Children's Literature in Education, Vol. 20, No. 2, 1989
Pat Pinsent is a Principal Lecturer in English at the Roehampton Institute, London, w h e r e she teaches children's literature to undergraduates
as well as courses on language and literacy for in-service teachers.
Pat Pinsent
Paradise Restored: The Significance o f C o i n c i d e n c e in s o m e Children's B o o k s
Nor is possibility alone sufficient to justify us; we must keep likewise within the rules of probability. Fielding, TomTones, Bk. viii, Ch. 1
Black Beauty
T h e authors o f s o m e o f the best k n o w n children's fiction in a realist m o d e often s e e m to have paid no m o r e attention to Fielding's advice t h a n he did himself. The c o i n c i d e n c e s by w h i c h a h a p p y outc o m e is assured in Black Beauty, A Little Princess, or I a m David, to n a m e a few w o r k s spanning a long period, are e n o u g h to m a k e readers s u s p e n d their s u s p e n s i o n o f disbelief. If these b o o k s w e r e in the m o d e o f fantasy, w e might be c o m p l a c e n t a b o u t the h a p p y endings, but they have n o n e o f the supernatural m a c h i n e r y of the fairy tale. T h e horse-narrator, despite his i m p r o b a b l e h u m a n qualities, lives in a v e r y real society, and the harsh aspects o f p o v e r t y or the effects of w a r are not shirked b y Burnett or Holm. W h y t h e n this d e p a r t u r e f r o m probability at the end? It is m y c o n t e n t i o n that the use o f coincidences, in these a n d m a n y o t h e r children's books, is not an artistic flaw. Rather it marks a m e a n s o f revealing to the reader that ultimately all is well, and I w o u l d suggest that it is f o u n d frequently w i t h i n a particular kind of plot structure. This kind o f plot m a y be described as an initial fall f r o m happiness and prosperity, t h r o u g h no fault o f the protagonists, followed b y a gradual restoration to bliss, often at a higher level of happiness t h a n at the beginning of the b o o k . Such a structure c o u l d be t e r m e d a kind o f " d i v i n e c o m e d y , " and is to be f o u n d quite w i d e l y in b o t h literature and m y t h , often, however, w i t h
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Children's Literature in Education supernatural agencies responsible for the restoration to bliss. I am not suggesting that the authors o f these books were necessarily conscious o f this pattern, even t h o u g h in some cases the message it conveys w o u l d be consistent with what we k n o w o f their beliefs.
Tolkien, Tree and Leaf, p. 60 J. R. R.
A structure o f this kind is o f course also familiar in fairy tales, w h e r e what Tolkien describes as the " C o n s o l a t i o n o f the H a p p y Ending," the "Eucatastrophe," provides a " s u d d e n joyous 'turn,'" w h i c h "reflects a glory backwards." In the fairy story, however, this " t u r n " is normally engineered by magical means, to w h i c h literature written in a realist m o d e has n o access. The "realist" strand of children's literature has, in its earlier manifestations, a fairly strong link with didacticism. The stories o f Maria Edgeworth and Mary S h e r w o o d display this quality so strongly from quite different standpoints, and the very strong presence o f parental figures conveys the authors' messages so explicitly, that plot devices are superfluous. The episodic nature o f their most influential works (Edgeworth, The Parent's Assistant, 1796, and Sherwood, The History o f the Fairchild Family, 1818) means too that the plots are scarcely conceived in a way w h i c h requires organic unity. Once, however, books w h i c h show some evidence o f having been c o n c e i v e d as a unified story begin to appear, structural devices frequent in the adult novel are to be found. While didacticism is still fairly explicit in, for instance, Captain E Marryat's The Children o f the New Forest (1847) and R. M. Ballantyne's The Coral Island (1857), discoveries, changes o f fortune, and unlikely coincidences also o c c u r in order to hold the plots together and pinpoint the authors' teachings. One o f the most notable instances o f the kind o f coincidence w h e r e the reader finds herself saying either " O h h o w lovely!" or "I d o n ' t believe it!", depending perhaps o n her degree o f literary sophistication, is in Sewell's Black Beauty (1877). I While the audience envisaged by Sewell was not confined to the young, her intention being " t o induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment o f horses," its readership has always primarily been youthful. 2 The main b o d y o f the narrative includes a n u m b e r o f coincidences w h i c h seem to be there to provide c o h e r e n c e and the satisfaction o f a conclusion to stories begun earlier, as in Beauty's r e e n c o u n t e r with Ginger (chap. 40). The " e u c a t a s t r o p h e " proper, however, occurs in the final chapter (49), w h e r e Sewell not only grants Beauty happiness, but also ensures that he is recognized by an old friend. Beauty has been taken by his saviour, the appropriately n a m e d Willie T h o r o u g h g o o d , to the Miss Blomefields' estate, 'on approval.'
