Fishin' for Volition

In this blog we go on an adventure to explore the role of volition in children's literature. Get ready to have a REELy good time and to get hooked.

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The Wide-mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner

The Wide-mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner is a children’s picture book story about a frog. This frog has a wide-mouth and loves catching and eating flies. The wide-mouthed frog hops along catching flies and runs into two animals and asks them what they like to eat. The blue-feathered bird likes to eat “wriggly worms and slugs” while the furry brown mouse likes to eat “crunchy seeds and juicy berries.” The wide-mouthed frog hops along and finds a big green alligator.

The wide-mouthed frog says to the alligator, “I’m a wide-mouthed frog and I eat flies. What do you eat, alligator?” The alligator responds, “I eat delicious wide-mouthed frogs” and shows the frog his sharp white teeth. In that moment, the wide-mouthed frog stopped catching flies and puckered up his lips making his mouth as small as possible.

The wide-mouthed frog says to the alligator, “Ooooh. You don’t see many of them around, do you?” He then hopped into the pond with a great big splash and the book ends. Young readers will think that the wide-mouthed frog essentially saved himself from the alligator. If anyone were to put more thought into the fact that alligators can also swim, they may piece together that the destiny of the frog is a bit ambiguous. However, the message for the young reader is that the wide-mouthed frog lives. Once the wide-mouth frog realizes that the alligator is interested in eating him, he changes his demeanor and shows volition to try to save his life. Like I stated above, without much thought, we believe that the wide-mouthed frog must have saved himself and survived/escaped from the alligator. When the wide-mouth frog puckered up his lips he tried to differ the alligator from thinking that he is a wide-mouthed frog (which is funny because the alligator eats frogs no matter their mouth size) and then saves himself by jumping into the pond.

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Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley

The children’s picture book Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley gives the young reader a lot of power. This is a children’s book but it is not like traditional ones that I have done on the blog or that I have read in the past because this book allows the reader to have volition. The book describes a Big Green Monster. The monster has “two big yellow eyes,” “a long bluish-greenish nose,” “a big red mouth with sharp white teeth,” “two little squiggly ears,” “scraggly purple hair,” and “a big scary green face.” The image of the monster builds and then appears fully. It is a scary image, for a child of course, but then the author decided to do something great.

Ed Emberley shows the image of the Big Green Monster that says, “you don’t scare me.” This follows with the phrase “go away.” The phrase “go away” is repeated with each feature of the Big Green Monster. As the reader or young child shout the phrase “go away” and a feature of the Big Green Monster that feature disappears.  So, after the reader says, “go away sharp white teeth,” and turns the page, the white teeth are no longer shown and even less of the monster is available to be seen. The book closes with the words, “and don’t come back until I say so” and there is no more Big Green Monster to be seen.

Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley allows the reader to have volition and gives the young child power. Not only does this book tell children that monsters are not anything to be afraid of but it allows the child to believe that they can get rid of the images of monsters by telling them to leave. Which is very relatable to any child who has ever thought that there was a monster under their bed or in their closet. This text allows the children to have power in their fate and to not be scared, especially of monsters.

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Twilight (film) directed by Catherine Hardwicke and Chris Weitz

In the adolescent movie, Twilight, written by Stephanie Meyer and directed by Catherine Hardwicke and Chris Weitz, Bella, a high school girl meets a boy named Edward who is a vampire. Bella is a very fragile girl. She moves in with her father and begins her life at a new high school. Bella’s parents are divorced and they live in different states. Her father is a police officer who is very excited to have his young teenage daughter move in with him. Bella is a very quiet and mellow girl who would best be described as ordinary.

At her new school, she sees Edward and immediately there is something between them; however, neither know what it is. Bella has no idea what she is getting herself into when she begins to befriend Edward. The two eventually go on a date and it is clear that they are a match. However, Edward is a vampire. Vampires suck human blood to survive. But, the Cullens are a different type of vampire family. The Cullens are more humane vampires who would rather hunt animals to survive. Each Cullen has their own special “power” and Edward’s is that he is able to read minds. Unfortunately, he is unable to read Bella’s mind and that is very strange for him. As Bella gets more involved with the Cullen family she gets herself into some trouble.

