Daniel Guerrero
Editor
Parent should let their children read dark literature
Aftering watching Disney’s “Zootopia”, there was not a lot of dark settings that some parents may find it disturbing for their children to watch. Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde was chase by a jaguar that begin to attack them or went “savage” in the rainforest district while discovering more of them in a factory. Also, nearly got iced by Mr. Big, and was being racial stereotypical to each other where they were accusing each other on how certain animals are unable to be someone in life due to their species.
These are some of the situations that relates to modern day life where people risk their lives when obtaining evidence for an investigation and dealing with racism in the community which further affects humanity in general. This type of content leads to many parents to keep their children away from due to not wanting not them to be exposed to these situations at a young age. They would want them instead to let them to act their age while not realizing the dangers that surrounds them which it is a extremely bad idea. Parents needs to realize that there will be a point in their lifetime that they would run into these situations and feel overwhelmed by it due to unable on how to handle it in general.
Although many parents would argue that we are having children to grow up too fast in this world by having them be exposed to dark literature, but this type of material contain various of realism elements that children would learn and benefit from in life.
Therefore, this the reason why this type of material that contain extremely dark elements,or dark literature, existed in the children’s section at your local library. Dark literature is supposed to present a message to children about these situation without having them to experience it for themselves. From having imagivity worlds to complex characters, children would surely bring up the topic about the situations that relates to real life to adults leading to them wanting to know about it while being prepare for if it does occur.
Although many parents would argue that we are having children to grow up too fast in this world by having them be exposed to dark literature, but this type of material contain various of realism elements that children would learn and benefit from in life.
Therefore, dark literature would help children learn these situation easily while becoming more mature about it. Also, they type of literature in general is meant to teach children the outside world which many novels reflect on that while having them to be placed in a situation that are unaware of from many librarians.
“Literature is meant to make us question the world around us, to help us understand issues that we might not normally encounter in our daily round”, said Catherine Creedon, works at a Child’s library, to Life parenting.
One, Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm, tells a story of two children name Hansel and Gretel being persuade by witch to go to her house due to having candy. As Hansel and Gretel walk around the house, they would soon that the witch was going to eat where they would further run away from her immediately.
After having a children reading this type of story, they would easily point out the main message from the story which to not talk to strangers when either playing in front their house, walking to school or at playgrounds. Therefore, this relates to modern day life where people receiving “Amber Alerts” whenever a child has be kidnap by a stranger due to them not able to handle situation properly without having an intuition about it.
However, many children would evoke and develop a sense of fear over that situation, but then again, dark literature teaches to them to drift away from that emotion where instead be brave about it.
Another novel or animated feature film, Coraline, focus on a character who is motivate to get her parents after the witch took them away from her in alternative universe. Therefore, it is up to Coraline to figure out on the situation while developing a sense of bravery through the course of adventure.
This would further teach child on how to be pushed from their comfort zones while becoming a hero for their community over time. Plus, children would feel courage to spread this message to their friends or family members where that fear should not take over our sense of personality. Besides that, parents would not worry about children to develop an anxiety disorder when running into these situation by themselves as they get older. This was information was stated by Kidshealth. Therefore, these are some of the reasons why one of the BBFC examiners, who decided the type of rating that films deserve, gave Coraline a PG rating instead of PG-13.
"The film certainly has its dark, scary moments,but ultimately they add up to an adventure in which Coraline displays her own resourcefulness and bravery. That's the kind of message we look for in films at the lower classification levels, something to provide a counterpoint to more intense moments. Children will ultimately have to experience fear in the real world, and the fantasy setting of Coraline supplies them with a safe introduction to that”, said Ian Maddish to The Guardian.
Also, as children begin learn about these situation that existed in the real world while developing and overcoming their fears over that, they would soon realized that it happened to them once in their lives. Children are always are involved problems that families might contain. As for them reading dark literature, they can relate this kind of problems to the story in the book while feeling that they are not only ones who are going through this over time.
In the Times, the author further describe that when she begin to read the novel, Love, to third graders at an elementary school, a boy stand up and begin to stated on how these experiences that the main character goes through connects with him.
“When you just read that to us I got this feeling. In my heart. And I thought of my ancestors. Mostly my grandma, though … because she always gave us so much love. And she’s gone now”, said the third grade boy.
This further exposes on how dark literature encourage children to reveals their sense of feelings. Therefore, this would benefit them in life as they get older because they would able to share feelings to their parents while developing communications skills as well as not having to keep this to themselves. Also, many psychologists believe that this is totally normal for children to go through when reading dark literature which is good because they are able to understand how to solve their own situations while observing the character’s actions.
“The telling of fairy tales is one way to elicit a child's thoughts and feelings. At its most effective, it exposes their conflicts and creates a non-threatening way to introduce them to the realities of life”, said child and adolescents psychologists, Julia Avon in The Guardian.
Overall, dark literature should be a take as a consideration for many children where they would know how to deal with problems physically and mentally in the real world. Especially children are involved in the world’s situation right now such as school shootings.