Black Beauty
The next day, when my groom was cleaning my face, he said:
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105 'That is just like the star that Black Beauty had, he is much the same height too; I wonder where he is now.' A little further on he came to the place in my neck where I was bled, and where a little knot was left in the skin. He almost started, and began to look me over carefully, talking to himself. 'White star in the forehead, one white foot on the off side, this little knot just in that place--then looking at the middle of my back--'and as I am alive, there is that little patch of white hair that John used to call "Beauty's three-penny bit." It must be Black Beauty! Why, Beauty! Beauty! do you know me! little Joe Green, that almost killed you?' And he began patting and patting me as if he was quite overjoyed. Beauty indicates his a c c e p t a n c e o f the i d e n t i f i c a t i o n - - " I p u t up m y nose to him, and tried to say that w e w e r e friends. I never saw a m a n so pleased." Acceptance, reconciliation, a n d a h o r s e equivalent o f eternal life: " I n y o u r place he will last till he is t w e n t y years o l d m p e r h a p s more," w h i c h reminds us o f the " e a r t h l y paradise" at Birtwick in the early c h a p t e r s m t h e s e p o i g n a n t ingredients of the h o p e d - f o r h a p p y ending surely p r o v i d e an equine heaven. It is s o m e h o w i m p o r t a n t that Black Beauty be recognized, recalling the Biblical " I k n o w m y o w n sheep a n d m y sheep k n o w m e " (John 10). Neither Mr. T h o r o u g h g o o d n o r Willie has caused this r e u n i o n to h a p p e n because o f his o w n knowledge, but c h a n c e - - b y putting Joe G r e e n into the e m p l o y of their f r i e n d s - - h a s led to it, and the effect is that it casts a g l o w b a c k over the rest of the b o o k . We realise that s o m e b e n e v o l e n t force has p r o t e c t e d Beauty in the midst of dangers. T h e circularity o f the arrival at a setting v e r y similar to that o f the beginning enhances this effect. As s o m e o n e o f Quaker/Anglican b a c k g r o u n d , Sewell c o u l d scarce][y at that p e r i o d have entertained a belief that animals c o u l d go to heaven, let alone e x p o u n d it, but the impression is certainly given that there is a g o o d p o w e r in charge o f the world. If we imagine a variant ending, w i t h Beauty h a p p y but w i t h o u t this e l e m e n t o f recognition, w e can, I think, appreciate the force it adds. After all, the h o r s e has already w i t n e s s e d h o w false promises can be. Knowing, however, that Beauty is not o n l y in the hands o f kind o w n e r s and p r o t e c t e d by Joe Green, but also has b e e n saved by the u n s e e n force w h i c h has b r o u g h t t h e m all together, w e have no d o u b t o f his (near) eternal happiness. T h e t w o b e s t - k n o w n authors of late Victorian and Edwardian children novels, Frances H o d g s o n Burnett and E. Nesbit, also m a k e extensive use o f c o i n c i d e n c e s in t w o o f their b o o k s m o s t frequently read today: A Little Princess (1905) and The R a i l w a y Children (1906). Both of these, like B l a c k Beauty, involve a fall f r o m initial happiness and p r o s p e r i t y and a final restoration to that state. Both stories recall in their structure the Biblical Fall, w h i c h in traditional
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Christian t h e o l o g y is linked to the n e e d for a redeemer. A Little Princess also is reminiscent o f the Cinderella story, in w h i c h a fairyg o d m o t h e r is the active agent o f Cinderella's happiness. The children in Burnett's and Nesbit's books also n e e d some extraneous help to deliver t h e m from the situation w h i c h they are in through no fault o f their own. This help is p r o v i d e d by beneficent characters in the stories, but, in each instance, coincidences are necessary to e m p o w e r these individuals.
