mystery or grasp the moral quiddity of the world. As the sensible mind needs eyes to see, so reason needs the imagination in order to behold mystery and to perceive the true quality of things. Imagination takes reason to the threshold of mystery and moral truth and reveals them as such." I think that about sums it up. :)

Why should children read more than sensible, sanitized, true-to-life books? Guroian says that MacDonald felt strongly that children's books should reveal a glimpse of more. "Why shouldn't children's stories arouse deep questionings about the nature of good and evil, about death and what comes after, and about faith and doubt? Do we not risk doing much greater harm to our children if we deny them the opportunities and the possibilities to work through their fears, inquire into the meaning of their loves, and follow the lead of questions about the human lot that begin to percolate to consciousness quite early in life?" I think that sums it up, too. Maybe I should read more George MacDonald. :)

MacDonald wrote about princesses because, he said, "every little girl is a princess" and child of the King. In The Princess and the Goblin, MacDonald "shows us how courage gets joined with the theological virtues, especially faith and love." There's lots more - I haven't even mentioned Irene, who is the focus of this half of the chapter.

I won't go into Lucy, either. No doubt she's heroic and inspiring, and Guroian links things that happen to her with words like eucharist, baptism, liturgical formula. I'm so familiar with Lucy that it seems redundant to write anything about her. You'll just have to read it yourself.

Gurioan's Conclusion lists books that fit into his chapter categories:
Becoming Real (The Ugly Duckling, Where The Wild Things Are)
Love and Immortality (Snow White, Little Daylight, The Selfish Giant)
Friends and Mentors (The Reluctant Dragon, Trumpet of the Swan, Damon and Pythias)
Evil and Redemption (The King of the Golden River, The Last Battle)
Heroes of Faith and Courage (Curdie and the Princess, The Wizard of Oz, A Wrinkle in Time)
He explains his choices in the book.

All of the entries in this series:
1. Awakening the Moral Imagination
2. On Becoming a Real Human Child: Pinocchio
3. Love and Immortality in The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Mermaid
4. Friends and Mentors in The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte's Web, Bambi
5. Evil and Redemption in the Snow Queen and Narnia
6. Heroines of Faith and Courage (and Conclusion)

Evil and Redemption in the Snow Queen and Narnia

Chapter 5 of Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian.

Few people are as monstrously evil as Hitler or as saintly as Mother Teresa. Most of us are a complex combination of both. The more impure our hearts, the more we tend to rationalize our selfish decisions. We all sometimes yield to our lower desires, become trapped as a result, and need to be rescued. Both of these stories portray a kind of 'everyman' who could be any one of us, this 'everyman's' fall, and his redemption.

"In The Snow Queen, Andersen shows us wherein evil lies and how it robs life of joy, but he also celebrates how goodness and love restore wholeness and happiness to life."

The story starts with some background information. The devil created a mirror that made anything good look evil. The mirror shattered and every sliver had the same power to make good look evil. If a sliver got into a person's eye, he could only see evil. If a sliver got into someone's heart, it would turn his heart to ice. Andersen's prologue of the broken mirror is a picture of our broken existence. Pride and selfishness "shatter the harmony and communion of innocent life."

In The Snow Queen, a mirror shard pierces a boy's eye and heart and makes him detest his best friend Gerda. Their friendship had been as pure and innocent as Adam and Eve. The boy becomes possessed and cruel. Then the Snow Queen, who turns flowers to ice, drags the boy away in her sledge, away from everyone who loves him. Her kiss freezes his heart so that all he has left is his reason - when he thinks the Lord's Prayer might help him, all he can remember is the multiplication tables. The Snow Queen promises that if he can form the word 'eternity' out of the slivers of icy mirror on the ground, she'll give him the whole world - and a new pair of skates! But, as much as he tries, the task eludes him. Andersen has portrayed a person creating his own hell. This boy could be any one of us trapped and blinded by evil.

