luciana’s Blog

Just like in the real world, we can see that prejudice is present in the magical world. Malfoy mistreats the Weasleys because they are poor; he is always finding a way to humiliate Ron and his brothers for he knows that they come from a simple family. Malfoy also humiliates Harry because he is an orphan and was raised by Muggles. He does not like Hagrid because for him, he is nothing more than a servant.  We can see a lot of criticism concerning the schools and its rules – a lot of homework and teachers who are not fair. Wizards thinks Muggles are “weirdos, freaks, abnormal” and vice-versa. Competition is always present in the magical world either for getting good grades or scoring to win the Quidditch game. As we can see, the magical world and the real world have a lot of problems in common.

As the story starts, we readers feel very sorry for Harry Potter for the Dursleys do not treat him in a decent way. He sleeps in a cupboard, never had a birthday party, his annoying cousin loves to punch him and Mr. and Mrs. Dursley never told him the truth about his parents and his power. He had a miserable life while living with this family in the ‘real’ world. The ‘real’ world is shown as a colorless place with its ordinary routine. This ordinary routine is broken with the magical world invasion. A cat reading a map, people wearing cloaks and owls acting oddly would announce that Harry was coming to live in the ‘real world’ until he was eleven years old. On the other hand, the magical world appears as a beautiful and colorful place. Although Harry has to face problems at Hogwarts School, he is respected for his new friends and is famous and popular among all the students. Even his teachers are anxious to meet him. He has a lot of new things to see, learn and discover. As he is an astute, intelligent and kind boy, he did not let the bad days he lived with the Dursleys ruin his life. For all these things, we can see that the Muggle world has less colour, less imagination and, even though Harry also feels as an outsider in the Magical world, he is finally happy now.

After reading the first nine chapters of the book, we can see that the story shows a journey of growth. Bilbo leaves his beautiful and cozy hobbit-hole to join the dwarves in a very long journey, knowing that he would have to face dark moments and, worst of all, face the dragon Smaug. He was chosen by Gandalf, but at the beginning, none of the dwarves believed he was the right one for the quest they were up to start. However, as the adventure flows, we can see that Gandalf was right when he said Bilbo would be a good burglar, “when the time comes”.  So far, Bilbo has overcome all difficulties while walking with the dwarves towards the Lonely Mountain. He faced darkness in the Goblin tunnels, where he met Gollum and found the ring. Then, they had to go through Mirkwood, a forest surrounded by darkness. He had strength and capacity for fighting wolves, trolls, spiders, elves and whoever threaten them and tried to impede their journey.  The unexpected hero turns out to be very respected and admired by his companions. The “hobbit” becomes “Mr. Baggins”, for he brings success to the group. He has ideas, thinks quickly and is also lucky. Besides having the ring, he is smart and always find solutions when a problem comes along. He certainly knows how to use his luck. We can see that, these dark canals Bilbo has been facing during his adventure, have, somehow, brought him  advantages because the group is proud of him and is showing a lot of respect for Mr. Baggins.

Chapter thirteen is certainly a very dark chapter. The White Witch comes to take Edmund, for he is a traitor, and now belongs to her. That is what the Deep Magic was about “every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have the right to a kill”. But chapter fourteen turns to be even darker, because Aslan gives himself into sacrifice to save Edmund from death. He walks sadly and silently, but strongly and bravely towards the Stone Table, where he will be humiliated and killed. He has the strength to support all this suffering for he knew, as we get to chapter fifteen, that there was a Deeper Magic that said “when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Stone Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.” Consequently, because of the Deeper Magic, he could come back to life and use his magic to save all stone creatures and people, to save Narnia, and to teach everyone, including us, readers, the importance of forgiveness and renouncement. 

Differently from Neverland, where violence is all about make-believe, we can see that evil is part of the world inside the wardrobe, it is part of life in Narnia. The White Witch is a very dangerous figure that can turn people and creatures into stones whenever they do not obey her commands. The creatures who do not agree with the way she manages things suffer a lot for they know she is an evil and mean creature and will always be a threat to their lives. While reading the story, we readers get goosebumps because we know that she can turn the kids into stones in any minute. The suffering and the sadness in the story are also related to the fact that it is always winter in Narnia and there is no Christmas Eve.  The evil is also present in places and in nature and the kids have to figure out who is in the good side and who is in the evil side. Hopefully, by the end of the book, they will make the right choices and save Mr. Tumnus from the witch’s spell.

As we go into the last chapters of Peter Pan, we can see that Neverland is not only about having fun. Violence is present in the story and the children have to face scary moments, for example, while they are in the pirate ship, waiting to walk the plank and fall in the ocean. Besides that, we readers are informed that Peter is a killer. He even stabs the pirates. Although we have this impression that, the killing, is a quite strange topic for children’s literature, we can see that it is part of their adventures. Even when the violence occurs, we have the impression that the pirates and the kids are playing a make-believe game, for Wendy praises the kids after fighting the pirates and Michael was proud to show Wendy the place where he had killed a pirate. Killing does not seem to be a big deal, as far as it is done in order to protect each other from the dangerous of Neverland. I truly believe that the characters will grow and learn things from the good and the bad moments they experienced in their adventures in Neverland. Just like Alice in Wonderland, they will not be the same when they come back from their trip in the Island.