A Little Princess
W h e n Sara Crewe, w h o has b e c o m e a drudge at Miss Minchin's school after her father has lost his m o n e y and is living at starvation level in a cold attic, is at her most despondent, the Indian servant o f the gentleman next d o o r comes in and provides f o o d and w a r m t h (chap. 15, " T h e Magic"). 3 At this stage n o more than ordinary h u m a n kindness is involved, for the gentleman, Mr. Carrisford, is searching the globe for the daughter o f his old friend and at the same time indulging in a little " r o m a n t i c plan" to help the young girl w h o is a drudge in the school next door. Discovery here is a gradual process and is started through language; Sara's k n o w l e d g e o f the term, "lascar," gives her the o p p o r t u n i t y to say, ',I was b o r n in India" (chap. 17), and Mr. Carrisford eventually realises (several chapters behind the reader) that his two year search is over. Sara is not asked her n a m e until full details about her father's loss o f fortune are f o u n d to tally, so the process o f delighted expectation for the reader is p r o l o n g e d over several pages. Mr. Carrisford's previously u n k n o w i n g kindness is f o u n d to have d e p e n d e d on his search: " H e was sorry for you, for little lost Sara Crewe's sake" (chap. 18). The coincidence o f his coming to live next to the place w h e r e Sara lives is passed over lightly, but it nevertheless reinforces the sense that she is u n d e r providential care, expressed through the agency o f her kind friends, like Ram Dass (whose presence perhaps ensures the avoidance o f an exclusively Christian interpretation o f providence), the "Large Family," and Mr. Carrisford. Sara herself acts as an agent o f this benevolence towards Rebecca, the school servant, and her goodness has in turn been instrumental in leading the w o m a n in the baker's shop to aid the beggar-girl, Anne. There is no n e e d for Burnett to be too explicit in her morality: the universe is s h o w n as potentially benevolent, deranged by h u m a n selfishness (Miss Minchin), but u n d e r the control o f a force ready to reward merit and set wrongs right. The R a i l w a y Children differs from m a n y o f Nesbit'S works in two main ways: it does not involve p o w e r f u l fantasy creatures like the Psammead or the Phoenix, and it has an organic structure, unlike either the fantasy works or the books about the Bastable family,
Paradise Restored
The Railway Children
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w h i c h are largely episodic. Almost everything is directly related to the railway, and events early in the b o o k are seen to have a significance in the d e n o u m e n t . Nevertheless, it is sometimes less highly regarded than her other works, perhaps because o f the apparently contrived plot devices. Early in the book, the par][our-maid (chap. 1) talks o f "going w h e r e y o u r precious father's gone," and if the reader had any d o u b t about w h e r e this is, the incident with the fugitive Russian, w h i c h leads to a prayer for all captives, w o u l d soon enlighten her. The device by w h i c h Bobbie comes to share this k n o w l e d g e (though a n e w s p a p e r wrapping magazines sent by Perks to amuse Peter, laid low by a bad foot) is perhaps clumsy, but by no means as improbable as that by w h i c h the " H o u n d , " w h o m the children rescue in the tunnel, is f o u n d to be the grandson o f the old gentleman. We have no d o u b t that the i n n o c e n c e o f the father will soon be proved, for everything is working together to aid the children and convey a beneficent view of a universe in w h i c h those unjustly imprisoned are vindicated and those w h o bear suffering bravely and are kind to others are rewarded. It can perhaps be seen as a kind o f festive comedy, w h e r e the coincidences help lead to the change o f fortune and the element o f delighted recognition is delayed to the final scene, w h e r e Bobbie greets her father. While the explicit didacticism w h i c h mars so m u c h earlier children's literature is absent, the moral structure is nevertheless clearly reinforced by what could almost be t e r m e d the " m a c h i n e r y " o f the railway!