When going to visit her mother out of state, she finds herself trapped and looking death in the eyes when other vampires (not the Cullens) try to kill her. One vampire even bites her on her wrist. Bella would have died but then the Cullens including Edward come and save her. Edward even sucks the vampire venom out of her wrist so she does not turn into a vampire. For Bella’s sake, it is great that she was saved. She never would have been able to fight off vampires alone. However, she still has no volition. She is willing to take risks like hanging out with a bunch of vampires but is unable to keep herself safe.

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Holes (film) directed by Andrew Davis

In the children’s film Holes directed by Andrew Davis, we see Stanley Yelnats, a young teenage boy who is sentenced to a youth detention camp for being accused of stealing shoes. Stanley is sentenced to Camp Green Lake where the boys there are all made to dig holes all day. The philosophy is that digging holes “builds” character; however, Stanley thinks that there is more reason behind the philosophy.

Stanley begins to question the reason behind digging holes more when he finds an old lipstick container. When the Warden finds out about the lipstick, she makes the boys dig in a certain area. Stanley and his new friend Zero, end up running away from the camp are finding themselves on an adventure which brings them back to camp to dig one last hole. In their last hole they find, what everyone has been looking for, the treasure from Kate Barlow.

The Warden tries to take the treasure from Stanley and Zero; however, they stand up for themselves. They use the found money to help find Zero’s mother and many other things. Zero who was a young boy in and out of Camp Green Lake, who needed help getting out of the system was now safe at home with enough money to survive. Stanley, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, was finally free of a family curse, helped his father invent a product to keep shoes smelling fresh, and has enough money to support his family. This would not have been possible without the volition of Stanley and Zero. Stanley and Zero show strong volition for their characters because they clearly show control over their fate. Stanley and Zero could have stayed at Camp Green Lake and never questioned the true reason behind them digging; however, they did not and because of that the truth came out about Camp Green Lake.

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Coraline by Neil Gaiman

In Neil Gaiman’s children’s novel, Coraline, he writes about Coraline, a young girl who feels neglected by her parents who are busy working from home. Her mother does not buy her the gloves she wants for school because she does not want her to be different from her peers. Similarly, to the Coraline movie, Coraline finds herself in the “other” world with her “other” parents. These parents have time for her. Coraline’s other parents are willing to play with her, cook for her, and have provided her the perfect bedroom with great toys. However, there is a catch. Coraline’s “other” mother does not actually love her.

Coraline figures out and understands that her “other” mother does not actually and truly love her the way that is healthy and best for her. She makes a deal with her “other” mother to try to escape as well as save her parents and three other young souls that she found in the “other” house. This deal results in Coraline finding everything she needs to save her parents and the young souls. The other mother does not hold up her end of the deal to save the young souls and loses her hand which was part of the deal.

Coraline shows strong volition when she saves not only herself but her parents (and almost the other younger souls). Coraline shows, even more, volition when she ends the fear and destroys all hope of the “other” mother’s scheme in the future when she disposes of the key.  Coraline not only saves herself from the “other” mother but any other future children when “the other mother’s right hand went tumbling into the darkness of the well” with the key (159). Neil Gaiman’s Coraline portrays Coraline in a very positive way that allows her to have a very strong volition which cannot be said for the movie adaptation.

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Matilda (film) directed by Danny DeVito

The children’s film Matilda directed by Danny DeVito was my favorite movies growing up. I must have watched it over one hundred times. Matilda stars a young girl named Matilda who was adopted into the Wormwood family. The Wormwoods were not good people. They were very mean to Matilda and often forgot about her. Mr. Wormwood was a crook and Mrs. Wormwood was not very motherly. In the film, Matilda has an older brother, Michael, who is very mean to her. To cope with the neglect and being alone, Matilda read. She devoured books one after another.  Matilda is very smart from all the books she has read. Matilda eventually finds her powers. She can levitate and move things.