 In my opinion, Wendy also plays a very important role in the story. She represents kindness and is always worried about maintaining the good manners she and her brothers were raised on. We can notice, in Chapter 4, for example, when she started being concerned about Peter’s bad attitudes while stealing food from the birds and always trying to show off for them. Even though she knew Michael and John had reasons for being upset, she asked them to be polite to Peter. She represents the equilibrium of a mother, who is always taking good care of her kids, making sure they are well fed, cozy and protected. Of course she wanted to have fun in Neverland and enjoy adventures as her brothers wanted. However, she would never forget about them and was always making sure they were safe. We can also notice she has a great heart when, even after Tinker Bell tries to kill her, she does not permit Peter to be so strict to her.  And she would not resist when the lost boys asked her: “O Wendy lady, be our mother”. And she agreed by saying she would do her best. She represents the real mother who “would never desert her children”. On the other hand, I feel that Wendy’s role in the story is also a criticism about woman being treated as submissive and servant person, for one of the themes of the book is about Patriarchal Family. With the lost boys, Wendy had a bunch of kids and she still had to have a baby (Michael). She was always cooking, sewing, darning, and, in her free time, she was worried about making new things for them. There is an ironic part, on Chapter 7 – p. 65, when she says “Oh dear, I am sure I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied!”. Peter, who was in charge of being the father, would not help her in any of the housework, unless when it was time to ask the kids to behave themselves. There are many parts where we can see that the mother Wendy is submissive to the father Peter, when, in Chapter 10, the narrator says, “… she was far too loyal a housewife to listen to any complaints against father…” and “ Her private opinion was that the redskins should not call her a squaw.” That concerns that mothers should omit insignificant problems, so they would not bother the fathers. In addition, a mother should pay attention, so children must not sit in father’s chair, for this is disrespectful. She also had to accept the father spoiling the kids by bringing candies (nuts) for them always on the wrong time. As a pretending game, it would be fun to be a mother. But mothers’ reality is further more complicated than just tucking kids in at night and telling them stories. Maybe that is why, on Chapter 11, Wendy convinced Michael and John to go back home for their real mother Mrs. Darling.

Neverland is an imaginary world. As the narrator says in Chapter 1, “ Of course the Neverlands vary a good deal.” Each of the kids has a different world with its fantasies and magical adventures. That means each person can create his/her Neverland. But for Michael, John and Windy, Neverland is an Island where they can meet pirates, fairies, mermaids and Indians. It is where Peter Pan lives and takes them to visit. Even Mrs. Darling has seen Peter Pan because she was a child once and also visited Neverland. It is a place where all people are able to go, but only when they are kids and have a fertile mind to step from the real world to the imaginary one, where they can live adventures they could never imagine: like learn how to fly with Peter Pan. It would be nice if we could move to Neverland whenever reality was too harsh.

Once more, in Chapter 7, we can notice that craziness and nonsense are always present in Alice’s adventures. The name of the chapter itself suggests it: A Mad Tea-Party.  From the beginning, we have a totally nonsense conversation between the Hatter, the March Hare and Alice: They cried out “No room”! when there was plenty of room, March Hare offered Alice some wine, but there was just tea, and the Hatter, just out of the blue, said Alice needed a hair cut. Then comes the Hatter again, now with a riddle with no answer. While trying to find the answer for the riddle, we can notice them playing with the word order of the language “ I see what I eat is the same thing as I eat what I see!” or “ I like what I get is the same thing as I get what I like!” etc. Throughout the conversation we can notice that Alice is always maintaining her outspoken  behavior. Then we can see that time stops in Wonderland when she talks about the watch “It tells the day of the month, and doesn’t tell what o’clock it is!”. We can also notice that time is personified by the mad characters “It’s him” and a pun occurs when Alice and the Hatter are talking about “him” : “ I know I have to beat time when I learn music.” and “He won’t stand beating.” In this part, we see the nonsense idea about controlling time “It’s always six o’clock now”. After that, they make a parody on Twinkle, twinkle, little star!  And the sleepy Dormouse is chosen to tell a totally nonsense story (The three sisters who lived on treacle and on the bottom of a well), which Alice keeps on questioning and disagreeing about everything. While the Dormouse is telling the story, we can see them playing language games all the time: the illogical and logic – “so I can’t take more” and “I can’t take less”. The illogical and logic appears again when he explains about “draw water out of a water-well and draw treacle out of a treacle-well. He also talks about “much of a muchness” of nonsense words. Well, it was not a big surprise for me that the Dormouse ended up being put into the teapot by the Hatter and the March Hare, for this was not a weird situation for such crazy creatures.

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