Warrior Scarlet
The Silver Sword
A similar t h e m e may be traced in a g o o d many more recent books, such as Rosemary Sutcliff's Warrior Scarlet (1958) and Ian Serrillier's The Silver S w o r d (1956). Drem, w h o has failed the tribal test o f initiation because his useless right arm has p r e v e n t e d his killing a wolf, is restored to a full life with the tribe w h e n , against all the odds, he meets and defeats the same wolf. The escapes and encounters of the Balicki family w o u l d be regarded as incredible but for the author's assurance that they are based o n fact. We may, however, still ask if they should be transmuted into fiction, in which, as Aristotle says, it is more important to be true, in a d e e p e r sense, than in "history." Perhaps Serraillier w o u l d claim the justification suggested by his initial epigraph, from Tippett's A Child o f O u r Time: " H e r e is no final grieving, but an abiding h o p e . / T h e moving waters renew the earth. It is spring." Faced w i t h the h o r r o r of war, and the cruelty and inhumanity involved, the " h o p e " suggested by a tissue of c o i n c i d e n c e w h i c h implies a p o w e r to w h o m the welfare and reunion of a family are important, needs to be stated. Any loss o f artistic effect is insignificant in c o m p a r i s o n with this aim, presumably, particularly w h e n the sparse and u n a d o r n e d style o f the narrative is b o r n e in mind.
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I am David
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The sense that even in the hostile w o r l d o f war-torn Europe there is a p o w e r f u l providential force is b r o u g h t out still m o r e clearly in Anne H o l m ' s I a m D a v i d (1965). This b o o k p o s e s the p r o b l e m o f c o i n c i d e n c e in a particularly acute form. The y o u n g b o y w h o escapes f r o m s o m e kind of c o n c e n t r a t i o n c a m p n e a r Salonica is presented as ignorant o f all the things w h i c h go to m a k e life m o r e than m e r e l y a struggle for survival. His discovery of an orange as something g o o d to eat almost symbolises his o t h e r discoveries: h u m a n love, God, and the fact that s o m e o n e m a y act selfishly w i t h o u t being totally evil. His gradual d e v e l o p m e n t o f trust in the instructions given h i m by " t h e m a n , " and his discovery o f h o w he has b e e n cared for in the camp, act as a p r e p a r a t i o n for the m o s t imp r o b a b l e event in the b o o k , his e n c o u n t e r w i t h Sophie, the Danish artist painting in Switzerland w h o k n o w s the full story o f his parents (chap. 6). Because the events p r i o r to this, t h o u g h tinged w i t h strangeness because they are seen through David's i n n o c e n t eyes, have b e e n totally credible, it is easy to see this e n c o u n t e r as a lapse. David's gradual understanding o f his o w n story m e a n s that he is able to relate w h a t he is told a b o u t his m o t h e r (whose p h o t o g r a p h he by chance selects f r o m an album!) and to realise w h y he has b e e n told to h e a d for D e n m a r k . From then on, events are well within the b o u n d s o f probability again, but there is a sense o f inevitability; we have no d o u b t that he will m e e t his m o t h e r w h e n he arrives in Copenhagen. If the m e e t i n g w i t h the artist is seen purely naturalistically, it can certainly be regarded as a flaw in the b o o k . The chances against s o m e o n e w h o is making David's epic j o u r n e y h a p p e n i n g to m e e t the o n e w o m a n outside D e n m a r k w h o k n o w s his story, and even then, h a p p e n i n g to l o o k at the album so that he is told it, m u s t be astronomical. Such is David's character, and his trust in his " G o d o f green pastures," that we have, however, all along b e e n led to read on t w o levels. The underlying level is not an allegorical one, for that w o u l d be to reduce the literal to a m e r e vehicle for it; rather it is o n e w h i c h makes David a representative f i g u r e - - f o r childhood, for innocence, and for the m a n y children w h o s e lives had b e e n disrupted by circumstances like these. There is imprecision about the identity o f the m e n a c e t h r o u g h o u t the b o o k , even w h e n " t h e y " kill David's dog near the end. Partly the lack o f a label implies David's o w n ignorance a b o u t his oppressors, but it also allows us to generalise m o r e than if they had had a name. Many children had not David's chance o f escape, but his f r e e d o m implies hope, survival o f the h u m a n spirit. The imp r o b a b l e e n c o u n t e r w i t h his m o t h e r ' s friend is a means o f convey-