Like Jesus, Gerda goes on a mission to seek and rescue the boy because she loves him. Unlike the boy, she remembers the Lord's Prayer and her breath as she prays becomes powerful, armed angels who protect her as she enters the Snow Queen's castle to find the boy. When she finds him, her tears thaw the boy's heart. He remembers their friendship and he cries - and the sliver of ice washes out of his eye. Warm childhood memories can lead us to salvation and keep us from evil.

This tale also illustrates the relationship between genders. In our day, this has been degraded to revolve around carnality, but in The Snow Queen, Gerda has power to "make man and beast serve her...her power comes from her heart." Woman has the power to soften man and make him truly alive by restoring the communion between them. Guroian says that this doesn't have to portray the woman as the one who helps, "the roles are interchangeable - and I think Andersen would agree with me. The wholeness of man and woman depends upon a relationship of complete mutuality." This is interesting to me because I've been reading how, no matter what it's called, marriages that work tend to be 'mutually submissive,' with both people loving, serving and honoring each other (rather then fulfilling divided roles where only one does the loving and one does the honoring/submitting).

The boy thinks he'll be free when he completes a task and gains the world (and the skates!) But "the heart of evil is the cold heart of a self in isolation vainly imagining that by being autonomous it is free and whole." But men and women need each other, we weren't meant to be happy in isolation. "The good that the Snow Queen abhors is not an abstract principle but the communion of love that heals the primal rift forced by Adam and Eve when they succumbed to the promise of an impossible twisted autonomy and immortality..."

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe "embraces the great themes of sin, repentance, and forgiveness in the Christian story of salvation." Yet the focus of the story is Edmund, a prodigal and very important illustration of redemption. We must not "risk overlooking the vital struggle between good and evil that is waged in Edmund's heart..." He's not evil, just a typical boy whose selfishness and pride is used to lure him into a bad deal with the forces of evil. He could be any one of us. "Evil takes a foothold in Edmund's will and imagination, much like the rot that attacks the soft spot of a fruit and spreads through the entire flesh." C.S. Lewis "wants us to think of sin as a kind of addiction...Edmund's temptation [for Turkish Delight] becomes an uncontrolled obsession and he is no longer able to enjoy good and legitimate pleasures" just like the boy in the Snow Queen.

Guroian mentions an interesting parallel between The Snow Queen and the White Witch, who lure their young child victim with promises (one for a kingdom to rule and Turkish Delight, one for the whole world and a pair of skates - I'm not sure why I find the addition of a new pair of skates thrown in as ridiculously funny).

The Narnia stories are favorites of mine - the first time I read the series, I got a real taste and longing for Heaven and Christ in a way that had been distant and vague before. I even wanted to name my first daughter Lucy. But then I married a man who already had a Lucy in his extended family, so it would have been awkward. The parallels to Christianity seem so clear that it feels like stating the obvious to say even what I've already posted. So I'm keeping the Narnia part short, not because Gurioan had little to say about it, but because it isn't news to me.

All of the entries in this series:
1. Awakening the Moral Imagination
2. On Becoming a Real Human Child: Pinocchio
3. Love and Immortality in The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Mermaid
4. Friends and Mentors in The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte's Web, Bambi
5. Evil and Redemption in the Snow Queen and Narnia
6. Heroines of Faith and Courage (and Conclusion)

Friends and Mentors in Wind Willows, Ch's Web, Bambi

Chapter 4 of Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian.

The Wind in the Willows portrays great role models of friendship between Mole, Rat, Badger and Toad. The friends aren't afraid to try to "convert" Toad from his frivolous ways even when it might offend Toad - they care about him enough to risk that. As an aside, I think this is one of the most well-written books ever. Grahame's use of language is wonderful, and his subtle humor is fun. One example: Toad's misery when he lands in jail: "To his horror he recollected that he had left both coat and waistcoat behind him in his cell, and with them his pocket-book, money, keys, watch, matches, pencil-case - all that makes life worth living, all that distinguishes the many-pocketed animal, the lord of creation, from the inferior one-pocketed or no-pocketed productions that hop or trip about permissively, un-equipped for the real contest." The only portion of children's literature that I enjoy more is Captain Hook's dilemma about maintaining "good form" when he's contemplating his enemy, Peter Pan.

