The coming of age narratives in Robert Stevenson's “Treasure Island” (1883) and Louise Alcott's “Little Women” (1868) juxtaposed thrilling stories with moral issues that were contextually uncommon in children's literature. Additionally, both novels were written in what has been referred to as the “Golden Age” of children's literature (Gubar 2009) and Gubar comments that:
“Treasure Island reflects a deep anxiety about the power imbalance that complicates the adult author-child reader relationship… Stevenson worries that the authors of adventure stories aim to indoctrinate and exploit youngsters like his impressionable boy hero” (Gubar, 2009:126-127).
[...] In terms of growing up, Little Women provides a first hand account of female growing up, and to this end, Watson posits that as such, Little Women reshaped literary assumptions of girlhood creating the framework for the subsequent “development of the girl's story in North America; arguably it is the mother of the What Katy Did series, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm the Pollyanna stories and the Anne of Green Gables series all of which combine domestic detail with tomboyish girls striving to overcome their natural indiscipline to find a place in society and husband without compromising their own personalities” (Watson 15). [...]
[...] However, in contrast to the poignancy of Little Women, the correlation of extreme fantasy and explicit brutal violence in Treasure Island clearly reshaped conventional perceptions of young feelings in growing up. For example, a seminal turning point in Treasure Island is when Jim is saved by Long John Silver as a result of Jim defending himself. The contrast of a child in a dark adult world exemplifies the duality of human nature underlying the shifting narrative. In doing so, Treasure Island goes further than the gender issue and suggests the interrelationship between subjection of conventional childhood to the subversion of adult domination, which is key to the unconventional reality of childhood mirrored in both Alcott and Stevenson's work. [...]
[...] Whilst Parilles argues that Little Women addresses issues of both male and female gender in growing up, it is submitted that the fundamental importance of Little Women is the reshaping of female gender expectations in presenting the development of young female feelings in the growing up process. This in turn provided the literary framework for the development of stories addressing girlhood in mainstream literature. Additionally, Little Women subverts the classic romantic pathos that was associated with storytelling for girls at the time and to this end clearly has parallels with Treasure Island, which subverts the archetypal boy's adventure story to present a violent adult realist paradigm. [...]
[...] Indeed, the Civil War arguably provides an allegory to the internal tension of growing up as a girl with the irony of their label as “Little Women”. The socio-political backdrop is reinforced by the opening of the book on Christmas Eve with Meg, Jo, Amy and Beth sitting around the fire awaiting the return of who epitomizes the “model woman” (Fetterley, 19). In reminiscing over previous Christmases past when they were wealthy, the bemoan the fact that: “Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents”, “it's so dreadful to be don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things and other girls nothing at (Alcott 5). [...]
[...] On the one hand, Treasure Island utilizes the model of a boy's adventure story, but is far from a typical boy's book and has been described as of the most satisfying adventure stories ever told” (Kiely 69 in Gubar 2009:69). In contrast, Little Women was instrumental in presenting the concept of girlhood into the literary mainstream and confounding pre-existing presumptions of girlhood and domesticity. Therefore in considering the portrayals of growing up I shall firstly consider Little Women, followed by a comparative analysis of Treasure Island Alcott's Little Women Alcott's Little Women depicts the story of four girls and their childhood during the American Civil War. [...]
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