Anthropomorphism and the Call of the Wild in Children’s Literature
As we, human beings, have evolved throughout history, so has our relationship to nature. What used to be ‘the call of the wild’; nature pulling us back to our most primal and uncivilised state, has now become ‘the call of the wild’; nature calling ‘for responsibility and for protest, a plea for help’ (Wagner-Lawlor, 1996).
This calling for responsibility has made its way into children’s literature, where it has adopted the form of a new narrative technique, in which nature appears as its own character with a voice and consciousness of its own (ibid). This implies a shift of focus to the natural environment that surrounds us as the main protagonist of the story, in essence, transitioning what used to be the traditional background — an often overlooked element of a narrative — into the foreground (Morton, 2007), shining a light of urgency on Nature’s concerns and interest — even if they proof at odds with human activity and progress (Wagner-Lawlor, 1996).
This new representation of Nature in children’s literature — as a character imperilled and defenceless against humanity and its technology — is meant to empower children who also see themselves as powerless in our societal structure. This way, building up their confidence to take control and effect change (ibid.), as well as reinforce their knowledge about the world they live in.
This confidence, passion, and curiosity for nature and our surrounding environment has been reflected in this year’s BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words competition, in which plastic emerged as the Children Word of the Year. With short stories titled The Plastic Shore, The Mermaid’s Plastic Mission and The Evil Mr Plastic, children proved their knowledge and understanding of the impacts of pollution, and even dared to suggest solutions to combat these (Eyre, 2018).
However, despite the clear positive impact children’s literature has on their awareness and understanding of this concerning topic, the representation of Nature as its own character might have its flaws. Excluding the innovative turn, the characterisation of plants and animals, are narrative techniques that have been used for centuries in fables and other forms of children’s literature that are meant to bring nature closer to the reader. However, their anthropomorphism, or personification, results in a false and idealised representation of nature which encourages the idea of human dominance over nature’ (Boudreaux, 2006).
This has had an effect on how children perceive their relationship with nature: a relationship of dominance of one over the other, rather than of equality. Which reveals itself in the proposed solutions the children wrote about for the competition: the Reverse-o-matic Pollutinator Ray Gun and the Fantastic-sewage-sooperpooper-suckerupper (Eyre, 2018) — both being advanced, human-manufactured technology.
Moreover, the idealisation of nature in children’s literature — its misrepresentation — has also been found to constitute as one of the key drivers of biodiversity knowledge loss, as it creates a biased perception of local biota. The depiction of various species from different environments together in a book worries the team of ecologists that led the study. They argue it will likely increase bio-cultural homogenisation, resulting in an inability in children to recognise environmental deterioration in their own surroundings (Celis Diez, 2016).
Thus, it is imperative that we find a children’s literature that can still empower and inspire its readers to effect change and promote environmental literacy, without creating an idealised version of nature that will harm our perceptions and relationship with the environment.
Reference list
Boudreaux, B., 2006. The Representation of the Environment in Children’s Literature. University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 335
Celis Diez, J., et al., 2016. Biodiversity knowledge loss in children’s books and textbooks. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Vol. 14, №8
Eyre, C., 2018. ‘Plastic’ revealed as Children’s Word of the Year. The Bookseller [online] Available at: <https://www.thebookseller.com/news/plastic-revealed-children-s-word-year-800696> [Accessed 1 November 2018]
Morton, T., 2007. Introduction: Towards a Theory of Ecological Criticism, pp. 1–28. Ecology without Nature, 1st edition. Harvard University Press
Wagner-Lawlor, J.A., 1996. Advocating environmentalism: The voice of nature in contemporary children’s literature. Children’s Literature in Education, Vol. 27, №3, pp. 143–152
