A Comparison Between Five Children and It and the Canary Prince
Aninda Ariestiana
180410100192
A Comparison Between Five Children and It and The Canary Prince.
Five Children and It is a children novel by Edith Nesbit. Although it features Psammead, a sand-fairy, it does not fall under fairy tale genre because of the missing key elements of fairy tale. In my essay below, I will try to explain that Five Children and It is not a fairy tale despite the fairy appearance in the story and the magical nature that fairies often associated with and I will compare it to The Canary Prince that has no fairies presence but can certainly be categorized as a fairy tale. Firstly I will explain the topic with the guidance of fairy tale common elements’ list.
According to David-Glen Smith (2012:21), the first and the most important element in fairy tale is the presence of a magical creature and also the magical situations that happen through the story. However, even if magical creature exists in Five Children and It and magical events are frequent, the story is lacking in other fairy tales characteristics. Smith (2012:21) further explains in his list that the protagonists in fairy tales are commonly down-trodden; orphan, stepchild, cast-out prince, or prodigal son. None of the criteria apply on the five children, but I see one thing orphan child and five children have in common, the absence of parents. However, instead of being unwanted children who live a pitiful life and are abandoned by their evil uncle/aunt/stepmother/father, the five children are living what seems to be a never ending holiday and almost have freedom to explore their adventurous world. The Canary Prince on the other hand, clearly has this characteristic. It is even very clearly stated in the beginning of the story where Calvino explains the unfortunate fate of the motherless princess. The Canary Prince also has the magical event occurring in the story that is done by a witch. Smith also says that in fairy tale, the protagonists go through three phases;
180410100192
A Comparison Between Five Children and It and The Canary Prince.
Five Children and It is a children novel by Edith Nesbit. Although it features Psammead, a sand-fairy, it does not fall under fairy tale genre because of the missing key elements of fairy tale. In my essay below, I will try to explain that Five Children and It is not a fairy tale despite the fairy appearance in the story and the magical nature that fairies often associated with and I will compare it to The Canary Prince that has no fairies presence but can certainly be categorized as a fairy tale. Firstly I will explain the topic with the guidance of fairy tale common elements’ list.
According to David-Glen Smith (2012:21), the first and the most important element in fairy tale is the presence of a magical creature and also the magical situations that happen through the story. However, even if magical creature exists in Five Children and It and magical events are frequent, the story is lacking in other fairy tales characteristics. Smith (2012:21) further explains in his list that the protagonists in fairy tales are commonly down-trodden; orphan, stepchild, cast-out prince, or prodigal son. None of the criteria apply on the five children, but I see one thing orphan child and five children have in common, the absence of parents. However, instead of being unwanted children who live a pitiful life and are abandoned by their evil uncle/aunt/stepmother/father, the five children are living what seems to be a never ending holiday and almost have freedom to explore their adventurous world. The Canary Prince on the other hand, clearly has this characteristic. It is even very clearly stated in the beginning of the story where Calvino explains the unfortunate fate of the motherless princess. The Canary Prince also has the magical event occurring in the story that is done by a witch. Smith also says that in fairy tale, the protagonists go through three phases;
References: Excerpt from Vladimir Propp Morphology of the Folktale. Translation (1968). The American Folklore Society and Indiana University. p.42. ISBN 978-0-292-78376-8 http://homes.di.unimi.it/~alberti/Mm10/doc/propp.pdf Juric, S. (2010). The Use of Different Genres in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight [Electronic Version], from http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=1784184&fileOId=1784185 Lewis, C Propp,V. (1968). Morphology of the Folktale. Texas. University of Texas Press. p.16,79 ISBN 978-0-292-78376-8 http://books.google.co.id/books?id=aY7rtbIOC5EC&pg=PT55&hl=id&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false Smith, D. G. (2012). Figurative Language • Archetypes • Symbols • Elements of Fairy Tales [Electronic Version], 21, from http://www.davidglensmith.com/wcjc/1302/slides/slides03.pdf