REALISM AND FANTASY IN CHILDREN LITERATURE

The use of realism and the fantastic in Toms Midnight Garden:

How does their use contribute to each authors
representation of the child protagonists development
Realism in childrens literature deals with the literal truth. The
settings, storylines and characters will often seem to be realistic
and recognizable. Although recognizable, one should resist the
temptation to describe realism as real life but rather that realism
attempts to reproduce something of the complexity of life
itself (Hunt, P 1994).
The use of the fantastic in childrens literature is commonly
used and many childrens books explore possibilities through
using fantasy rather than actualities. The use of the fantastic
allows an author to be limitless in their approach to a story.
That being said realism and fantasy are often interwoven
throughout a story and the line between the two devices is often
a thin one. This is apparent in the classic childrens tale Toms
Midnight Garden.
The reader is instantly grounded in the real by the authors
note at the beginning of the story where one is alerted to fact
that this story is based on real childhood experiences and the
setting is a real place. The story being so real that the author
claims it almost wrote itself (Swallows and Amazons authors
note). From the front cover to the simple illustrations the reader
feels a certain familiarity with the subject matter of the novel.
The map used in Swallows and Amazons contributes to the
realism of the story. The map which is reproduced for the reader
at the beginning of the book depicts an actual place in the Lake
District. However, what is also apparent in this map is the
childish imaginations of the children in the story.

Real places sit alongside the imagined ones. What is interesting

to note is how the imagined places tend to have dangerous and
adventurous connotations such as shark bay or the unexplored
Arctic sitting next to those places that offer the children
familiarity and safety such as Holly Howe and Dixons Farm.
Although this device offers the reader an insight into fantasy
through the imagined places it also confirms the reality of the
novel with the author recognizing that children need comfort and
security during adventurous play.
There is much evidence of reality in Swallows and Amazons and one
would be fair to generally conclude that if it had to be decided
whether the novel sits in either camp then reality would be the
obvious choice.
However, it is also perhaps fair to say that realism could be
considered a personal concept. What is real to one person is
perhaps fantasy to another. Reality should also be considered in
the context of time. For example, to many children today the
chance of being able to sail alone to an island and live
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unsupervised in a tent would be nothing but fantasy. Social

attitudes have changed and continue to do so and as a result
books such as Swallows and Amazons may appear old fashioned.
However, what Swallows and Amazons does do successfully is
bring reality and fantasy together. Today, children can marvel at
the real adventures of the Walker children and imagine the
freedom but at the same time it allows adult readers to yearn for
the freedom that adult life usually denies.
Though Swallows and Amazons is realistic fiction, as opposed to the
fantasy of Peter Pan, there is a similar desire expressed in each work
for the dream of an eternal childhood.
In Peter Pan, it is seen in Peter's declaration that he wants to be a
little boy forever. In Swallows and Amazons, Mrs. Dixon asks Titty
if "you'll be coming again next year." Titty's response is
eminently hopeful, and indicative of the innocence of youth:
"Every year. For ever and ever." Mrs. Dixon's reply is equally
wistful: "Aye, we all think that when we're young." For Arthur
Ransome, just as for J.M. Barrie, childhood is a time when eternal
summers, and eternal adventures, appear to be within reach of
innocent young hands and minds. And it is the place of parents to
encourage those dreams until the time when they will naturally
dissipate.
By the latter half of the twentieth century, this notion of
childhood was beginning to change, as was its portrayal in
children's literature. Though the romantic ideal of childhood had
originally been posited and cultivated in Britain (as seen in the
work of Barrie, Nesbit, Ransome, et al.), it had also greatly
influenced the tone of children's literature in Canada and the
United States. When the "revolution" against such romanticism
began, it was not initiated by the British, but by American
authors.

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