The Portrayal of Dragons in Children's Literature
The first book that will be discussed is Saint George and the Dragon retold by Margaret Hodges, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman and published in 1984. This beautifully illustrated Caldecott award winner is obviously meant to introduce a young audience to the wonderful world of fantasy, though the illustrations do tend to get a bit graphic in places; it's nothing too unnaturally scary. In Hodges' tale, the dragon is the epitome of evil. The light and dark sides are clearly defined with no in-betweens. You don't even need the words to know the dragon has no motive to it's actions. The evil is there, emanating from Hyman's pictures, telling you that this is certainly not a reluctant creature. It's this kind of work, with it's ability to create an intense emotional response, that gives most dragons a bad name. Readers aren't willing to look past what the illustrator is showing them and they get the horrible idea into their head that all dragons are blood-thirsty killers. However, given the time period that the original story comes from, this is somewhat to be expected. After all, dragons were commonly used as symbols of the Devil and his minions, just as unicorns were used as a symbol of Christ.
Of course, as time went by, many grew to understand that, like most mythological creatures, dragons were highly misunderstood. In fact, in Patricia C. Wrede's book, Dealing With Dragons, published in 1990, she shows us that although dragons may be as ferocious as often portrayed, there was likely a motive behind it all. Not only that, but Wrede takes several other large steps forward in revealing what it means to be a dragon. She, in effect, humanizes them. They have allergies, wizard's staffs being a particular nuisance, and they aren't very tidy creatures, requiring a princess to keep house. Also, they are as susceptible to qualities such pride and avarice, just like any human being. Wrede has done a remarkable thing, she's taken a creature, normally seen only as a killing machine and turned it into a living, breathing character and thus enabling her readers to connect not only with the human characters in her story, but the others as well. Her book flows with a smooth and crisp style that draws the reader in whether they're 10 years old or 45.
Jack Prelutsky takes his grasp on dragons a little bit further in The Dragons Are Singing Tonight, published in 1993. He adds comedy into a mixing pot that is quickly beginning to overflow with contradictory dragon culture. A perfect example is his poem, ‘If You Don't Believe In Dragons.'
If you don't believe in dragons,
It is curiously true
That the dragons you disparage
Choose to not believe in you. (l. 1-4)
Prelutsky also plays off of a dragon's supposed ferocity as well in such poems as ‘I'm An Amiable Dragon' and ‘A Dragon's Lament.' In the first, the dragon seems to be friendly, but ends it's poem on a somewhat threatening note, while in the second the creature wishes for a more gentle nature, but knowing it can never be attained, continues to go about being cruel. The poems only seem to get more wild and outlandish from there, definitely material any child would gobble up in seconds, and yet Prelutsky manages to appeal to the child inside us all with his last poem, ‘Once They All Believed In Dragons.'
We were treated with obeisance.
We were honored, we were feared,
Then one day they stopped believing –
On that day we disappeared. . . (l. 8-11)
We must make them all remember,
In some way we must reveal
That our spirit lives forever –
We are dragons! We are real! (l. 16-19)
Obviously there is a great deal to be learned from these works about how the dragon's role in human literature is and probably always will be changing. Each piece shows a different view on how dragons can or perhaps should be perceived; with a bit of trepidation, a dash of awe, and a pinch of laughter. The topic of dragons was chosen for this paper with the simple idea of clearing up some of the discrepancies that seem to occur far too often in literature's portrayal of dragons as dumb beasts with monster appetites and a penchant for destruction. Hopefully, success has been achieved and the reader is left with the knowledge that things are not always what they appear to be.
|
|