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109 ing the source of this hope. In this b o o k , m o r e t h a n in the others discussed, it is a p p r o p r i a t e to identify it w i t h God, to w h o m David's prayers have b e e n addressed. This context also makes it irrelevant to a p p l y naturalistic criteria of p s y c h o l o g y to David's character, examining the unlikelihood of his developing such attractive qualities w i t h i n the e n v i r o n m e n t o f a c o n c e n t r a t i o n c a m p . T h e r e is a f r a m e w o r k o f caring c o m p a s s i o n w h i c h is m o s t a p p a r e n t in the artist incident but w h i c h is there t h r o u g h o u t the b o o k ; if s o m e m o r e "realistic" m e a n s w e r e f o u n d o f reuniting David w i t h his mother, the quality might even suffer. I have argued that the b o o k s c o n s i d e r e d here, like m a n y o t h e r b o o k s for children, c o m e into a kind of " d i v i n e c o m e d y " structure. I w o u l d suggest that the reliance u p o n c o i n c i d e n c e w h i c h b o o k s w i t h this kind o f structure often have should not be seen as a defect, a recourse to s o m e t h i n g outside the n o r m a l range of happ e n i n g s - s i n c e the child reader will be too unsophisticated to observe this artistic f l a w - - b u t rather as a r e c o g n i t i o n o f the basic h u m a n n e e d for deliverance. It c o u l d be argued that h u m a n beings should not l o o k for this to c o m e f r o m outside and should be seeking w i t h i n the resources of their o w n personalities, but this is s o m e t h i n g w h i c h children (and m a n y adults) m a y not be ready to accept. Within this p a t t e r n o f revival to prosperity, m a n y b o o k s for children s e e m to p r o v i d e either s o m e supernatural i n t e r v e n t i o n or s o m e p l o t device of the kind described above. It m a y be that u n d u e reliance o n internal qualities of the protagonist to achieve r e c o v e r y to h a p p i n e s s u n a i d e d w o u l d b e even less probable! Unlike writers of tragedy, authors of this kind of c o m e d y n e e d to c o n v e y a message o f hope, and even today this remains true o f m o s t children's books. C o n t e m p o r a r y p o p u l a r writers such as J u d y Blume (in Tiger Eyes, for instance) and Nina B a w d e n (Carrie's War) c o n t i n u e to m a k e their " e u c a t a s t r o p e " d e p e n d o n coincidence. They, like earlier w r i t e r s , unite a realism in issues treated and in relationships w i t h the m a i n t e n a n c e of " a n abiding hope."
Notes
1. In spite of the impossibility of equine autobiography, Black Beauty seems to me clearly within the realist mode. Its events are entirely possible and its social settings solidly realised. 2. In the introduction to the Penguin edition (p. 16), Eleanor Graham describes how the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals distributed it to thousands of children in the attempt to improve attitudes to horses.
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3. It is worth noting that Burnett makes use of the term "magic" again in The Secret Garden (1911), where the magic is that of nature revivifying the garden and as a result bringing new life to Mary and Colin. In both cases, the sense of a higher power is conveyed.
References Bawden, N., Carrie's War Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974. New York: Penguin, 1975. Burnett, Frances Hodgson, A Little Princess. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961. New York: Dell 1975. Blume, J., Tiger Eyes. New York: Dell, 1982. London: Heinemann Educational, 1982. Edgeworth, Maria, The Parent's Assistant (first published 1796). Facsimile edition, Garland, New York, 1976. Fielding, Henry, The History of Tom Jones. New York: Random House, 1950. Holm, Anne, I am David, translated from the Danish by L. W. Kingsland. London: Methuen, 1965. Published in USA under the title North to Freedom, Harcourt, New York, 1974. Nesbit, E., The Railway Children. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960. New York: Penguin, 1960. Serraillier, Ian, The Saver Sword. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960. Published in USA under the title Escape from Warsaw, Scholastic Book Services, 1972. Sewell, Anna, Black Beauty. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1954. New York: Penguin, 1954. Sherwood, Mary, The History of the Fairchild Family (first published 1818). Facsimile edition, Garland, New York, 1977. Sutcliff, Rosemary, Warrier Scarlet. London: Oxford University Press, 1970. Tolkien, J. R. R., Tree and Leaf, London: Unwin Books, 1964. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1965.