Since chapter 7 (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) seems to be a sticking point for many Christians, I'll focus on Guroian's comments in that respect. While seeking a lost little otter friend, Rat and Mole have a spiritual experience and catch a glimpse of Pan, the mythological piper (also alluded to in Peter Pan), that awes and inspires them to worship. Guroian says that Pan, as 'Friend and Helper,' is appropriate for this story of friends helping each other. "While Grahame employs motifs and characters of pagan myth, the theme of spiritual love, which is the highest form of friendship, taps a deep and ancient tradition of spirituality. That tradition successfully relates friendship to agape and that love to the desire for God."

Charlotte's Web portrays a warm mentor relationship as Charlotte mothers and tries to save Wilbur. Her efforts for him help to elevate her own short fleeting life by giving her a noble purpose, so the relationship benefits both of them.

Bambi also illustrates a mentor - but a distant one in the regal Prince who teachs Bambi the strength and wisdom that come from being alone. "In Salten's tale, this is the central relationship and not Bambi's love for Faline, the young doe, as Disney portrays it." The deer's need for alone-ness can suggest our own source of strength and wisdom that can be found through quiet devotional times.

All of the entries in this series:
1. Awakening the Moral Imagination
2. On Becoming a Real Human Child: Pinocchio
3. Love and Immortality in The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Mermaid
4. Friends and Mentors in The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte's Web, Bambi
5. Evil and Redemption in the Snow Queen and Narnia
6. Heroines of Faith and Courage (and Conclusion)

Love and Immortality in The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Mermaid

Chapter 3 of Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian.

This chapter is divided into two parts. First, The Velveteen Rabbit. His desire is to be loved enough to become real. We all know the story - he does become real to the boy as the boy sees him as a real personality and not just a toy, and the rabbit becomes shabby-looking. But then the boys gets sick and all his toys are burned to prevent the spread of germs - and the rabbit is left out with the garbage to be burned. Then the nursery fairy turns him into a real rabbit. The boy's love made him real in one sense, but the magic of the fairy who watches over the toys (like God watches over us) makes him real forever - makes him immortal. His real-ness before was just a shadow of the real immortality, in the same way that our lives in the image of God are only a shadow of the real existence we'll have in Heaven.

Next, he examines The Little Mermaid. All her life, the little mermaid yearned for something more than her limiting life under the sea - she wanted to see the sun and the world beyond, much like we yearn for an existence beyond our finite lives in paradise. She tells her grandmother that she would give up all her years of life as a mermaid for just one day on earth and then an eternity in Heaven. That turns out to be prophetic. She is side-tracked when a young man reminds her of the statue that symbolizes life above the water, and her focus is thrown towards him. She yields to temptation and makes a deal with the powers of evil. She does get her day on earth, but with it comes pain and she loses her soul. Yet her final act of self-sacrifice when she refuses to take the life of the man who didn't love her becomes an act that saves her - she becomes a being of the air with a chance for immortality.

All of the entries in this series:
1. Awakening the Moral Imagination
2. On Becoming a Real Human Child: Pinocchio
3. Love and Immortality in The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Mermaid
4. Friends and Mentors in The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte's Web, Bambi
5. Evil and Redemption in the Snow Queen and Narnia
6. Heroines of Faith and Courage (and Conclusion)

On Becoming a Real Human Child: Pinocchio

This is the second chapter of Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian.

