GENDER ROLES IN LITERATURE :: essays research papers

Many hoi polloi think that boys in our culture today are brought up to stipulate their identities through heroic individualism and competition, particularly through separation from home, friends, and family in an outdoors world of work and doing. Girls, on the other hand, are brought up to define their identities through connection, cooperation, self-sacrifice, domesticity, and community in an indoor world of sleep with and caring. This view of different male and female roles can be seen throughout childrens literature. Treasure Island and The Secret tend are two novels that are an excellent portrayal of the narrative pattern of boy and girl books.When view of books that seem to be written specifically for young boys, Treasure Island is a book that comes to many minds. Treasure Island is the epic tale of thrill quest and adventure. Stevensons main character is a small boy, Jim, who gets to go past from his mother and embark on a trip across the ocean. in that location are s ea fearing pirates, sword fight, and bloody killings. These are typically things that affaire boys. Stevenson also follows the literary pattern draw by Perry Nodelman in his book, The Pleasures of Childrens Literature. He describes that many novels written by men follow a pattern when it comes to the plot of their stories. There is an unified action that rises toward a finish and then quickly comes to an end (Nodelman 124). Treasure Island follows this pattern. The novel moves towards the climax of determination the respect and then ends quickly without too great of detail with how the treasure money is spent or what happens in the characters lives. In many ways, Treasure Island exemplifies the narrative patterns of a boy book.On the foe end of the spectrum, The Secret Garden seems to be written for girls. The Secret Gardens main character is a young, orphaned girl named Mary. The horizontal surface focuses on Mary finding friends, becoming a better person, and a family comin g together at last. Frances Burnett seems to follow two literary patterns described by Nodleman. The first is that she seems to write more about domestic events kinda than adventures. Although the garden is an adventure for Mary, planting, weeding, and tending to the garden are chores that many would plug in with women. The other literary pattern she follows is how the plot is laid out. Nodelman describes plots of novels written by woman as having many less-intense climaxes rather than one.