Home and Away

Paper Summary:

This paper shows how children's literature portrays how it is essential for young adults to leave home in order to mature. It explores this theme in relation to books for very young children like "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" (Beatrix Potter), novels directed at male audiences like "The Tale of Huckleberry Finn" (Mark Twain), and literature aimed at female readers such as "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle" (Avi).

From the Paper:

"The process of maturation in children's literature is often characterized by a character's departure from the family home. Frequently this change of environment acts as a catalyst for the character's growth. This is in part created because authors of children's literature often portray the family home as unstable, strict, and at times even abusive. Due to this fact, the protagonists must venture out on their own in order to find themselves as individuals and experience life to its fullest. This is true in many forms of children's literature, from picture books, such as Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit, to novels written primarily for boys, like The Adventures of Huck Finn, and to those for girls, like The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Frequently the characters in literature for young adults need to explore outside the family home, which is often characterized as threatening and stifling, in order to begin the maturation process."

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