Pinocchio has a hard, wooden heart but wants to be a real boy; a good boy. Throughout the story, Pinocchio is carried along by love for his father. When he gets his wish in the end, "real boyhood is not so much a reward" [it's not earned salvation] "as it is the visible sign of a moral task that has been pursued . . . His good heart with its innate capacity to love finally dominates over his wooden head." "Being good is not a means to gaining boyhood or girlhood as a reward. Rather, being good is a quality of respect and responsibility toward others you love, firstly and especially one's parents and siblings." The blue fairy tells him that if he wants to be human, he must "begin by being a good boy." Pinocchio at first tends to shift blame for everything that happens to him. Every time he relates his history, his story gets less and less selfish as he grows less self-deceived and learns about his own responsibility in his naughtiness.

Guroian parallels Pinocchio with "the parable of the prodigal son and Jonah and the whale and Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress." Pinocchio illustrates "the biblical motifs of drowning and rebirth and penance and baptism into new life." There's a similarity between him, as a donkey, being drowned but the fish eat away his donkey skin to reveal his wooden frame, and C.S. Lewis's Narnian episode when Eustace has his dragon layers peeled off to reveal his own skin. The Blue Fairy displays true Christian grace when she loves and forgives him in spite of his badness. He doesn't deserve her help, but she loves him and helps him anyway.

In his evolution from puppet to donkey to puppet to boy, Guroian finds another Narnian parallel when Lucy says how dreadful it would be if people started turning wild inside like the Narnian animals who lost their ability to talk.

Guroian says to accept no substitutes for the original story: "The modern abridgements and retellings of Pinocchio, of which Disney's is only the most well known, soften the violence of death in Collodi's original tale and as a result also sweeten and sentimentalize the love that grows within Pinocchio. Thus, they also fail to capture the gritty nature of the puppet's courage and endurance."

Awakening the Moral Imagination

I've started reading Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian. I can't remember where I heard about this book, but I was so intrigued that I went online and ordered a copy. It arrived this week. There are six chapters, and I'll do a separate post as I read each one.

Chapter 1 - Awakening the Moral Imagination (Much of ch 1 is posted here.)

Stories are valuable because they say what statements can't. "Stories capture the meaning of morality through vivid depictions of the struggle between good and evil, where characters must make difficult choices between right and wrong or heroes and villians contest the very fate of imaginary worlds." Fantasy stories can help us to retain our sense of the mysteriousness of life. College professors have discovered that ethics and moral character can't be learned from lessons that define what they are, and give practical examples. "Instead, a compelling vision of the goodness of goodness itself needs to be presented in a way that is attractive and stirs the imagination."

In the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, children see that "appearances can be deceptive," and that "unless virtue is present in a person she will not be able to find, appreciate, or embrace virtue in another."

Through fantasy and fairy tales, children can imagine themselves in the hero's shoes, making choices and living with the consequences--all from the safety of a book. Through stories, virtues cease to be dry facts and take on a life of their own. Values can be relative and picked up or discarded at will, but virtues are permanent and absolute. If a person has the virtue of courage, it will come forth in any situation, but a value can be rationalized away.

G.K. Chesterton's Education, or The Mistake About the Child is quoted; all 14 chapters are in Part Four in the book "What's Wrong With The World," which is online.
Chesterton said that modern lessons where teachers attempt to draw out beliefs and values to help children create and clarify their own values were deceptive because, even though they claimed that children were finding their own internal values without the coersion of an outside authority instilling virtue, yet by encouraging certain values and ignoring others, teachers were still exerting their authority. Fairy tales do a better job of instilling virtue because they can shape our character without being dogmatic and heavy-handed. They illustrate virtue in action.

(Dominion Family posted about this book in Aug 2007, but I heard or read about it somewhere else just a couple weeks ago. I wish I could remember where.)

All of the entries in this series:
1. Awakening the Moral Imagination
2. On Becoming a Real Human Child: Pinocchio
3. Love and Immortality in The Velveteen Rabbit and The Little Mermaid
4. Friends and Mentors in The Wind in the Willows, Charlotte's Web, Bambi
5. Evil and Redemption in the Snow Queen and Narnia
6. Heroines of Faith and Courage (and Conclusion)