Term Paper Topic

Deconstructionism in Alice in Wonderland. Go derrida!

My Book and Heart Shall Never Part

My Book and Heart Shall Never Part seems to mostly be about children and literature. The deeper meaning that at first escaped me has to do with fairy tales engaging children, which affects them positively. Since both literature and children are in a state of liminality, each helps the other try to overcome their dichtomous nature. Children are in a state of liminality because they are caught between childhood and adulthood, and are always struggling toward the latter. Literature is in a state of liminality because it is caught between reality and fantasy, and never seems to decide which way to struggle towards. Literature helps a child towards adulthood in its gift of knowledge and experience, but it helps keep them in childhood with its willing suspension of disbelief. My Book and Heart Shall Never Part is about this give and take process, how literature affects children, and how children affect literature.

Obituaries: Memoirs of a Mother

Taylor Moorman's displaced fairy tale was about her experience writing obituaries, one man's specifically. I had saved an obituary from when I was 16 and a good friend of mine died: my mom. When I started thinking about it, I realized that her life also reflected a fairy tale.

"Mary-Helen Collier died of a natural illness on Thursday, April 24, 2003, in Lewistown. She was 47 years old.

Mary-Helen was born in Kalispell, on May 14, 1955, to Richard 'Dick' Collier and Pat Collier. She graduated from Flathead High School in 1973. She is survived by her father, Dick Collier, of Columbia Falls; brother, Rick Collier of Pittsburg; and brothers Robb and Randy Collier, of Marion. Mary-Helen also leaves three loved daughters: Alicia Slawson, of Las Vegas; and Aaron and Ashley Danno of Kalispell. Mary-Helen also leaves three nephews and two nieces. Mary-Helen was preceded in death by her mother, Pat Collier, and another brother, Ronnie Collier. The family is planning private services. 'May God rest her precious soul, Amen.' "

When my mom was born, my grandpa refused to pick her and my grandma up at the hospital, and instead made them take a taxi home. My grandpa always hated her, and my grandma tried to shield her from him. When my grandma died, however, there was no one left to protect my mother from my grandpa, and he disowned her. She was married four times, and it never seemed to work out. She tried to kill the last husband, my father, and was convicted of second degree attempted murder. While she was in prison, someone eventually realized that she had schizophrenia, and so she was sent instead to Warm Springs Mental Institute, where she was additionally diagnosed with Huntington's Disease. Ten years later, she died. She was cremated.

Ironically, my mom's life corresponds not only to Taylor's story about obituaries, but the fairy tale that corresponded with the example she gave: The Little Mermaid. Like the little mermaid, she didn't get along with her father and didn't have a mother figure. Also like the little mermaid, she never seemed to make love last, and tried to kill the man she loved. ALSO like the little mermaid, she chose to become one with nature and the world, not by becoming some air, but by being cremated and having her ashes spread. Is it ironic then, that while I just realized these similarities a minute ago while typing this, that me and all of my sisters' favorite Disney movie has always been The Little Mermaid? Sources say yes.

Learn more about the diseases affecting this nice lady: Huntington's Disease , Schizophrenia

Sexonisms

"I have to run the other way, or break into chorus!" -in response to the plethora of songs in Disney movies

"You can find Oz in the most boring of places...Bozeman."

"You never know who's going to be the whisker."

"Every story is a re-telling of another story, so we have to read the story behind the story."

"There is a mystery to some stories that is beyond the grasp of the rational mind." -posing a reason to why humans constantly reread and retell stories

"What are the chances that _________? 1 in 3!!"

"700 billion dollars?! That's more than I make in a year!"

"Just because whoever writes it doesn't know, doesn't mean it's not there." -about mythological motifs in literature

"Give kids closer to the original, even if somebody's heart gets stabbed out!"

"Wanna go hang out, Stiff?" -responding to the name, Stiff Thompson (motif index)

"All marriage is rape." -trying to play devil's advocate by using various definitions of "rape"

"Is your name Henry? (-no) Is your name Robert? (-no) Is your name John McCain? (no!) Is your name Rumpelstiltskin?" -adding a little of his own flair into a reading of Rumpelstiltskin

"Some of you might object that you cried into some blind person's eyes and it didn't work...but that's because you're suffering from misplaced concreteness." -responding to Rapunzel crying into the blind prince's eyes and curing him of his blindness

"Let that be a lesson to you. When you have pain and sorrow, you really need to get these hoops to put around you." -suffering from misplaced concreteness, himself, from the Frog Prince

What is a child?

A child is defined by the Webster's Dictionary as "a person between birth and full growth." According to neurologists, a human is born with about 100 billion synapses and available brain growth. By age 10, 85% of this potential brain exploration is closed off and specialized. There are windows of opportunity for wiring the brain. If the connections are not made during these windows, the child will have fewer connections or no connections for developing strength in that area. A child, then, is inherently someone whose brain is in the process of closing off potential synapses, and habituating to the world around them. So since children have much more potential brain capacity than adults, they are more able to grasp fantastical ideas and events, like a hedgehogian man riding around on a rooster, than adults. At the same time, however, this amazing ability is constantly deteriorating. Children need important ideas and literature to be fostered in them while they are still capable of understanding and believing them, before all of their (neurological) pathways are closed off. The first years of life hold the most critical periods for brain development. As adults, we are responsible for feeding them their mental food, or else we run the risk of wasting a very valuable resource, not to mention letting all of the kids down.

Learn more about children's brain synapses.