The End Of Adolescence

Do you ever think about what determines the exact moment your childhood has come to an end? Most likely you do not know because the end of childhood and beginning of adulthood is something that happens overtime. A big part of childhood is all of the stories, short or long, that are read by either you or to you by your parents, grandparents or teachers. These stories have a big influence on the way you think and mature. Children’s literature is written with intentions to lead children out of their childhood rather than preserve their innocence and examples of this is shown in “Rapunzel”, “The Robber Bridegroom”, and Pinocchio.

One way in which children’s literature improves the maturity of children is through the morals and lessons it teaches to help children understand and deal with situations that could occur over the course of their lives. In the story “Rapunzel” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, it teaches you that you cannot have all the things you wish to have in life. The wife wants so badly to have a child but also has a strong craving for the rapunzel plant growing in the forbidden garden. Her husband eventually goes at night to get some for her but the evil witch catches him. They make a deal where the husband can get as much rapunzel as he wants but when the wife bears a child, the witch will get to keep it, “ ‘If that’s how it is, you may take as much rapunzel as you wish, but on one condition: that you give me the child you wife will bear. ”(Grimm 108). This lesson is an important part of growing up and maturing because children are used to getting what they want and by being exposed to a story where wanting to many things can lead to consequences, then children will learn to limit their amount of wants and hopefully focus on the things they absolutely need in life. In the story “The Robber Bridegroom” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, it teaches that people and things are not always what they seem and you should be careful who you trust. The father believed that this man was perfect for his daughter even though she did not love or trust him. The father would promise this man his daughter.

The daughter once was invited to his house and when there discovered that he was a killer and was planning on killing her as well. She witnessed another young woman being chopped to pieces. She was able to sneak out with evidence, being the young woman's cut off finger, and used this on her wedding day to expose the bridegroom, she says,” ‘One of the robbers saw there was still a ring on her little finger, and when it didn’t come off easily he took an ax and chopped it off… And here is the finger with the ring on it!’ With these words she took it out and showed it to the company. ”(Grimm 224). Although the woman had doubts about this man, her father still arranged this marriage. This lesson is an important one in that it introduces the idea of lying and not having trust in people, hopefully encouraging children to be careful who you associate yourself with in life and to make friends with people who treat you right and that you can trust. In the story of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi, it teaches the struggles and realities of working towards your goals. Pinocchio is a marionette who has to prove himself brave, truthful, and unselfish in order to become a real human boy. He works through many things such as school and labor work including making baskets and getting water from the well. At one point he is very hungry and thirsty, begging for water and food on the street.

A woman passes and when Pinocchio asked for some water she allowed for him to have some to quench his thirst. Then Pinocchio wished to get rid of his hunger as well but was hesitant when the woman offered a trade for food. The woman says,”‘If you help me to carry these jugs home, I’ll give you a slice of bread. ’”(Collodi XXIV). Pinocchio does not say a thing and the woman continues to offer more food until he finally agrees, he says,”’Very well. I’ll take the jug home for you. ’”(Collodi XXIV). Pinocchio does not want to cave and do work in order to get what he wants but eventually does come to terms with the fact that he must do some type of work to achieve his goal. This lesson is one that teaches kids that in order to achieve goals and get the things you want you must put in effort and do some type of work. All these examples show children different lessons and morals that when learned allow them to become more knowledgeable and mature.

Another way in which children’s literature leads children out of adolescence is by introducing a variety of subjects including violence, love, and deception. In “Rapunzel”, there are examples of both lust and violence. The prince was touched by the voice of rapunzel and wanted to go up in the tower to see her but could not find a way up. He eventually stayed and watched the witch go up. Once up in the tower the prince and Rapunzel immediately fell in love. Later in the story when they found each other again it is noted that Rapunzel had twins. Regarding the violence in the story, the witch was upset with Rapunzel and cut her hair off and sent her away to be by herself. When the prince returned to see Rapunzel, the witch was there and says, “‘You’ve lost Rapunzel, you’ll never see her again. ’ The prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he jumped from the tower. It didn’t kill him, but the brambles he fell into scratched his eyes out and he was blind. ”(Grimm 110). In the story of “The Robber Bridegroom”, there are examples of violence, abuse, and deception. The Bridegroom tricked the miller into thinking he was a good man for his daughter. He also tricked the miller’s daughter into coming over to his house where she found out that he was going to kill her. This whole story is about the lies of the Bridegroom and the violence that he had planned to commit to the daughter and what he did do to the other young woman. In the story Pinocchio, there are examples of deception and violence including bullying. Throughout the whole book Pinocchio often lies, taunts, and steals. Whenever he lies his nose would grow longer, “ ‘I lost them’ answered Pinocchio, but he told a lie for he had them in his pocket.

As he spoke, his nose, long though it was, became at least two inches longer. ”(Collodi XVII). There is also a decent amount of violence and bullying throughout the story. An example would be the fighting involving the school boys. The boys often teased Pinocchio and called him names. The story says,”Imagine what the boys said when they saw a Marionette enter the classroom! They laughed until they cried. Everyone played tricks on him. "(Collodi XXVI). Another interaction was with the schoolboys tormenting Pinocchio, “. . . And with the words, he gave Pinocchio a terrible blow on the head. Pinocchio answered with another blow, and that was the signal for the beginning of the fray. ”(Collodi XXVII). As one can see through these examples in “Rapunzel”, “The Robber Bridegroom”, and Pinocchio, the topics of violence, love, and deception are being introduced to the reader resulting in a higher level of understanding for these topics. By having a high understanding of these topics, children are becoming more aware of real life situations that can occur and this leads to higher preparation for the harsh realities of what makes up today’s society and the adult world. Children’s literature also provides a foundation of skills for children to develop and use for the rest of their lives.

This development directly correlates to the end of adolescence and beginning of adulthood. By simply reading each of the stories “Rapunzel”, ”The Robber Bridegroom”, Pinocchio, and many others, children can begin to learn to read and understand a variety of vocabulary and language skills necessary for their development. In a scholarly article titled “Fairy tales: a compass for children’s healthy development- a qualitative study in a Greek island”, a study is done to determine the effects of fairy tales on children and their parents. The results of the study found that many parents believed the stories promoted mental development through their child’s active participation in the reading process, as well as “provide models of behavior and implicit rules of pedagogization for the rearing of children. ”(Tsitsani 270). The stories relate to these findings in that they are all children level readings where the words can be understood and the language can be taught. An example includes some lines in Pinocchio, “The night was pitch black. It thundered, and bright flashes of lightning now and again shot across the sky, turning it into a sea of fire. An angry wind blew cold and raised dense clouds of dust, while the trees shook and moaned in a weird way. ”(Collodi VI). Not only do these few sentences increase a child’s range of vocabulary, but they also introduce the use of adjectives when describing the night and sky, as well as the use of personification of the sky and trees. This is just one small example of the way children’s literature introduces new vocabulary and English skills to a child.

So now when you think about when your childhood ended you can relate it to the amount of children’s stories that you read and what those stories taught you. From an adults point of view we can see the value of these stories based on what they taught children and how they were used to develop the child’s mind. It should also be noted that based on the study, 95. 1% of parents indicated that their children read fairy tales at least once every week (Tsitsani 269) and based on the impact of these fairy tales on children, we can conclude that children’s literature does in fact lead children towards adulthood rather than preserving innocence.