When Matilda begins school, she meets her teacher Miss Honey. Miss Honey is the teacher that every teacher tries to be. She is smart, dedicated, passionate, and so sweet. Matilda and Miss Honey befriend each other and Miss Honey is aware of Matilda’s negative home life. Matilda soon finds out that Miss Honey’s life is not exactly what it seems. Her stepmother is the horribly mean principal, Miss Trunchbull who is just as bad, if not worse than the Wormwood family. Miss Trunchbull is seen abusing and torturing students. Matilda helps Miss Honey get a few things from her childhood house that Miss Trunchbull lives in.

The Wormwoods need to flee the area because Mr. Wormwoods shady business is beginning to catch up to him. So, they tell Matilda that they need to leave and she refuses to go with them. Matilda gets her parents to allow Miss Honey to adopt her. Matilda knew that her parents did not love her the way that Miss Honey could. Matilda is such a bright girl. She saved herself from the Wormwood family so she could have a happy life with Miss Honey because she truly wanted the best for her. Matilda has very strong volition.

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Coraline (the film) directed by Henry Selick

In the children’s film Coraline directed by Henry Selick, Coraline is a young girl who just moved into a new flat with her mother and father. Coraline is on a school break and her parents work from home. Coraline is depicted as being bored and seeking attention from her parents. While trying to keep herself busy, Coraline finds a small door to another flat in her house.

The door led Coraline into another dimension, to the “other” world. In the “other” world she had an “other” mother, an “other” father, and an “other” friend Wybie, among other “other” characters. Coraline’s “other” mother wanted her to forget her life at her real home and stay with her.

Coraline soon found out that her “other” mother truly did not love her; and, that she just wanted to trap Coraline’s soul. Coraline finds herself without her real parents and finds three young souls that the “other” mother stole so she tried to make a deal with the “other” mother. The deal was that if Coraline was able to recover her parents and the eyes of the children that she would be able to go free with everyone. Coraline did end up finding her parents and the eyes of the children; however, the young children were not saved. Coraline and her parents were saved, or so she thought until the “other” mother’s hand tried to get the key to open the door.

Coraline decided to go to the well to get rid of the key and the hand caught her off guard grabbing the key and dragging Coraline around to the door. She was saved by Wybie who distracted the hand momentarily. In the end, all was well. Unfortunately, Henry Selick’s version of Coraline, all her volition was taken away when Wybie saved her. Coraline did help save Wybie and they ended up working together to get rid of the key and the hand. Coraline has less volition in the film than she did in the book which is a severe injustice to her character.

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Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle

In children’s book Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, the reader will see a sweet truck, also known as Blue, traveling down the road beeping to all its animal friends. Blue is the friendliest truck who beeps to a toad, horse, ducks, chicken, and many more animals. Then suddenly a dump truck zooms quickly down the road almost hitting one of the ducks saying, “Honk! Coming through! I’ve got important things to do! I haven’t got the time to pass the day with every duck along the way!” (9-10). The dump truck is a mean truck who has no regard for the others on the road.

But then, while the dump truck was driving it swerves to avoid a puddle and gets its tires stuck in “muck and mire” (13). The dump truck tries to get out of the mud; however, it is unable to. The dump truck calls for help; but, not a single animal comes to help.

Then Blue comes to help the dump truck and suddenly both trucks are stuck in the mud. When Blue calls for help all the animals come running and they free both trucks.

In this children’s book, the message of the Golden Rule comes to mind. The dump truck did not treat others that way it wanted to be treated; therefore, nobody helped the dump truck when it got stuck. It was not until the Little Blue Truck was stuck that the animals wanted to help. Essentially, Blue saved the dump truck’s life and the animals saved Blue (and the dump truck by default). The dump truck has no say in its faith so, the dump truck as no volition. The Little Blue Truck has more volition than the dump truck because of the decision made to be kind helped save it. When it comes to fishin’ for volition, the dump truck caught nothing.